08:27 – I got several emails about yesterday’s post on the futility of attempting to maintain “OpSec”. Most of them were in the nature of “it may not help, but what’s the downside?”.
The downside is huge. To the extent that you do succeed in maintaining secrecy about your preparations, the result may well be that some or all of your neighbors and friends will be less prepared than if you’d said something.
The days when preppers were considered nutcases by most people are fast disappearing. The news headlines are seeing to that. A majority of people is now concerned about how things are going, and expects things to get worse, perhaps much worse. When I talk to people, they often bring up these concerns on their own, without any prompting from me. People are worried. When I mentioned to one that it would be a good idea to stock up on food, she agreed emphatically and added that she was going to talk to her husband about buying guns to protect themselves. The idea of prepping for bad times to come is rapidly becoming mainstream. The effects of that stupid Doomsday Preppers series are wearing off, and people are beginning to think that those prepper types might just be onto something important.
I very seldom bring up prepping when I’m talking with someone. I may bring up the latest outrage in the news, whether it’s allowing Ebola patients into the US or rioting in Baltimore or wherever. Then I just stand back and listen. People mostly express their concerns and their growing unease at what this country has become. So when I bring up storing food or whatever, I do so calmly and reasonably, and nearly everyone I talk to says they think doing that would be a very good idea. How many of them actually do stock up, I have no idea, but just planting the seed of the idea helps.
Mentioning in casual conversation that you’re concerned about the way things are going won’t get you branded as some kind of lunatic, since most people you talk to are likely to agree that things are going downhill. Gently introducing the idea of preparing for bad times to come is a great way to increase the readiness of your neighborhood, maybe only a little at first, but every extra can of food your neighbors buy is one you don’t have to buy. Even if they end up only a little more prepared than they had been, that’s a net win. They’ll probably think you’re a Mormon. So what? Most people consider Mormons to be good neighbors.
11:53 – I have now put samples of all of the seed species through a freeze-thaw cycle, so I can start germination tests on them. Any that fail that test will have to be dried further and then retested. I’m defining “fail” as any species whose sample shows a germination rate less than 70% of the initial (control) germination rate. I’m going to recommend that people store these seed packs refrigerated rather than frozen, but no doubt some people will choose to freeze them.
For most species, I can do a germination test simply by placing the seeds in a folded-over damp paper towel in a sealed plastic bag, but some species have horrendously low germination rates when tested that way. Rather than just water, they require some nutrients, so I’ll probably do these germination tests with a dilute solution of fertilizer to keep them happy.
I know it sounds stupid, but I always feel vaguely guilty when I do a germination test. Those poor little seeds get all excited when they sense dampness. They start growing their little root structures and stem/leaf structures and then a few days later they’re shocked when I open the bag, unfold the paper towel, and examine the infant plants. Then I count the number that are germinating and discard the paper towel in the trashcan. The poor babies never had a chance.
I just ordered another case of packing tape, another tape dispenser, and a pack of spare wipe-down blades. I was going to have to do that soon anyway, but I’d hoped to wait until we were relocated so that I wouldn’t have to haul yet another box to the new place. But Barbara is currently packing up books and other items, but we’re down to only three rolls and she’s going to need more packing tape. She was going to pick up a few rolls at Office Depot or wherever, but that stuff is grossly overpriced and isn’t very good quality.
“They’ll probably think you’re a Mormon. So what?”
Temple garments!
Speaking of OPSEC, only nine more weeks until Christmas! Are you prepared? Are your presents wrapped yet?
I hit a home run last year. Got the wife a new Sony CD boombox and the Pops of the 1970s CD collection.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00INEG8W4
http://timelife.com/products/pop-goes-the-70s?gclid=CN_wub7ezsgCFUiEfgodWFcP4Q
I have no clue whatsoever this year. I wonder if she would like to have a new S&W Shield 9mm? Just in case you are wondering, no freaking way.
Get her out to the range. If the range sells guns, they probably have loaner pistols to let new shooters try different models. First trip, let her pick three or four pistols she’d like to try, and then help her shoot them. Figure out which one she likes best, and then return a couple times to let her shoot it exclusively. Then surprise her with her own copy of that pistol for Christmas.
BTW, in my experience, a 9mm has too sharp a recoil for many women, particularly if it’s fired in a compact/light pistol. If her hands are big enough to handle it, I’d try her on a 1911 in .45 ACP. The recoil of a .45 is more a slow shove than the sharp kick of a 9mm. Over the decades, I’ve taught a lot of women to shoot, and a surprisingly large percentage of them preferred the .45 to 9mm/.357-class pistol.
I get the impression at least one of our neighbors might be prepping a little bit and I know he’s got at least one firearm over there. But I don’t know anything along those lines about anyone else yet; working on it. Our concern would be the subsidized housing around the corner from us, broken up into apartments, and the denizens thereof, at least one of whom is a dope dealer. They seem to have money for ciggies, though, as almost every one of them has a butt hanging out of his or her mouth every time I see them.
Prepping for Xmas: Nope. Gotta find a decent RC parish somewhere within a 30-mile radius, though, now that our Latin Rite guy has been promoted to Parochial Vicar for the entire diocese. I’m on it, as tempus fugit.
“I’ve taught a lot of women to shoot, and a surprisingly large percentage of them preferred the .45 to 9mm/.357-class pistol.”
Not just women. I am a large male and a licensed shooting instructor, and I don’t like the snappy recoil of 9x19mm in a handgun either. I find the best way to mitigate it is to shoot it from a full-size Uzi! That solution is surprisingly popular with the ladies, too. Every home should have one.
Ah, yes. I wish I still had my MAC-10 in .45 ACP with the Sionics suppressor. Sounded like a full-auto cap pistol, but boy did it go through the ammo.
OTOH, I remember Kenny Hackathorn commenting that the only thing the MAC-10 was good for was a gunfight in a telephone booth, and he had a point.
“…the only thing the MAC-10 was good for was a gunfight in a telephone booth…”
Alas, I’ve never shot a MAC-10, but I can attest to the accuracy of the Uzi within the limitations of the cartridge: I have used mine to shoot clay pigeons. Full-auto is painful in the wallet pocket, however.
As one who has lived in the real world of Navy and Nuclear Power OpSec, IMHO people practicing what they consider to be prepping OpSec actually seem to stand out and are more likely to get the “nutter” label.
Live your life normally and blend in. I’m Mr. Everyman.
I’ll definitely vouch for Mormons being good neighbors. In fact of all the folks you could put a label on, they are the best. I currently have 2 Mormon neighbors, an older couple and a young couple with 4 kids and number 5 on the way. The only time I see young Mormons on Mission is when I am out doing a big yard job, a couple of strapping young fellows show up to help (the young Mormon couple next door call them). Some lunch, lemonade, good conversation, and the job gets done.
I used to see loads of young LDS “elders” (elder than whom, precisely?) on mission, and always found them most personable. Now that I’d actually like to find an LDS food centre/cannery, I haven’t seen any for ages. It’s like looking for a peeler or a no. 14 bus.
The LDS Home Storage Centers are still there, but the LDS canneries outside Utah and a couple other places have stopped offering canning services, presumably because the government has placed more regulations into effect. Nowadays, you can buy stuff that’s commercially canned in the Utah center, but you can’t can your own stuff. I don’t think they even lend canners any more. That’s a shame, because a #10 can sealer isn’t cheap.
Most people think OPSEC is digging a hole in the ground and pulling it in after you to disappear. OPSEC ain’t easy in an aviation unit. Choppers coming and going day and night, giant ass generators. OPSEC is more about keeping your piehole shut.
I very seldom bring up prepping when I’m talking with someone.
This is OPSEC. You are not hiding in your basement with the lights out, and you are not putting a large sign in your front yard “When the SHTF, just come here and I’ll feed and house you.” You don’t want the miscreants coming around. You’ll be wasting your ammo.
I think the proponents of OpSec have a point which they significantly overstate. There are some people out there who I want to think I am completely unprepared. I’m coming to the realization that I am going to have to help my neighbors, but that I can’t help the whole subdivision.
One of the things I am going to have to figure out is how and where to draw the line.
We are low-profile and intend to stay that way, while building decent trust relationships with those neighbors that we can. Hopefully a few of them are also prepping to some extent nowadays. Likely to be the case in this area and climate as a normal thing to do anyway.
Food is one thing, but I’m wondering what happens if there is a major breakdown and oil and gas and propane deliveries stop, either intermittently or permanently, and ditto the truckloads of firewood. In our case our oil tank would run dry and to get firewood means either driving to some forest around here, or hiking a ways, to chop trees and brush down, and then haul it back here. When one is in one’s sixties, this is a major undertaking. We’d need three or maybe four cords of wood over a late fall/winter/early spring here. Every year. Until we’re dead. (which, after one or two seasons of that exercise, wouldn’t take long, I bet)
And if food is scarce, we plan to show up to get in line for our handouts, if any, while avoiding firing up the grill outside or cooking on the wood stove inside with the windows open.
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2015/10/austrian-town-of-1600-drowns-in-migrant-feces-and-garbage-video/
I am so glad that we have this gigantic moat around the American continents. I just wish that we could change the Pecos River between Texas and Mexico into a moat. There is just too many places that one can wade across it, most days.
Food is one thing, but I’m wondering what happens if there is a major breakdown and oil and gas and propane deliveries stop, either intermittently or permanently, and ditto the truckloads of firewood.
You might want to get a siphon for that gas station around the corner from you.
Get her out to the range. If the range sells guns, they probably have loaner pistols to let new shooters try different models.
Not gonna happen. She is very adverse to guns.
“There is just too many places that one can wade across it, most days.”
Introduce the whole gamut of venomous reptiles y’all have down there; rattlers, moccasins, copperheads, corals, and Gila monsters. Throw in a few boxcar loads of scorpions and tarantulas. Set out mines; my ol’ timey fave was the Bouncing Better. Take a tip from Mr. Charles and plant a second one beneath the one on top, making sure to depress the plunger and keep it there.
“You might want to get a siphon for that gas station around the corner from you.”
Sure, great for our vehicles but not so much for heating the house, unless we wanna go out in an actual blaze of glory. Local riff-raff scum will get around to that before we will, no doubt; they’ve already burgled the place at least once.
“Not gonna happen. She is very adverse to guns.”
I wonder how adverse she’d be if the house was surrounded by a mob of howling crazed Mexican zombie bikers armed with machetes. Or even if three or four two-legged rats accosted y’all on an evening stroll.
lol Cankles running around using her fake southern accent. How can people fall for this phony baloney hack? Geez.
I’ve come to the conclusion that she could stand on her head and recite Sanskrit backwards while chewing habanero-flavored gum, dressed as Bozo the clown and shitting smoking turds, while the MSM and her drooling acolytes still champion her as the Winner of the Debates and future President. The rulers must be besides themselves by now with riotous laughter, after eight years of Obola, a half-white Bolshevik hadji, and now we’re gonna get this creature from a Hieronymous Bosch painting for eight more.
How can people fall for it? It’s because they simply WANT to. Murkan derps love a rogue and she’s certainly a totally unrepentant chiseling rogue from way back, and a vile, poisonous toad.
A bloodthirsty amoral toad, at that.
Geez. The DoT wants all “unmanned aerial systems”, drones, to be registered, with implementation at years end. If Congress lets this happen, I’ve got a Parrot drone to fly up their collective asses. I bought a couple of those palm size copters for $10 from Fry’s a while back. Would I have to register those, too. Can you imagine the bureaucracy and cost this would take to enroll millions of R/C aircraft? How about home brew? I’ve built one of those, too. How fucking stupid will the government get before the revolution?
“Geez. The DoT wants all “unmanned aerial systems”, drones, to be registered, with implementation at years end.”
What I can’t wait for is the web site they will cobble together for this (probably be more expensive the the ObolaNoCare site) and the thousands of new DoT employees that will have to be hired. And I am sure that there will be registration fee.
Speaking of ObolaNoCare, the State Run Co-ops are dropping like flies.
http://hotair.com/archives/2015/10/19/feds-hiding-list-of-11-more-obamacare-co-ops-in-danger-of-going-under/
Hungary seems to have managed to build and man a fence. The US, much wealthier, should be able to manage it.
By no means am I on the Trump bandwagon, but he’s one of only two prez candidates saying to seal the border, and he’s less of an obvious nutcase than Bernie Socialisters.
By no means am I on the Trump bandwagon, but he’s one of only two prez candidates saying to seal the border, and he’s less of an obvious nutcase than Bernie Socialisters.
I am in the tank for Trump. Unless somebody better comes along.
Bernie is freaking awesome. Obolacare is freaking dying on the vine (number of uninsured is rising again) and Bernie wants to increase the Medicare wage tax so that people can take vacations on the dole:
http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/2015/10/18/It-s-Not-Just-Rich-Who-Would-Be-Hit-Sanders-Tax-Hikes
“So it was a little jarring to hear Sanders say that one of the tax proposals he has in mind to finance a key spending measure would hit not only wealthy Americans but also middle class wage earners and even working poor families who live just above the poverty line.”
“That’s because Sanders’ $319 billion proposal for providing paid family and medical leave would be financed by a small increase in the federal Social Security and Medicare FICA payroll tax that all working Americans must pay.”
Fun stuff from MrAtoz and Mr. DadCooks above, thanks for the boffo laffs, guys! Sure, the gummint is gonna work round the clock from now on to squeeze as much $ as possible from us, and that’s a great scam right there, just like legalizing pot. Tax the fuck out of it and “supervise” all aspects, yeah, right.
“The US, much wealthier, should be able to manage it.”
That is correct, but look at yer own playbook, dude; why have they not?
“…he’s one of only two prez candidates saying to seal the border, and he’s less of an obvious nutcase than Bernie Socialisters.”
True, that, but the powers are dead set on ramming Cankles down our throats for eight years. I dunno how that could get upset now, ’cause the Repub shit-heads will never nominate The Donald and I think they’ve now lost Mittens, too; he’s gonna advise Trump now, hey, who better than an utter failure at the enterprise previously?
Get ready for more “gun control” schemes, more taxes, and best of all, more hot wars.
Don’t think for a Brooklyn minute that Sanders wouldn’t do the same shit. Or worse.
Ima just gonna sit back with my Moxie on the rocks and pretzels and enjoy the show.
I may vote for Bernie in the Democratic primary next spring here in Texas. Just upset the apple cart a little bit.
If Monica Lewinsky’s boyfriend’s wife is elected then I suspect that she will be the most unpopular president ever on her first day in office. But the newsies will be telling us how blue the skies are, how beautiful the flowers are, and isn’t her pantsuit just ravishing?
BTW, the Donald has people with lawyers in each state. Barring them getting a photo of him in bed with an 9 year old boy who is not his son, he will be at the convention with many, many delegates. But, this dude agrees with you.
http://www.salon.com/2015/09/20/how_gop_party_bosses_will_rig_the_system_to_keep_trump_from_winning_partner/
And while you folks ponder your up coming choice, to the North of you, we are having a Federal Erection. Can’t say that I like any of my choices but none of them are as bad as the lot you are going to be stuck with.
No matter who wins, Harper will be gone, if the conservatives actually win, he will be gone later, if they lose, he will be gone sooner. He hasn’t been our worst PM but he is a secretive control freak. He has done the country little good. Space Cadet Trudeau was the front runner in the polls. I didn’t like his father and never voted for him but he was the most intelligent PM we’ve had in the last 50 years. Alas intelligent does not mean good. He earned my undying enmity by refusing to be leader of the opposition against Mulroney. If he couldn’t run the show he wasn’t interested and we desperately need competent opposition in parliament. Your government also need competent opposition for that matter.
I had thought of just spoiling my ballot since there is no party that comes close to representing me (I think of myself as a crimson Tory with libertarian sympathies) but then thought that there is usually a Marxist-Lennist or Libertarian on the ballot and I might vote for one of those at random. Not this time.
I am hoping for a minority government. They tend to do the least damage.
I’ve seen serious rolls of the clear packing tape at Costco, six to the pack as I recall.
And there it is on their web site.
“…and isn’t her pantsuit just ravishing?”
About which I busted out laughing when someone described them as her Romulan officer uniforms.
What a pig. I wish I could erase the image from my brain somehow and ditto the sound tracks. I can just laugh at The Incumbent’s bullshit but the witch about to take over will make him seem like a day at the beach. She is very well-known for uber-bitchiness and being a very vulgar and vindictive and physically violent harpy.
Chances are actually probably pretty good that she’ll have a friggin’ stroke or haht attack while in office, so we’ll have to see who the VP choice will be…
Lynn wrote:
“…isn’t her pantsuit just ravishing?”
Now now! We don’t want SteveF and OFD getting hot and horney about someone else’s wife… 🙂
Rolf wrote:
“I am hoping for a minority government. They tend to do the least damage.”
That’s not my experience. Minority governments tend to be beholden to Green nutcases and make very bad policy decisions to keep them onside.
“Chances are actually probably pretty good that she’ll have a friggin’ stroke or haht attack while in office, so we’ll have to see who the VP choice will be…”
Bernie. Who else?
“I’ve seen serious rolls of the clear packing tape at Costco, six to the pack as I recall.”
Six 1.88″ x 54.6 yard x 2.6 mil rolls for $26.29. The rolls I get from Uline are 2″ x 110 yards by 2.0 mil, or twice that size. I buy them by the case of 36 rolls, at $1.60/roll, or about a fifth the price that Costco charges.
I just wish that we could change the Pecos River between Texas and Mexico into a moat.
I think you mean the Rio Grande, but your point is taken. Just build the damn fence.
The trick with the packing tape at Costco, same with bubble wrap, only buy when on sale.
OFD writes: “How can people fall for it? It’s because they simply WANT to.”
That’s exactly it. The media is even pretty explicit about her positions, saying that she has decided to move her campaign rhetoric to the left, to compete with Bernie. Which is just spelling it out: she’s saying what people want to hear, not what she actually intends to do. Yet people fall for it, read into her what they want to believe (“mohr free stuff”), and ultimately vote for her.
Be assured: Obama has let it be know that there will be no criminal charges for the email scandal. I’m amazed he let the investigation go as far as he did. Anyone else would be in jail.
The worst thing about her is that she will play the gender card, just like Obama has constantly played the race card. You won’t be able to disagree with anything she does or says, or else you will be sexist.
We just had our federal elections this past weekend. Pretty big shift to the right, riding on the worries about migrants. The far right here is pretty nuts, as I suppose it is everywhere, but the middle right is reasonably sensible. Multiparty system, of course: four parties with at least 10%, then a long tail of smaller parties.
Our huge advantage over the US, though, is simply being small: less power and money for politicians to lust after, less distance from the people. If you’re on the right train, you may find yourself sitting across from a member of parliament, because they commute to work just like the rest of us.
I wonder: is it possible for any form of government to work – and avoid corruption – in a nation of 300+ million people? Too much power, too much money…
“I wonder: is it possible for any form of government to work – and avoid corruption – in a nation of 300+ million people?”
No.
It’s not just us; look at India and China, the two biggest countries. They’ll break up eventually, too; we may do it faster, though, ’cause there is pretty radical polarization going on now. Of course the attitude of the rulers toward our largest banks also applies to the Empire: “too big to fail” and they’ll pull out all the stops to keep it running. But tempus fugit, and it is just not sustainable much longer. I still maintain that the slow slide is preferable, but any “perfect storm” of events, or “detonators,” could derail us pretty effin fast.
I see O Kanada has elected a commie metrosexual clown for its PM. Outstanding. How long will it be now before Ottawa goes after the western provinces?
“I wonder: is it possible for any form of government to work – and avoid corruption – in a nation of 300+ million people? Too much power, too much money…”
No, it’s not, which is one of the big reasons why I’m anarchist-libertarian.
I just wish that we could change the Pecos River between Texas and Mexico into a moat.
I think you mean the Rio Grande, but your point is taken. Just build the damn fence.
Argghh! I am so incompetent nowadays!
They did build the fence. A six foot metal post (with three ft in the ground) every ten foot and four strands of barb wire. What do you want?
“Argghh! I am so incompetent nowadays!”
Did you get elected to office and fail to inform us?
“A six foot metal post (with three ft in the ground) every ten foot and four strands of barb wire. What do you want?”
What a joke. When I was a high jumper in high skool I could have cleared that fence. Almost anyone could climb it and/or get boosted over it. Or are you saying that three feet out of the six feet is below ground and the fence is thus only three feet high? Even more of a joke, if so. And any remote location lends itself to simply digging under it; plus hardware store wirecutters take care of the barbed wire.
Twelve feet at the top of a twelve-foot deep ravine filled with mines, trip flares, etc. and which can be flooded quickly at will. Towers every so often, depending on terrain, with clear fields of fire, from rifles and machine guns. Behind that, a second fence, with the usual concertina barbed wire and the stretch in between patrolled by sentry dogs. Overhead, regular drone, chopper and plane patrols and surveillance.
Either get fucking serious about a border fence and spend the money being blown elsewhere, say, the Sandbox messes, and start building national security/sovereignty, or blow it off like they’re deliberately doing now and undermine the country and its people.
As a WWII vet says in the current issue of the American Legion magazine, we’re letting in refugees and handing out benefits while veterans sleep under bridges.
Or are you saying that three feet out of the six feet is below ground and the fence is thus only three feet high?
Yes. See the third picture down, the fence behind the reporter talking to the sheriff:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2721991/The-border-fence-joke-Filmmaker-crosses-US-Mexico-dressed-Osama-bin-Laden-Border-Patrol-says-once.html
I like the Israeli fence to the west bank, 20 ft tall concrete slabs:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_West_Bank_barrier
and
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_West_Bank_barrier#/media/File:AbuDisWall.jpg
“Argghh! I am so incompetent nowadays!”
Did you get elected to office and fail to inform us?
I am not that incompetent.
So, in essence, the government has told us, and is telling us, that:
1.) They’re not the least bit serious about securing that border.
2.) But they’ll spend however many tens of millions to construct a joke of a fence anyway.
3.) And fuck you.
This is also connected to the utter joke that the multi-however-many-millions TSA has been all these years, where people still have to take their shoes off (despite that one caper being a failure and despite telling us they’d stop doing that), grandmas in wheelchairs get searched and little kids terrorized, but they don’t (and physically can’t) inspect all the baggage and other stuff in the planes’ cargo holds. One pilot looked out his cockpit window and saw them tossing our baggage all over the landscape but the cargo holds were never searched; he made the mistake of spilling this to the MSM and agents rousted him at his house and he was then fired.
Our northern border here in Vermont? Peeps cross back and forth 7×24 nowhere near any of the Customs and Immigration checkpoints and have for many years. Everyone knows it.
Our corporate overlords spit all over national sovereignty many years ago and our government has followed suit in spades, while they still gin up one obscene and unsuccessful foreign military clusterfuck after another.