Sitting back and thinking dark thoughts is one of my least favorite pastimes. Unfortunately, it has also been one that has been occurring frequently of late. My latest little tidbit is the idea that maybe the rot that is being exposed now goes deeper than just some crooks skimming as hard as they can.
Maybe it is time to look at the core of our culture. No, I am not talking about Democracy, the Constitution, or Christianity but rather, the true core, Capitalism.
The trouble that I see with capitalism is that it truly appears to be structured on the same basic principles as a perpetual motion machine. You take a clear set of finite inputs, run them through the magic capitalism machine and at the end you have more than what you started with.
But from what I can see in the real world, it is nothing but a shell game run by rigged rules and dependent on the free flow of oil to keep it going.
The real darkness of my thoughts is that what the hell do we use to take its place?
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Delusional Apes
I am beginning to think that maybe the most pernicious lie ever told was that man was created in Gods image. Now some of you will go crazy and damn me to Hell. Oh well, such is life.
But consider it. I am an aficionado of Darwin. Not the pop culture Darwin that folks trot out for any purpose. But the real core. The simple fact that things adapt to the world around them.
Now think about what the "made in Gods image" does to that. By being a fragment of the divine, we get to mold the world to our wishes. The world must adapt to us, not vice-versa. We see ourselves as marching toward godhood. That we can do what is needed to fuel our "progress" toward that goal. Also, and most critical, by being in the image of God, we are also able to understand the universe and the will of God.
But I am of an older style Christianity, one described by Saint Augustine and Thomas Aquinas. This Christianity accepts the truth of original sin. It draws clear distinctions between the city of God and the city of man. It accepts that we are deeply flawed and rooted in sin. We can be forgiven for our sins, but we will always be sinners.
Once you accept that we are sinners, the world around you starts making more sense.
Now, I am throwing in a reference here. John Michael Greer writes brilliantly over at the Archdruid Report. This entry was the result of me cogitating on one of his posts. So now I will use him as an inspiration (probably against his will), and get back to the points at hand. (Also, I find it howlingly funny that the Archdruid of America is named after a Christian saint and an Archangel, I wonder if he takes any grief about that?)
So from here on in, this is a disquisition on the root of the flaws of culture in the West stemming primarily from a serious misinterpretation and misrepresentation of the bible by the protestant reformation and the subsequent spin-doctoring of dogma by all christian confessions in search of converts/tithepayers.
I begin here from John Michael reminding me of the feverish and wacked-out writings of Joachim of Fiore. I can't say that I fully agree with JMG that Joachim started the mess, but he was the first one that managed to have a Pope or two cover for him while he wrote them, so I will concede the point.
Getting back to the point, what Joachim really did is enshrine the idea that man can know the will of God. Now, lets be real clear about it, he did it by reading the bible and figuring out what was going to happen by "interpreting" the book of revelations. But he still laid the formal groundwork that said that the future and God's plan could be divined by man.
At his point we started to run with it. Thomas Bacon (a follower of Joachim) kicked off the idea of Science. William of Occam followed up. Alchemy became trendy and we thrashed about for a bit, but around four centuries later, Isaac Newton came in and delivered the knockout punch which changed over the view of the world (I always was amazed at the egotism and genius that could actually name a book "The System of the World").
While this was happening, the protestants started up. At first, Luther and Calvin ( sixteenth century) started out by going even further than the Catholics toward the idea that people are fucked. This continued for a bit, but after the peace of Westphalia, things settled down enough that the different faiths started to have to sell their wares in the same manner that folks now sell toothpaste.
Needless to say, there are a lot of folks who don't want to go to a church that tells them that they are fucked up...bad business that. So, all the churches began to soften their pitches to bring in the converts. Which leads us to where we are today, with churches that extol the wonderfulness of their flock, tells them how much God loves them, and passes the plate. This loosening of the idea of original sin loosens up the avenues of research available to the literati.
Because of this loosening, Newton and his followers are discovering some pretty cool shit. We are actually getting some traction on understanding some of the nuts and bolts of the way the world is put together. The biggie was thermodynamics with Newcomen and Kelvin and Carnot giving us the knowledge to use heat in a way that really got the party started.
We then got into the fossil fuel supplies and wow did the party really get going. A couple billion years of saving by the planet and God were went through in no time flat. But the trouble with savings accounts is that they are finite.
So, when you sit back and examine this bit of inchaote rambling, you start to see how stuff ties together. Once we got the incorrect idea that the City of God and the City of man were connected, we started down a path that led us to where we are today. But it appears to me that the path was doomed from the start. It allowed us to start the process where we used everything and every effort to build an edifice that is starting to show its cracks and poor design.
So now we are running out of the magic juice that allowed us to make the adaptations that gave us our Godlike powers. Maybe there will be a replacement. I don't think that will happen. So we will have to conserve what we have left, and start to examine our behaviors. Maybe we will notice that we are tainted with original sin and start to act accordingly.
But consider it. I am an aficionado of Darwin. Not the pop culture Darwin that folks trot out for any purpose. But the real core. The simple fact that things adapt to the world around them.
Now think about what the "made in Gods image" does to that. By being a fragment of the divine, we get to mold the world to our wishes. The world must adapt to us, not vice-versa. We see ourselves as marching toward godhood. That we can do what is needed to fuel our "progress" toward that goal. Also, and most critical, by being in the image of God, we are also able to understand the universe and the will of God.
But I am of an older style Christianity, one described by Saint Augustine and Thomas Aquinas. This Christianity accepts the truth of original sin. It draws clear distinctions between the city of God and the city of man. It accepts that we are deeply flawed and rooted in sin. We can be forgiven for our sins, but we will always be sinners.
Once you accept that we are sinners, the world around you starts making more sense.
Now, I am throwing in a reference here. John Michael Greer writes brilliantly over at the Archdruid Report. This entry was the result of me cogitating on one of his posts. So now I will use him as an inspiration (probably against his will), and get back to the points at hand. (Also, I find it howlingly funny that the Archdruid of America is named after a Christian saint and an Archangel, I wonder if he takes any grief about that?)
So from here on in, this is a disquisition on the root of the flaws of culture in the West stemming primarily from a serious misinterpretation and misrepresentation of the bible by the protestant reformation and the subsequent spin-doctoring of dogma by all christian confessions in search of converts/tithepayers.
I begin here from John Michael reminding me of the feverish and wacked-out writings of Joachim of Fiore. I can't say that I fully agree with JMG that Joachim started the mess, but he was the first one that managed to have a Pope or two cover for him while he wrote them, so I will concede the point.
Getting back to the point, what Joachim really did is enshrine the idea that man can know the will of God. Now, lets be real clear about it, he did it by reading the bible and figuring out what was going to happen by "interpreting" the book of revelations. But he still laid the formal groundwork that said that the future and God's plan could be divined by man.
At his point we started to run with it. Thomas Bacon (a follower of Joachim) kicked off the idea of Science. William of Occam followed up. Alchemy became trendy and we thrashed about for a bit, but around four centuries later, Isaac Newton came in and delivered the knockout punch which changed over the view of the world (I always was amazed at the egotism and genius that could actually name a book "The System of the World").
While this was happening, the protestants started up. At first, Luther and Calvin ( sixteenth century) started out by going even further than the Catholics toward the idea that people are fucked. This continued for a bit, but after the peace of Westphalia, things settled down enough that the different faiths started to have to sell their wares in the same manner that folks now sell toothpaste.
Needless to say, there are a lot of folks who don't want to go to a church that tells them that they are fucked up...bad business that. So, all the churches began to soften their pitches to bring in the converts. Which leads us to where we are today, with churches that extol the wonderfulness of their flock, tells them how much God loves them, and passes the plate. This loosening of the idea of original sin loosens up the avenues of research available to the literati.
Because of this loosening, Newton and his followers are discovering some pretty cool shit. We are actually getting some traction on understanding some of the nuts and bolts of the way the world is put together. The biggie was thermodynamics with Newcomen and Kelvin and Carnot giving us the knowledge to use heat in a way that really got the party started.
We then got into the fossil fuel supplies and wow did the party really get going. A couple billion years of saving by the planet and God were went through in no time flat. But the trouble with savings accounts is that they are finite.
So, when you sit back and examine this bit of inchaote rambling, you start to see how stuff ties together. Once we got the incorrect idea that the City of God and the City of man were connected, we started down a path that led us to where we are today. But it appears to me that the path was doomed from the start. It allowed us to start the process where we used everything and every effort to build an edifice that is starting to show its cracks and poor design.
So now we are running out of the magic juice that allowed us to make the adaptations that gave us our Godlike powers. Maybe there will be a replacement. I don't think that will happen. So we will have to conserve what we have left, and start to examine our behaviors. Maybe we will notice that we are tainted with original sin and start to act accordingly.
Monday, December 29, 2008
Hawley-Smoot
Lets speak of Hawley-Smoot.
The free-traders who drove us into our current mess are forever holding up this benighted piece of legislative nincompoopery as the reason that the great depression went on so damn long. They were right. They were also wrong.
But the trouble is that they are too damn hidebound and blinded by the dogmas that they have been spouting to stand back and rationally examine the whole thing. Hawley-Smoot was badly written by two of the biggest simpletons in the history of the Senate. The bill was written to decrease the amount stuff coming into the US, forcing the US consumer to buy US stuff. Now this while this is a noble idea, the two morons who wrote the bill hadn't figured out that the US during that period of time was a huge exporter, kinda like China is today.
Well, as the free traders say, the bill did start a series of retaliatory tariffs in other
countries. So the other counties started a set of "retaliatory" tariffs, which made our export dependent industry lose a major portion of it's market. But lets think about that whole process.
The free-trade morons don't bother to tell you that in other countries the tariffs worked pretty dang well. Britain and the Commonwealth actually did a lot better than we did during the depression because their tariff barriers. I will dig out the figures, but if my memory serves, Britain and the commonwealth only contracted by about 5% during that period of time compared to the US 30%. Pretty good in the grand scheme of things. So maybe the "retaliatory" tariffs weren't retaliatory, but just good common sense.
So what I am saying here is that just maybe, we should stop believing the blinded cant of the idiots in the Chicago School and the quasi-syphilitic ravings of the free traders and instead look at the whole picture.
We are no longer an manufacturing powerhouse, we have been crippled by a generation of greedy and inept leaders (both corporate and governmental) who have gutted our manufacturing base. There is no such thing as a "post-industrial" society. We are going to have to rebuild our industrial base. We will have to protect this nascent creature. We can't do it if China and the rest of the world can flood us with low-cost material.
I would say that we have to look out for ourselves. We can do this, but we have to get over the blind beliefs that have led us to where we are. Free trade and globalism is not a panacea. We are not an industrial powerhouse anymore. We are not even a rich country anymore.
Time to hunker down.
The free-traders who drove us into our current mess are forever holding up this benighted piece of legislative nincompoopery as the reason that the great depression went on so damn long. They were right. They were also wrong.
But the trouble is that they are too damn hidebound and blinded by the dogmas that they have been spouting to stand back and rationally examine the whole thing. Hawley-Smoot was badly written by two of the biggest simpletons in the history of the Senate. The bill was written to decrease the amount stuff coming into the US, forcing the US consumer to buy US stuff. Now this while this is a noble idea, the two morons who wrote the bill hadn't figured out that the US during that period of time was a huge exporter, kinda like China is today.
Well, as the free traders say, the bill did start a series of retaliatory tariffs in other
countries. So the other counties started a set of "retaliatory" tariffs, which made our export dependent industry lose a major portion of it's market. But lets think about that whole process.
The free-trade morons don't bother to tell you that in other countries the tariffs worked pretty dang well. Britain and the Commonwealth actually did a lot better than we did during the depression because their tariff barriers. I will dig out the figures, but if my memory serves, Britain and the commonwealth only contracted by about 5% during that period of time compared to the US 30%. Pretty good in the grand scheme of things. So maybe the "retaliatory" tariffs weren't retaliatory, but just good common sense.
So what I am saying here is that just maybe, we should stop believing the blinded cant of the idiots in the Chicago School and the quasi-syphilitic ravings of the free traders and instead look at the whole picture.
We are no longer an manufacturing powerhouse, we have been crippled by a generation of greedy and inept leaders (both corporate and governmental) who have gutted our manufacturing base. There is no such thing as a "post-industrial" society. We are going to have to rebuild our industrial base. We will have to protect this nascent creature. We can't do it if China and the rest of the world can flood us with low-cost material.
I would say that we have to look out for ourselves. We can do this, but we have to get over the blind beliefs that have led us to where we are. Free trade and globalism is not a panacea. We are not an industrial powerhouse anymore. We are not even a rich country anymore.
Time to hunker down.
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Low Tech Beer Not Half Bad
In Re:
http://mightaswellliebackandenjoyit.blogspot.com/2008/11/lowering-intensity.html
First tasting gives a good solid B, maybe a B+
http://mightaswellliebackandenjoyit.blogspot.com/2008/11/lowering-intensity.html
First tasting gives a good solid B, maybe a B+
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
I'm taking a break
See you after the New Year, may the peace of Christ be with you always. May you find hope and joy in your life.
There is no evidence of any kind regarding the date of Jesus’ birth. His nativity began to be celebrated on Dec. 25 in Rome during the early part of the fourth century (AD 336) as a Christian counterpart to the pagan festival, popular among the worshipers of Mithras, called Sol Invictis, the Unconquerable Sun. At the very moment when the days are the shortest and darkness seems to have conquered light, the sun passes its nadir. Days grow longer, and although the cold will only increase for quite a long time, the ultimate conquest of winter is sure. This astronomical process is a parable of the career of the Incarnate One. At the moment when history is blackest, and in the least expected and obvious place, the Son of God is born…"
-- Frederich Borsch & David Napier
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Chinese Train Wreck
You know, we whine constantly about how bad we have it. It really isn't all that bad. We had best start counting our blessings and getting ready to send aid and comfort to folks overseas when their world starts blowing up on them. Of course, we will have to do the same here, but despite all of the serious doomsaying going on, we will be able to deal with the changes coming better than a lot of people will.
China is going to be going through some bad shit soon. You probably should have realized this when the morons writing books for public sale began to talk about the "Asian Miracle" and other such rot. As soon as you see a book on the sale rack at Barnes and Noble espousing some thing or the other, you are usually pretty certain that that phenomenon is doomed.
Anyway, they have set up their economy to do nothing but feed into our neurotic shopping habit. Needless to say, if the current trend continues and the US comes to its senses and starts living within its means, China is well and truly fucked. But the truth is that they are waaaaaayyyyy too overpopulated, polluted and corrupt to survive anything coming at them.
Right now they have an intellectually bankrupt and amoral elite trying to keep the lid on a billion or so peasants who tire of getting screwed over. They are also sitting on a huge pile of soon-to-be-worthless US bonds to show for their bad decisions. Life is going to be interesting there.
So to my friends Liu Kiu Shan and Chen Jian Liu, keep your heads down and start preppin' , cuz you guys are gonna need it more than I will.
China is going to be going through some bad shit soon. You probably should have realized this when the morons writing books for public sale began to talk about the "Asian Miracle" and other such rot. As soon as you see a book on the sale rack at Barnes and Noble espousing some thing or the other, you are usually pretty certain that that phenomenon is doomed.
Anyway, they have set up their economy to do nothing but feed into our neurotic shopping habit. Needless to say, if the current trend continues and the US comes to its senses and starts living within its means, China is well and truly fucked. But the truth is that they are waaaaaayyyyy too overpopulated, polluted and corrupt to survive anything coming at them.
Right now they have an intellectually bankrupt and amoral elite trying to keep the lid on a billion or so peasants who tire of getting screwed over. They are also sitting on a huge pile of soon-to-be-worthless US bonds to show for their bad decisions. Life is going to be interesting there.
So to my friends Liu Kiu Shan and Chen Jian Liu, keep your heads down and start preppin' , cuz you guys are gonna need it more than I will.
Monday, December 22, 2008
NorthCom
I am really torn here.
Lets get it out into the open so we can discuss this. One of the main purposes of government, any government is to keep order. We can discuss at length where the cutoff line for what is appropriate lies, but at the end, we are little better than medieval scholars discussing the number of angels who can dance on the head of a pin.
So, with a distinct possibility of unrest ahead of us, how will the government keep the lid on things? I have been in a country in the middle of a revolution. Not fun.
The police are already quite stretched thank you.
The old National Guard has been so thoroughly absorbed into the structure of the Federal Army that it is effectively indistinguishable from that Army. I also can't see any of the current crop of spineless parasites we have annointed as "Governors" taking their troops back or rebuilding their own Guard.
So that leaves the Army. Now most of you folks will start screaming "Posse Comitatus" at this point. I would ask you to take a breath and think first. Despite what everyone in the tin-foil hat crowd thinks, posse is not a part of the Constitution. It was part and parcel to as as vulgar and cynical a bit of political horse trading as ever seen in the good old USA.
It was in the deal that gave us a Republican President (Rutherford Hayes) after a bitterly contested and crooked election (Sound familiar?). As a quid pro quo for the election of Hayes, it allowed for the removal of federal protection of former slaves coupled with a wink and a nod to the soon-to-be Jim Crow South, allowing them a pleasant return to their cherished pastime of butt-fucking the blacks.
As you can probably tell, I don't think to highly of the "Compromise of 1877".
So, back to NorthCom. They will be up to around 20,000 troops soon. Not enough to do any real good in a country this big, but enough to make a difference in a spate of serious civil unrest that is well localized.
Now most of us don't have to worry about this too dang much. But let's for a moment consider Detroit:
Hmmm
Lets get it out into the open so we can discuss this. One of the main purposes of government, any government is to keep order. We can discuss at length where the cutoff line for what is appropriate lies, but at the end, we are little better than medieval scholars discussing the number of angels who can dance on the head of a pin.
So, with a distinct possibility of unrest ahead of us, how will the government keep the lid on things? I have been in a country in the middle of a revolution. Not fun.
The police are already quite stretched thank you.
The old National Guard has been so thoroughly absorbed into the structure of the Federal Army that it is effectively indistinguishable from that Army. I also can't see any of the current crop of spineless parasites we have annointed as "Governors" taking their troops back or rebuilding their own Guard.
So that leaves the Army. Now most of you folks will start screaming "Posse Comitatus" at this point. I would ask you to take a breath and think first. Despite what everyone in the tin-foil hat crowd thinks, posse is not a part of the Constitution. It was part and parcel to as as vulgar and cynical a bit of political horse trading as ever seen in the good old USA.
It was in the deal that gave us a Republican President (Rutherford Hayes) after a bitterly contested and crooked election (Sound familiar?). As a quid pro quo for the election of Hayes, it allowed for the removal of federal protection of former slaves coupled with a wink and a nod to the soon-to-be Jim Crow South, allowing them a pleasant return to their cherished pastime of butt-fucking the blacks.
As you can probably tell, I don't think to highly of the "Compromise of 1877".
So, back to NorthCom. They will be up to around 20,000 troops soon. Not enough to do any real good in a country this big, but enough to make a difference in a spate of serious civil unrest that is well localized.
Now most of us don't have to worry about this too dang much. But let's for a moment consider Detroit:
- Big Three looking bad?
- Corrupt and ineffective local government?
- Soon to be massive unemployment among a group with a fairly high set of expectations?
- Supporting State government almost broke?
- Federal Government in a bad way?
Hmmm
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Thanks Stephi, for the other B
I was having a very slow conversation with Stephanie in AR over the weekend and she brought up an important part of what most of us don't pay enough attention to in our preps.
Beans, Bandaids, and bullets will keep any animal alive. Hell, you will probably even live longer under that regimen. But what is it you wish to be during your life? If your entire existence is structured around the military style need for firearms and an itchy trigger finger, then I hope that you never come into my neck of the clear cut, you are little better than the barbarians who sacked Rome.
As Steph sez', beauty should be one of the B's. So preps should include the life of the mind as well as the basic's of existence. An animal is supremely suited for survival, if you don't prepare for the life of the mind, your mind and your ethics will starve and wither, leaving you a well-armed, well-fed animal.
So, start filling up your essential library. Erasmus and Luther, Epicurus and Epictetus, good copies of the bible and the Upanishads. If you can afford it, the Encyclopedia Britannica Great Books are usually very reasonably priced in used book stores. I would very strongly urge you to buy an old textbook in art history and appreciation. Heck, buy some watecolors and start learning.
You have to look long and hard at what you wish to become. If SHTF, will you be a Roman or a Senone?
Beans, Bandaids, and bullets will keep any animal alive. Hell, you will probably even live longer under that regimen. But what is it you wish to be during your life? If your entire existence is structured around the military style need for firearms and an itchy trigger finger, then I hope that you never come into my neck of the clear cut, you are little better than the barbarians who sacked Rome.
As Steph sez', beauty should be one of the B's. So preps should include the life of the mind as well as the basic's of existence. An animal is supremely suited for survival, if you don't prepare for the life of the mind, your mind and your ethics will starve and wither, leaving you a well-armed, well-fed animal.
So, start filling up your essential library. Erasmus and Luther, Epicurus and Epictetus, good copies of the bible and the Upanishads. If you can afford it, the Encyclopedia Britannica Great Books are usually very reasonably priced in used book stores. I would very strongly urge you to buy an old textbook in art history and appreciation. Heck, buy some watecolors and start learning.
You have to look long and hard at what you wish to become. If SHTF, will you be a Roman or a Senone?
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Saturday Morning
Now that I am used to waking up at 4:00, sleeping in on the weekends is a thing of the past. Granted, I do get until 5:00 AM, but then I am awake, so it is time to get up and about. So while I sip my tea, lets talk about the old realities that we will soon be revisiting.
Everyone is going to be spending more time in their homes and their neighborhoods pretty soon.
This is going to be a problem for some folk. They have designed their lives around the idea that home was an investment that you slept in during the time you weren't out and about, living the dream. Other folks will take to it nicely and lapse back into the normal patterns of life lived by every generation other than this one.
So Saturday here at the inner city digs is house maintenance day. Gotta do the basics; clean the house, sweep the walks, do laundry, bake. You know....adult stuff. Now you can choose other days for the duties, but unless you are a self-martyring housewife who does it all herself (a behavior I find profoundly weird), there should be a day of the week where all the family pitches in for the common goal of maintaining the abode.
Yes your children will complain bitterly. You did when your parents forced you to work. They will get over it and you will be a better parent for it. Also, it is a pretty good way to force a self-examination. The most natural thing in the world to say is "I sure didn't act like that when I was a kid!" But if your parents are honest with you, or you with yourself, you will remember how you were forced against your will into unpaid labor and wound up the better for it.
So start setting aside a day for maintenance. Doesn't even have to be a whole day, but start developing good routines of cleaning and maintenance for the times ahead, it will make the hard days easier to bear.
Everyone is going to be spending more time in their homes and their neighborhoods pretty soon.
This is going to be a problem for some folk. They have designed their lives around the idea that home was an investment that you slept in during the time you weren't out and about, living the dream. Other folks will take to it nicely and lapse back into the normal patterns of life lived by every generation other than this one.
So Saturday here at the inner city digs is house maintenance day. Gotta do the basics; clean the house, sweep the walks, do laundry, bake. You know....adult stuff. Now you can choose other days for the duties, but unless you are a self-martyring housewife who does it all herself (a behavior I find profoundly weird), there should be a day of the week where all the family pitches in for the common goal of maintaining the abode.
Yes your children will complain bitterly. You did when your parents forced you to work. They will get over it and you will be a better parent for it. Also, it is a pretty good way to force a self-examination. The most natural thing in the world to say is "I sure didn't act like that when I was a kid!" But if your parents are honest with you, or you with yourself, you will remember how you were forced against your will into unpaid labor and wound up the better for it.
So start setting aside a day for maintenance. Doesn't even have to be a whole day, but start developing good routines of cleaning and maintenance for the times ahead, it will make the hard days easier to bear.
Friday, December 19, 2008
Ozymandias
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
`My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
`My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Our Continent
There was a fairly poorly written and intellectually lazy book written in the Nineties named "The Nine Nations of North America".
But the book had some merit. As I have stated before, I don't see the United States in it's current configuration lasting much longer, certainly no more than fifty years, though there it would seem that we are moving fast toward some kind of serious spasm. Joel Garreau at least took the ball and started the conversation, so hats off and many thanks to him.
So this post is just about my neck of the woods, the Pacific Northwest. Garreau had us stuffed into a coastal state of Ecotopia. HA. What really pisses me off is that he lumped us in with those assholes down in California.
Now that I have vented my spleen, lets get back to the task at hand. A true nation is a couple of big cities, an integrated transportation system, a food basket, a resource base, and a reasonably common culture. What I propose (and, let's be clear about this, this is not an original idea, though for the life of me I can't remember where I first heard it. If someone would fill in the blanks for me, I would be very grateful) is that the Northwest United States and British Columbia begin to work on the political structure required to build a nation from the Columbia River drainage.
Just ponder it. The country would have some great cities (Seattle, Portland, Spokane, Boise, Vancouver, etc). It would also have a great bread basket in the Palouse and Idaho (why that idiot Garreau lumped that area into "the empty quarter is beyond me), an great transportation system (river travel and transportation is easy and efficient), excellent natural resources, a pretty fair population with an excellent sprinking of minorities to keep things interesting.Just a thought
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
New
I read quite a bit about the current state of affairs. Their are some remarkably prescient folks out there. Mike Ruppert made calls about this stuff years ago. Michael Panzer wrote a book that could easily serve as a script for the movie. Jim Kunstler and Dmitry Orlov are a joy to read. Jesse's Cafe Americain is a very thoughtful must.
But all of them seem to be using the past as a template. They seem to feel that the current state of affairs is deriviative of a past event and attempt to use the resolution of those events as the template for our way of working through this process.
But sometimes this scares me. We have a tendency to look to the past for our answers. This serves us well most of the time. We even go through the motions of pasting up overlays to reassure ourselves of the applicability of the past to the present. But I have a nasty feeling in my gut that the deal going down is different this time.
By making up our models and our chart overlays and our anecdotal comparisons, we are reassuring ourselves that we have the means and savvy to solve the problems that are coming. But this act may blind us. It may make us stop looking for the black swan.
We can plan all we want for the last war, but that has never led anywhere of value yet. The future is a fickle creature. It is what we don't expect that has the best chance of killing us.
Keep your eyes open.
Winter is coming.
But all of them seem to be using the past as a template. They seem to feel that the current state of affairs is deriviative of a past event and attempt to use the resolution of those events as the template for our way of working through this process.
But sometimes this scares me. We have a tendency to look to the past for our answers. This serves us well most of the time. We even go through the motions of pasting up overlays to reassure ourselves of the applicability of the past to the present. But I have a nasty feeling in my gut that the deal going down is different this time.
By making up our models and our chart overlays and our anecdotal comparisons, we are reassuring ourselves that we have the means and savvy to solve the problems that are coming. But this act may blind us. It may make us stop looking for the black swan.
We can plan all we want for the last war, but that has never led anywhere of value yet. The future is a fickle creature. It is what we don't expect that has the best chance of killing us.
Keep your eyes open.
Winter is coming.
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Continuum
I was explaining the difference between communism and capitalism to the woman I carpool on the way home on Friday. She specifically asked for me to "break it down into a couple of sentences" for her so that she could understand. She also prides herself as being an "independent".
But lets take hard look at that thought. Here in the old USA he have an odd view of how politics works. Most of us don't even know the basis or platforms of the major parties, voting for the "man" rather than the party. The most prized voter label is that of "independent".
That moment was when I started to realize the almost frightening ignorance of those who vote this way and the way that the heads of the major parties have so thoroughly corrupted the system. Because when you can focus the attention of the populace on an insipid beauty contest, you won't have to come up with any plans to accomplish what is needed.
You see, when you vote for "the man rather than the party", you are not really voting for a man, you are voting for a fable. This allows the party bosses and the money machines to work in their smoke-filled rooms and construct the candidates that they can work with and set them up in a series of phony "Primaries" that are more akin to American Gladiator than to a rational political process.
Think this is wrong....tell me then how a Illinois State representative who gave a pretty dang good speech at a convention four years ago can be catapulted into the presidency?
The party bosses have never let go of the political process. They have blended the control they had in the back rooms of the nineteenth century with the slick and subtle control of a Madison Avenue ad campaign.
So just maybe, we had better start looking at the parties and their platforms instead of the front men that want us to watch. Because in the real world, an obsession with pretty front men has led us off a cliff, maybe we had better start looking at the organization that they front for and their plans
But lets take hard look at that thought. Here in the old USA he have an odd view of how politics works. Most of us don't even know the basis or platforms of the major parties, voting for the "man" rather than the party. The most prized voter label is that of "independent".
That moment was when I started to realize the almost frightening ignorance of those who vote this way and the way that the heads of the major parties have so thoroughly corrupted the system. Because when you can focus the attention of the populace on an insipid beauty contest, you won't have to come up with any plans to accomplish what is needed.
You see, when you vote for "the man rather than the party", you are not really voting for a man, you are voting for a fable. This allows the party bosses and the money machines to work in their smoke-filled rooms and construct the candidates that they can work with and set them up in a series of phony "Primaries" that are more akin to American Gladiator than to a rational political process.
Think this is wrong....tell me then how a Illinois State representative who gave a pretty dang good speech at a convention four years ago can be catapulted into the presidency?
The party bosses have never let go of the political process. They have blended the control they had in the back rooms of the nineteenth century with the slick and subtle control of a Madison Avenue ad campaign.
So just maybe, we had better start looking at the parties and their platforms instead of the front men that want us to watch. Because in the real world, an obsession with pretty front men has led us off a cliff, maybe we had better start looking at the organization that they front for and their plans
Monday, December 15, 2008
Just a brief note to those who are too busy to cook.
Piss off you lazy bastards.
Get off your dead asses and start doing the work of an adult. Despite all of the lies that Madison Avenue has been feeding you, not everything and everyone is put in place for you to live the dream. Your buying the predigested pap of "convenience dinners" and "gourmet prepared meals" is just a way of getting more time to fill up with Oprah.
One of the reason that we are fat and lazy as a culture is that everyone is "too busy" filling their lives up with meaningless crap. You aren't too busy, you are too lazy and too self-centered.
Get off your ass and get to work
Get off your dead asses and start doing the work of an adult. Despite all of the lies that Madison Avenue has been feeding you, not everything and everyone is put in place for you to live the dream. Your buying the predigested pap of "convenience dinners" and "gourmet prepared meals" is just a way of getting more time to fill up with Oprah.
One of the reason that we are fat and lazy as a culture is that everyone is "too busy" filling their lives up with meaningless crap. You aren't too busy, you are too lazy and too self-centered.
Get off your ass and get to work
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Just a thought
We have a deformed political structure in the United States.
Every other country in the world has a respectably-sized communist and/or socialist party. Oh, they don't name them that anymore, but they are there.
We here in the US have witch-hunted these parties and philosophies off of the map. By doing so we have thrown our country open to the depredations of the oligarchs and the fascisti.
We had better start looking at a balance here folks. We are in the pickle we are in because we gutted the Left side of the political spectrum here in United States and let the political Right run without an organized opposition party to hound its every move.
Now, some of you will start screaming "look at Barack Obama"......Give me a break. He is as middle of the road and business leaning as his forerunner Bill Clinton, who in every other country in the world would have been forced into the conservative party.
So, think about it. Think about the whole government that you want. With checks and balances of political theory and a complete spectrum of thought.
If you just plug in the left side of the equation you will get the nanny state with all the sharp corners rounded off. If you just vote in the conservatives, you will have an economic free for all with you pockets being picked by unfettered business.
Of course, we could just hire George Bush and his buddies and get both.
Every other country in the world has a respectably-sized communist and/or socialist party. Oh, they don't name them that anymore, but they are there.
We here in the US have witch-hunted these parties and philosophies off of the map. By doing so we have thrown our country open to the depredations of the oligarchs and the fascisti.
We had better start looking at a balance here folks. We are in the pickle we are in because we gutted the Left side of the political spectrum here in United States and let the political Right run without an organized opposition party to hound its every move.
Now, some of you will start screaming "look at Barack Obama"......Give me a break. He is as middle of the road and business leaning as his forerunner Bill Clinton, who in every other country in the world would have been forced into the conservative party.
So, think about it. Think about the whole government that you want. With checks and balances of political theory and a complete spectrum of thought.
If you just plug in the left side of the equation you will get the nanny state with all the sharp corners rounded off. If you just vote in the conservatives, you will have an economic free for all with you pockets being picked by unfettered business.
Of course, we could just hire George Bush and his buddies and get both.
Friday, December 12, 2008
Thursday, December 11, 2008
You Know, It may not be all that bad
I highly recommend reading CK Michaelsons "Some Assembly Required" every day. This post is about a comment that was at the top of one of his posts last week
"Money is an accounting device we imagine is real."
Well. That got me to thinking. You know, we constantly piss and moan about TEOTWAWKI and all of the portents that we see coming down the pipe. Well, you know, it might not be all that bad.
Now that isn't saying that the way we have had it is going to stick around in some form. Au contraire mon vieux, if you (like a lot of folks) are gauging success as the number of zeroes and ones that will soon be vanishing from a bank's database, well, you will be getting fucked soon, and, should you wish, I will be happy to send you a shitpot of KY...you will be needing it.
But it won't be bad if you step back now. cut your losses and simplify, simplify, simplify.
Your food is going to change...get ready to start eating the way you always knew you were supposed to eat. Lots of beans and soups and breads. Cable....get over it, paying $100.00 a month to have a sewer delivered to your living room is stupid. Yes your kids will whine, but they can get over it.
I keep beating this drum again and again and again, but the quality of your life isn't demarcated by the size and quality of your toys or your bank account. Get down to the basics. Decent healthy food, a warm fireplace, some time set apart for your family, a chess set, a radio.
We are going to be poorer in a financial sense. Maybe it won't be all bad, it will just depend what you do with this opportunity.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Dehydrated Foods
I think that buying #10 cans of dehydrated foods is just a really good idea. Yeah, they are expensive, but they last forever and they can provide a really good diet when you do open them. The trouble is that if you buy them, you had better learn to cook with them. It isn't all that straightforward.
The first deal is that you have to reconstitute them before starting to cook. This means putting them in water and letting them hang around for a while getting back to their normal state. Then when they are rehydrated, you actually have to think when you are cooking them (gasp). You will have to learn how long each different type takes to reconstitute and cook. It isn't a huge deal, but it will take same time and training.
Today's object lesson is sweet corn. This is good stuff.
As you can see, they come out as little bits of nothing. Sweet corn is not field corn. When you yummy it up off the cob, you are getting mostly water...really tasty water. I have always thought of it as a dessert. Here is a picture of an advertising board outside a KFC in Nahkom Panom, Thailand. Sweet corn parfait, Dessert it is.
So when you dry it, it doesn't look like much of anything. You have to add back in all of the water that was dried out. Now a lot of folks just dump on water and wait some number of hours. Admirable simplicity.
That is my normal method, but lately I have been fascinated by the thermos-style slow cookers where you have a pan that you to bring to boiling on the stove and then put inside a thermos holder to hold in the heat and cook with residual heat. The sales blurbs on these things say that if you drop in a boiling pot, the pot is still >160 F. after eight hours.
So today, when I made my tea in the morning, I put in a half cup of corn into my little one-cup thermos and filled the thermos up with boiling water. I will take a look at it around fivish and let you know what I see.
After 5 hours
Looks and tastes like uncooked sweet corn...life is good, into the soup it goes.
The first deal is that you have to reconstitute them before starting to cook. This means putting them in water and letting them hang around for a while getting back to their normal state. Then when they are rehydrated, you actually have to think when you are cooking them (gasp). You will have to learn how long each different type takes to reconstitute and cook. It isn't a huge deal, but it will take same time and training.
Today's object lesson is sweet corn. This is good stuff.
As you can see, they come out as little bits of nothing. Sweet corn is not field corn. When you yummy it up off the cob, you are getting mostly water...really tasty water. I have always thought of it as a dessert. Here is a picture of an advertising board outside a KFC in Nahkom Panom, Thailand. Sweet corn parfait, Dessert it is.
So when you dry it, it doesn't look like much of anything. You have to add back in all of the water that was dried out. Now a lot of folks just dump on water and wait some number of hours. Admirable simplicity.
That is my normal method, but lately I have been fascinated by the thermos-style slow cookers where you have a pan that you to bring to boiling on the stove and then put inside a thermos holder to hold in the heat and cook with residual heat. The sales blurbs on these things say that if you drop in a boiling pot, the pot is still >160 F. after eight hours.
So today, when I made my tea in the morning, I put in a half cup of corn into my little one-cup thermos and filled the thermos up with boiling water. I will take a look at it around fivish and let you know what I see.
After 5 hours
Looks and tastes like uncooked sweet corn...life is good, into the soup it goes.
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
A bit of pathos
OK, I like playing World of Warcraft.
I realize that this is just a stupid waste of time. It glues me in front of a screen for an hour or so every other day and I live in a false world of fantasy.
I also read 10-15 hours a week, take care of my garden, write this blog, walk, and work, cook dinner every night.
I watch no commercial TV save for the ongoing humiliation of watching the Raiders get their asses handed to them by any team that they play that week.
Playing WOW makes me happy, leave me alone.
I realize that this is just a stupid waste of time. It glues me in front of a screen for an hour or so every other day and I live in a false world of fantasy.
I also read 10-15 hours a week, take care of my garden, write this blog, walk, and work, cook dinner every night.
I watch no commercial TV save for the ongoing humiliation of watching the Raiders get their asses handed to them by any team that they play that week.
Playing WOW makes me happy, leave me alone.
Monday, December 8, 2008
Watching the watts and spilt milk
I have been watching my energy use a lot lately. Doing a pretty good job of it too. Mostly it just comes from the simple, virtuous act of turning things off that you aren't using.
I also keep the house chilly the bulk of the time. I use small, ceramic space heaters for where I am in the house and letting the house stay cool (I keep the main furnace thermometer at 55 degrees) needless to say I heat with electricity.
So where for the last two Novembers I used 1910kwh and 2830kwh, this year I used 630. Now part of me is proud. I am just as warm and well fed as in the past (and no, it wasn't a particularly mild month, pretty much normal) but now I am pissing and moaning to myself about the amount of money that I wasted in the past.
You gotta steer clear of that thought. Beating yourself up for your former mistakes doesn't do a lick of good. I will smile ruefully when I think of the significantly larger cushion that I would have if I had learned my frugality earlier, but hell, life was good then and I was running with it.
Our mistakes of the past are how we learn. They also provide us some of our fonder memories. Deal with them and move on.
Winter is here.
I also keep the house chilly the bulk of the time. I use small, ceramic space heaters for where I am in the house and letting the house stay cool (I keep the main furnace thermometer at 55 degrees) needless to say I heat with electricity.
So where for the last two Novembers I used 1910kwh and 2830kwh, this year I used 630. Now part of me is proud. I am just as warm and well fed as in the past (and no, it wasn't a particularly mild month, pretty much normal) but now I am pissing and moaning to myself about the amount of money that I wasted in the past.
You gotta steer clear of that thought. Beating yourself up for your former mistakes doesn't do a lick of good. I will smile ruefully when I think of the significantly larger cushion that I would have if I had learned my frugality earlier, but hell, life was good then and I was running with it.
Our mistakes of the past are how we learn. They also provide us some of our fonder memories. Deal with them and move on.
Winter is here.
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Cash Budgeting
I realize that many would consider the next statement to be the blackest of all heresies....you can survive without a credit card.
I now have no plastic whatsoever. I also have no debit cards, ATM cards, store credit cards...man, I have no way of buying anything unless I (gasp) pull out my wallet and count out the cash.
Now, realize that a great deal of this is caused by external forces...I all the sudden didn't get religion and become frugal by choice. No, I did this because after 60+ weeks of unemployment I managed to snag a job that pays A LOT less than what I was accustomed to burning through. I thank the good Lord for my good fortune every single day and now I am developing the strategies needed to live within my reduced means.
So, back to cash. I have mixed feelings about the stuff. Anyone can use it, you can't trace it, it is slippery stuff. But unless you have it on you, it doesn't do you a lick of good. So you have to strike a balance of keeping some in the bank (and you all know my opinion of those swine) and keeping what you need on your person or secured in your house/yard. I know bunches of folks who bury stuff in the backyard for long term storage. There are myriad hiding places in a house, use your imagination.
Having your spending money physically available and there to look at makes it easy to manage your budget. You can get a good clear visual of the amount of money that you have on hand and how much it is you have to spend.
Paying bills is more problematic. Checks and stamps and crap like that are a real problem. I put just enough money in the bank to cover all my current bills (loan payment(1), rent, car, car insurance, electricity, phone, water, garbage). I then use the electronic bill payer to send the money out and the deed is done. I keep a bare minimum in the account for them to play with or for me to lose.
I then take out all my spending/saving money as good old greenbacks. I prefer ten-dollar bills. These go home and into the "sugar jar". I use this for everything. Groceries, gas, trips to the soda shop and ice cream parlor, shoes....you name it, it comes out of here.
The key is is that you leave the money there. Yes, you can carry a tenner with you for stuff, but if you want to buy something, you have to think about it, figure out how much it costs, find out where to buy it, go in a dicker for it...think about it. Then you go home and get that amount of money out of the sugar jar and go make the purchase.
Don't leave your family out of this. When you come home with the cash, sit everyone down and explain the amount of money that is going into the sugar jar and the length of time that it has to last. Have a little
When you boil all this stuff down, it comes down to the simple idea of living within your means. If you are going to survive the spasm that is taking shape, you will have to get over the childish concept of "impulse buying". All I am talking about here is a structure that will allow you to do this. All of the squealing and whinging being done in the mass media and among your friends and neighbors are nothing but the dismay of spoiled children when they find out that the world doesn't rotate around their needs and wants.
I now have no plastic whatsoever. I also have no debit cards, ATM cards, store credit cards...man, I have no way of buying anything unless I (gasp) pull out my wallet and count out the cash.
Now, realize that a great deal of this is caused by external forces...I all the sudden didn't get religion and become frugal by choice. No, I did this because after 60+ weeks of unemployment I managed to snag a job that pays A LOT less than what I was accustomed to burning through. I thank the good Lord for my good fortune every single day and now I am developing the strategies needed to live within my reduced means.
So, back to cash. I have mixed feelings about the stuff. Anyone can use it, you can't trace it, it is slippery stuff. But unless you have it on you, it doesn't do you a lick of good. So you have to strike a balance of keeping some in the bank (and you all know my opinion of those swine) and keeping what you need on your person or secured in your house/yard. I know bunches of folks who bury stuff in the backyard for long term storage. There are myriad hiding places in a house, use your imagination.
Having your spending money physically available and there to look at makes it easy to manage your budget. You can get a good clear visual of the amount of money that you have on hand and how much it is you have to spend.
Paying bills is more problematic. Checks and stamps and crap like that are a real problem. I put just enough money in the bank to cover all my current bills (loan payment(1), rent, car, car insurance, electricity, phone, water, garbage). I then use the electronic bill payer to send the money out and the deed is done. I keep a bare minimum in the account for them to play with or for me to lose.
I then take out all my spending/saving money as good old greenbacks. I prefer ten-dollar bills. These go home and into the "sugar jar". I use this for everything. Groceries, gas, trips to the soda shop and ice cream parlor, shoes....you name it, it comes out of here.
The key is is that you leave the money there. Yes, you can carry a tenner with you for stuff, but if you want to buy something, you have to think about it, figure out how much it costs, find out where to buy it, go in a dicker for it...think about it. Then you go home and get that amount of money out of the sugar jar and go make the purchase.
Don't leave your family out of this. When you come home with the cash, sit everyone down and explain the amount of money that is going into the sugar jar and the length of time that it has to last. Have a little
When you boil all this stuff down, it comes down to the simple idea of living within your means. If you are going to survive the spasm that is taking shape, you will have to get over the childish concept of "impulse buying". All I am talking about here is a structure that will allow you to do this. All of the squealing and whinging being done in the mass media and among your friends and neighbors are nothing but the dismay of spoiled children when they find out that the world doesn't rotate around their needs and wants.
Friday, December 5, 2008
Saving Yeast
OK: The first low-tech batch came out of the carboy today. So far, so good. Looks and smells like beer.
What I did today was to make the first real attempt at recycling yeast. Did an all-grain wort yesterday. (8 lbs of 2-row, 2 lbs 120L Crystal malt, 3 oz northern brewer Hops). Let it cool overnight in the pot and poured it right onto the yeast from the bottom of the last batch.
Whew! 45 minutes later the yeast is rockin' I think that I'll get the blow off within 4-6 hours. Cool.
What I did today was to make the first real attempt at recycling yeast. Did an all-grain wort yesterday. (8 lbs of 2-row, 2 lbs 120L Crystal malt, 3 oz northern brewer Hops). Let it cool overnight in the pot and poured it right onto the yeast from the bottom of the last batch.
Whew! 45 minutes later the yeast is rockin' I think that I'll get the blow off within 4-6 hours. Cool.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Dental Floss and Duct Tape
It wouldn't hurt any prepared prepper to have a bunch of dental floss and duct tape hanging around.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Snobs
When you sit back and peer at the mess in America today, one can make a fairly good argument that the problem that we are facing is one of snobbery. I know that I have been beating this drum quite a bit lately, but more and more it appears that at the core of all of our problems is the desire to make ourselves something we are not.
I am a mongrel mix of recent immigrant Italian dirt farmers (read here peasants) and a hodgepodge of been-here-a while northern european out of the Arkansas Hollers (read here: white trash). Yeah, I have some upper-crust Jewish roots (my paternal grandmother married a hillbilly for some odd reason), but it is pretty threadbare.
But for some reason, just saying that is considered anathema. We are so married to the lifestyles of the rich and famous that we cannot for a second imagine that there is value and contentment in the simple rhythms of a lower impact lifestyle. Our parents worked as welders and janitors and farmers and factory workers so that we could "better" ourselves. But when we wandered off to college and met the upper crust that are the normal denizens of that weird and wonderful subculture, we threw aside who we were and stated aping the manners of our "betters".
Now this aping of manners and petit-bourgeois similacra of the upper class has permeated the whole society. Houses are outsized and ostentatious as a rule. The house where I grew up is considered a "starter" home, meaning that it isn't good enough for anyone of value. We have allowed the productive jobs of our country to be exported on the mistaken notion that we as a culture were "post-industrial" and thus above work.
So maybe, just maybe, the next time that you are sitting around bitching about everyone else's complicity in this ongoing train wreck, perhaps you might take a look and ponder the near-constant over-reaching that has defined your own life. I think that if you look honestly, you will find that beam that is in your own eye.
I am a mongrel mix of recent immigrant Italian dirt farmers (read here peasants) and a hodgepodge of been-here-a while northern european out of the Arkansas Hollers (read here: white trash). Yeah, I have some upper-crust Jewish roots (my paternal grandmother married a hillbilly for some odd reason), but it is pretty threadbare.
But for some reason, just saying that is considered anathema. We are so married to the lifestyles of the rich and famous that we cannot for a second imagine that there is value and contentment in the simple rhythms of a lower impact lifestyle. Our parents worked as welders and janitors and farmers and factory workers so that we could "better" ourselves. But when we wandered off to college and met the upper crust that are the normal denizens of that weird and wonderful subculture, we threw aside who we were and stated aping the manners of our "betters".
Now this aping of manners and petit-bourgeois similacra of the upper class has permeated the whole society. Houses are outsized and ostentatious as a rule. The house where I grew up is considered a "starter" home, meaning that it isn't good enough for anyone of value. We have allowed the productive jobs of our country to be exported on the mistaken notion that we as a culture were "post-industrial" and thus above work.
So maybe, just maybe, the next time that you are sitting around bitching about everyone else's complicity in this ongoing train wreck, perhaps you might take a look and ponder the near-constant over-reaching that has defined your own life. I think that if you look honestly, you will find that beam that is in your own eye.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
1632
I have long been a devotee of the odd sub-cult surrounding a series of books titled the 1632 universe by Eric Flint et al. I would strongly recommend that all of you go to the Baen book free website and download the book 1632 for enjoyment and/or possible edification. All of the books on the website are free. Some are quite good. Others are....well....books.
Start here
The story in a nutshell is that a small town in W. Virginia gets transported back in time to the thirty years war.
I like it because good and decent folks band together and win. But more important to us is the fact that the knowledge we currently enjoy allows the protagonists to be effective. One of the issues that they speak of all the time is "gearing down" and "downshifting". In my mind, this is what we as a society ought to be discussing. Not whether or not we should keep trying the eternal ponzi scheme of constant upward growth, but rather, what level of technology is appropriate and enough.
I have a sneaking hunch it isn't a microchip on a coffeepot or weekend jaunts on a jetliner.
Start here
The story in a nutshell is that a small town in W. Virginia gets transported back in time to the thirty years war.
I like it because good and decent folks band together and win. But more important to us is the fact that the knowledge we currently enjoy allows the protagonists to be effective. One of the issues that they speak of all the time is "gearing down" and "downshifting". In my mind, this is what we as a society ought to be discussing. Not whether or not we should keep trying the eternal ponzi scheme of constant upward growth, but rather, what level of technology is appropriate and enough.
I have a sneaking hunch it isn't a microchip on a coffeepot or weekend jaunts on a jetliner.
Monday, December 1, 2008
A Low-Cost Social/Financial Barometer
Go find yourself a silver dollar or a silver eagle. Right now you can purchase one at on-line stores in the $15-$20 range.
Carry it with you. Use it occasionally to try and buy something that you fancy.
Now, here is how you read the meter on this simple little measuring tool.
Carry it with you. Use it occasionally to try and buy something that you fancy.
Now, here is how you read the meter on this simple little measuring tool.
- If people don't want to take it or look at you funny: Times are good. Party on.
- If people look at if for a bit and try to give you less value than the current value of the silver: Start paying closer attention, things are still OK, but outlook is looking negative.
- People are willing to give you what you feel is fair, no questions asked: Severe slide pending.
- People are willing give you more than the value of the coin and ask if you need anything else: Button up the barn Bertha, the party's getting started.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Squirrellin' Away
Qui donne aux pauvres prête à Dieu
This has been a very weak time for me to buy preps as the yuletide is upon us. I am content with that, as a matter of fact, I have been spending preps learning how to cook with them in a manner that will be acceptable to the boyos.
But I think that I will drop by the food bank tomorrow and give some money. I would strongly urge all of you to do the same.
You see, the only way to help people is to take on the task of doing it yourself. Some of the people who will benefit from my donations will probably not meet societies standards for having worth. I don't care about that. I do not donate for the benefit of society, I donate to make myself worthy in the eyes of God.
I realize that some of you will look at me like an idiot, throwing good money after bad. So be it. But I would recommend that all of you take a step back from the egocentric act of prepping and look at the broader picture. If all you are doing is making a mountain of stuff in order to survive when all around you are falling into chaos, then you are little better than a coyote gnawing its own leg off to escape a trap.
Because in my mind, it is the society that surrounds us that allows us to become fully human. The web of dependencies and trust allow the individual to become whole. The more one cuts oneself off from this web, the less human one becomes.
The real trouble with survivalism is that the most zealous practitioners are more than willing to do anything to survive. While a lot of you will ask "what is the problem with that?" I just want you to think about how that attitude shortens the jump to barbarism.
This has been a very weak time for me to buy preps as the yuletide is upon us. I am content with that, as a matter of fact, I have been spending preps learning how to cook with them in a manner that will be acceptable to the boyos.
But I think that I will drop by the food bank tomorrow and give some money. I would strongly urge all of you to do the same.
You see, the only way to help people is to take on the task of doing it yourself. Some of the people who will benefit from my donations will probably not meet societies standards for having worth. I don't care about that. I do not donate for the benefit of society, I donate to make myself worthy in the eyes of God.
I realize that some of you will look at me like an idiot, throwing good money after bad. So be it. But I would recommend that all of you take a step back from the egocentric act of prepping and look at the broader picture. If all you are doing is making a mountain of stuff in order to survive when all around you are falling into chaos, then you are little better than a coyote gnawing its own leg off to escape a trap.
Because in my mind, it is the society that surrounds us that allows us to become fully human. The web of dependencies and trust allow the individual to become whole. The more one cuts oneself off from this web, the less human one becomes.
The real trouble with survivalism is that the most zealous practitioners are more than willing to do anything to survive. While a lot of you will ask "what is the problem with that?" I just want you to think about how that attitude shortens the jump to barbarism.
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Rebound
It would appear to me that the folks at the top are unwittingly giving us squirrelly-prepper types a golden opportunity to store nuts like all get out. Unfortunately, they are all giving us an excellent reason to do the same.
I can't keep track of the amount of money that the government has promised. I think that after two trillion or so, it becomes something of an academic exercise, worthy of the amount of concern necessary to keep the popcorn from burning. All of the money that is flowing into the system is being created from thin air. Hank lends Ben 20 Billion who then turns around and loans 200 Billion (God, I am always so impressed with fractional reserve banking).
TPTB are just trying to head off a deflationary cycle that is just picking up steam. They will succeed, but it will take a little bit of time. But the deflation bus will leave the station, and prices will go down while the deflation part of this cycle plays out. The trouble is that that they will achieve success and that will bring its own punishment.
I figure that between twelve and eighteen months from now, the fruits of their dumping all this money to stop the deflation will bear fruit, and the prices of everything will go through the roof. So at the end of the day, we are talking about a lot of money leaving the system, followed by a butt load of new cash diluting the old cash....welcome to the wonderful world of inflation. That will be an excellent time to have a well filled out prep supply.
I can't keep track of the amount of money that the government has promised. I think that after two trillion or so, it becomes something of an academic exercise, worthy of the amount of concern necessary to keep the popcorn from burning. All of the money that is flowing into the system is being created from thin air. Hank lends Ben 20 Billion who then turns around and loans 200 Billion (God, I am always so impressed with fractional reserve banking).
TPTB are just trying to head off a deflationary cycle that is just picking up steam. They will succeed, but it will take a little bit of time. But the deflation bus will leave the station, and prices will go down while the deflation part of this cycle plays out. The trouble is that that they will achieve success and that will bring its own punishment.
I figure that between twelve and eighteen months from now, the fruits of their dumping all this money to stop the deflation will bear fruit, and the prices of everything will go through the roof. So at the end of the day, we are talking about a lot of money leaving the system, followed by a butt load of new cash diluting the old cash....welcome to the wonderful world of inflation. That will be an excellent time to have a well filled out prep supply.
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Velocity
If you get a chance, you should rent the movie "Speed". Talk about a campy analogy for the current mess that we are living through. I won't give you the details. In that way you can look at it afresh. Also, Sandra Bullock has always been pretty easy on the eyes.
But the movie got me to thinking about velocity. In a way, the speed of our lives is what is killing us. We are using any trick whatsoever to try to cram more into our lives in order to make them more pleasant and meaningful. But in the process, we have merely become slaves to our desires for more velocity in our lives. Like a 80's coke whore, we require more and more to get less and less. We drive around in our internal-combustion cocoons trying to buy happiness with granite counters and golf vacations. Instead, we have spread ourselves hopelessly thin, becoming a nation of dilettantes who brush the surface of their lives, trying to create a image of broad experience, but instead achieving a superficiality surpassed only by few.
The lubricant and fuel for this "need for speed" is oil and the digital revolution. Oil allowed for the rapid communication of goods and humans and thus allowed the advent of globalization. That failed. We are so awash in the accumulated dreck from Chinese factories that poison the environment and oppress their people that one longs for the simple evil of Mordor and Sauron. I don't feel that we are the better for it.
The microchip and the internet allowed for rapid diffusion of ideas that should have died a quiet death (read here: Neoconservatism in all of its many perversions). But mostly it stole from us the luxury of time enough to consider our actions.
The things that we have come to cherish and measure our lives by have now become the tools of a massive destruction. You see, I think that the coming collapse will be good for us as a nation and as a species. A necessary thinning, to be certain, but a golden opportunity to squeeze the new technologies and the old wisdom together to create a better world. We will lose some things, but the depth that we gain will more than make up for the loss.
-end-
Ingratitude as theft
For all of our incessant whining about the end of the world, perhaps we had better take a different tack on our thoughts today. Maybe we had better take a day to savor what we have now.
Cuz you see, today is an excellent day to get your thoughts in order and your priorities straight.
Do you have a family? Cherish them.
Is your health OK? Very Good.
Do you have a job? Congratulate yourself.
Is there more food on the table than you can eat ? Excellent.
Is the pantry looking OK for the holidays? Check
Got some cash squirrelled away and some money in the bank? You are foursquare my friend.
Every day of your life is a ruthless inventory of your personal challenges and your personal capabilities. Today is a day to give thanks for the tools that you have been given. Don't worry about the challenges, they will be up early tomorrow.
So show some genuine gratitude for what you have today. Otherwise the day would be a waste
Cuz you see, today is an excellent day to get your thoughts in order and your priorities straight.
Do you have a family? Cherish them.
Is your health OK? Very Good.
Do you have a job? Congratulate yourself.
Is there more food on the table than you can eat ? Excellent.
Is the pantry looking OK for the holidays? Check
Got some cash squirrelled away and some money in the bank? You are foursquare my friend.
Every day of your life is a ruthless inventory of your personal challenges and your personal capabilities. Today is a day to give thanks for the tools that you have been given. Don't worry about the challenges, they will be up early tomorrow.
So show some genuine gratitude for what you have today. Otherwise the day would be a waste
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
What is happening
No one I know is spending any money. People open their wallets and dry dust and moth pieces fall out. This is the problem.
Everyone knows that the credit party is over, and now they are learning to live within their means. This means paying off the debts and trying to work up a savings account.
Everyone is having an epiphany at the same time. Everyone is too deep in debt and now all of the sudden this revelation is hitting home. But the revelation means the death of the trashy, disposable, vulgar way of life we have all so enjoyed the last twenty years.
The growth of the economy for the past decade or so was based on buying shit with money we didn't have. The phony money circulated through the economy and gave everyone a chance at a simulacrum of the good life. But now the money has stopped moving.
Everything we have built over the last twenty years is teetering on the edge of collapse. A stiff breeze and it will fall. Picking up the pieces will involve the labor of at least three generations.
So relax and watch the fall, this revolution will probably be televised. The ex-middle class and the poor will realize that the government has been pawning their children's livelihoods for one time payments to the current crop of wealthy. It will take a bit of time, but there will be blood on the streets.
I would strongly recommend keeping your head down and your mouth shut. Concentrate on the little things that will allow you and your loved ones to get to the other side of this mess. The next twenty years will decide the future of the American experiment.
So start figuring out your life and working out how to get by with less. Teach your children that the gilded age of the fin' de siecle and the first decade of the millennium were a mirage to be avoided.
Everyone knows that the credit party is over, and now they are learning to live within their means. This means paying off the debts and trying to work up a savings account.
Everyone is having an epiphany at the same time. Everyone is too deep in debt and now all of the sudden this revelation is hitting home. But the revelation means the death of the trashy, disposable, vulgar way of life we have all so enjoyed the last twenty years.
The growth of the economy for the past decade or so was based on buying shit with money we didn't have. The phony money circulated through the economy and gave everyone a chance at a simulacrum of the good life. But now the money has stopped moving.
Everything we have built over the last twenty years is teetering on the edge of collapse. A stiff breeze and it will fall. Picking up the pieces will involve the labor of at least three generations.
So relax and watch the fall, this revolution will probably be televised. The ex-middle class and the poor will realize that the government has been pawning their children's livelihoods for one time payments to the current crop of wealthy. It will take a bit of time, but there will be blood on the streets.
I would strongly recommend keeping your head down and your mouth shut. Concentrate on the little things that will allow you and your loved ones to get to the other side of this mess. The next twenty years will decide the future of the American experiment.
So start figuring out your life and working out how to get by with less. Teach your children that the gilded age of the fin' de siecle and the first decade of the millennium were a mirage to be avoided.
Monday, November 24, 2008
No, Bad Bank...Bad
So it looks like Citibank is in deep shit. That means we are in deep shit. Hold onto your hats folks, the ride is just starting.
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Cost Cutting, Blogs, and Journals
The times they are a changing. I think that the possibility of a major depression is now above 20%. In any book, that is a signicant possibility. Some folks will say that I am being a Pangloss, others will refer to me as a Cassandra. Such is the nature of blogging and out of your ass predictions.
So right now, with the possibility of a depression ahead of us, ruthless cost cutting will have to be the order of the day. By the very nature of that decision, if enough folks start doing just that, the chances of depression increase.
So I am looking hard at the blog and how will I continue doing it. The hard truth of it is that it is a bit of an affectation. I could do what I am doing in a 79-cent spiral notebook. But I do like the idea of other people reading this stuff. Makes me feel warm and fuzzy, keeps me putting things out there.
Google is almost a poster child of the totally irrational bubble that is now breaking. I remember the insane bidding for the seriously constrained shares in the IPO. I remember stock prices at >$720 a share. But what is it exactly that they do to have that kind of stock prices? Will their revenue stream be sufficient to continue funding/hosting this affectation? Will their business model of selling search hits to businesses selling unnecessary goods and services collapse? Bunch of problems facing this hobby.
So, I have to sit back and ponder the future of this. Any ideas would be welcome.
Why would you buy?
Why would anyone in their right mind buy a copy of Microsoft Office for a minimum of $245.00 when you can download this for free?
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Don't have a hernia here
Now, I recognize that a lot of the folks don't like BHO. I can live with that, I didn't vote for him either. But read this article here.
If a bunch of high priced thieves don't want to be on his cabinet because he actually has the temerity to ask if they or their family stole from folks, engaged in shady business practices, or bugger little boys in their off hours, how is this bad?
I had pretty high hopes for Bushie, but he and the group of thieves he brought to the trough have fucked us over royal. If BHO can keep that at a minimum, good on him.
The guy doesn't appear to be all bad. He still makes me nervous.
If a bunch of high priced thieves don't want to be on his cabinet because he actually has the temerity to ask if they or their family stole from folks, engaged in shady business practices, or bugger little boys in their off hours, how is this bad?
I had pretty high hopes for Bushie, but he and the group of thieves he brought to the trough have fucked us over royal. If BHO can keep that at a minimum, good on him.
The guy doesn't appear to be all bad. He still makes me nervous.
Friday, November 21, 2008
Believing our own con
I am sick of folks whining about how "we are hurting the poorer nations of the world by our misuse of the 'dollar hegemony'".
Eat me. We suckered a bunch of rubes and partied with their money. Excellent.
My only beef is that there is an decent chance that the soon-to-be-powers-that-be will get all guilty and try to help the oppressed. Shit.
I am also pissed at folks who didn't see the train coming and didn't save up. Instead we all bought wide-flat-hd TV's and started thinking that it was our right.
Well, the rubes have got it figured out that we suckered them and and getting testy.
Aren't you glad we have the nukes and the delivery systems? Maybe soon it will be time for a demonstration of just how nasty a group of bastards we really are.
Eat me. We suckered a bunch of rubes and partied with their money. Excellent.
My only beef is that there is an decent chance that the soon-to-be-powers-that-be will get all guilty and try to help the oppressed. Shit.
I am also pissed at folks who didn't see the train coming and didn't save up. Instead we all bought wide-flat-hd TV's and started thinking that it was our right.
Well, the rubes have got it figured out that we suckered them and and getting testy.
Aren't you glad we have the nukes and the delivery systems? Maybe soon it will be time for a demonstration of just how nasty a group of bastards we really are.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Footwear
I love my running shoes. They make my feet very happy.
But when you stand off and look at them, they are disposable, probably a net bad thing for the environment, made in other countries by serfs who are routinely and thoroughly screwed by the US companies and their own governments.
If the shit continues hitting the fan (please please make it stop), it may very well be that we will be looking at difficulties finding footwear. I think that it would be difficult to find sufficient American made shoes to keep the country humming.
So I am going to go looking for some good old-fashioned boots with sewn soles/lasts that can be resoled as many times as I need them.
Just a thought
But when you stand off and look at them, they are disposable, probably a net bad thing for the environment, made in other countries by serfs who are routinely and thoroughly screwed by the US companies and their own governments.
If the shit continues hitting the fan (please please make it stop), it may very well be that we will be looking at difficulties finding footwear. I think that it would be difficult to find sufficient American made shoes to keep the country humming.
So I am going to go looking for some good old-fashioned boots with sewn soles/lasts that can be resoled as many times as I need them.
Just a thought
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Warmer
The world is getting warmer over the past many years.
Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are rising over the past many years.
That is data my friend. Jack Webb would be proud. Just the facts.
Now, moving past those two currently disconnected facts.
There is something going on here. I don't like the way the data graphs point and I really want to understand what is happening.
Those that deny global warming and CO2 increases are meaningful are pretty unconvincing. Unfortunately, the folks who are screaming about this being the end of the world seem a touch on the histrionic side. I can't seem to be convinced by either camp.
One has a tendency in this country of erring on the side of caution. But where is the caution in this situation? In all truth, we are talking about deconstruction of the entire industrial world. Because behind all the smoke and mirrors of alternate energy sources and green energy is the 900 pound gorilla of massive lifestyle changes and huge population decreases to allow for sustainable structures.
The other side of this is continuing along the path we are on. If global warming is caused by anthropomorphic causes (read here: Us), then we are setting the world on a route to climate change and restiveness never seen before.
I think that a lot of the problems in this system is going to be addressed in the rudest possible way by fossil fuels becoming progressively more scarce. If we are truly at peak oil (data sure does appear to point that way) then CO2 release will probably decrease as we use less carbon sources. Unfortunately, this will effectively deconstruct industrial civilization too.
Our only hope is some smart guy somewhere thinks up a way out of this.
Cold fusion anyone?
Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are rising over the past many years.
That is data my friend. Jack Webb would be proud. Just the facts.
Now, moving past those two currently disconnected facts.
There is something going on here. I don't like the way the data graphs point and I really want to understand what is happening.
Those that deny global warming and CO2 increases are meaningful are pretty unconvincing. Unfortunately, the folks who are screaming about this being the end of the world seem a touch on the histrionic side. I can't seem to be convinced by either camp.
One has a tendency in this country of erring on the side of caution. But where is the caution in this situation? In all truth, we are talking about deconstruction of the entire industrial world. Because behind all the smoke and mirrors of alternate energy sources and green energy is the 900 pound gorilla of massive lifestyle changes and huge population decreases to allow for sustainable structures.
The other side of this is continuing along the path we are on. If global warming is caused by anthropomorphic causes (read here: Us), then we are setting the world on a route to climate change and restiveness never seen before.
I think that a lot of the problems in this system is going to be addressed in the rudest possible way by fossil fuels becoming progressively more scarce. If we are truly at peak oil (data sure does appear to point that way) then CO2 release will probably decrease as we use less carbon sources. Unfortunately, this will effectively deconstruct industrial civilization too.
Our only hope is some smart guy somewhere thinks up a way out of this.
Cold fusion anyone?
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Let it go man
At the end of the day, we have to let the car companies go bankrupt.
But Barak has some political payback to make. The decisions that he will make over these first couple of months will say a lot about the man.
The unions anointed Obama early and busted their butts to get him into the White House. The unions are also terrified that the big three will go bankrupt and throw all of their lard-laden contracts into the never-never land of chapter 11. But the union contracts are a large part what is killing the big three. The overpaid semi-skilled workers assembling the cars coupled with the incredible health benefits promised the retired workers are sucking the firms dry.
There are a lot of other things dragging the car companies down. Crappy model choices made by short-term thinking and greed, an archaic and parasitic dealer system with a set of business ethics would make a trial lawyer sick, overcapacity in a world growing short on oil.
So at the end of the day these sorry husks must change or die.
Bankruptcy would be a decent first step.
I wonder if Obama has the courage to let it happen.
But Barak has some political payback to make. The decisions that he will make over these first couple of months will say a lot about the man.
The unions anointed Obama early and busted their butts to get him into the White House. The unions are also terrified that the big three will go bankrupt and throw all of their lard-laden contracts into the never-never land of chapter 11. But the union contracts are a large part what is killing the big three. The overpaid semi-skilled workers assembling the cars coupled with the incredible health benefits promised the retired workers are sucking the firms dry.
There are a lot of other things dragging the car companies down. Crappy model choices made by short-term thinking and greed, an archaic and parasitic dealer system with a set of business ethics would make a trial lawyer sick, overcapacity in a world growing short on oil.
So at the end of the day these sorry husks must change or die.
Bankruptcy would be a decent first step.
I wonder if Obama has the courage to let it happen.
Monday, November 17, 2008
The agreements involved in voting
I didn't vote for Obama.
I have been appalled by the idiocy of the folks screaming for his head since he got elected. Some morons are even out claiming that we should rise up in insurrection to reclaim some mythical lost rights.
Here is how I see it. When you choose to walk into a voting booth, you agree to live with the results. By voting, you take part in a covenant that whether your chosen candidate wins or loses, you will live with the results of the election that you freely took part in.
Obama won a free and fair election.
If your candidate loses, you have four years to organize and kick him out. If you dislike the elected officials policies, you may use your free speech rights to attack those policies.
But by stating that you wish to take up arms and overthrow a president-elect who has not even taken the oath of office is nothing less than a statement that you no longer hold fast to the basic tenets of the constitution.
If you take up arms to overturn the results of a free and fair election, the technical description of the act is treason.
I have been appalled by the idiocy of the folks screaming for his head since he got elected. Some morons are even out claiming that we should rise up in insurrection to reclaim some mythical lost rights.
Here is how I see it. When you choose to walk into a voting booth, you agree to live with the results. By voting, you take part in a covenant that whether your chosen candidate wins or loses, you will live with the results of the election that you freely took part in.
Obama won a free and fair election.
If your candidate loses, you have four years to organize and kick him out. If you dislike the elected officials policies, you may use your free speech rights to attack those policies.
But by stating that you wish to take up arms and overthrow a president-elect who has not even taken the oath of office is nothing less than a statement that you no longer hold fast to the basic tenets of the constitution.
If you take up arms to overturn the results of a free and fair election, the technical description of the act is treason.
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Lowering the intensity
This is a brewing post. Nothing earth shaking, just talking about beer.
When you start looking at things in terms of inputs, you start realizing just how much energy and matériel we throw at every little thing. Mostly it is to make it easier, but a lot of the time it appears to be lack of thought or mindless rituals.
Take homebrewing. The way that it is practiced nowadays is as a hobby. Cost really is no issue for these guys. I have seen otherwise sane people spend thousands of dollars on equipment and supplies to make beer that is little better than what my Grandma made in a washpan.
You see, by making the brewing a ritual, it become an odd religion, with what you put into it the important part, not what you get out of it.
(OK: Maybe it isn't all about homebrewing)
What I want out of the process is beer. I also would like to cut my costs for the beer to the lowest level possible for an adequate beer (American Lagers need not apply). In order to do this, I started looking at the inputs for beer.
Malt: Get grains, they are cheaper by a long shot. They also leave the energy intensive processing and shipping at a minimum.
Hops: Grow your own if possible (mine keep dying damn-it), if you have to, buy hop plugs in bulk, vacuum seal them with oxygen scavengers and freeze them.
Water: I'll leave you to your own devices.
Yeast: Try to get two or three batches out of each package. If you plan ahead a little bit, this shouldn't be that much of an issue. I try to put my fresh wort into the "leavin's' from the last batch. I have only had one batch get infected and tossed in 10 years. Plus the fact if you do this, the beers you make take on their own and your character. Using fresh yeast every time leaves you making a variation on a theme dictated by the yeast manufacturer.
Other Stuff: Irish moss is good to keep around. Clears up your beers nicely. Also see if you can buy up a bunch of corn sugar and put it aside. I am considering buying a 50 pound bag and vacuum sealing it as preps. I would also strongly recommend buying and storing an iodophore for disinfecting crap. I use B-T-F from National Chemicals. This is good prep thing as it can be used for sterilizing medical stuff and cleaning wounds in the case of an emergency (Though the manufacturer would disavow any such irresponsible use)
Equipment: You need:
Energy: Now you are getting to the real point of the essay. Beer was made as something alcoholic to drink that could keep for a while without killing you. You boil the wort (which kills germs) with hops (which keep the bugs from growing). But if you look at temperature profiles for sterilization and heat extraction of hop oils, the process occurs above 180 F.
So What I am questioning is whether or not all the ritual of boiling and fretting and complication is really necessary or merely a ritual.
As an experiment, I filled up my pot 2/3 full of hot water from the tap. I dumped in 13 pounds of cracked malt. I turned the burner (electric) on 3 and brought the temp up through 105F to 170F. This took about two hours. During this time the grain went through all the temperatures required for the α-Amylase and β-amylase to do their voodoo. When the temp reached 170F, I took off the wort, left the spent grains out for the critters, cleaned the pot, and dumped the wort back into the pot.
I then put the temps on high, brought the stuff up to a boil, threw in the hops, tossed in a tablespoon of irish moss, and put the lid back on. I then put some aluminum foil around the little spigot on the bottom of the pot, put saran wrap around the pot to keep it from sucking air as it cooled, and turned to heat off.
I watched the pot cool as I was doing stuff. It took almost three hours to cool below 180F. So it would appear to me that the heat was more than sufficient for sterilization and hop extraction.
I left the pot on the stove overnight to cool (cooling down 5 gallons of boiling stuff takes a bit of time, it was still at 80F when I came down this morning).
I came down in the morning, took the foil off the spigot (When I was boiling, the foil-wrapped spigot stayed over the burner, I figure that it is quite sterile in there) and decanted the boiled wort into a disinfected carboy and cast the yeast.
I'll tell you how it tastes in a couple of months.
When you start looking at things in terms of inputs, you start realizing just how much energy and matériel we throw at every little thing. Mostly it is to make it easier, but a lot of the time it appears to be lack of thought or mindless rituals.
Take homebrewing. The way that it is practiced nowadays is as a hobby. Cost really is no issue for these guys. I have seen otherwise sane people spend thousands of dollars on equipment and supplies to make beer that is little better than what my Grandma made in a washpan.
You see, by making the brewing a ritual, it become an odd religion, with what you put into it the important part, not what you get out of it.
(OK: Maybe it isn't all about homebrewing)
What I want out of the process is beer. I also would like to cut my costs for the beer to the lowest level possible for an adequate beer (American Lagers need not apply). In order to do this, I started looking at the inputs for beer.
Malt: Get grains, they are cheaper by a long shot. They also leave the energy intensive processing and shipping at a minimum.
Hops: Grow your own if possible (mine keep dying damn-it), if you have to, buy hop plugs in bulk, vacuum seal them with oxygen scavengers and freeze them.
Water: I'll leave you to your own devices.
Yeast: Try to get two or three batches out of each package. If you plan ahead a little bit, this shouldn't be that much of an issue. I try to put my fresh wort into the "leavin's' from the last batch. I have only had one batch get infected and tossed in 10 years. Plus the fact if you do this, the beers you make take on their own and your character. Using fresh yeast every time leaves you making a variation on a theme dictated by the yeast manufacturer.
Other Stuff: Irish moss is good to keep around. Clears up your beers nicely. Also see if you can buy up a bunch of corn sugar and put it aside. I am considering buying a 50 pound bag and vacuum sealing it as preps. I would also strongly recommend buying and storing an iodophore for disinfecting crap. I use B-T-F from National Chemicals. This is good prep thing as it can be used for sterilizing medical stuff and cleaning wounds in the case of an emergency (Though the manufacturer would disavow any such irresponsible use)
Equipment: You need:
- big pot,
- a big funnel,
- a glass carboy,
- an airlock,
- a bucket
- a bottle capper,
- a bunch of caps
- a bunch of bottles
Energy: Now you are getting to the real point of the essay. Beer was made as something alcoholic to drink that could keep for a while without killing you. You boil the wort (which kills germs) with hops (which keep the bugs from growing). But if you look at temperature profiles for sterilization and heat extraction of hop oils, the process occurs above 180 F.
So What I am questioning is whether or not all the ritual of boiling and fretting and complication is really necessary or merely a ritual.
As an experiment, I filled up my pot 2/3 full of hot water from the tap. I dumped in 13 pounds of cracked malt. I turned the burner (electric) on 3 and brought the temp up through 105F to 170F. This took about two hours. During this time the grain went through all the temperatures required for the α-Amylase and β-amylase to do their voodoo. When the temp reached 170F, I took off the wort, left the spent grains out for the critters, cleaned the pot, and dumped the wort back into the pot.
I then put the temps on high, brought the stuff up to a boil, threw in the hops, tossed in a tablespoon of irish moss, and put the lid back on. I then put some aluminum foil around the little spigot on the bottom of the pot, put saran wrap around the pot to keep it from sucking air as it cooled, and turned to heat off.
I watched the pot cool as I was doing stuff. It took almost three hours to cool below 180F. So it would appear to me that the heat was more than sufficient for sterilization and hop extraction.
I left the pot on the stove overnight to cool (cooling down 5 gallons of boiling stuff takes a bit of time, it was still at 80F when I came down this morning).
I came down in the morning, took the foil off the spigot (When I was boiling, the foil-wrapped spigot stayed over the burner, I figure that it is quite sterile in there) and decanted the boiled wort into a disinfected carboy and cast the yeast.
I'll tell you how it tastes in a couple of months.
Saturday, November 15, 2008
A heavily modified vegetarian
I don't really have a great deal of respect for those who espouse vegetarianism as a moral choice and proselytize in a is manner fitting for a missionary. These kind of folks are religious fanatics, pure and simple.
What you eat is what you eat, an exercise in personal tastes and free will. Everyone who routinely reads my writing knows my unbounded love for pigggies.
Now, lets get to the point of this essay. I have been reading vegetarian cookbooks a lot lately. This out of self-defense and prepping needs, not from any moral conversion. The reasoning behind this exercise is that meat has always been and will always be a luxury item. Here in the USA we just had it good enough for a while that we could forget that inconvenient truth.
Vegetarians have been honing their skills at making vegetarian fare delicious. They have labored long and hard to figure out spices and recipes that really add a lot to the dishes that they cook. I very much enjoy a whole gamut of vegetarian recipes and they will let you have quite a bit of variety in the days of rice and salt that we all may be facing soon.
I don't spend a lot of time reading the moralizing crap that is on their websites, you might want to peruse it, but I pretty much find it insufferable. Go for their recipes. Lots of ideas here. Most of them are a lot better with a bit of salt pork to make the flavor come out.
Resources
http://www.ivu.org/recipes/index
http://www.vegetariansrecipes.org/
http://www.savvyvegetarian.com/vegetarian-recipes/index.php
http://www.recipezaar.com/recipes/vegetarian
What you eat is what you eat, an exercise in personal tastes and free will. Everyone who routinely reads my writing knows my unbounded love for pigggies.
Now, lets get to the point of this essay. I have been reading vegetarian cookbooks a lot lately. This out of self-defense and prepping needs, not from any moral conversion. The reasoning behind this exercise is that meat has always been and will always be a luxury item. Here in the USA we just had it good enough for a while that we could forget that inconvenient truth.
Vegetarians have been honing their skills at making vegetarian fare delicious. They have labored long and hard to figure out spices and recipes that really add a lot to the dishes that they cook. I very much enjoy a whole gamut of vegetarian recipes and they will let you have quite a bit of variety in the days of rice and salt that we all may be facing soon.
I don't spend a lot of time reading the moralizing crap that is on their websites, you might want to peruse it, but I pretty much find it insufferable. Go for their recipes. Lots of ideas here. Most of them are a lot better with a bit of salt pork to make the flavor come out.
Resources
http://www.ivu.org/recipes/index
http://www.vegetariansrecipes.org/
http://www.savvyvegetarian.com/vegetarian-recipes/index.php
http://www.recipezaar.com/recipes/vegetarian
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Culture
We have a society, one might even argue that it is a civilization. What we seem to missing is a culture.
I am thinking that we will be developing one soon.
I wonder what it will look like?
You see, civilization and societies are big old herkin' things, good for wandering around and beating up folks that don't agree with you. They throw up some damn impressive monuments and such.
What they don't seem to do is let people live with each other. We have stripped away the culture part of the US. We have allowed ourselves to become atomized with a false sense of independence. We now have to go trudging back the way we came to find a place of group psyche that will allows us interdependence.
This won't be easy. In a way, the prepper community reflects this. The atomized tend to be those who squirrel guns away and seem to be preparing for a continental scale "Gunfight at the OK corral". Those moving towards independence seem to concentrate more on building the social networks necessary for mutual support.
This whole process is a story that will be told over the next fifty years.
I wonder what if will look like?
I am thinking that we will be developing one soon.
I wonder what it will look like?
You see, civilization and societies are big old herkin' things, good for wandering around and beating up folks that don't agree with you. They throw up some damn impressive monuments and such.
What they don't seem to do is let people live with each other. We have stripped away the culture part of the US. We have allowed ourselves to become atomized with a false sense of independence. We now have to go trudging back the way we came to find a place of group psyche that will allows us interdependence.
This won't be easy. In a way, the prepper community reflects this. The atomized tend to be those who squirrel guns away and seem to be preparing for a continental scale "Gunfight at the OK corral". Those moving towards independence seem to concentrate more on building the social networks necessary for mutual support.
This whole process is a story that will be told over the next fifty years.
I wonder what if will look like?
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
What have we got to lose?
First Read This
Sad part is, That little weasel Reich might be right. But no one is going to like the results. Bushie left Obama a huge s*%$ sandwich and I hope that the poor sap doesn't choke on it.
If the guv'mint starts this kinda spending, the end result will be high inflation if it works (I can live with that) or hyperinflation if it doesn't (which would really suck). Doing nothing would mean a deflationary cycle like the depression and that would really suck.
So, unless I am completely off-base (which happens more frequently than I care to admit), what we are looking at is cranking up the printing presses and hoping for the best. It gives us a chance of getting through this time of suckage without an incredible amount of damage. It might not work and things will really suck, but if it isn't tried, things will really suck anyway.
Kind of reminds of the scene in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid when they were running from the law. The two of them were on a ledge above a raging river and Redford's character (Sundance) wanted to go back and fight rather than jump. When Newman asked why, Sundance said "Because I don't know how to swim". Newman's character (Butch Cassidy) just said "You crazy, the fall will probably kill ya."
Sad part is, That little weasel Reich might be right. But no one is going to like the results. Bushie left Obama a huge s*%$ sandwich and I hope that the poor sap doesn't choke on it.
If the guv'mint starts this kinda spending, the end result will be high inflation if it works (I can live with that) or hyperinflation if it doesn't (which would really suck). Doing nothing would mean a deflationary cycle like the depression and that would really suck.
So, unless I am completely off-base (which happens more frequently than I care to admit), what we are looking at is cranking up the printing presses and hoping for the best. It gives us a chance of getting through this time of suckage without an incredible amount of damage. It might not work and things will really suck, but if it isn't tried, things will really suck anyway.
Kind of reminds of the scene in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid when they were running from the law. The two of them were on a ledge above a raging river and Redford's character (Sundance) wanted to go back and fight rather than jump. When Newman asked why, Sundance said "Because I don't know how to swim". Newman's character (Butch Cassidy) just said "You crazy, the fall will probably kill ya."
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Just a reminder
I have no use for racism. I will not allow racist remarks to stay on my blog.
Comments are now censored (lets face it, that is what moderation is).
Jeez folks, breathe. Things are pretty messed up out there, but whacking out and going nut job is not going to help things.
Comments are now censored (lets face it, that is what moderation is).
Jeez folks, breathe. Things are pretty messed up out there, but whacking out and going nut job is not going to help things.
Good old days, Shortage, Scarcity, Absence
I was over visiting Riverwalker and he had a good post on beverages, which coincided nicely with a post I stuck up the other day on coffee.
But it got me to thinking about the strategy of food storage (which IMHO is the single most important part of your prepping plans). You will need to nursemaid stuff along, trying to take out of your supplies in a rational manner and replace them whenever possible. Sounds easy.
But you also have to think about the difference between the three terms in the title as we may well be seeing any or all of them in the near future.
The Good Old Days
Lots of stuff about, prices are low, obesity is a problem. Life is just dandy thank you very much.
This is when the core of your preps should be set up. Seven fat cows are a fine time.
Shortage:
This is the most normal of the three. In a way, we are seeing it now, the companies out there are cutting down on size of packages, raising prices, pulling all the little "marketing" (read here: Lying) tricks that they have gotten so skilled at in the past. The stuff is all there, but there is less of it or it costs more.
All this point really takes is the ability to accept a thinner wallet at the end of the pay period. It sucks, but overall you can live with it. Keep preppin' hard. Don't concern yourselves with dross like more guns and ammo, you will never have enough, and you sure as hell can't eat a gun safe full of guns. Your money should be going to food and stuff that will get you through the dark.
Scarcity:
This is moving further down the slope. The portions are still smaller, but they probably cost more. They also aren't always around. Stores will be out of the stuff and you may well have to go looking for stuff. This is where you will start dipping into preps to get you through until the stuff comes back. If this starts to occur, prepping will become quite a popular sport among the lumpen.
At this point you had better start polishing up your adaptability skills. Your wallet is going to be really thin at this point and should this occur, you might want to start using up savings to increase your supplies. Start watching burn rates here. Also start watching portion size and waste in a serious way. Learn to live cheap and squeeze everything you can out of what you have and make sure everyone starts getting to fighting trim
Absence:
Stuff ain't there. There might be stuff around, but it ain't the stuff you wanted. At this point you had better lower your standards and get whatever is available. You will be having a very varied diet at this point and you had better seriously hope your garden is doing well this year. Your preps will be disappearing at a way-too-rapid clip and you will become concerned if there will be enough to get you through.
At this point you will start losing weight in a serious way. Make sure it doesn't leave too quickly, that will weaken you. At this point you will have to make sure that you are healthy but losing weight along with everyone else. Make sure you use your preps in a manner that keeps you healthy but skinny. the last thing you want to be is looking sleek and well fed in a world of absence.
But it got me to thinking about the strategy of food storage (which IMHO is the single most important part of your prepping plans). You will need to nursemaid stuff along, trying to take out of your supplies in a rational manner and replace them whenever possible. Sounds easy.
But you also have to think about the difference between the three terms in the title as we may well be seeing any or all of them in the near future.
The Good Old Days
Lots of stuff about, prices are low, obesity is a problem. Life is just dandy thank you very much.
This is when the core of your preps should be set up. Seven fat cows are a fine time.
Shortage:
This is the most normal of the three. In a way, we are seeing it now, the companies out there are cutting down on size of packages, raising prices, pulling all the little "marketing" (read here: Lying) tricks that they have gotten so skilled at in the past. The stuff is all there, but there is less of it or it costs more.
All this point really takes is the ability to accept a thinner wallet at the end of the pay period. It sucks, but overall you can live with it. Keep preppin' hard. Don't concern yourselves with dross like more guns and ammo, you will never have enough, and you sure as hell can't eat a gun safe full of guns. Your money should be going to food and stuff that will get you through the dark.
Scarcity:
This is moving further down the slope. The portions are still smaller, but they probably cost more. They also aren't always around. Stores will be out of the stuff and you may well have to go looking for stuff. This is where you will start dipping into preps to get you through until the stuff comes back. If this starts to occur, prepping will become quite a popular sport among the lumpen.
At this point you had better start polishing up your adaptability skills. Your wallet is going to be really thin at this point and should this occur, you might want to start using up savings to increase your supplies. Start watching burn rates here. Also start watching portion size and waste in a serious way. Learn to live cheap and squeeze everything you can out of what you have and make sure everyone starts getting to fighting trim
Absence:
Stuff ain't there. There might be stuff around, but it ain't the stuff you wanted. At this point you had better lower your standards and get whatever is available. You will be having a very varied diet at this point and you had better seriously hope your garden is doing well this year. Your preps will be disappearing at a way-too-rapid clip and you will become concerned if there will be enough to get you through.
At this point you will start losing weight in a serious way. Make sure it doesn't leave too quickly, that will weaken you. At this point you will have to make sure that you are healthy but losing weight along with everyone else. Make sure you use your preps in a manner that keeps you healthy but skinny. the last thing you want to be is looking sleek and well fed in a world of absence.
Monday, November 10, 2008
I would ask you
I would ask you to examine your fears. Which of them are rational and which of them are just deeply ingrained Pavlovian responses.
I read a book a long time ago called the Illuminatus Trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson. At the time I probably smoked more dope than I should have and spent too much time inhaling (as Barak sez, it was the whole point). But to this day there was a passage that gripped me. One of the characters spent the first couple of minutes analyzing folks he met then when he figured out what type of person that character was, he would hand that character one of two cards.
You have an impact in this world. But unless you can clearly identify what are the threats and what actions are available to you, you will not survive.
Calm down folks. Take a big breath, grab a beer, sit on the front porch, and think.
I read a book a long time ago called the Illuminatus Trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson. At the time I probably smoked more dope than I should have and spent too much time inhaling (as Barak sez, it was the whole point). But to this day there was a passage that gripped me. One of the characters spent the first couple of minutes analyzing folks he met then when he figured out what type of person that character was, he would hand that character one of two cards.
- The first said "There is no friend anywhere."
- The second said, "There is no enemy anywhere."
You have an impact in this world. But unless you can clearly identify what are the threats and what actions are available to you, you will not survive.
Calm down folks. Take a big breath, grab a beer, sit on the front porch, and think.
What are the facts? Again and again and again what are the facts?
Shun wishful thinking, ignore divine revelation, forget what "the stars foretell," avoid opinion, care not what the neighbors think, never mind the "unguessable verdict of history"—what are the facts, and to how many decimal places? You pilot always into an unknown future, facts are your single clue. Get the facts!
Robert Heinlein
The Notebooks of Lazarus Long
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Simply Put
I wonder how much of the current talk in the tin foil hat crowd about the negative aspects of the Obama Presidency stems from genuine concern about the future of the Republic and how much stems from simple bigotry?
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Just another unpaid plug for these guys. I love giving them money.
Plus, check this out.....Storage Coffee
Capitalism
You know, it just doesn't appear to work all that well.
At then end of the day, a system needs to be able to be as self sustaining as possible. Capitalism has never been that. Capitalism is ultimately bound up in getting as much for yourself as possible and screw the rest of them. Capitalism is a system that takes in more than it puts back. We just now started noticing.
What I find really surprising is how here in America capitalism has somehow bound itself to fundamentalist Christianity. Now that took quite a bit of eye-closing and looking the other way. If the New Testament had anything kind to say about the endless acquisition of wealth and personal aggrandizement that passes for American neocon capitalism, I will go out on a limb and tell you that what it said was not flattering and did not serve as a road map to heaven.
Even more surprising is the equation that makes economic success and personal freedom one and the same. The bill of rights outlines a lot of things, but the right for an individual or corporation to grow obscenely rich at other peoples expense is not there.
Cuz you see, like it or no, we have spend the last hundred or so years building up a house that seems to made on a slippery, shifting mix of bastardized ethics. We started with the rail barons and the Standard Oil Trust and ended up here.
Unlike a lot of folks here in Tin-Foil hat land, I am not really all that concerned about the US Government trying to oppress me. I consider the idea of the UN trying to oppress me laughable.
What I am concerned about is the capitalists. The Banks would have no trouble instituting Eupatridae right here in the USA. In my honest opinion, George Bush was the moral and political equivalent of Alciebades and the big banks and brokerage houses serve as the modern 400.
So, I say screw the banks, screw the stockbrokers, hell, even screw the big companies. If we are going to be truly free, we have to break their hold on us. But you have to remember, you will be free, but you will have a lot less stuff.
At then end of the day, a system needs to be able to be as self sustaining as possible. Capitalism has never been that. Capitalism is ultimately bound up in getting as much for yourself as possible and screw the rest of them. Capitalism is a system that takes in more than it puts back. We just now started noticing.
What I find really surprising is how here in America capitalism has somehow bound itself to fundamentalist Christianity. Now that took quite a bit of eye-closing and looking the other way. If the New Testament had anything kind to say about the endless acquisition of wealth and personal aggrandizement that passes for American neocon capitalism, I will go out on a limb and tell you that what it said was not flattering and did not serve as a road map to heaven.
Even more surprising is the equation that makes economic success and personal freedom one and the same. The bill of rights outlines a lot of things, but the right for an individual or corporation to grow obscenely rich at other peoples expense is not there.
Cuz you see, like it or no, we have spend the last hundred or so years building up a house that seems to made on a slippery, shifting mix of bastardized ethics. We started with the rail barons and the Standard Oil Trust and ended up here.
Unlike a lot of folks here in Tin-Foil hat land, I am not really all that concerned about the US Government trying to oppress me. I consider the idea of the UN trying to oppress me laughable.
What I am concerned about is the capitalists. The Banks would have no trouble instituting Eupatridae right here in the USA. In my honest opinion, George Bush was the moral and political equivalent of Alciebades and the big banks and brokerage houses serve as the modern 400.
So, I say screw the banks, screw the stockbrokers, hell, even screw the big companies. If we are going to be truly free, we have to break their hold on us. But you have to remember, you will be free, but you will have a lot less stuff.
Friday, November 7, 2008
Preppers Thanksgiving
I'm thinking about a prepper's thanksgiving.
Since I have been gutting pumpkins and harvesting taters lately, I have it in my head that thanksgiving should be centered around the stuff that I have salted away
Gotta use it sometimes, and holidays are as real a part of life as the workaday world.
Any ideas on menus and recipes that you folks have would be greatly appreciated.
Since I have been gutting pumpkins and harvesting taters lately, I have it in my head that thanksgiving should be centered around the stuff that I have salted away
Gotta use it sometimes, and holidays are as real a part of life as the workaday world.
Any ideas on menus and recipes that you folks have would be greatly appreciated.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Hear no Evil
Had a brief (very brief) discussion with my coworkers at the Fed Gov ranch. I made the mistake of saying that folks in the government had better look at what has happened in the past and make allowances for what will probably happen in the future.
The way that I see it, if one uses past situations as a template, whenever the government gets in over it's head financially, the following occurs:
The consensus was that I was mad, no one wanted to believe for a minute that they, invulnerable Fed employees, would ever be subjected to such treatment.
I won't ever mention again that fed workers are constrained by the same laws of economics as the rest of the world. It would appear that such talk is simply in bad taste.
The way that I see it, if one uses past situations as a template, whenever the government gets in over it's head financially, the following occurs:
- Step 1: Hiring Freeze. This usually occurs about 1 year after the government realizes that it screwed up..So this should be happening around fourth quarter 2009.
- Step 2: A year of flailing around fruitlessly, at the end of which they offer early out retirements to reduce headcount. Lets say around first of the year 2011.
- Step 3: A year or so of threatened reductions in force (RIF) to send the weak scurrying for the exits, followed by RIF at the end of the year. So in this timeline the government will be laying off beginning 2012.
The consensus was that I was mad, no one wanted to believe for a minute that they, invulnerable Fed employees, would ever be subjected to such treatment.
I won't ever mention again that fed workers are constrained by the same laws of economics as the rest of the world. It would appear that such talk is simply in bad taste.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Pumpkins
Mostly we look at them as jack o' lanterns,
But pumpkins are easy to grow, provide a lot of good stuff for the table, and give us something to do on Walpurgisnacht.
Today I am cooking down jack o' lanterns for pie fixins. Thanksgiving and holidays are coming up soon.
Below you will find my pumpkin pie recipe. Now before you get your tits in a twist, remember, this is a HOLIDAY recipe. You are allowed to save up and be decadent on the holidays. Matter of fact, by pinching pennies all year, it makes the holiday feast that much more special....so live cheap during the rest of the year and live it up during the holidays
2 cups cooked/mashed pumpkin
6 eggs
2 cups heavy cream
1/4 teaspoon salt
2/3 cups sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 cup grated fresh ginger
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 cup dark rum
Fill a pie shell with aluminum foil and beans and bake for 12 minutes in a 425 F. oven. Take the beans and foil out and start soaking the beans for turkey chili.
Thoroughly mix all the ingredient together with a whisk. Pour the stuff into the baked pie crust and bake at 375 F. until the custard is set the way you like it.
Monday, November 3, 2008
Now don't start yelling
So I guess that I look at things a little differently than a lot of folks on the prepper circuit. That's OK, as a matter of fact it is preferable.
So, now I think that screaming at the commies at this point is kinda odd.
Now, my father and I were serious, no-holds barred cold-warriors. But we never thought for a moment that we were fighting the commies. We were fighting the Russians. Yeah, the Chinese were there too, but at that time the only thing that they could do was field a whole shit-pot of poorly trained and equipped troops.
The Russians were our competition in the empire game. Just like they were the competition for the British in the Great Game and the Carthaginian, Parthian, and the Sassanid Empires were the competition for the Romans.
The fact that the Soviets used a different economic system really didn't have all that much to do with it. The Russian's have been trying to figure out economics since the Battle of Batu Khan and have thus far been astoundingly unsuccessful. It isn't surprising to me that they would fuck up communism. After all, they fucked up everything else.
You see, my take on it is, there are two types of people in the world: Folks who want to tell other people what to do and folks who want to be left alone. The people who are screaming about commies have missed the point.
George W has been as bad for the country as the most liberal president we ever had, probably worse. The Republican Party has allowed itself to degenerate into a group of shills for big business instead of being the Party of Lincoln. They have put in place the biggest assault on the constitution ever made, and yet folks are worried about the commies?
So, what the hell, lets say that the next president does have Marxist leanings. Can that be any worse than the damage done to the country by W and the big corporations?
So, now I think that screaming at the commies at this point is kinda odd.
Now, my father and I were serious, no-holds barred cold-warriors. But we never thought for a moment that we were fighting the commies. We were fighting the Russians. Yeah, the Chinese were there too, but at that time the only thing that they could do was field a whole shit-pot of poorly trained and equipped troops.
The Russians were our competition in the empire game. Just like they were the competition for the British in the Great Game and the Carthaginian, Parthian, and the Sassanid Empires were the competition for the Romans.
The fact that the Soviets used a different economic system really didn't have all that much to do with it. The Russian's have been trying to figure out economics since the Battle of Batu Khan and have thus far been astoundingly unsuccessful. It isn't surprising to me that they would fuck up communism. After all, they fucked up everything else.
You see, my take on it is, there are two types of people in the world: Folks who want to tell other people what to do and folks who want to be left alone. The people who are screaming about commies have missed the point.
George W has been as bad for the country as the most liberal president we ever had, probably worse. The Republican Party has allowed itself to degenerate into a group of shills for big business instead of being the Party of Lincoln. They have put in place the biggest assault on the constitution ever made, and yet folks are worried about the commies?
So, what the hell, lets say that the next president does have Marxist leanings. Can that be any worse than the damage done to the country by W and the big corporations?
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Baking Versus Breadmakers
Baking bread is a good thing to do if you are trying to squeeze nickels. The other day I heard some neo-luddite stand up on his high horse and explain in all seriousness how buying a bread maker was just another way for us fat/lazy Americans to purchase needless stuff.
His point was that the idea of baking should return to the ideal of spending a afternoon mixing and kneading and dicking around with the oven for the pure and simple joy of eating a slice of your own bread.
What a crock of shit.
Look folks, part of being a prepper is to try to look past the myths and the petty romances that folks place upon their actions. This tendency to place romantic notions on trivial isuses permeates your life in a gazillion different ways.
Making a loaf of bread is not in itself a noble task, but is a skill folks should know. What you want out of the process is a loaf of bread, not a affirmation of your kum bay ya-ness.
So, my reasons for using my breadmaker are threefold.
His point was that the idea of baking should return to the ideal of spending a afternoon mixing and kneading and dicking around with the oven for the pure and simple joy of eating a slice of your own bread.
What a crock of shit.
Look folks, part of being a prepper is to try to look past the myths and the petty romances that folks place upon their actions. This tendency to place romantic notions on trivial isuses permeates your life in a gazillion different ways.
Making a loaf of bread is not in itself a noble task, but is a skill folks should know. What you want out of the process is a loaf of bread, not a affirmation of your kum bay ya-ness.
So, my reasons for using my breadmaker are threefold.
- It is easier, you dump the ingredients in, hit the button, and in a couple of hours, you have a pretty dang good loaf of bread.
- Uses a lot less electricity than firing up my oven.
- Doesn't heat up the house in the summer.
- If the electricity is out, you are outta luck. (unless you are a super cool prepper (like me) who has one of these babies down the basement).
- The French Bread sucks.
- In the winter you don't mind heating up the kitchen.
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Practicing Soups
Living at a reduced burn rate like I am, making food dollars stretch is imperative.
Hence soups.
The years of livin' large has gotten us spoiled. We want to see a large hunk of meat sitting on our plate with a token amount of vegetables. We then consume it in one sitting, then go sit in front of the television in a satiated torpor, kind of like a meat-drunk wolf.
Well, having performed the aforementioned countless times, it is with a tear and a sigh of regret that I bid it goodbye (except for holidays). Gotta buckle down and live lean. That means meat is a treat and most meals are going to be the same kind of stuff that my Nonno and Nonna used to eat. Soups and bread, polenta and cabbage, thin slices of cured meat, some dried fish, pasta.
It isn't going to be a burden. You just have to stop thinking that you are "too busy" to do a little cooking for yourself and your family. Folks, the cold reality is, you are going to be doing with a lot less money soon, so all the inconsequential shit you have been cramming into your days are going to fade with the contents of your wallets and the imaginary value of your homes.
So today is vegetable soup. I went out and stocked up on some smaller cans of the dehydrated vegetables at Healthy Harvest (these are great folks). I started this last week and have come up with a good basic recipe.
Po' Prepper Soup
First thing in the morning, bring about 2 quarts of water to a boil and dump in the following:
When you get back from work, cube up a half a pound or so of cheap meat. Fry up a good handful of salt pork or bacon to get some fat, and brown the meat in the fat from the salt pork/bacon. When it is brown, add oregano, basil, sage, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes and about 2 tablespoons of flour to the cooked meat and brown for another couple of minutes.
Dump the meat into the now-rehydrated vegetables from the morning and turn on the stove to low. Cook the soup for a couple hours and do the rest of your chores. Now is a good time to bake some bread.
-end-
Hence soups.
The years of livin' large has gotten us spoiled. We want to see a large hunk of meat sitting on our plate with a token amount of vegetables. We then consume it in one sitting, then go sit in front of the television in a satiated torpor, kind of like a meat-drunk wolf.
Well, having performed the aforementioned countless times, it is with a tear and a sigh of regret that I bid it goodbye (except for holidays). Gotta buckle down and live lean. That means meat is a treat and most meals are going to be the same kind of stuff that my Nonno and Nonna used to eat. Soups and bread, polenta and cabbage, thin slices of cured meat, some dried fish, pasta.
It isn't going to be a burden. You just have to stop thinking that you are "too busy" to do a little cooking for yourself and your family. Folks, the cold reality is, you are going to be doing with a lot less money soon, so all the inconsequential shit you have been cramming into your days are going to fade with the contents of your wallets and the imaginary value of your homes.
So today is vegetable soup. I went out and stocked up on some smaller cans of the dehydrated vegetables at Healthy Harvest (these are great folks). I started this last week and have come up with a good basic recipe.
Po' Prepper Soup
First thing in the morning, bring about 2 quarts of water to a boil and dump in the following:
- handful of dried peas
- handful of dried corn
- handful of dried potato dices
- handful of dried carrots
- half a handful of dried onions
- handful of dried mushrooms
- half a handful of dried peppers
- handful of beans
- some boullion or dried soup mix
When you get back from work, cube up a half a pound or so of cheap meat. Fry up a good handful of salt pork or bacon to get some fat, and brown the meat in the fat from the salt pork/bacon. When it is brown, add oregano, basil, sage, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes and about 2 tablespoons of flour to the cooked meat and brown for another couple of minutes.
Dump the meat into the now-rehydrated vegetables from the morning and turn on the stove to low. Cook the soup for a couple hours and do the rest of your chores. Now is a good time to bake some bread.
-end-
Friday, October 31, 2008
This is going to piss some folks off
I have been coming to the conclusion that a great deal of our problems stem from the fact that we have becoming increasingly a Democracy and less and less a Representative Republic.
It is apparent to me that the founding fathers did not think much of the idea of establishing a full democracy to run the country. They appeared to spend quite a bit of effort in the idea of removing the governing bodies from the direct control of the populace. Worked for quite a while too.
Let's look at the original constitution.
Folk, don't get pissed at me here, I'm just asking you to think about it. The definition of average IQ is 100. That means that 50% of the population is <100. We give those folks the vote.
My feeling is that the framers of the constitution had this in mind when they wrote the thing.
Have a happy election day.
It is apparent to me that the founding fathers did not think much of the idea of establishing a full democracy to run the country. They appeared to spend quite a bit of effort in the idea of removing the governing bodies from the direct control of the populace. Worked for quite a while too.
Let's look at the original constitution.
- Executive branch elected by the electoral college, not the direct vote (Still in effect, much to Al Gore's chagrin).
- Senate appointed by the state legislatures, not the direct vote (Changed to direct election in 1913, which was also the same year that gave us the federal reserve bank).
- Supreme Court appointed by the President (not directly elected) and confirmed by the Senate (not directly elected).
- The House of Representatives was the only branch of government that was to be directly elected. This was also coupled with the shortest term.
- Even consider the concept of Initiatives. It is my firm belief that the concept would have caused the framers to shudder. There is no provision for direct initiatives in the Articles of Confederation, any of the original State Constitutions, or in the Constitution.
Folk, don't get pissed at me here, I'm just asking you to think about it. The definition of average IQ is 100. That means that 50% of the population is <100. We give those folks the vote.
My feeling is that the framers of the constitution had this in mind when they wrote the thing.
Have a happy election day.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Part of Something
The past couple of days sitting on the porch and watching the world go by has got me to thinking about myths and societal goals.
We are pretty empty here. Somehow in the past thirty or so years, the myth in the US has somehow been reduced to living large in economic terms , a stagnant belief in American exceptionalism, and an strong conviction that "It can't possibly happen to us". In a way, preppers seem to know this.
Not that we are smarter, or better looking, or more spiritual. Instead, I think that we merely have sensed this lack of a common purpose that defines a working society and our gut instincts tell us that things are going to go tragically wrong. So prepping is a means for us to bridge the gap into where we are going next. In our prepping, we all realize that when things have gotten to where they are heading, we won't be back in the good old days of plenty, instead, we will be in a different place entirely.
While I was woolgathering on the back porch for the last couple of days, I tried to imagine the directions that we would move as a society. None of them looked all that tasty. None of them came to fruit in my lifetime as they all required a bunch of societal changes that wouldn't go down easy. All of them required the bulk of the American population to grow into being adults and that is not going to go over very well.
Prepping necessarily involves a focus on stuff. Dried beans, ammo, firestarters, fuel and the like are firmly in the "stuff" category. I would tell you all to keep plowing ahead on that facet of the project. You also need to start figuring out a new way of doing things and a new set of societal myths. Because we ain't going back.
We are pretty empty here. Somehow in the past thirty or so years, the myth in the US has somehow been reduced to living large in economic terms , a stagnant belief in American exceptionalism, and an strong conviction that "It can't possibly happen to us". In a way, preppers seem to know this.
Not that we are smarter, or better looking, or more spiritual. Instead, I think that we merely have sensed this lack of a common purpose that defines a working society and our gut instincts tell us that things are going to go tragically wrong. So prepping is a means for us to bridge the gap into where we are going next. In our prepping, we all realize that when things have gotten to where they are heading, we won't be back in the good old days of plenty, instead, we will be in a different place entirely.
While I was woolgathering on the back porch for the last couple of days, I tried to imagine the directions that we would move as a society. None of them looked all that tasty. None of them came to fruit in my lifetime as they all required a bunch of societal changes that wouldn't go down easy. All of them required the bulk of the American population to grow into being adults and that is not going to go over very well.
Prepping necessarily involves a focus on stuff. Dried beans, ammo, firestarters, fuel and the like are firmly in the "stuff" category. I would tell you all to keep plowing ahead on that facet of the project. You also need to start figuring out a new way of doing things and a new set of societal myths. Because we ain't going back.
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