08:37 – It was 64.5F (18C) when I took Colin out around 0630 this morning, mostly cloudy. Barbara is off to Winston today to get a haircut, make a Costco run, have lunch with friends, and do some miscellaneous errands.
Ruh-roh. Lisa has hooked up with Jen and Brittany. These women are going to take over the world, I tell you.
I got email overnight from Lisa, CC’d to Jen and Brittany, congratulating me on getting my ham radio ticket. Lisa had been thinking about ham radio for a while, and asked me what she needed to do, on a budget, to get started. What to do, how to get licensed, what to buy, etc. As happens so often, she wanted to know exactly what I did because she intends to copy me. So, with the usual provisos that she is not me and what’s right for me isn’t necessarily right for her, here’s what I told her:
How to Get Started
First, go to http://www.arrl.org/find-a-club and locate the nearest ham radio club. Contact them and attend the next club meeting. Take your family along and let them know you’re interested in getting licensed. I’ve never met a ham who wasn’t friendly and eager to get others involved in the hobby. You’ll find the club very welcoming.
Find out if they offer classes for getting your license, and when and where the license exams occur. The exam for the entry-level Technician Class license and the second-level General Class license each comprises 35 questions from a published pool of 400+ questions. You don’t absolutely have to attend classes to pass your exam. Many people do so just by using on-line ham resources like hamexam.org, which has the question pool (with correct answers), flash cards, and sample tests.
If you’re interested only in local two-way communications–say within a 20-or 30-mile radius or within your county–all you need is your Technician Class license, and that exam is pretty easy to pass. If you’re interested in talking with other hams around the country or around the world, you’ll also want to take the General Class exam, which offers almost complete ham privileges. The General Class exam is harder than the Technician Class, but is still pretty easy.
Once you decide which license class each of you wants to get, start preparing for the exam. If you wish, you can buy the official ARRL study manuals for Technician and General Class, but chances are you’ll do fine just drilling on hamexam.org.
The tests are administered by a group of three Volunteer Examiners. There is usually a $10 per person charge for an exam session. During that session, you can take only the Technician Class exam if you wish, but if you pass that you can go on to take the General Class exam without paying any more. In fact, you can take all three, including the top-level Amateur Extra exam, at one session for the one $10 charge. You have to pass each lower level before you’re allowed to take the next level up.
What to Buy
Again, I’ll emphasize that what I recommend here isn’t best for everyone, but it’ll certainly get you started well.
⊕ Transceivers are available in hand-held versions (called HT’s for handy-talkies), mobile versions designed to install in the dashboard of your vehicle, and base station versions that are designed to sit on a desk or table at home. Nowadays, most hams start with an HT, and many never use anything else.
HT’s are available in a wide range of prices. Name-brand units (Icom, Yaesu, Kenwood, etc.) are generally quite expensive ($150 to several times that), and are limited to transmitting only on amateur radio frequencies. No-name Chinese models (BaoFeng/Pofung, etc.) are much, much less expensive (typically $20 to maybe $70), and can transmit across a broad range of frequencies, typically 136 to 174 MHz and 400 to 520 MHz). That range includes the amateur 2-meter and 70-cm (440 MHz) bands, but also includes many other services, such as FRS/GMRS, MURS, Marine Band, Business Band, etc. Many experienced hams dislike these programmable HTs for just that reason, while most preppers love them, for just that reason.
You might think you couldn’t possibly get much of a radio for a quarter to a tenth or less the price of a name-brand model, but you’d be wrong. A $30 BaoFeng HT has specifications (power output, sensitivity, selectivity, etc.) very similar to a $300 Icom or Yaesu.
There’s not much difference in terms of construction quality, either. One guy on Youtube torture-tested a $30 Chinese HT. He froze it, baked it, drenched it with a hose, and ran over it with his truck. Each time, it kept on working. Finally, he drenched it with gasoline and set it on fire. When the fire finally burned out, the case was charred and melted and the rubber-duck antenna was just a naked coil of wire. And it still worked. Note that he tested the UV-5R, which “feels” like a consumer-grade radio. The UV-82 “feels” a lot more like a commercial/industrial-grade model.
In fact, the commercial model of the UV-82, the UV-82C, is widely used by government and NGO emergency services agencies and volunteer groups that work with them. The only difference between the C model and the regular UV-82 is that the former costs about $60 rather than $30 and is a Type Accepted Part 90 device. It has had keypad access to VFO disabled, so new frequencies can’t be input from the keypad. These units have to be programmed with a computer and cable.
So I have no hesitation in recommending these radios for new ham operators, particularly those on a budget. You can buy a $30 model and use it as-is. If you want to accessorize it, you can spend another $10 or $20 each on things like a spare battery, a battery eliminator that let’s you plug into the cigarette lighter socket in your car, a AAA battery adapter that lets you use AAA alkalines or NiMH rechargeable, a good whip antenna, a speaker/mic, and so on.
So, what specific items do I recommend for getting started on a budget?
⊕ BaoFeng UV-82 HT – buy one or more of these. They run about $30 each. Assuming all of your group are getting their ham licenses, buy one for each of them. You can use them legally on the 2-meter and 70-cm ham bands to communicate directly between units (simplex mode) or with local repeaters (duplex mode) to extend your comm range over probably a 50- to 100-mile radius.
⊕ BaoFeng programming cable – The UV-82 has 99 programmable channels. You can program it manually, from the keypad on the radio, but it’s much easier to use a programming cable connected to your computer. This genuine BaoFeng Tech cable costs about $20, but it Just Works. Don’t make the mistake of buying one of the cheaper clone cables for $6 or whatever. They use an obsolete chipset that requires old drivers that screw up your computer. The cheap cables are nothing but headaches. You only need one programming cable no matter how many units you need to program, unless you just want a second one as a spare. (two is one …)
Download a free copy of the CHIRP software (available for Linux, MAC OS, or Windows) and use it to program your radios. You can also download various templates for CHIRP that include groups of 99 useful frequencies. Here’s one example, which includes a useful set of frequencies for preppers.
CHIRP templates are stored as simple CSV files, which you can edit with any text editor. You might want to edit the template mentioned above to remove some of the less useful frequencies (like the PMR446 group, which are kind of the European equivalent of the US FRS/GMRS frequencies). You can then use those free channels for 2-meter and 70-cm ham frequencies that are popular in your area for either simplex (direct unit-to-unit) or duplex (repeater). Programming frequencies, mode, etc. is very easy once you look at the CSV file. Pretty much self-explanatory.
The UV-82 itself comes with a charging base, battery, and rubber-duck antenna, which is all you really NEED to get on the air. I consider the programming cable and CHIRP almost a necessity, so I also included it above. There are also several optional items you might WANT. Here are the most popular ones:
⊕ Nagoya NA-771 replacement antenna – this 15.6″ dual-band whip antenna costs about $17 and is a direct screw-in replacement for the rubber duck antenna included with the radio. It is much, much more efficient and effective than the standard antenna. Using it can easily double the effective range of your UV-82.
⊕ BaoFeng BL-8 7.4V 1800 mAh battery – you’ll probably want a spare battery for each of your UV-82 HT’s. Battery life is good on the UV-82, but if you ever need to run your HT’s 24×7, spare batteries for each are critical.
Buy the Nagoya-branded antenna and BaoFeng-branded battery, and buy them on Amazon from BaoFeng Tech or BTech (same vendor), which is the authorized US distributor for BaoFeng. Do NOT buy them if Amazon is listed as the vendor. Amazon and its third-party vendors are both notorious for shipping counterfeit products. The branded units from BTech/BaoFeng Tech cost about the same price Amazon charges if they’re selling them, and BTech doesn’t charge sales tax to most locations. Amazon ships it, but BaoFeng Tech is the seller.
⊕ BaoFeng battery eliminator – this $16 item has a cigarette lighter plug on one end. The other end looks just like the UV-82 battery, and slides onto the HT in place of the real battery. You’ll probably want at least one or two of these, and maybe one for each radio or at least each vehicle, if you plan to use them a lot in vehicles. Once again, buy these from BTech or BaoFeng Tech as the vendor.
⊕ BL-8 AAA battery – another $16 item that’s basically just an empty battery housing for the UV-82. It lets you use AAA alkaline or rechargeables. Interestingly, this adapter requires only five alkaline AAA’s but SIX NiMH rechargeable AAA’s. That’s because the real battery is 7.4V. Five alkalines is 7.5V, which is close enough; six NiMH’s is 7.2V, which again is close enough. But if you put six alkalines in this adapter, it’s delivering 9V, which is too much. The UV-82 apparently continues to work, but it won’t transmit. That’s why this adapter includes a dummy/spacer battery, for when you use alkalines. Again, buy these only from BaoFeng Tech or BTech as the vendor.
⊕ Finally, if you can find it, you might want a clone-and-copy cable. I bought one of these from Amazon back in 2013 or so but they’re now listed as no longer available. Like the programming cable, they have a two-prong connector on one end, but instead of having a USB connector on the other, they have a second two-prong connector. That allows you to connect two UV-82 HT’s directly together and transfer the programming from one unit to the other. The only reason you’d use this is if you don’t have access to a working computer to program units directly. And, if absolutely necessary, you can program units directly from their keypads. So this is definitely an optional item.
So this is what I recommend, in the sense that this is what I actually did and bought.
Another reminder for me to find and organize the couple of Bow-Fungs, Yaesu FT60, cables, antennas, etc. and keep on choogling with hamexam.org and hamstudy.org and my Gordon West books. I’m mainly looking for extra commo capability in this 30-mile AO but will probably attempt the General exam on the same day when I get to it, as I’m studying for both. Also looking at CB rigs, and I already have a Fed GMRS/MURS license, which I gotta renew this week.
Yes, in a real SHTF, my General license is gonna be moot and no one will care about them so if we need to chat with someone in TX or ND, we’ll be doing it anyway, regardless of licenses. But meanwhile, good to be legal, if possible.
Good recs from RBT, hats off!
On my way shortly to the bank and the vets group meeting and back later. Blue skies and no clouds in sight from my window here, temp in the high 60s, low 70s, not too bad. Wife reports temp over 100 in Alba-kurkee, NM and is staying indoors.
Another great post by @RBT that goes into the my set of preparedness bookmarks.
RE: Radios
Great information all. I have acquired 2 Blow-Fung’s with longer antenna and a programming cable. I put CHIRP on my Ubuntu box. I really need to put some time into programming and testing these. I have taken and passed a few of the on-line tests based simply on my memories from my high school electronics and radio courses from 50 years ago, but would feel better studying up first. But right now I am time limited as we have our 4yr old great granddaughter for the summer and I am playing tea party and helping in her Play Dough kitchen most days.
” am playing tea party and helping in her Play Dough kitchen most days.”
The BEST days.
n
nick: You know it.
They grow up all too fast. Enjoy the youngones while you can. At my age I can’t run and play like I used to but we do other things. Complex custody issues with her and if things go wrong, we may never see her again so I will make the best of the time we have.
Two hours with the vets group today, which has now grown to a dozen every week, and heavier topics every week, too. We got two more new guys, both ‘Nam vets. I think we helped a couple of guys again, so that’s a good thing today.
Clouding up, looks like rain.
Not sure what I’m gonna do now for the rest of the evening; when I get back from those things I feel sorta drained and lethargic. Maybe I’ll start on my office corner here; it’s the only place on the property where I can legitimately put a tool chest for all our household tools and secure it for when we’re not here. Gotta get some more bins and haul stuff to the attic and the cellar, looks like. And I’ll set up the scanner and shortwave and Yaesu properly and run antennas out the windows and up into the trees.
This is to avoid messing with the kitchen, porch and cellar, which I don’t feel like hassling with right now.
You do know about lightning protection, right?
“You do know about lightning protection, right?”
Roger that. Grounding, lightning, etc. And we get some nice boomers here once in a while, too.
http://www.arrl.org/lightning-protection
Watson destroys a typical SJW cretin:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzbHb7JissI&feature=youtu.be
Even though the Senate’s version of ObolaNoCare is only 142 pages, it is just another case of the Republicans pissing on our heads and saying it is raining.
If you need to have your blood pressure raised you can read it here:
https://www.budget.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/SENATEHEALTHCARE.pdf
And the article on Zero Hedge:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-06-22/senate-reveils-details-trumpcare-bill-vote-expected-next-week
“If you need to have your blood pressure raised…”
Negative.
But this came up at the vets meeting today; our ex-jarhead insists on “being informed” and watches the tee-vee every night and then gets enraged and can’t sleep, etc., etc. Others do this, too, despite our advice to avoid that chit. We got enough on our plates at home, which is not to say that we should stick our heads in the sand, either.
I simply assume that nearly everybody in Mordor, Manhattan, and SF hates, loathes and despises us Normals and works overtime to turn us into utter serfs totally dependent on them, or kill us. They are the enemy within the gates. And I know full well in my gut that I was in the wrong country doing my machine gunner chit 43+ years ago.
@ofd, all the way at the end of that segment, there is a short video of the plane hitting the tower. After all this time, it still caused my heart rate to instantly speed up and my eyes to tear. Just typing the words is making me breathe hard and filling me with anger.
Fucking murdering scumbags.
n
Our older kids have been whining about tRumpCare that will replace the great, magnificent, ObolaCare. I asked them what did we do before ObolaCare. “You paid my insurance, Daddy.” Insurance. None of my kids have ever paid out-of-pocket for health insurance. Military, Civil Service, Hospital Nurses Insurance, and a litany of other subsidized insurance. The Feds need to just shit-can government insurance or go, as Mr. Lynn says, Medicare For All. Let people see how much will be withheld from their paychecks. If they work, that is.
16:30 PDT – 109F and 21%rh – ac running continuously but 77F in house. Dogs laid out on tile floor in hallway. Good plan.
NWS has us pegged as an excessive heat risk
http://www.weather.gov/hnx/
Suggestion: he can skip the news in evening and check the web in the morning. Record the evening broadcasts and play them back in the morning if he really must see those programs.
If you described the situation before and I remember it correctly (not a safe assumption) I don’t suppose you could frame your daughter for insurance fraud or something, get her jailed for a few years, and take care of the kids for that time?
About 141.5 more than needed, even if you include various header and footer boilerplate. “The Affordable Care Act is repealed, effective immediately” is direct, effective, and unambiguous. Which is why the scum won’t even consider it.
Let people see how much will be withheld from their paychecks. If they work, that is
Lady I have written about before, a full blown leach on society, is one of those people. Does not work and lives completely off welfare. But has enough money to pay for cheerleading uniforms for her daughter, private softball lessons for another daughter, drives a new vehicle, cart full of expensive food at the grocery store paid for by the state. Latest was her daughter got hit in the helmet with a softball at a game, fell down and hit her head. The flew in a medical helicopter for transport. General fee for such a ride is $15K. Of course she will pay nothing for the trip, nor pay for the trauma center, then complains her daughter was not kept in the hospital for a week. Fucking leach.
Lady I have written about before, a full blown leach on society, is one of those people. Does not work and lives completely off welfare.
The Work for Welfare ™ program will fix this problem.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-budget-theme-working-to-qualify-for-welfare-benefits/ar-BBBpP1J
Too bad the sniveling repuglicans in the people’s House and Senate will not enact it.
the Senate’s version of ObolaNoCare is only 142 pages
About 141.5 more than needed, even if you include various header and footer boilerplate. “The Affordable Care Act is repealed, effective immediately” is direct, effective, and unambiguous. Which is why the scum won’t even consider it.
The House and Senate have already passed the 0.5 page version to repeal Obolacare some 6 or 50 times, depending on who you believe. Trump ought to pickup one of the previous versions and sign it just to gig them.
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/no-house-republicans-havent-voted-50-times-to-repeal-obamacare/article/2545733
U.N. lulz from an article on Michelle Malkin:
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned the Trump administration on Tuesday that if the United States disengages from many issues confronting the international community it will be replaced — and that won’t be good for America or for the world.
Guterres made clear to reporters at his first press conference here since taking the reins of the United Nations on Jan. 1 that proposed cuts in U.S. funding for the U.N. would be disastrous and create “an unsolvable problem to the management of the U.N.”
But the U.N. chief stressed that he is not afraid to stand up to President Donald Trump, citing his vocal opposition to the U.S. leader’s withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement. He said the mobilization of U.S. business and civil society in support or the climate deal is “a signal of hope that we very much encourage.”
lol! Double Dog Dare President tRump! The best part, the FUSA withdrawing its’ funding would be disastrous to the U.N. That right there tells you a lot about who is paying for U.N. bullshit.
“30 GOP Congressmen Have Been Attacked or Threatened Since May”
http://freebeacon.com/issues/30-gop-congressmen-attacked-threatened-since-may/
Oh my. This must stop.
Hat tip to:
http://drudgereport.com/
lol! Double Dog Dare President tRump! The best part, the FUSA withdrawing its’ funding would be disastrous to the U.N. That right there tells you a lot about who is paying for U.N. bull****.
Last I heard, we were paying for 30% of the UN. Obola probably doubled down on that.
I am ok with withdrawing from the UN and kicking them off our shores. NATO too. NAFTA too. And any and all of those acronyms.
I can just see it now when we default on our tbills to the world. But, but, you must pay your debts ! Think of the children !
The USA is broke. Soon, another 5 to 15 years, we will be bankrupt. $20 trillion just for the official debt. Who knows how much the real debt is ? Maybe $200 trillion.
http://www.usdebtclock.org/
Well, yah. They did that when there was no chance of the bill being signed.
And now I’m thinking of a cartoon of a typical Congressional Republican as a typical internet troll, in all his 280 pounds of Cheeto-stained dorkerific glory, being all big and bad, until he’s face-to-face with an actual problem or threat. I can’t draw it myself (my ability as a sketch artist or graphic designer peaked when I was about 5 and has been on the decline since) but I could probably find a photo or drawing on the internet that could be pressed into service.
See above. It’s a pretty sure bet that Antonio Gutless is too insignificant to draw The Donald’s attention. He’d be a lot less confrontational if every word out of his mouth saw another million taken from the charity the US gives to the UN.
Bring your A game, cupcake.
I seem to recall a lot of talk about replacing the US dollar as the world standard. How’d that work out for you guys? What about that replacement for Google? France doesn’t need to soil its lacy panties about “right to be forgotten” if they just replace Google with Fuckupable or whatever their home-grown replacement was called, right? Oh, and here’s a good one: Europe and Africa don’t need American soldiers polluting their soil and bullying their neighbors. Not until someone else with an army comes knocking on their doors, anyway.
Oh, and here’s a good one: Europe and Africa don’t need American polluting their soil and bullying their neighbors. Not until someone else with an army comes knocking on their doors, anyway.
Too late, they let them in already. Those refugees look like an invasion if I ever saw one.
Yep. Hordes of mostly young men. Just a few camp followers along. Looks like an invasion to me.
And once they’re in place, they lounge around, attack and rape the locals, and collect tribute — er, welfare payments. Just like conquerors.
What the fuck is wrong with Europeans?
(Exception made for Poles and Hungarians.)
[snip] Exception made for Poles and Hungarians. [snip]
These being peoples who spent most of the 20th century living under barbarism & tyranny, albeit of European origin. Maybe they decided it should be opposed.
Well, I’d be a happy wittle guy if we got the fuck out of most of our foreign entanglements anyway, esp. the military ones. I’d tip the UN building into the East River, and shit-can NAFTA/GATT, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
I’d also stop poking the Russian bear in the eye and get with them on obliterating the musloid virus worldwide ASAP. Recruit the Poles and Hungarians, among others, to help out.
Wife called and it’s 110 in Alba-kurkee tonight. She says road asphalt is buckling. Y’all down there and in the great Lone Star State can have it. If the Grid ever shuts down, millions of peeps are gonna either have to get used to that heat in a hurry, or croak. I could do it if I had to, but I wouldn’t like it very much.
OK, this is cool. Much better than TV. This guy climbs around in the forest and mountains of somewhere in Europe, and searches for WWII relics and bunkers. And he finds them. In this one he’s looking for a plane crash, Henkels, and finds peices including the mag drum from one of the MGs on the plane.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGdPXuSv3AY
Couple other vids he’s crawling around in abandon bunkers.
n
“…searches for WWII relics and bunkers.”
Last I knew, there is another bunch of maniacs who dig through former WWII battle sites on the Russian Front, and it’s like some kinda Burning Man festival caper every year.
Another cool thing going on over in Europe and the UK is the use of drones and balloons with cameras to find medieval and ancient fort and town remnants that can’t be seen from the ground.
We need a new Attorney General:
http://www.anncoulter.com/columns/2017-06-21.html#read_more
I nominate the lawyer, Ann Coulter.
Bay Buchanan to replace our Clinton Crime Family stooge at SecState.
From the Holy Shit, That’s A Darn Good Shot Department:
https://www.gunsamerica.com/blog/canadian-sniper-sets-world-record-2-mile-kill-shot-isis-forces/?utm_source=email&utm_medium=20170623_FridayDigest_127g&utm_campaign=/blog/canadian-sniper-sets-world-record-2-mile-kill-shot-isis-forces/
Don’t see how anyone is gonna beat that one anytime soon, unless it’s the same guy. That is just freaking awesome. Over two fucking miles.
And more fun and info and intel from Uncle Remus:
“The left is collapsing into homicidal insanity. Their snarky-clever pundits, their street thugs , their wartime-style “resistance”—all braying for blood and violence. They want you gone and prefer you dead. Take them seriously. Black Lives Matter and the Alexandria ballpark shootings have put ambush-murder firmly on the table. Expect more. Look to your own safety. Stay away from crowds. Don’t be anywhere near this. Keep Plan B close to hand. First out is best out. Be ready to roll.”
Amen, brother!
http://www.woodpilereport.com/html/index-483.htm
And Pax vobiscum, fratres… this Friday morning. TGIF, baby!
Just yesterday I heard some report that (paraphrased) Americans and in particular right-wing Americans — crazy, racist, anti-immigrant imbeciles, the lot of them — are avoiding crowds for fear of terrorism. Not mentioned in the report was that American Democrats are responsible for much of the terrorism in today’s America.
Already people have forgotten the concert attack of only a couple weeks ago.
No news coverage, no victim profiles. No list of the dead.
Just to remind people- the murdering scumbag targeted teen and PRE-teen girls. He blew them apart with a nail bomb. He murdered and maimed dozens.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/3633408/manchester-bomb-attack-victims-latest-remember/
We are getting used to this. It IS becoming the ‘new normal.’ And that is seriously fucked up.
n
Hey, Keep Calm and Carry On. Don’t let HATE stop us. Keep going to concerts, football games, and big-city events. Exult in the warmth of crowds! We mustn’t let the haters ruin our snowflake lives.
I guess the unstated assumptions are:
1.) Terrorism only hits a very tiny number of peeps, so our chances are pretty good.
2.) And we can keep redefining it as “not terrorism” or “unknown cause.”
3.) Only way to stop it is to show love and be welcoming and in effect, double down on current policies.
4.) The State will fix this, and if it can’t, we have only ourselves to blame for our racism, nativism, xenophobia and HATE.
And as Mr. Nick points out, another purple squirrel or a new atrocity somewhere will wipe out the most recent event in the collective MSM and Western derp memories. And the Feebies have just spewed even more rubbish:
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/guybenson/2017/06/22/bizarre-fbi-calls-scalise-shooting-spontaneous-gunman-had-no-target-in-mind-n2344739
That’s a mighty fine list you put together there, OFD. It looks like you finally are getting it and might be spared the camps.
… Except that I suspect you of sarcasm and other Badthink. To the reeducation camps with you!
The so-called perpetrator was killed — some might say murdered — on the site before he could be arrested, which means that he was not only denied the presumption of innocence but had no chance to explain his side of the situation he found himself in, which means that there is nothing but circumstantial evidence tying him to the alleged crime and suggesting a motive. Given the entirely unsatisfactory results of the so-called investigation, the only realistic conclusion is that we have no idea why he (allegedly) committed any so-called crimes.
Except for all his emails and FaceCrack rantings and voiced opinions to others constantly over time, but of course all that could have been faked and now he’s deceased so we can’t waterboard the fucker and get the straight scoop, haha. Like that ever got us the straight scoop; a muthafucka will tell you any goddam thing you wanna hear under that treatment.
Yes, sarcasm and really BadThink, I plead guilty, yer Dishonor. Off to the camps with me! But that’s OK; I read that Russian guy’s operating manual, all three volumes, so I should be good.
Oh crap; we fucked up again; like he said, we should be using shovels, kitchen cleavers, baseball bats, whatever, on the costumed thugs who come to take us away in the night. Enough of them killed and the midnight “arrests” will stop.
Napalm.
I’ve yet to see a napalm-proof vest.
It still pisses me off that youtube took down my video on how to make it. Hint: add polystyrene (styrofoam) to gasoline until it’s as thick as you want it.
Napalm is a real muthafucka. It don’t work so great on soaking wet stuff, though, like jungle during a monsoon or my back yard currently.
It’s bad enough that I don’t know as I’d be willing to use it on people. Buildings and vehicles, sure. Ask me how I know.
I’m not suggesting using it on people; just progs, politicians, spammers, child rapists, etc.
Oh, well, then…
Spray away!
Not mentioned in the report was that American Democrats are responsible for much of the terrorism in today’s America.
Only 90% !
Oh, and muslims, of course.
I keep it in steel canisters of various sizes. They’re old fire extinguishers. Each has an electric squib igniter behind a small (1 to 4 ounce) propelling charge of black powder. I have a couple dozen of these, or did before the boating accident.
I was reading one of SteveF’s posts, but his name was above the top of the screen. I was *sure* it was OFD, until I checked. Twins separated at birth? 🙂
Rather peculiar form of twinship, what with Dave being 10 years older than I, but I’d be perfectly happy to claim him as my cool older brother.
SteveF is my younger, much more dangerous brother. I defer to him in matters not only of logic and plain common sense, but also lethality. I, after all, am nothing without my machine gun and 90mm recoilless rifle.
Hell, I barely made it up the friggin’ hobbit stairs just now with two empty plastic totes.
barely made it up the friggin’ hobbit stairs
You ain’t seen hobbit stairs until you have been to Europe. Scary, narrow and steep.
I saw a picture of those stairs in ofd’s house on the for sale site. His are definitely hobbit stairs in the old english tradition. No wide loads allowed.
And our stairs are a veritable boulevard compared to the ones in Paul Revere’s house down in Boston. Ditto the ceilings. I was practically on my hands and knees there.
???
Deferring to me on matters of common sense? That doesn’t make much sense. You hit your head recently or something? Been out in the sun too long?
We won’t get into what my head is like.
In any case, I’ve seen your writing here and elsewhere and it makes perfect sense to me.
Maybe both of us hit our heads.
Oh, and what sun? It only came out today, after days of hard rain.
And yes, as a matter of fact, I have hit my head, numerous times in this house, when I should already know better, i.e. walk in a crouch in the cellar and attic and on the stairs and be careful bounding through the doorways.
I cut down on food intake but of course losing weight off the gut is a real challenge at this age. Need to exercise also, but exercise causes pain. Etc.
In Penn Jillette’s book on his weight loss, the preamble apparently says “Why would you take diet advice from a fucking juggler?”
Jillette is a pretty big boy, too; he’s taller than me, and was probably heavier.
OK, he’s got one inch on me.
But what an asshole; names for his kids:
Children: Zolten Penn Jillette, Moxie CrimeFighter Jillette
Compare his fat and skinny pictures. Man, what a difference. I saw him once at the Orleans in the theater. Hair all brushed out, you could hardly recognize him. I didn’t bother to kiss his ass. Waiting for OFD for that.
Jillette is also an atheist but has been kind to us True Believers. His sidekick used to be a Latin teacher, long ago.
I gather they’re also both libertarians.
Whatevuh.
I’m a paleoconservative and we’re dying out so good luck to y’all dealing with the coming giant shitstorms.