09:40 – Barbara and I just finished watching series one of Borgia on Netflix streaming. This is the 2011 version starring John Doman as Rodrigo Borgia. Barbara and I agree that this version is immensely better than the 2011 Showtime series The Borgias. It does have that one essential element of any good historical drama: lots of pretty young women running around topless and bottomless. Borgia plays fast and loose with historical fact, but not as much the Showtime version. Both versions do a hatchet job on Lucrezia, who by unbiased contemporary accounts was a very nice young woman. That’s what happens when your enemies win and get to write the histories. You find yourself accused after the fact of murdering people and having sex with your father and brothers.
I’m working on kit stuff and the prepping book. At the moment I’m writing about establishing a defensive perimeter for your neighborhood. I even stole an image from Nick Scipio’s page:
For organizing a Neighborhood Watch on steroids, I’m trying to focus on important issues that I haven’t seen mentioned elsewhere. For example, what happens if/when things return to normal? When the police finally do show up, it could be embarrassing to have a pile of dead looter bodies at the entrance to your neighborhood. So I’ll recommend, for example, using shotguns whenever possible, because they are impossible to match forensically to a specific projectile. Mixing and sharing buckshot shells, for the same reason. Wearing balaclavas or panty hose masks, so that no one can say for sure who did what when. Wearing armbands in bright pink, blaze orange, or blaze green, both to make it easier to identify friendlies and as a sort of “uniform” for fig-leaf legal cover. Organizing overwatches for roadblocks and barricades, along with a rapid reaction force to support those overwatches. Centralizing communications and management of the local security force. And so on.
This is the kind of stuff that’s too extreme for Barbara’s tastes. (Wait until I get to the part about making grenades and Molotov cocktails…) I started writing the book with her name on it as co-author, but she said she doesn’t want her name on the book, so as I work on it now I’m removing “we” and replacing it with “I”.
I see. We’re now on urban and suburban small-unit infantry tactics.
May I recommend “Retreat Security and Small Unit Tactics,” by David Kobler and Mark Goodwin”? There is only one very short mention of the Christian God in it as a sort of full disclosure as to the authors’ beliefs and that’s it. The rest is a pretty good summary of the issues.
A couple of things bother me about that picture above; besides the fact of their having made it; it tends to reinforce negative stereotypes of firearms owners and there are no women in it. And now, of course, we have everyone’s picture all over the net.
Minus 1 here today and sunny with blue skies, no wind. Not too shabby. A fine wintuh day!
I read that some time ago. It took me 10 or 15 minutes to read it. It’s a very small book, what really should be one chapter in a real book. I wasn’t impressed.
The fundamental problem with most of these books and articles written by former military guys is that they implicitly assume that things will work the way they’re used to them working. They won’t. This won’t be a military rank-structured hierarchy with the UCMJ behind it. It’ll more likely be a bunch of extreme individualists who won’t take orders from anyone unless they choose to do so. And they’ll do so only as long as it makes sense for them to do so. Things will have to be organized on a cooperative basis, using consensus decision-making. I realize that probably sounds weak and unworkable to most ex-military folks, but I think it’s the only workable method.
I would steer well clear of any group that was formed or “led” by ex-military personnel. Most of them, it seems to me, plan to be warlords.
All good points. Well-taken, too.
That has also been my criticism, in that many of these titles and courses are designed for ACTUAL mil-spec-type ops, and/or SWAT stuff. Great if you’re mil-spec or SWAT, but average schmoe homeowner ain’t gonna be doing this.
“Things will have to be organized on a cooperative basis, using consensus decision-making. I realize that probably sounds weak and unworkable to most ex-military folks, but I think it’s the only workable method.”
This will be difficult, and the model I could maybe see working the best would be our original “minutemen” militia, on a localized basis. The problem/issue is that most folks won’t have any military or cop experience/training, and someone is gonna have to organize and direct the ops. Then we’re back to ex-military and ex-cops again.
“I would steer well clear of any group that was formed or “led” by ex-military personnel. Most of them, it seems to me, plan to be warlords.”
Agreed, like in “Lucifer’s Hammer,” and the “Revolution” series, filmed in North Carolina. Again, what is needed is civilian control; mil-spec guys either in-place or hired to do a specific temporary job and then stood down.
There is no point in organizing armed defense/resistance in a location if everybody is just gonna pile out there and mill around with the AR’s they bought a couple of years ago and barely shot or trained with; that kinda chit gets people killed unnecessarily.
Good points.
Group dynamics are a fascinating topic. In any but the smallest group, a natural leader or leaders will emerge. This is particularly true when the group faces an external threat. If a leader is smart, he (and I say “he” because it will almost always be a he; evolution and biology are a force to be reckoned with) will seek counsel and gently direct that council in the direction he wants to go, while always listening to contrary viewpoints. Decisions by a group council have immensely more weight than those of any individual, including absolute monarchs. Even they maintain councils, and if the monarchs are smart they listen to criticism of their proposed decisions.
I obviously have nothing against military or cops (ex or otherwise). I’d like to have plenty of them around when push comes to shove. But not in civilian leadership roles. In my experience, most military/cops have a very narrow, black/white perspective on most things. Obviously, I’m speaking overly broadly, but they tend not to see nuances and shades of gray, and appreciating those nuances is a critical requirement for any leader.
In such circumstances, I would happily lead, follow, or both. I think I appreciate my own strengths and weaknesses. In the scenario we’re discussing, one of my biggest weaknesses is that I have zero military experience. Oh, I’ve read more books on military history, tactics, and so on than probably most junior military officers, but it’s all book learning.
Agreed with all of the above; a temporary (maybe contractor) military leader/trainer who can willingly be stood down when the danger is over, and the permanent civilian leader has a council of folks to advise and consent.
I’m an ancient ex-mil, ex-cop, but even as a whippersnappuh did not see things in black-and-white back then; I fault excessive reading for that. I would hope I have a much more balanced and nuanced view of things in this regard now, but the fact remains, lethal defensive and offensive tactics will have to be led by someone with experience. I hereby nominate myself for Military Governor of Northern New England and Maritimes accordingly.
Just joking; there are hordes of ex-military and ex-cops out there now with fah more experience and training than little old me. At best I could maybe show the neighbors how to fire for effect and maintain decent intervals, cover and concealment. I could also use and train people in, first aid and CPR, and a bit of messing around with computer chit. Can also cook and do the dishes. And recite nice war poems from the past 3,000 years that often illustrate quite well the issues involved.
The British government wants to outlaw encryption on the intertubes, “What David Cameron just proposed would endanger every Briton and destroy the IT industry”:
http://boingboing.net/2015/01/13/what-david-cameron-just-propos.html
and
http://www.sovereignman.com/trends/british-government-wants-to-outlaw-secure-communication-15937/
Wow, what a dufus!
I’m updating my skills list now. I just added some stuff that I’m pretty good at, including doing dishes and cleaning toilets. That, incidentally, is one thing that owning a small business teaches: you have to do whatever needs to be done, because no one else is going to do it.
Incidentally, Dave, how goes your journey towards developing location-independent income streams?
There is a good fictional book about the fall of the USA government due to financial problems and the subsequent neighborhood association protecting the neighborhood in Houston. Until a concentrated attack by a outlaw gang and the bugging out by the protagonist:
http://www.amazon.com/Holding-Their-Own-Story-Survival/dp/061556965X/
Re: Cameron
Yeah, Cory nailed it, as usual.
That, incidentally, is one thing that owning a small business teaches: you have to do whatever needs to be done, because no one else is going to do it.
Yup. I do accounting, IT, shipping, media, graphics, cleaning, office supplies, equipment buying, etc for my wife’s biz. Luckily I get to sit home and do this and I’m very happy sitting at home not having to commute to some box. My wife, on the other hand, has to travel extensively to speak and administer our programs, like Mrs. OFD. My wife’s been in CA for 8 days, back for 3, off to TX, AZ, CA, rinse and repeat.
My salary is 1$/yr. We save about $12,000 on taxes by loading my wife’s salary.
“Incidentally, Dave, how goes your journey towards developing location-independent income streams?”
Nicely, in terms of visualizing and strategy. The learning curve will run me about four or five months, but I can and will be setting large parts of those streams up in the meantime. A big step will be underway this week and by the end of this month. More info and links to come but it will be a while.
Yeah, the Brits are just a step ahead of us at destroying what little freedom and viable capitalism remains there; our own Dear Leader is now rushing to catch up, and you wonder why the intense interest in this sort of thing….unless you have ready access to that page in the Mr. SteveF notebook about imagining what they would be doing if their intentions were actually evil, rather than just stupid.
“My salary is 1$/yr. We save about $12,000 on taxes by loading my wife’s salary.”
I am going to be looking into this RUTHLESSLY. We are so sick of paying exorbitant taxes, fees, penalties and interest and after we get a lawyer to reduce our mess up here, we wanna have a MINIMAL tax footprint like the one MrAtoz alludes to.
@RBT: I wonder if you shouldn’t split your book. Prepping for disaster is an important topic: food storage, water purification, doing without electricity and other amenities for days or weeks. People need a good, solid book on this subject.
Preparing for dystopia is another topic altogether, and one that crosses an important psychological line. It will put off many people (like your wife, and mine) and prevent them from buying the book. This is not only a loss for you, but perhaps more importantly a loss for them, because they won’t have that solid, well-researched book that they need.
I’ve actually thought about doing that, and not just for the reason you mention. I have so much stuff I want to cover that there won’t be room in one book. What I may end up doing is a comprehensive volume on the first thirty days and then a second volume for longer term stuff. I even have a new title. Instead of _The Ultimate Family Prepping Guide_ I’ll call it _The Ultimate Family Prepping Guide: Volume 1_.
My salary is 1$/yr. We save about $12,000 on taxes by loading my wife’s salary.
Hmm. You do know that the IRS can and will impute an income for you if they want to?
I am not sure that I would pay myself one red penny if the wife was “earning” all the income. Even though you are spending all of your time supporting her.
“Preparing for dystopia is another topic altogether, and one that crosses an important psychological line. It will put off many people (like your wife, and mine) and prevent them from buying the book.”
Roger that.
Wife here is OK with the concept of prepping for the usual disasters, you know, like ice storms, blizzards, power out, etc. But dystopia? “You don’t really believe all that’s gonna happen, do you?” Ditto the wives down in MA; it’s just too effin big for them to comprehend outside of the movies or tee-vee or junky thriller-diller paperbacks. Mommy and Daddy and Husband were/are always there to take care of them, PLUS Our Nanny the Almighty State, whatever could go wrong???
Bring up firefights, stocking up on guns and ammo, and they don’t wanna hear it, and will put up actual resistance. Mine is coming around, though; all she has to do is read the local rags about the meth houses, pill dealers, dead bodies being found, knife fights, road rage incidents, etc. And get a good look at our white underclass across the street and a couple of miles up the roads each way.
We gotta get up to the range on a weekly basis here, while we’re doing all the other prep stuff. She’s shot skeet before but it was a long time ago; also can ride a horse REALLY well and downhill ski at double black diamond-level. Guns shouldn’t be that much of a stretch.
Hmm. You do know that the IRS can and will impute an income for you if they want to?
I’m not sure what your mean. It’s no different than the late Steve Jobs taking a tiny salary but getting use of corporate jets, etc. I get use of the corporate Herman Miller Aeron chair and vehicles. Of course, the IRS can apparently do anything they want. We haven’t had a problem doing this for 10 years. CPA approves.
I meant that the income of $1/year might be a red flag to them. I would take nothing, personally.
” I get use of the corporate Herman Miller Aeron chair and vehicles.”
Why not purchase a nice helicopter and ferry the wife around to the various gigs and save on airfare, plus avoid all the security lines, taking off of shoes, etc., and keep yer piloting skillz up to date?
Yes, here I get use of the recliner armchair, bought secondhand, the vehicles most of the time, the cutting-edge media center, and the computers.
We will be disposing of our current messy tax situation as soon as we can, and at that point will consult with the most shark-like tax attorney/accountant we can find up here and do whatever will allow us to pay as little as possible while still remaining in good standing.
While also recognizing that the IRS is one more outta-control and rapacious krew of criminals, looters and the proverbial ‘band of thieves writ large.’
I meant that the income of $1/year might be a red flag to them. I would take nothing, personally.
Got it. If I’m not on the books, the CPA says I can’t use the corporate jet, helo, limos, etc. without raising a bigger flag. Also, I don’t take the $1 so I don’t get a W2. Now to acquire a corporate jet, helo, limo, etc.
If I’m not on the books, the CPA says I can’t use the corporate jet, helo, limos, etc. without raising a bigger flag.
Gotcha. The amount that I know about taxes would fill a thimble. The excess amount would fill the Gulf of Mexico.
Wife here is OK with the concept of prepping for the usual disasters, you know, like ice storms, blizzards, power out, etc. But dystopia? “You don’t really believe all that’s gonna happen, do you?”
It is worse than that. I got another lecture Saturday for keeping more than three days of food in the house. “HEB is just three miles away and you can go there 18 hours per day.”
And she has also been ridiculing my reading of dystopian fictional books. “Well if that happens then I do not want to live anymore with all the savages”.
So, I guess that I need to hide the excess food now. Sigh. And we have a shared closet so that is not a good place. A couple of freezers in the garage is looking better and better.
And now for Something Completely Different, but sorta related:
“In 1952 Learned Hand ruled “publicity is a black art.” The good judge wasn’t really ahead of the curve. J. Edgar Hoover already had his coven in thrall for 28 years when Ike moved into 1600 Penn. Nobody looking for the fast track to an influential career dared crossing it. Most of the ones who did never even knew they had. The full tally of losers who died in ruin without hearing the snake that bit them was buried with JEH.”
The scoop on our Feebie heroes and crusaders and warriors against Evil.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/2015/01/tim-hartnett/j-edgar-hoovers-man-cave/
“A couple of freezers in the garage is looking better and better.”
Do whatchya gotta do, Mr. Lynn. I also got/get the fish-eye when stockpiling food in the kitchen cupboards and basement freezer. They’ll sing a different tune, mark my words, if and when the Grid goes down for even a week or two and the HEB shelves are empty.
Then it will be OUR fault for not preparing, of course.
I have the same problem as Mr. Lynn. Our garage has plenty of space, but even in the “Winter” can be in the 80’s. Not good for food storage. Our pantry and freezer will keep us going for two weeks tops. The wife wouldn’t like a pallet of canned goods in the dining room. She also loves HEB, but the closest one is a ways. So she just says “Smiths” which is a 1/4 mile or so. Maybe I can replace the dining room table with three pallets while she is gone. A nice table cloth and Dr. Bob’s yer uncle.
” Maybe I can replace the dining room table with three pallets while she is gone. A nice table cloth and Dr. Bob’s yer uncle.”
There ya go. Brilliant! Prepper storage disguised as furniture! Kill two birds with one stone: wife doesn’t know and neither do visitors, welcome or not!
On an unrelated note, we plan to use pallets to construct ourselves a deck out in the back yahd next summuh, with a nice view out to the bay. Since our neighbor has seen fit to put a shed directly opposite wife’s studio window and also park his boat smack in between the fence and the view. Otherwise he’s a nice guy but geez. We already have agreed to the trimming of bushes on the other side, where his elderly mom’s place is, so her view isn’t blocked.
Our deck will overlook everything without disrupting anyone else’s view. I’ll also set up binocs and telescope on it with tripods during our little period of warm weather.
Once again, I think how fortunate it was that Barbara agreed to marry me 31 years ago. She’s not delighted about long-term prepping, but she held her tongue* as I bought 700 pounds of bulk dry staples at the LDS store, two or three thousand bucks worth of canned food at Costco and Sam’s Club, a couple extra rifles and a couple extra riot shotguns, several thousand rounds of 5.56, 7.62, .357, .45ACP, and 12 gauge, and on and on. Of course, I have the excuse that I’m buying all this stuff as research material for the book, which it actually is.
*Well, not literally. The only time I’ve ever seen people hold their tongues was the peasants in When Things Were Rotten.
Please don’t get me wrong. The wife is a great Lady and just about perfect. But, she has changed in the 33 years that we have been married. Her father was abusive and she was told very firmly while growing up that her opinion was not welcome on anything. She was very hesitant to voice her opinion on anything when we got married. That attitude has totally gone by the wayside and she has an opinion on just about everything nowadays. She has never called me an idiot though. Directly that is.
Plus the last few years have been very stressful with a very sick 27 year old daughter living with us. And the son with two tours of duty in Iraq in 2006 and 2008. Some days the wife does not know if she is coming or going.
I’m sure someone could develop some smutty innuendo from this, but that someone isn’t me. Because I’m, like, all serphistercated ’n’ stuff.
Then it will be OUR fault for not preparing, of course.
Yup. John Ringo’s book “The Last Centurion” has a sobering story of the father of a family butchering the family dog during a unceasing winter in North Dakota when the glaciers started descending again:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Last-Centurion-John-Ringo/dp/1439132917/
I don’t want to have to butcher my dog.
“I don’t want to have to butcher my dog.”
I don’t have to worry about that; the cats will do the butchering.
Yes, Mr. Lynn, life events can do a number on people over the decades, to be sure. We know that full well. My wife has been a saint/angel pretty much her whole life and the best I can hope about myself is that I’m not as much of an asshole as I used to be. It is going to be wicked hard around here when her mom finally goes (86 and getting kinda frail), as she was the only child of a widow herself and they did everything together until the first marriage. MIL’s husband died shortly after my wife was born, of some incurable and very fast disease he’d caught. Wife’s was killed in a car wreck just after the birth of Princess. Then I came along five years later, with all my baggage (Latin is “impedimenta” so it fits nicely.).
So now wife can swear like a trooper and retaliates against people who mess up her sleep.
lol CNN comparing the murders in France to Ferguson. I didn’t see any TV’s running down the street in Paris.
Ann Coulter’s post is about Obola’s ridiculous free Community College proposal. If only the Redumblicans pounce on it. Nah.
The MSM now, like CNN, MSNBC, the other major networks, can only be counted on for routine lying and bullshit like this. But as for the Charlie Hebdo situation, I kinda agree with Gary North and Pat Buchanan; you can’t, in public, keep giving the finger to fanatic sons of bitches like that and laughing at them and not expect some kinda blowback at some point. I loathe the bastards, too, but they are evidently willing and able to murder anyone anyplace at will. The various State entities around the globe are apparently unable to stop them. Or just won’t, for whatever reasons. As Dr. Bob has pointed out, we could, and have the capability to, wipe most of them from the face of the earth and turn their homelands to molten glass. If they start doing that kind of thing in a big way back here, there will be nearly unanimous calls to do just that. The 911 caper did not result in such, or actually resulted in us hitting the “wrong” targets, but multiply that again, and then add a series of Paris- and Boston Marathon-type events and all bets are off.
But meanwhile, don’t sit unarmed in your editorial offices and flip off a billion hadjis every day and then act all surprised when two of the fuckers come in and mow you down.
… “Revolution” series, filmed in North Carolina.
Season 1 was shot in NC. Season 2 was done outside Austin, TX. My brother was in the running to be set decorator, but turned them down. He’s glad he did as it was a very troubled shoot.
You do know that the IRS can and will impute an income for you if they want to?
True enough, but the IRS will do whatever it damn well pleases anyway. That said, I think the idea of $1 salary is when you are clearly working for the company – you have to take some sort of monetary compensation. Dunno what the rules are, but I’ve heard of this more than once.
I had my last couple of returns signed off by an official “IRS enrolled agent”. Expensive, but I’m hoping it’s sort of like insurance, i.e., that they will be less likely to hassle me if the returns were done by an IRS-approved type in the first place.
As of this year, I have the privilege of filing 1040-NR (non-resident), since I still have a couple hundred dollars of oil income in the US. Somehow this latest boom never reached my oil rights in the Oklahoma panhandle. These are all shared rights, split over family inheritances – I wish some family member would just start buying the damned things up.
I can’t imagine how the oil companies keep track of what they have to pay to whom, when every patch of land is split up 1/4 here, 1/32 there. On one parcel, (IIRC) I have 1/108 of the mineral rights. It also doesn’t help that there are apparently a zillion little companies out there that keep trading around the leases, and some of those companies apparently hire trained monkeys for their offices. The challenge of getting them to actually write down an international mailing address correctly, well…
– – – – –
On prepping, I’m still not very far. I’m insulating the last room in the basement, which is also the largest, and where I intend to put in some shelving for food stocks, etc.. Unfortunately, some of the insulation popped off the roof when winter set in. Expansion/contraction due to temperature, as near as I can figure. I thought the styrofoam insulation would be flexible enough to deal with this, but obviously not. So now I have to back up and put in a couple of expansion joints with closed-cell foam. The trick is: on the roof, the insulation is also the moisture barrier, so this has to all be more-or-less air tight.
tl;dr – I probably won’t be finished with the room before summer.
My “trick” for buying stocks is something the wife likes anyway, namely, I’m cooking a lot more. So I do more of the shopping. She is used to shopping for a day or two at a time. I can truthfully say that my family always shopped for a week or two at a time. So I buy a lot more stuff at once. She is also very sensitive to expiry dates, which I try to work on as the occasion arises. I mean, why should there be an expiry date on peppercorns? Or sugar? Or baking soda? Really, it doesn’t make a lot of sense…
Here’s one Chuck can sympathize with: I need to work on my laptop (Xubuntu) today, and thought I’d grab my bluetooth headphones instead of the wired ones. I’d never used them with the laptop before, but this ought to be easy, right?
They paired fine, but didn’t pick up the audio. I check the audio devices, to find that Xubuntu was sending the audio to the (unplugged!) HDMI port; the headphones didn’t even show up in the list. After much research, I found that, although PulseAudio and Bluetooth were both installed, there is a package “pulseaudio-module-bluetooth” that wasn’t installed, that lets pulseaudio actually use bluetooth devices. Weird, but ok, I install it. This didn’t help until I actually rebooted (I suppose I could have manually restarted audio and bluetooth).
So I reboot, and can actually select the headphones. But when I do, audio stalls. The playback application simply stops playing back. Select the speakers, playback restarts. Select the headphones, it stalls again.
More surfing, there are zillions of people with bluetooth/pulseaudio problems. The odd thing is that all the problems are different. Certainly no one that I came across mentioned the audio causing the playback to stall. I mean, that’s just weird…
Enough time wasted, I’ll go do something useful now…
I just found out that the Swiss National Bank announced two hours ago – entirely unexpectedly – that they will no longer force a minimum exchange rate of the Swiss franc against the Euro. For a couple of years now they’ve bought enough Euros and shoved interest rates down, in order to keep a minimum of Fr. 1.20/Euro. They’ve given up. At a bet, because of the coming crisis with Greece, among other things.
In the announcement, they just quoted the german aphorism “besser ein Ende mit Schrecken als ein Schrecken ohne Ende” – roughly “better a horrible end than an endless horror”. There will be a press conference in an hour or so with more details.
The Euro promptly crashed (or the Franc promptly rose) by 30%, down to Fr. 0.85/Euro. That has since bounced back by about half. The Swiss export industry is going to scream; there will also be a huge influx of money into Swiss francs. Interesting times ahead…
I had my last couple of returns signed off by an official “IRS enrolled agent” …. they will be less likely to hassle me if the returns were done by an IRS-approved type in the first place
Don’t be too sure.
I had a returned audited by the IRS, went to the local office to have the return looked at with a fine tooth comb. Everything was OK according to the agent. One year later I get a notice from the IRS that I owed more money as something was not correct on the audited forms. The IRS wanted interest and penalties. Returned to the local office and showed them my audit results. They waived the penalties but I still had to pay interest. It was only a few dollars, not worth getting into a fight with the IRS as their retaliation is significant. I asked why I should pay interest on their mistake and was told if I did not like it I could take the issued before a judge.
That was about 15 years ago and I have not been bothered by the IRS since. I figure I am well overdue.
I had one return I filed where I declared the income on the wrong form. The IRS lady at the local office told me I owed the full amount of the income in taxes. I told her the income was reported, just on the wrong form. She still said I owed the taxes as I had not reported the income. I explained again, the income was reported, just on the wrong form. She insisted I owed the tax. So I left the office. I called the IRS and told them on the phone what happened. That person told me to file an amended return removing the income from the incorrect form and placing on the correct form. It would not change my taxes but would have the correct information in the correct place.
The IRS will match your return up with any forms sent in by companies. If you miss reporting an income source they will ding you for the income. But report income that has no matching form (1099 for example) from a company and the IRS just chooses to ignore the discrepancy. Anything in their favor gets ignored, anything in your favor will be pounced upon viciously with interest and penalties.
“Anything in their favor gets ignored, anything in your favor will be pounced upon viciously with interest and penalties.”
That has been our experience throughout.
“I asked why I should pay interest on their mistake and was told if I did not like it I could take the issue before a judge.”
Because we are the Mundanes and they are the regime’s Annointed. You should have also been slapped for your insolence.
Lynn, I think you need a hobby. Gardening is a good hobby. Of course, to do it right, you need a tractor, with a shed or barn for it to live in. Then all sorts of other things could be stored in or built into the shed as well. Garage space. Workshop, workbenches. Storage, shelves, pantry presses (cupboards), an insulated area with refrigerator and freezer. Reloading bench. A kitchen of sorts where you do your home brewing, occasional cooking, canning. A toilet, a shower, a wardrobe with working clothes. An open-sided lean-to where you can melt and cast leaden artefacts, or in general carry out smithery.
Every man who can afford it should have a shed to retreat to, at the bottom of the garden, possibly with tall green-leaved plants growing behind it, hidden under pole beans, maize and grain sorghum, cucumbers and gourds, maybe grapes and brambles and a mulberry tree, next to the compost and chicken-yard. Your wife should come to the conclusion that it’s a man place full of incomprehensible and undesirable, in fact terribly noisy but just plain boring, man things.
“Every Aussie boy needs a shed” (it’s a song – google it). Now, I don’t see why the rest of you should deprive yourselves if you can afford it.
You should have also been slapped for your insolence.
Wow! I guess I got off lucky and should thank the IRS for their compassion.
Twenty years ago, more or less, I got a letter from the IRS, stating that I / my company hadn’t remitted the payroll taxes for the second quarter of 19xx. So I took the letter, receipt, and cancelled check to my accountant and said “Please fix this.” His response was that I’d soon get another letter saying I overpaid for a different quarter, and then it would be simple to fix. No such luck; I just got a fresh letter with a new dollar figure for penalties & interest. A few months (and a few hundred dollars of CPA’s billing time) later the IRS finally said “Oops. Sorry.” But of course they don’t pay the accountant when they make an error.
And I’ve been told, by a different CPA who used to be based in Oklahoma, that oil wells can be split up to a 1/64 share. That might have changed since he practiced there, and might not apply to other types of mineral rights, but it does confirm that such things can be a giant PITA but they do have some limit. The CPA mentioned once presenting a guy with his yearly tax package, along with a bill for about $60,000. They guy looked at the tax liability, then the bill, and then laughed at the bill, saying it was 3% of what they’d saved him over the previous year.
“Your wife should come to the conclusion that it’s a man place full of incomprehensible and undesirable, in fact terribly noisy but just plain boring, man things.”
That situation got reversed here; previously the shed was the owner’s “man cave,” and he mainly used it to work on the front ends of his truck and boat (it has a sliding garage door in front). She turned it into her arts/craft studio and makes jewelry there. And yes, it sits behind raised beds of flowers and tomatoes during our short summuh.
I’m developing a man cave up in the attic, but it is gonna take some work; I’m laying down floorboards and insulation and at some point we gotta knock at least one hole in the opposite brick wall from the existing window to get some cross-ventilation up there. Also gotta run the electricity up there more so than it is right now and assemble my workbench and shelving. That will also be the radio shack and I may look into doing grow light tables up there for an early start on seedlings. The whole deal will sit above our laundry room/winter studio and my current office.
“…and should thank the IRS for their compassion.”
On your knees, Mundane!
A few months (and a few hundred dollars of CPA’s billing time) later the IRS finally said “Oops. Sorry.”
I had gotten a letter from the IRS saying that I owed $11K+ in back taxes for a prior tax year and that if I did not pay immediately that my house was going to be sold for back taxes. I had two weeks to send in the funds. Three and a half pages telling me what I had to pay and when I had to pay it. One paragraph telling me what I should do if I disagreed. I was shocked since I have never paid that much in taxes.
A quick trip to the local tax office to put a stop to the proceedings. They had the wrong SSN but correct name. Apparently they were sending the letter to anyone with the same name hoping to find the individual. The IRS said they would put a hold on the proceedings but never admitted a mistake even when I showed them the incorrect SSN.
I then wrote a letter to the IRS exposing their error demanding a letter indicating where they were mistaken and the letter was in error. All I got was a form letter indicating they had received my letter and would do further research. Never got the letter indicating they were mistaken.
Someone said I should have ignored the letter and let the IRS sell my property. Then I could have sued them for wrongful repossession of property. Yeh, that would be smart. I would never get anything back and my house would be gone.
I have also received a letter from the IRS indicating I had too much SS withheld. In that letter was part of another letter about not paying taxes. That was about 5 years ago. I wrote the IRS and disputed their claims and actually got a letter back carefully worded indicating the original letter to me was a mistake but nothing indicating the IRS made a mistake. It was the letter’s fault.
In 1989 my mortgage company reported all the interest I paid to them on a 1099 rather than 1098. Naturally the IRS came after me for unreported income (the 1099) and deducting interest that was never paid (the 1098 I should have received). The IRS said I had to talk with the mortgage company, the mortgage company said there was nothing they could do since more than a year had passed. A quick call to an attorney and the mortgage company provided new documents. I sent those to the IRS along with the letter from the mortgage company indicating their mistake. The IRS said they would accept my return as submitted but they still had the right to go back later and change their decision and I may owe interest and penalties.
The IRS never admits a mistake, ever. Even if it is blatantly their error. I think the agents may get penalized if they make a mistake thus they never make mistakes. It is always something else that was the problem. And don’t get on their case about mistakes as the IRS will make your life miserable. They can, and will, remove money from your bank accounts without warning or any legal oversight.
I may look into doing grow light tables up there for an early start on seedlings.
I think that is only legal in Washington and Colorado.
“Your wife should come to the conclusion that it’s a man place full of incomprehensible and undesirable, in fact terribly noisy but just plain boring, man things.”
Ah, got me one o’ them, the second room in the basement to be refinished, as my workshop. Makes for a nice retreat, though I confess I haven’t used it much in the last year or so. Gotta get my buns down there and finish this last room…
Ray Thompson: I think that is only legal in Washington and Colorado.
But a large number of “localities” have passed laws that basically rescind the state law, even for medical mary j.
BTW – RBT has been quiet today (Thursday, 1/15/2015). Drones? Black helicopters? Black SUVs? Or just busier than the proverbial one armed paper hanger.
But a large number of “localities” have passed laws that basically rescind the state law, even for medical mary j.
I thought state law trumped local laws and that a local law only applied if there was no corresponding state law.
An interesting grain flaker on kk.org Cool Tools.
The FlicFloc manually flakes oats, wheat, rye, barley, millet, spelt, rice, sesame, flax seed, poppy and spices. The breakfast possibility it opened to me? Fresh muesli is thy name. Finally a filling and healthy alternative to my Grape Nuts addiction.
The new MJ Law in Washington State is a prime example of a poorly written law (might have been too much toking going on). Basically it is written into the law that any county, city, town, etc. can supersede any portion or all of the law. It also allowed these “entities” to meddle in other MJ laws, i.e., the ones dealing with Medical MJ.
Washington State does not have a good track record when it comes to new laws created by public initiative. Another recent prime example is in the past election we had two conflicting “gun control” laws on the ballot. One was well written, logical, and even supported by the NRA. The other was a joke and violated several Federal Laws. Guess which one passed? Right, the wrong one so now we are wasting money defending in Federal Courts a “law” that should not have been on the ballot in the first place.
Just busy. Yesterday afternoon we got a flood of orders, including a bulk order from a charter school. I’m not going to get all of those orders shipped out until Saturday or Monday.
“They can, and will, remove money from your bank accounts without warning or any legal oversight.”
Yup, been there and had that done to us.
“I think that is only legal in Washington and Colorado.”
No kidding; I know bettuh; there are helicopters regularly traversing the Champlain Valley up and down, during the warm weather here. They’re trying to spot pot gardens, of course, no other reason for them to be up there so often. They’ll bust pot growers but can’t seem to get a handle but once in a blue moon on the meth houses and pill dealers.
“Drones? Black helicopters? Black SUVs? Or just busier than the proverbial one armed paper hanger.”
Probably the latter. Or his site got hacked by the Norks.
Just back from the combat vets meeting; it was brought home to me once again that we have vets who are a hair-trigger away from violence, either to themselves or someone else. One guy has friends who hunt, etc., but will not keep a gun in his house; he’s afraid of his own rage and what he might do with it. Other guys recount episodes of violent responses to people who set them off but I notice those accounts are often many years old. As we age, some of that hopefully fades away.
We are very proud of our Desert One vet, who managed, though enraged, to avoid assaulting an officious and arrogant VA official who invaded his home the other day. He was livid but did not attack anyone and went for a drive and to talk to his buddies right after that and meanwhile told his wife to handle any immediate dealings with the authorities. The rest of us agreed that we would/could not have done as well as he did under those circumstances. And we’re easily forty or more years out from our stupid fucking wars.
23 here now and ‘sposed to hit 40, possibly, by Sunday. I’ll be out strolling on the esplanade in my speedos, of course, watching all the grrls, watching all the grrls…go byeeee….
…one thing that sucks about living in the north country is that the womyn and grrls stay all burkha’ed up through the cold season, like funeral shrouds in a land under the grim hooves of sharia…
Well I almost got it right. Sounds more like a one-legged one armed paper hanger at a fanny kicking contest 😉
Lynn, I think you need a hobby. Gardening is a good hobby. Of course, to do it right, you need a tractor, with a shed or barn for it to live in. Then all sorts of other things could be stored in or built into the shed as well. Garage space. Workshop, workbenches. Storage, shelves, pantry presses (cupboards), an insulated area with refrigerator and freezer. Reloading bench. A kitchen of sorts where you do your home brewing, occasional cooking, canning. A toilet, a shower, a wardrobe with working clothes. An open-sided lean-to where you can melt and cast leaden artefacts, or in general carry out smithery.
Every man who can afford it should have a shed to retreat to, at the bottom of the garden, possibly with tall green-leaved plants growing behind it, hidden under pole beans, maize and grain sorghum, cucumbers and gourds, maybe grapes and brambles and a mulberry tree, next to the compost and chicken-yard. Your wife should come to the conclusion that it’s a man place full of incomprehensible and undesirable, in fact terribly noisy but just plain boring, man things.
After we build the new laundry / bath room, if that ever gets started, I plan to add on a game room to the back of the house. Otherwise known as a man cave / hiding place for Lynn. The wife talked about it the other day and used the royal “Our new game room”.
I am wondering if I should build a free stranding garage and apartment on our commercial property instead of a game room on the house. A Barndominium.
http://www.wdmb.com/texas_barndominiums.aspx
The HOA, Home Owners Association, shot down our first plan for the new laundry room because my contractor did not give them an exact street perspective (known in the industry as an elevation). So he added that perspective to the package, there are now four perspectives: front, front side, rear side, and 3D rendering; and reshot it to them for the Feb 5 meeting of the ACC committee. Sigh.
That barndominium looks cool but remember this part here:
“Your wife should come to the conclusion that it’s a man place full of incomprehensible and undesirable, in fact terribly noisy but just plain boring, man things.”
If it’s too attractive and looks like fun to hang out in, you won’t be alone there very often. I’d go very low-profile on this project, Mr. Lynn.
If it’s too attractive and looks like fun to hang out in, you won’t be alone there very often. I’d go very low-profile on this project, Mr. Lynn.
It does look too cool:
http://www.wdmb.com/images/FloorPlans/3540C.jpg
or:
http://www.wdmb.com/images/FloorPlans/4030B.jpg
Plus a 40 ft wide x 35 ft long garage on one end. Only $200,000 or so. Oh well, a guy can dream, right? Cause that is not going to happen.
$200 grand for that? Insane.
There has gotta be another way.
That is a 40 ft by 70 ft cement slab. With a metal building on top of the entire slab. $200,000 might under the real price.
Might should build this with just a single bedroom / bathroom:
http://www.wdmb.com/images/FloorPlans/3520B.jpg
With a 35 ft by 35 ft garage (35 ft by 55 ft slab), this is $130,000.
I could put the daughter in a RV if we move out there and build a big house. We would have to sell the present house first though.
I’ll buy the prepper book just as I have the whole series of computer building books.
I’d be more concerned that the neighborhood watch be seen to have eye and ear protection myself.
We can’t all have High Standard bull pup shotguns with flashlights smiley, will you be including suggestions for night vision devices and prioritizing money in secondary areas like night vision as well as daylight vision, laser rangefinder and such?
John Ringo’s zombie series (black tide rising) mostly a romp does a first rate job of dealing with total disaster and reintegrating out of touch pre zombie apocalypse field and flag grade officers into the new post zombie apocalypse society as it is actually working in the books. Some high comic scenes for some values of high comedy. Sadly he also uses a 1911 manual of arms on Glocks with hammers and minimizes the consequences of putting an M4 together with no firing pin (hint you can’t just take it apart again to put the firing pin in). The hard part is not preparing, the hard part is prioritizing and starting over for different values of how bad did things get.
_To Sail a Darkling Sea_ (Black Tide Rising) by John Ringo:
http://www.amazon.com/Sail-Darkling-Black-Tide-Rising/dp/1476780250/
Book number two in a series of four books. I look forward to reading books three and four. I do not know if there will be more in the series.
Really, really good series on a zombie apocalypse caused by a engineered flu virus with a rabies payload. After one month, over 99.99% of the world population is infected and/or dead. More of the same from the first book about reducing the problem to a manageable level and working through it.
Of course, I will read anything that John Ringo writes.
My rating: 4.4 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars (272 reviews)
John Ringo, eh?
Does he know Latin, too?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gSj1G4Vf0w
I’ve read some of Ringo’s books. The Posleen books I’ve read were good. But I hated Ghost.
If you like Ringo, you will probably like Larry Correia. The Monster Hunter series is good. And he seems to know his stuff about firearms – he owned a gun store for a while and taught CCW in Utah. Also did competitive shooting – self defense pistol and “3 gun”.
But I hated Ghost.
Yup, but a lot of people liked the Paladin series. Enough so that Ringo put in his blog that he did not have to worry about retirement anymore. He actually got a couple of those books into New York Times top ten books for several months. Kind of “50 Shades of Grey” for guys.
I also like Ringo’s “Troy Rising” series. Excellent story of a three stage alien invasion.
http://www.amazon.com/Live-Free-Die-Troy-Rising/dp/1439133972/
Larry Correia is freaking awesome. His Monster Hunter books are awesome and his Grimnoir Chronicles are very good. The Good War and The Great War fought with paranormal talents instead of tanks.
The Monster Hunter series was kinda fun, but I gave up on it after book 2. The believability element just wasn’t there. I mean, the idea is great: there really *are* monsters, and the hunters keep them enough under control that the government can hide the odd happening. When he starts wiping out whole towns, hundreds of dead, thousands of witnesses, well…the thesis gets a bit thin, and that tears it for me.
If he’d put it all on a planet far, far away, where the clash with real life didn’t exist, it would have worked better for me. I know, I’m weird…
I’m trying very hard to remain practical and realistic. For example, rather than electronic perimeter intrusion detection devices, I’m recommending (and going with) the Mark I Canis lupus familiaris, which is superior to any electronic device. I have no recent experience with night-vision devices, but my understanding is that useful models are limited to late-generation models, which are extremely expensive and eat batteries. So I’ll depend on things like tactical flashlights, LED area lighting, flares, and so on.
For example, rather than electronic perimeter intrusion detection devices, I’m recommending (and going with) the Mark I Canis lupus familiaris, which is superior to any electronic device.
Just one Mark I Canis lupus familiaris? And any specifications? How about a four pound Terrier that shivers at its own shadow?
Plus a side benefit of the Mark I Canis lupus familiaris is that you have to exercise them. Or they have to exercise you, I am not sure.
My not so gurrly 35 lb British Cocker Spaniel, Lady, just turned 12. I am wondering if we need to get a puppy so she can train the puppy properly in how to take care of humans.
Bob, re group dynamics see
http://www.amazon.com/Structure-Dynamics-Organizations-Groups-Berne/dp/0345320255
Ah yes, Eric Berne, he of “Games People Play,” very big back in the Neolithic.
Tsk, tsk. The guy explicated human interaction better than anyone ever has, and the book I mentioned reads like a textbook on leadership. Speaking of which, ever read Freud? _Civilization and its Discontents_ comes to mind.
We had that Freud text in an “interdisciplinary” graduate course I took a zillion years ago. I’ve long since forgotten it, and the course; we found later, after one of the other grad students was helping to clean out and organize Department storage/archives, that the prof had been recycling her syllabus and reading list for the previous thirty years and been basically phoning it in ever since. Tenure, baby. No one gets it now, but it was huge back then. That last generation of profs got in during a little window in academic time and those days are over now. It was a nice life for a lot of them, too; I saw it from the perspective of a badly overworked and overwhelmed teaching assistant.
A couple of guys and me read Berne when we were in the Air Force out in Kalifornia and got a big kick out of “Games People Play” and noticed the behavior in our fellow troops and the NCOs and officers all the time. “Let’s You and Him Fight,” and “NIGYYSOB.”
Freud? You mean that charlatan who made up data to support his theories? It’s a good thing people were less sophisticated back then, or the “science” of psychology would have been “settled” in 1880.
I always found it amusing when the “social science” academics and PR flacks tried to push psychology, sociology, economics, and the like as equivalent to the hard sciences. Even as a humanities slob I knew that was utter bullshit.
I see a definite historical/biographical line running from Rousseau to Marx to Darwin to Freud and on to Lenin-Stalin-Mao-Castro-Pol Pot.
“Freud? You mean that charlatan who made up data to support his theories? “
No, that was Kinsey, as I recall it. At least, Kinsey was the extremely bisexual person who made up data to support his personal predilections, then used his fabricated data to stamp his wishes, desires and aberrations on most of the social engineering apparatus of the day, and enforce his personal preferences on all the USA and most of the rest of the world.