08:10 – Happy Guy Fawkes Eve. Too bad we don’t have someone to plant explosives under our House of Lords.
Barbara is out for most of the day running errands. I’m working on the prepping book.
Wednesday, 4 November 2015
69 Comments and discussion on "Wednesday, 4 November 2015"
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“Too bad we don’t have someone to plant explosives under our House of Lords.”
They’d just be replaced by another set of Lords. The whole system needs a complete overhaul; I’d eliminate the Senate entirely. Of course they’re not gonna go quietly. Anyway, the Empire is gonna break up sooner or later; it’s way too big and it’s unsustainable.
Another fine fall day and OFD is out on the yard cleaning up and organizing while the getting is good. Supposed to hit 58 today and low 60s through Friday; Sunday it will turn back to “normal.” I’m trying to get all the outside stuff done so I can then spend the weekend on the inside issues.
Here’s a pretty decent summary of the various major issues in this country that are not gonna be addressed or dealt with anytime soon by our political “leadership”:
https://www.rutherford.org/publications_resources/john_whiteheads_commentary/the_real_issues_you_wont_hear_from_the_2016_presidential_candidates_th
His “solution” is kinda vague but it appears to involve some sort of nonviolent “resistance” and probably also elections and voting, all things which have seen their day here and won’t work any longer. And he didn’t mention the crumbling infrastructure and vulnerable Grid or the potential for major disease outbreaks, etc., or the State’s crummy response to major natural disasters and the potential for various acts of terrorism.
I repeat: the Empire is way too big and outta control; eventually it’s gonna fall apart, either slowly and relatively peacefully, or not. Probably not.
Well, I guess we’re part of the zeitgeist.
The last 3 sentences are good for a laugh.
nick
He also doesn’t mention the biggest issue as far as I’m concerned: attempts to disarm citizens. The right to keep and bear military-class arms is fundamental to a free society. That means that any attempts to limit the type or number of firearms that can be owned and freely carried *anywhere* by any citizen inevitably foreshadows still more attempts to eliminate our rights. That’s why I support the 2nd Amendment without limitation. As far as I’m concerned, *any* citizen has the right to own and carry *any* weapon, anywhere, any time. I don’t care if the government calls you a wife-beater or a terrorist. If you’re a citizen, you have the right to keep and bear any arms you wish. If you can afford it and you want to buy an aircraft carrier or a tactical nuke, that is your absolute right. Any attempt whatsoever by the government to restrict that right is one step closer to tyranny.
Ayup. To prepare for a catastrophic grid-down event, that article recommends stocking up with a 3-day supply of food. Geez.
“… that article recommends stocking up with a 3-day supply of food. Geez.”
Probably with the ludicrous assumption that government will quickly step in to control the situation.
“I don’t care if the government calls you a wife-beater or a terrorist. If you’re a citizen, you have the right to keep and bear any arms you wish.”
You are what the gun cognoscenti describe as a Second Amendment absolutist, which is my belief, also; but what if the government calls you mentally disabled or decides that your relying on someone else to handle your financial matters is indicative of such? (obviously if you signed up for military service and then experienced combat and came back messed up, a natural human response to that sorta thing normally, you must be off-kilter, and now because you have trouble filling out the endless forms and have your wife doing it you’re mentally unfit to carry the same sort of weapon those buggers had you carrying in one of their endless unsuccessful foreign clusterfucks???)
Perfect example of normalcy bias, and head in sand.
In the exact same article–
“which could wipe out power across the world for months.”
“the effects would be devastating.”
“bringing an end to modern civilization as we know it”
“power outages after an extreme solar storm could last months or even longer”
“This is a real and present danger, this is a real threat,'”
so what are they worried about?
“train networks and shipping”
“a fall in oil production”
and what’s their advice?
“enough fresh water, food and medication to last for the first 72 hours.”
and again–
“With scientists predicting a 12 per cent chance that one could hit by 2022”
“This is a real and present danger, this is a real threat,'”
But only an “EXTREME DOOMSDAY PREPPER” would “put aside several years worth of food, water and medication and have even invested their money in gold rather than banks.” despite “cellphones, credit cards and the internet [would be] rendered useless.”
So, better than one in ten chance of ending civilization as we know it in the next 6 years, and their advice is ’72 HOURS of food and water’ because anything else is ‘extreme.’
If you are reading this, and you think you will be helped by people like this, or that .gov has a handle on things, you will DIE if this happens. Your loved ones will DIE.
Take responsibility for your life and your safety. GET PREPPED. If you haven’t started, START. Anything is better than nothing. Or watch your kids starve.
nick
So, y’all down there in Houston Tejas have shown those radicals runnin’ the city who’s boss. Yer just a bunch of redneck bigots refusin’ rights to all them minorities and the sexually confused. Congratulations.
Yup, giddyup.
n
It isn’t just ordinary, garden-variety normalcy bias. It’s also naked terror and a sense of complete helplessness. When I first mentioned to Barbara the threat of truly scary things like a pandemic virus or an EMP/CME, and that the probability of something like that happening within our lifetimes was frighteningly high, she said in all seriousness that if something like that did happen she wouldn’t want to go on living.
When people like us talk about preparing to deal with a catastrophic event, we do so in the knowledge that everything we can do might boost our chances of surviving from 10% to maybe 15%. Yes, we’re probably going to die despite our efforts to prepare, but we consider it worthwhile to take actions that might double the low probability of survival. Most people don’t look at it that way. They look at it as “what’s the point of even trying, since we’re all going to die anyway?”.
Which is why I haven’t really made any effort to convince Barbara of the need to prepare. She’s perfectly happy to prepare against social unrest, which is after all the most likely danger. I am going to try to get her to read Koppel’s book as just one more tiny step on the journey.
People say that, and there is historical precedent that shows them marching into captivity, telling themselves is isn’t death…
But, I think a lot of those people are going to find that they want to live after all. And then they will regret not making preparations. Kind of like the people who don’t prep for retirement, and find themselves homebound, eating cat food and rice, because they are broke and their social support system is broken too.
Or we could all be wrong, succumbing to mania, and nothing bad happens.
Personally, I’m convinced that since it HAS HAPPENED it can surely happen again. That’s why I don’t prep for alien invasion, but I do prep for natural disasters, economic collapse, social unrest, long term depression, pandemic, civil war, rise of tyrannical government, and technological disaster. Fortunately, the core preps for those things are the same, and they are easily extendable to the others.
I also recognize that the TIMING of those things is unpredictable, and predictions of impending doom are usually wrong. That’s why I try not to make irrevocable choices, and I’m not stocking power-aid or additives.
nick
I reserve judgement on the weighting to give those possible events.
n
Well, just as one example, I’m the only prepper I know that has a comprehensive set of radiation survey meters and dosimeters. I’m sure there must be others, but I haven’t run into any of them, or at least not since the last iteration of prepping back in the late 70’s.
“… everything we can do might boost our chances of surviving from 10% to maybe 15%. Yes, we’re probably going to die despite our efforts to prepare…”
Hey, thanks for that ray of sunshine this morning, kemosabe! lol.
Yeah, I figure we’ll do what we can here as best we can given our circumstances and otherwise let the chips fall where they may. We have SOME idea of the possibilities and potentials, but what actually takes place is beyond our ken, and we just hope and pray it ain’t gonna be as bad as we think it might be. The political leadership, in de facto collusion with the populace, prefers to keep kicking those various cans down the road, I guess. So again, as long as the juice stays on and we have our tee-vee, net, and taken-for-granted basic necessities of human life in 21st-C North Murka, we’re good to go.
At some point, though, various chickens are gonna come home to roost, and then we’ll see.
I’m counting on FEMA to save me. lol! They’ll issue Faraday protected “trailers” for an emp/cme, but after it actually happens. lol! Why stock more than 3 days of food when FEMA will fill all my needs for years. lol!
I’ve got 3 sets of these, and I’m looking to sell two….
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Civil-Defense-Survival-Radiological-Survey-Meter-Victoreen-Radiation-Detection-/361321939559?hash=item5420774267:g:yTIAAOSw~ZdVfywK
nick
Darwin award candidate, flagrant violator of the rules, dead man.
Man, 25, shoots and kills himself while driving after playing with a gun he didn’t think was loaded
Chadd R Harrison, 25, was driving with two friends when the gun went off
Was messing around with it in Aurora, Illinois, when the incident unfolded
He was taken to hospital but died a short time later
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3303808/Man-25-shoots-kills-driving-playing-gun-didn-t-think-loaded.html
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
nick
“I’ve got 3 sets of these, and I’m looking to sell two….”
Which model? Earlier ones used batteries that are no longer available. Those sell for very low prices. The ones you want take regular D-cells.
I’m kinda wondering about the justification for citizens owning nukes. Who/what would citizens use them against?
“I’m counting on FEMA to save me.”
Yeah, they did such a swell job after Katrina.
They’re probably pretty good at pre-siting many thousands of 3-4-corpses-per-casket prefab coffins around the country, though. Or hundreds of CONEX containers holding millions of rounds of .40, 9mm and 5.56.
Hell, that 72 hours of food thing really cracks me up; we have to have quite a bit more than that stored up here just in case of the occasional ice storm and/or blizzard in the winters. We have about eight weeks currently and I’m working to get that up to 24 weeks of a typical northern winter with no juice. I’m hoping we actually really get five to six years to get our chit together, and then I find on this morning’s board that even with that, we’re ALL GONNA DIE ANYWAY!!!
The point is that allowing the government to place any restrictions at all on what type of weapons are acceptable opens the door to them deciding any firearm is unacceptable. I seriously doubt that any citizen could obtain (or afford) a personal nuke, but if they did the intended use would be the same as any other weapon: against a tyrannical government. That’s what the 2nd Amendment is for.
“Who/what would citizens use them against?”
Mordor.
Babylon-on-the-Hudson.
SF.
Hollyweird.
Tiny Town. (after Mr. Chuck evacuates, of course)
“we’re ALL GONNA DIE ANYWAY!!!”
I never claimed that. What I did say is that we’re ALMOST ALL going to die if there’s a catastrophic event. It’s worth a lot of time and effort to me to help make sure we’re in the ALMOST part.
It doesn’t matter if you die or if I die. We get enough people with a 10% chance of survival and we’ll have enough people to allow the race to survive. It’s survival of the species, boys & girls, and that trumps them all.
I want to live. Barring that, I want my children to live. And their children. And my neighbors. And my species. But ultimately, if one breeding pair survives what comes and repopulates, it’s a success.
“I never claimed that.”
I know. I simply exercised hyperbole in the interests of poetic license and amusement.
Depending on the event/s, we may well ALL die. But that is unlikely. Worse chit has happened and homo sapiens sapiens is still here.
There is a limit, however, to how much time and money we’re willing to spend to get from a 10% chance to 15%. We’re in our early 60s and our children and my siblings and their children are fah away. We’ve got a house (owned by the mortgage finance company) in a village that’s part of a small town in what is still a rural state on a large body of fresh water surrounded by extensive flat and fertile farmland very near an international border. Our sole available bug-out location is a twelve-hour drive to our northeast, but we fully intend to go out of this place feet-first. It would be nice if it doesn’t turn out to be a constant battle of survival 7×24 for our last decade or two on the planet, but we’ll do what we can.
Exactly.
I’m pleased that it looks like we’re going to get the house in Sparta, but I wouldn’t have felt doomed if we’d ended up having to stay in Winston-Salem for a few more months. Or years, for that matter.
As JimL says, it’s a numbers game. The one thing that gives me some comfort, assuming what we fear does come to pass, is that preppers and conservatives/libertarians are going to survive in disproportionately higher numbers than politicians and bureaucrats and progs.
What do you call a million dead progs? A good start.
“What do you call a million dead progs? A good start.”
Indeed. Once they lose the supposed “protection” of law enforcement, security guards, and the Unholy State they worship. Ditto lawyers and financial speculators.
We wish youse the best in terms of the Sparta location and hope that it works out nicely for y’all.
@rbt,
I’d have to get them out of the box, but I think I remember them using the weird 90v battery. That battery was common in portable tube radios, and I think someone built a nice boost converter to replace it, but I’m not certain.
I bought them at a state surplus auction to resell, was surprised how little they were selling for, so kept them. Never really expected to use them and then forgot about them until today. Had thought I should get them out and get some baseline readings, but never did.
nick
If you have the calibration specimens, get those calibrated before you use them to calibrate your meters. They’re cesium-137, and its half-life is short enough that they won’t be putting out nearly the flux that they did when new.
Here’s a good page on the whole CD V series, including battery information.
http://www.civildefensemuseum.com/cdmuseum2/radkits/cdv715.html
It’s also naked terror and a sense of complete helplessness.
This. A sense of helplessness is exactly right.
Close to home for me: the migrant crisis. Some journalist pointed out that, since Europe is being so welcoming to migrants, that people in Nigeria are getting interested. Up to 40% of the population would like to come to Europe, if they can figure a way to do it. The population of Nigeria is over 170 million.
Tell me just what Europe will do, if 70 million people show up on the doorstep? No one in power is yet willing to draw a line in the sand, and say “this many, and no more”. Merkel is fighting to keep Germany’s borders open, even against her own party.
Certainly no one is yet willing to discuss using lethal force to turn refugees away, even though that is very likely to become necessary. I hope that the various military forces are quietly considering all scenarios.
“We’re all gonna die anyway!!!”
True enough, at latest with the heat death of the universe. I like the saying “I plan to live forever, or die trying”. Alternatively, “nobody gets out of this alive”.
Realistically, what we want to do is maximize the enjoyment function while we’re here. Some reasonable amount of prepping is part of that; the question is the definition of “reasonable”.
My wife will get interested when we move to the property we’ve bought for retirement. It gets several feet of snow each year, and is fairly isolated, so we could very easily be snowed in for weeks.
Interesting that you mention getting snowed in. Although Sparta is unlikely to get snowed in as long as government road crews are on the job, I suspect we could get iced in pretty easily. Sparta is in the 3,000 to 3,500 foot elevation range (about half a mile higher than Winston-Salem), and does get ice storms. Crews MAY be able to get the state highway open after an ice storm, if they’re willing to use enough salt, but I sure wouldn’t want to try driving on those curvy two-lane roads with 1:4 grades even if the ice had supposedly been cleared. The house we hope to buy is very close to the state highway, so ordinary winter weather shouldn’t affect us much. Worst case, we should be able to get into town, such as it is, in our 4X4.
Re: moslem invasion of Europe, I also think it’s noteworthy that EU nations like Lithuania that don’t have the social welfare programs like those in Germany, France, the UK, et al. aren’t getting enough invaders to fill even the limited number of slots they’ve agreed to provide.
I don’t feel hopeless, I am just a realist. At my age and infirmities I would be a liability on a bug out. We have enough food and supplies for ourselves and a few others.
My prepping efforts are mainly leaning toward being able to exist without electricity and running water.
When the zombie hoards start marauding I plan to sit in my recliner, shotguns in my lap and will shoot anyone who attempts to cross my threshold. I don’t plan to last long, but I plan to shorten the life of anyone who attempts to get in my space.
On another front, something else for you techie types to be concerned about: From kafkatrap to honeytrap.
The short version is: if you are any kind of open-source leader or senior figure who is male, do not be alone with any female, ever, at a technical conference. Try to avoid even being alone, ever, because there is a chance that a “women in tech” advocacy group is going to try to collect your scalp.
Animated map with flows,
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-11-03/worst-refugee-crisis-world-war-ii-one-stunning-infographic
some really creative and talented people out there.
nick
I used to live about a block from where this is going down. I have a friend who still lives about a block from there.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-11-04/san-diego-shuts-down-airport-amid-ongoing-active-sniper-standoff
nick
“…if you are any kind of open-source leader or senior figure who is male, do not be alone with any female, ever, at a technical conference.”
They better wake up and smell the coffee; it’s any male, period, these days, and not just in tech conference settings. Ditto with children.
That first link with the infographic is pretty cool; I note that all the movement direction is toward my ancestral homeland (after we got there from northern Germany 1,500 years ago, that is…lol). And the Greek commie is right, unfortunately; the dominant military powers, especially our own, have sought to destabilize existing governments in the Middle East for over a century and have actually ramped it up in recent decades. Anyone ever hear of “blowback?” It’s turning out to be a real bitch.
“I have a friend who still lives about a block from there.”
Ex-cop, ex-mil-spec OFD has two possible solutions:
1.) Counter-sniper (like I was designated during my vacation in northern Kalifornia between SEA engagements). ID the spot and get a guy up there and park one in this muthafucka’s brisket.
2.) One of our vaunted SWAT units; ID the spot and get a team in there and do one of them vaunted “surgical strikes” like we do in the Middle East and blow up everybody in the vicinity (except, often enough, the actual bad guy/s).
I’d go with the counter-sniper; every swinging dick and his brother out there is glomming onto the sniper mystique and playing with long-range chit. Find a guy who’s better than the muff up in that building and put his lights out. Then string his ass up by the heels outside the place and leave him there for a few weeks.
I think mankind will die out, its one of the few solutions to the Fermi paradox. If intelligent life did not die out before reaching the stars, it would have long ago taken over the galaxy.
I just wish it would not take place until I and my family are safely in the grave.
I think the answer to the fermi paradox involves making the leap to space resource exploitation BEFORE running out of the good stuff on earth. Once the metals are gone, you’re not gonna sustain an economy that could launch and exploit space based resources.
nick
I almost forgot Guy Fawkes Night was upon us. I’ll have to put V is for Vendetta on my mental list of what to watch tomorrow.
Remember, remember!
The fifth of November,
The Gunpowder treason and plot;
I know of no reason
Why the Gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot!
Stephen Hawking has suggested that at this point in time many of our resources should be bent toward colonizing other planets before it’s too late. Unfortunately, it’s not even a remote priority. We’re one stray asteroid (to use just one example) away from extinction.
“I’ll have to put V is for Vendetta on my mental list of what to watch tomorrow.”
+10
Highly recommended.
After that, “The Outlaw Josey Wales.”
“…colonizing other planets before it’s too late.”
Short of living like ants in an ant farm on the Moon or Mars, that leaves finding a habitable planet and the means to get there with enough people.
Could take a fairly large asteroid or maybe a stray comet, which I guess would sorta be like a bullet hitting an apple, amirite?
They’d just be replaced by another set of Lords. The whole system needs a complete overhaul; I’d eliminate the Senate entirely. Of course they’re not gonna go quietly. Anyway, the Empire is gonna break up sooner or later; it’s way too big and it’s unsustainable.
A patch on the problem would be term limits for both houses. 12 years max would work for me. And go back to the principal of Senators being selected by the State Legislatures (roll back 17th amendment).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seventeenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution
If I recall correctly, the Senate was supposed to be our house of senior statesmen. That is, they were supposed to be career politicians. The House of Representatives was supposed to be a rotating collection of elected representatives. There were never supposed to be career Representatives. Of course, in the 18th century being a representative wasn’t a full-time job either.
I agree. It would be a step toward going back to this being a union of sovereign states instead of a monolithic federal government.
Me three. No restrictions whatsoever, so long as you pay for it yourself and don’t dip into my pocket for a subsidy.
You’re probably right. I can’t fathom the attitude myself, but I can’t fathom a lot of common thoughts, attitudes, and emotions.
None of your damned business.
Hey now! Because the intials match, I get blamed when the Smart Forms team at my day “job” screw up. I get embroiled in confusing involving Science Fiction (or Speculative Fiction), even moreso because I write it. And now you want to nuke me??!!??
re the aerial video of the invaders, a drone that can carry a camera can carry a kilo of explosive and can be remotely triggered to drop it. Just sayin’.
I’d be willing to try y’all’s remedies in regard to going back to that stuff but fear it’s way too late. The whole mess is gonna come unglued sooner or later and this will all be entirely moot.
Given the power, I’d try just about all of the Congress, WH and Scotus, and some top military brass, for treason, and finding them guilty, put them against a firing squad wall immediately after the verdict.
And the vast mass of permanent bureaucrats would have to find another line of work.
I’m kinda wondering about the justification for citizens owning nukes. Who/what would citizens use them against?
None of your ****** business.
+1,000,000
If I want to drive my Sherman tank with a fully active 75 mm cannon and M-2 commander gun to work each day, what business is it of yours? Unless I tear up the road, now that is crossing the line.
I didn’t know you had an M4. My only armor is a ZSU-23/4.
“Unless I tear up the road, now that is crossing the line.”
Just don’t cross the double-yellow; it’s illegal and I hate it when peeps do that.
“I can’t fathom the attitude myself, but I can’t fathom a lot of common thoughts, attitudes, and emotions.”
My advice is don’t even try; most contemporary North Murkan derps operate in some kind of different dimension or something. Their noggins don’t work the same way, could be genetic, or they got dropped on their heads as babies, or evil toxic rays from the tee-vees they’ve been glued to since birth.
I didn’t know you had an M4. My only armor is a ZSU-23/4.
Only in my dreams. Supposedly driving one requires serious manual dexterity for the main engine clutch and the clutch on each track. I’m fairly sure that I am not coordinated enough to drive one.
What is probably the average take on the Houston mayor’s outrageous abuse of power:
http://freedomoutpost.com/2015/11/houston-voters-put-the-smack-down-on-mayor-and-perverted-hero-bathroom-bill/
“I’m fairly sure that I am not coordinated enough to drive one.”
Ditto. Nor do I possess the wondrous coordination required to fly a helicopter like our very own MrAtoz, or play one of them humongous church organs. I used to see church organists at Lenten organ recitals from the back while they were playing and it was a marvelous thing to behold. And no wonder they almost always needed a person to flip the musical sheets for them. I did get so I could play the opening chords of Bach’s “Toccatta and Fugue in D-Minor,” though. Sit in a church with a stone foundation sometime and feel the organ’s bass notes come up through your bones.
Two other interesting anniversaries for November 4: Jane Goodall observes chimpanzees making tools (1960) and the US embassy in Tehran is invaded by a mob (1989).
like our very own MrAtoz
My first Army flight instructor informed me he could teach a monkey to fly a helicopter with enough bananas. So there’s hope, Mr. OFD. I’m proof. lol
“…teach a monkey to fly a helicopter with enough bananas. So there’s hope, Mr. OFD. I’m proof.”
Did you have to have or go through fixed-wing first?
I am here to report that the pilots and crew chiefs from my time in SEA had gigantic ballz. Unfortunately, little ol’ me was along with them for some of them ballsy rides. Never hope to repeat that chit, hermano. I’ll take up the pipe organ first and have much better luck, I reckon.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ho9rZjlsyYY
No fixed wing req for the Army. Transition later to FW props for ash and trash. I got my single engine land FW on my own.
Well goodness gracious now, hermano, you is all ready to do the bug-out thang in a real top-shelf way….Get hold of a plane or chopper, load that puppy up with yer stuff, and go anywhere in the Western Hemisphere, eh? Screw Leavenworth; go someplace nice!
Someone was saying that at some point the Germans will have had enough?
http://www.dethguild.com/link-round-up-clit-chopper-invasion-edition/
That goes for us over here, too. At some point.
The judge thinks Cankles might not make it; I have my doubts:
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2015/11/andrew-p-napolitano/mistress-deception/
This, from Gary North earlier:
“Hacking the Power Grid: Doomsday Scenario
Gary North – November 03, 2015
The most likely doomsday scenario is biological warfare. It is cheap. It keeps getting cheaper. A non-state terrorist outfit could do it.
We do not see network TV reports on this. Why not? Because there is no defense. There are too many ways it could be done. There are too many vulnerabilities. That is why there was a war game, Operation Dark Winter. The game arbitrarily ended after three weeks of contagion. The crisis would just be getting started after three weeks.
The second scenario is the threat of a cyber attack on the U.S. power grid. This one is less of a threat statistically, but more of a threat in terms of impact. Why less? Because the two governments most capable of doing it — Russia and China — are not likely to do it. The collapse of the U.S. economy would create an economic crisis for them. Then why more? The collapse of the division of labor.
But the threat is real. This report on Sunday Morning explores it. Ted Koppel has bought freeze-dried food for his family. Even the “not much of a problem” bureaucrat who dismisses this threat says stored food is a good idea. He also said this: do not expect the federal government to come to the rescue. Correct.
All of the federal agencies contacted by CBS News refused to be interviewed.
The report ignores the elephant in the living room: the banking system. If the banks ever went down for a month, the division of labor in the USA would collapse. Cities would become battle zones, then graveyards.
The report says that about 40 million Americans living in rural areas are supposedly not at risk. Their power companies are not dependent on the Internet. For the regions where hydro power is the source, maybe not. But where would the others get their coal? No banks — no deliveries.
We forget just how dependent on the Internet we now are. This report reminds us.”
Like I keep saying, if the juice cuts out for any appreciable length of time, there is gonna be a WORLD of hurt in North Murka, let alone the rest of the world. We are so friggin’ dependent on it that it ain’t even funny. Anyone who can get it cranking again will be able to name their fee; wasn’t that the premise of the tee-vee “Revolution” series?
“I seriously doubt that any citizen could obtain (or afford) a personal nuke, but if they did the intended use would be the same as any other weapon: against a tyrannical government. That’s what the 2nd Amendment is for.”
Making a high quality, compact nuke is non-trivial. Making a nuke is almost trivial. See, for example, The Curve of Binding Energy by John McPhee.
And who’s to say that a privately owned nuke will be used against the government. It could just as easily be parked in suburban Winston-Salem with a timer set for, oh, four hours.
OFD wrote:
“Who/what would citizens use them against?”
Mordor.
Babylon-on-the-Hudson.
SF.
Hollyweird.
Tiny Town. (after Mr. Chuck evacuates, of course)
All worthwhile targets, I could add St Albans, Vt. Take that town out and nobody would know for weeks. Might scare the fish in Lake C though…
“What do you call a million dead progs? A drop in the ocean.”
There. Fixed that for you.
This shotgun seems pretty harmless to me (unless you’re in front of the business end when the trigger gets pulled.) Still, some peeps here want to ban it.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-11-05/pro-gun-lobbyists-disrupt-gun-control-appeal-in-sydney/6915388?WT.ac=localnews_sydney
I suppose it had to come. Moslems want protection under the Racial Discrimination Act, even though Islam isn’t a race…
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-11-05/muslims-have-limited-protection-under-act-report-finds/6915414
“And the vast mass of permanent bureaucrats would have to find another line of work.”
What – pump up the unemployment numbers? Never happen. Unemployment will never top 5% xx 6% again under Barry’s watch.
Seriously – I’d be just as happy paying these leeches unemployment as paying them for their “jobs”. At least then they could do no further harm.
The “jobs” are welfare, and shouldn’t be counted in employment numbers as employed people.
“And who’s to say that a privately owned nuke will be used against the government. It could just as easily be parked in suburban Winston-Salem with a timer set for, oh, four hours.”
You’re missing my point. Letting any government get its foot in the door by putting “reasonable” restrictions on weapons is fatal to freedom. I’d much sooner take the extremely tiny risk of what you describe happening than allow the government to decide which weapons we’ll be permitted to own. As soon as you let them ban any type of weapon, they’ll eventually ban all of them.
The 2nd Amendment wasn’t put there to protect our right to hunt or use firearms for sporting purposes. It was put there to ensure that an armed citizenry could resist attempts by a tyrannical government to enslave us.
Besides, my right to own a nuke doesn’t mean that someone will sell me one. So far, only nat’l governments have the resources to refine the material.
You should be more worried about garage bio labs unleashing a terror on the world.
nick
BTW, historically Americans have owned warships, state of the art, fully armed up with cannon.
See neal stephenson’s Snow Crash for a fictional look at what a nuclear armed citizen might look like. Think one man nation-state.