08:51 – Pearl Harbor was 75 years ago today. A date which will live in infamy.
My father’s mother almost got lynched that day. She’d washed an antique quilt and hung it over the balcony railing to dry. The quilt, which we still have, was a beautiful white with a pattern of red swastikas on it. In 1941, of course, the swastika hadn’t assumed its current meaning. To my grandmother, it was just a quilt made with an Indian pattern. Americans didn’t yet associate the swastika with Nazi mass murders, although most were aware of its recent connection with Germany. One of her neighbors called the police to report a German spy (because of course spies always put up billboards to advertise what they’re doing …) and the cops showed up at her door to find a puzzled middle-age lady. She packed that quilt away and it didn’t see the light of day for another 30 years or so.
Barbara took off about 0730 to head down to Winston. She’s running errands, having lunch and dinner with friends, and staying the night with Frances and Al. She’ll return home tomorrow afternoon. Meanwhile, it’s wild women and parties for Colin and me.
Email overnight from a long-time reader who raises a good point, and one I don’t emphasize enough: balancing preps.
He’s concerned that Cassie is focusing exclusively on food storage, to the exclusion of other critical categories. Actually, that’s not the case. Food storage just happened to be their weakest category, so they’re focusing on shoring that up. With a well and a year-round spring, they’re in good shape on water. They’re reasonably well-armed, have a decent stock of medical supplies, and so on. It was food that was the gaping hole in their preps, but they’ve addressed that now.
But the point remains valid. I’ve been prepping for about 50 years now, and my primary concern has always been maintaining balance. It does you no good to have a decade’s worth of stored food if you run out of water. Some folks have a serious armory, but have let other categories slide. Having having a dozen AR-15s and 100,000 rounds of ammunition does you no good if you run out of food. Or water. Or medical supplies. Or if you can’t keep your living area warm in winter.
Unfortunately, most preppers are guilty of such imbalances. It’s human nature. If you like to shoot, it’s natural to focus too much on guns and ammo. If you enjoy ham radio, it’s natural to focus too much on communications. And so on. The trick to maintaining balance is to focus your efforts on stuff that’s not “fun”. Look at each area and decide which one or ones need to be shored up. Then pick out the one you least want to work on and get that one done. Then the next one. And so on.
Thanks to OFD for this link. FTA:
Justin Nojan Sullivan, 20, of Morganton pleaded guilty in an Asheville courtroom to one count of attempting to commit an act of terrorism transcending national boundaries, federal officials said in a news release. He planned an attack at a concert, bar or club where he believed as many as 1,000 people would die, they said.
“Justin Sullivan planned to kill hundreds of innocent people,” said John A. Strong, special agent in charge of the FBI’s office in Charlotte. “He pledged his support to ISIL and took calculated steps to commit a murderous rampage to prove his allegiance to the terrorist organization.”
Sullivan said in court that he planned shootings in North Carolina and Virginia that would cause mass casualties, U.S. Attorney Jill Westmoreland Rose said. He also said he had “frequent and direct communications” with Junaid Hussain, an Islamic State member who asked him to make a video of the attack, she said.
Morganton is about a two-hour drive south of here on US-18. It’s easy for those of us in rural areas to get complacent, but it’s also a big mistake.
“He asked the undercover FBI employee to build silencers and told him that he planned to carry out his attack in the next few days. He was then arrested at his parents’ home.”
What is it with these guys and silencers? All the white potential terrorists they nab get grabbed on weapons charges.
This guy was also a suspected murderer who killed and robbed a neighbor.
Criminals usually act close to home. That’s where they feel comfortable, that’s where they know the score.
Eyes open. Pay attention.
n
I was going to say my glaring imbalance is probably firearms, but realized it’s actually reaching out to other preppers in my area. That, and I just need to do more in each category. Life keeps intervening. I need to transform my mental list of things to do to a paper list and start crossing things off. I’m probably better prepared than 90% of the population in the US, but that isn’t saying much.
There are several reasons I need to reach out to other preppers in my area. First, I could use some real life friends to encourage me to do more. Second, people who have different strengths and weaknesses that complement mine would be a good idea. Finally, the best way to build prepping skills in a particular area is to teach someone else. The second best way to build prepping skills is either to have someone teach you, or just to do it yourself. I’m not sure which of those last two is more important, but I realize they both matter.
Per our discussion of rain water capture, weaponsman has this video linked:
http://weaponsman.com/?p=37302
Avoid the top 7 mistakes when harvesting rainwater.
n
“What is it with these guys and silencers? All the white potential terrorists they nab get grabbed on weapons charges.”
I’d guess it’s another charge or set of charges the “authorities” can tack on. So far as I know, the Feds make us pay that NFA fee of $200 and fill out a bunch of paperwork to buy silencers and I doubt these assholes do any of that.
Prepping imbalances; I like to play with guns and explosives and radios so we’re all set in those categories, mostly, and I’m addressing the shortcoming we have here in the categories of food and water as best I can. While not getting complacent WRT to the danger of terrorist and/or criminal attacks, I tend to think that that sort of thing will be mostly happening in the cities. Our major threat here is still the local white trash criminal element, in the form of break-ins and home invasions. That could change quite a bit in whatever SHTF scenario, of course, as I doubt very many of them are actively prepping and will come after other peoples’ food and valuables. As, no doubt, will some neighbors.
Overcast with various rain and snow showers until Saturday.
“‘The Moms’ co-host Denise Albert, who is battling cancer, says she felt ‘violated’ during TSA search”
http://pix11.com/2016/12/06/the-moms-co-host-denise-albert-who-is-battling-cancer-says-she-felt-violated-during-tsa-search/
Are we no better than this ?
“All TSA employees are trained on screening passengers with medical conditions and disabilities, and their training emphasizes treating passengers with dignity, respect and sensitivity, a spokeswoman for the agency said.”
Uh, yeah.
My wife underwent a mastectomy and a year of chemotherapy for advanced breast cancer twelve years ago. Sensitive does not even start to describe her condition at the time. I am fairly sure that I could not have stood by and watched her get mistreated like this poor lady was.
I am fairly sure that I could not have stood by and watched her get mistreated like this poor lady was.”
There’s no excuse for that bullshit; she obviously is an American citizen who does not even come close to fitting any “profiles” and two ignorant TSA thugs mistreated her badly in public. They’re clearly doing “security theater” now in this country at airports and making sure they put regular citizens through the mill. Meanwhile it’s child’s play to put devices on board aircraft cargo holds. And how many drills and tests have been conducted by now where guys get through with all kinds of firearms and fake explosives?
MIL was mistreated this past week on her return from Kalifornia via the Montreal airport; they made an 88-old woman push her own wheelchair with the luggage in it a hundred yards in there while the “flight attendant” walked ahead of her to the hotel entrance. The “flight attendant” had evidently been looking after some family’s kid somewhere but evidently no other staff were available. MIL normally is in a wheelchair getting on and off the planes and hobbles around slowly on a cane.
When Mrs. OFD found out about it, she wrote blistering emails to both United and Air Canada and posted the whole enchilada on FaceCrack, where it got a lot of views and attention.
I am also pretty sure I could not just stand or walk by while someone like MIL or Denise Albert is mistreated and would intervene verbally at first in a calm tone and ask for supervisors. If that didn’t work, I’d raise a fuss and probably get myself arrested and detained there for hours or days or taken straight to the local jail. But I ain’t watching chit like that go down peaceably.
As long as Americans continue to fly and continue to put up with TSA’s bullshit, their complaints mean nothing. Stop flying and the problem will be solved in a month.
If it is less than a 1,000 miles, I drive now. Much more pleasant. And I get sick after a plane ride about 50% of the time, usually some respiratory crap.
“Stop flying and the problem will be solved in a month.”
Mrs. OFD and I’m guessing MrAtoz and MrsAtoz have no choice; their work assignments take them all over North Murka and the Caribbean. But lots of others are joy-riders on vacations and taking the kidz to Disney World for the fifth or sixth time or Six Flags, or just gadding about the continent.
I flew down to Newark a year ago this last July with Mrs. OFD and got a rental and she did her gig and I explored more of western NJ that I’d last seen in the early 1990s; twice as many people and twice as much traffic now, of course, like the rest of Megalopolis. Coming back from Newark sucked rocks, though, which I described here after we got back. Given a choice I’d never fly again in commercial aircraft.
I never fly for pleasure anymore, because it isn’t. Business when I must, but never international, because I don’t have a passport. I don’t like to be touched, so it’s always a challenge to get through security.
I’d rather drive 8 hours than fly 1.
If it is two days or less I will drive and not fly. The TSA and it’s pack of power hungry goons have gone over the edge.
Although in fairness I did fly out of Chattanooga once and the security was empty. Went through with my camera back which always triggers an inspection. Agent was interested in photography so we spent about 10 minutes going over my equipment, explaining things, actually a nice chap. Did not bother me as time was not an issue.
Although in fairness I did fly through Newark. Agents were total jerks and damned near dropped my $3K lens because he did not know which end was which. Then started to force open the battery compartment and memory card compartment when I told him to stop immediately. I would open the compartments. He threatened to get a supervisor and I said go right ahead and I will file charges against him for theft and for damaging my equipment. He huffed and puffed and let me through.
The agents that are nice, treat them nice, and you will not have problems. The agents that are jerks treat them the same and stand your ground for your rights. And know your rights.
Avoid the top 7 mistakes when harvesting rainwater.
Be aware that harvesting rainwater is illegal in some states. Like Colorado.
twice as many people and twice as much traffic now, of course, like the rest of Megalopolis
Seems like the whole USA is like this now. The cities are all over-crowded and flyover country is a wasteland of empty homes and empty houses. The 65 million legal and illegal immigrants over the last 30 years have really contributed to the over usage of our infrastructure which has been only mildly upgraded in that time period.
Avoid the top 7 mistakes when harvesting rainwater.
Be aware that harvesting rainwater is illegal in some states. Like Colorado.
Has this concept been tested at SCOTUS ? Seems to be theft of property rights to me.
And, “UPDATE: Collecting Rainwater in Colorado will be legal beginning on August 10, 2016. Please see our new post regarding the use of Rain Barrels in Colorado, and House Bill 16-1005.”
http://www.lot-lines.com/collecting-rainwater-still-illegal-in-much-of-colorado/
“Seems like the whole USA is like this now.”
Mainly the coasts and the big city areas. Getting around is a major PITA a lot of the time and if I had to guess, I’d say the population has at least doubled since most of us on this board were kids. I found this hard to believe when I first saw it, but of course it’s true: we are the third largest country in the world, after China and India. 330 million of us and I seem to remember the figure of 165 million when I was a mere lad in small-town Maffachufetts.
And of course the late Edward F. Kennedy and his cohorts and minions really did us in back there in the Glorious Sixties, with the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, so now we have many tens of millions of legal and illegal immigrants here, with zero thought of how they might acclimate themselves to this country, or the additional burden on American taxpayers. Just like the Boston busing fiasco; initiate a virtue-signalling program or project or law, and the consequences fall on people who can least afford them. It’s a failure? Causes major problems? Why, DOUBLE-DOWN ON IT! Bring in more tens of millions. Somalis to Burlington, Vermont, and while you’re at it, mix in Bosnian musloids with Serb Orthodox, just like in……………the former Yugoslavia.
And if Pat Buchanan says it’s more likely that 100 Englishmen will assimilate better in, say, Virginia, than 100 Zulus, why, he must be a rayciss!
WRT to collecting rainwater; I’d run it by Mrs. OFD but I guarantee she won’t like the idea of barrels and gutters and pipes outside the house: “It’d look TERRIBLE!”
I like to drive. “See the USA in your Chevrolet” and all that. I would like to go back to Hawaii and Maui. I do want to go to Australia.
Going through a metal detector is ok, when I set it off I show the scar on my leg.
Funny thing though. You have to go through a metal detector to get into parts of the local court house. Cops all over? And no penknife with a 2.5 inch blade allowed. What a bunch of pussies. My leg does not set the thing off. I set the detector off every time I flew from McAllen circa 1978-1981.
Is going through TSA commando and just dropping yer drawers a thing? If it’s going to be groped they might as well look at it. And admire.
Oh, micro-aggression. Er, macro …
If it is less than a 1,000 miles, I drive now. Much more pleasant. And I get sick after a plane ride about 50% of the time, usually some respiratory crap.
Cabin air doesn’t get turned over as many times an hour as it did 30-40 years ago, before the airlines banned smoking. I’m guessing you are familiar with the math about why the process burns fuel to bring air in from the outside at altitude. I’ve heard the current standard is 2-3 times an hour whereas it used to be 6-7.
At least, leaving from the Land of Sugar, you usually only have one hop domestic. Tampa always required a trip through the Atlanta porkbarrel project, and anywhere except a West Coast destination from Portland was a cr*p shoot on Southwest — two minimum, three hops not uncommon.
Has this concept been tested at SCOTUS ? Seems to be theft of property rights to me.
Probably. Water rights law in the Western US is very complicated. For example, the water in the Colorado River is allocated to each of the states it flows through, to the point that 100% or so gets used. As the article that you cited says, the rainwater in Colorado is the property of all the citizens and is allocated by law. And the change in the law only allows rainwater collection if you have a well and no municipal water supply.
Strange. The comment just before this one is “awaiting moderation”. I thought it’s pretty moderate as is.
Water rights law in the Western US is very complicated.
WA State banned collection of rainwater until ~ 2009, shortly before we moved up there.
Believe it or not, WA and OR can experience droughts, even in the “rain forest” areas west of the Cascades. Water supply for the population in those states is heavily dependent on snow pack in the mountains.
“Trump ignores Gore’s advice, instead picks skeptic to head EPA & dismantle climate agenda”
http://www.climatedepot.com/2016/12/07/trump-ignores-gores-advice-instead-picks-skeptic-to-head-epa-dismantle-climate-agenda/
I approve of this. The only way that we can realistically reduce our CO2 production is cut our lifestyles by 50% or more by putting a 1,000% carbon tax on all Co2 producing activities. Including football.
“…putting a 1,000% carbon tax on all Co2 producing activities. Including football.”
And the chattering classes in Mordor and NYC and Hollyweird. That’s a LOTTA hot air.
Boy, the MSM is really gonna hate tRump for four years.
Assuming he gets past 12/19 and 01/20,t that is.
Picked up a couple of preps at auction today. Got a full copy of Topos for the whole US, 18 discs in all. Hope I can print from that. I know I can get some from the .gov, but it’s handy to have an offline resource.
Picked up a huge pair of binos. They need cleaning, which I’ve started, but the glass is excellent (fujinon x100 wide angle supposedly).
@mr Ray, was that you that had a GPS stolen? I’ve got an extra Nuvi now, maps are a bit out of date, which doesn’t bother me, but might bother you. If you want it send me mail at my last name at aol.com and I’ll send it to you. (it was in a box of electronics at the auction.) Otherwise I’ll sell the cable on ebay.
Got a nice motorola talkabout FRS/GMRS and charger in the box o stuff, so the rest is gravy.
Rain is starting up again. I guess if it’s raining I don’t have to worry about the garden getting frost…
WRT rain barrels, see my links in the previous discussion w/ RBT. For a few bux more you can get some really decorative ones, including with a planter on top.
Kids with knives getting shot at school, cops shot in the head, the days are getting crazier.
nick
“Got a full copy of Topos for the whole US, 18 discs in all.”
Sweet. I had custom topo maps made of this AO from http://www.mytopo.com/index.cfm?pid=overture
They came out nice, that’s one in back of me here in the office from that pic of me I put up a while back. No, I haven’t cut my hair. Yet.
“For a few bux more you can get some really decorative ones, including with a planter on top.”
Cool, I’ll run it up the pole here and see if anyone salutes. But I’m guessing not. I keep telling her that our well is dependent on the juice being on, and if it’s only a few days, no big deal; but if it’s longer, then yeah, it IS a big deal.
“…the days are getting crazier.”
They’ve always been crazy; it’s what the media wishes to broadcast and it’s upended the next day or even hour by something else. Do we ever hear of anything GOOD from these rumpswabs? Somebody did something good somewhere? Somebody was extra nice to somebody somewhere? Fuck no.
WRT air travel- I used to do it for work. Alot. Like at least 2 flights every week for years.
Mostly domestic, mostly shorter flights, I have over 750K actual air miles on several airlines, but mostly continental and united, followed by AA. One year I had 92 flights. (actually twice, iirc)
I ALWAYS get extra screening. The only exception in recent memory was when I walked thru the magnetometer holding my child.
They’ll rescan my carryon (40 pounds of cables and electronics when I was working) 4-6 times, never asking to open it or asking me about the items. Or they’ll open every single zippered pocket and pouch, and find a tiny “tweaker” screwdriver that had made it thru 50 or more searches. They’ll blithely pass the electronics and test equipment, but ask why I have so many batteries. One guy looked at the xray, then opened the bag, took out my Disto laser rangefinder (musta looked interesting- big piece of glass attached to circuit board) asked what it was, I said “laser rangefinder” and he goes “huh” and puts it back. I’ve had agents take out every pouch and tetris it all back in, and I’ve had them double the apparent volume of the stuff by mixing it up.
In other words, it’s a total crapshoot.
In 10 years of carrying it, I never once had an agent find the metal card inside the padded laptop pocket in my briefcase. NOT ONE agent even found the pocket.
I refuse to have my eyes and gonads pulsed with microwave energy, so I skip the naked scanner, which always means a pat down. Ask for a private screening- it’s your right, and it messes with their routine. Always get there early enough it won’t matter how much they F with you.
Now I don’t have to travel except for family events. As soon as the kids are a bit older, we’ll be camping and driving instead of flying, whenever we can. In the mean time, having money helps. If you carry credit cards, get one that includes airline lounge access. It is worth every cent, even if you just use the bathroom and grab a snack to go. With family, it’s worth every DIME. Get status on an airline or thru your card, or thru the lounge membership. Free bags and the expedited security line are worth every penny. If you normally pay for checked bags, you can make back the club cost in only a few trips, AND you get the lounge and premiere security line….
Traveling to make your living sucks. It sucks hard. Take your joy where you find it…
nick
@mr Ray, was that you that had a GPS stolen? I’ve got an extra Nuvi now
Thanks for the offer but I purchased a new GPS the day mine was stolen. The one that was stolen was about four years old. New unit is much better, provides more information, faster response, better resolution. The thief that stole mine ripped the power cord from the back of the unit and left the power cable plugged into the vehicle. The unit is basically worthless without the power cable.
Did discover that the thief damaged the lock on my truck. Rammed something in the lock. Originally thought access by the thief was because the door was left unlocked. Seems to not be the case. New lock getting installed tomorrow by a locksmith (dealer does not do it) and the new lock assembly can be matched to my existing key. About $150.00. Couple that with the loss of the GPS and the thief got nothing and cost me a bunch of money.
I’ve got an extra Nuvi now, maps are a bit out of date
Most Nuvi’s had lifetime maps. May be able to be updated by using the Garmin software. Gets more difficult over time as the memory on older units is limited as the maps are containing more information. You get restricted to just parts of a map download on older units. The unit I had stolen was bumping up against such restrictions. So the theft was not a big loss, just pissed me off with the ancillary damage.
WA and OR can experience droughts
When I lived in southern Oregon (outside of Rogue River) we got really dry in the summer. Constant need to irrigate. Pumped about 600 gallons a minute out of the local creek for six months out of the year. We had the water rights. When the property was sold the water rights were not transferred and my uncle let them expire. Someone else grabbed the water rights and now the new owner cannot irrigate the property. Thus it was subdivided and there are now several house on large lots on the property. Shame on the new property owner who did not know about the water rights.
Surprising to many is that eastern Oregon is basically a desert area. I spent a couple of weeks when I was teen at a paleontology camp digging dinosaur bones with a bunch of loonies. Got excited over what looked to me like a piece of rock. Almost an orgasmic experience for those people. Chipping at rock with a small chisel and dental tools in the heat and dirt just did not excite me.
I skip the naked scanner
I instead try to get myself aroused so I can impress the person that is doing the viewing. But all I probably get is snickering. Unable to avoid the TSA and the scanning on the Europe trips. While in Europe on the return I generally get singled out for additional scanning, as in full pat down and carry on search. Don’t know why. Maybe I look dangerous. Has happened on every trip.
“…airline lounge access. It is worth every cent, even if you just use the bathroom and grab a snack to go.”
Mrs. OFD is a member of the United Club, at $500/year, so she can relax in them, get something half-decent to eat and drink, use the bathroom, etc. Well worth it in her estimation. I bet she could finagle that as an expense but I bet she hasn’t because she is scrupulously honest to a fault and goes out of her way to save her “employers” money, so they turn right around and fuck her over and treat her like shit, after seven years of bringing in countless hundreds of thousands for them and as one of the original four instructors. Assholes.
She is also on the TSA pre-check-expedited list but that didn’t help us much at Newark 18 months ago, although we did notice that the non-pre-check line was about three or four times longer. So there’s that.
“Traveling to make your living sucks. It sucks hard. Take your joy where you find it…”
She does; uses AirBnB accommodations (saving more money for much better places to sleep and eat and pee around the country), tries to get out and look around at the locale if she has time, and if it’s on a coast she’ll hit a beach and grab some beach glass, shells, etc. for her jewelry making enterprise. If she gets northern Kalifornia, she’ll stay with the kids and grandkids for a couple of days and tack it on before or after her gig. They screwed her out of that, too, by supposedly limiting instructors to their own geographical areas but we see that hasn’t worked out very well for them so far. And she bitched out the manager/coordinator asshole, a useless piece of bureaucratic shit, on the phone one night and hung up on him.
And I see the NRA’s online class that I’m taking isn’t working out very well, either, tonight. Net slowed down all of a sudden. PITA. I think I’ll go back downstairs, read some stuff and crash in the recliner again. Got stuff to do tomorrow and the vets group to check in at.
When Princess *finally* finishes uni you can turn the tables and bludge off her… 🙂
” The only way that we can realistically reduce our CO2 production is cut our lifestyles by 50% or more by putting a 1,000% carbon tax on all Co2 producing activities.”
Actually your life style may improve. Using fossil fuels do create all sorts of poisonous gases, that affects your health.
Cities like Paris are starting to banning cars with diesel engines in order to improve their air quality.
And there are more benefits of limiting fossil fuels use. It’s really a pitty to focus only on climate effects.
And FTA:
“Reality check: In 1908, fossil fuels accounted for 85% of U.S. energy consumption. In 2015, more or less the same.”
That’s more like 82% in US. In EU it’s about 73.4% (computed from Figure 2 here: http://www.eurogas.org/uploads/media/Eurogas_Statistical_Report_2014.pdf)
It’s interesting that EU tends to address energy related problems also by strongly reducing its consumption:
“the EU has launched a number of initiatives which aim to increase the efficiency of energy use, reduce energy demand and attempt to decouple it from economic growth.”
“The level of EU-28 energy consumption in 2014 was 12.7 % lower than its previous peak of 1 840 Mtoe recorded in 2006, equivalent to an average reduction of 1.7 % per annum. ”
And: “The European Union (EU) has pledged to cut its energy consumption by 20 % (compared with projected levels) by 2020.”
That’s from: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Consumption_of_energy
US too has some decline in energy consumption lately.
An interesting article about abortion: if it’s a woman’s right to choose can a guy opt out of paying child support unless he’s comitted iurrevocably to support the child?
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-12-04/financial-abortion-men-opt-out-parenthood/8049576
If society gives a woman a choice, shouldn’t the man get the same choice?
If we’re going to be “fair”, the man should have the same choice.
But then, I’m old school. Life isn’t about fair. It’s about survival of the species. If you don’t want to make a candle, you shouldn’t be dipping your wick. If you do, you are morally responsible for the consequences.
@miles, I’ve been making that argument for years. If a woman is the only one who can say no, then by extension she is the only one who can say yes. Not a popular stance. (and think of what would be involved if the question was resolved the other way, involuntary pregnancy and childbirth? How would you manage that? How would you prevent the baby from being harmed?
Artificial wombs will cause greater changes in society than reliable contraception did, and that overturned millennia of structure. Of course, so many things can go wrong during a normal pregnancy that I can’t ever imagine getting to the point of artificial wombs that work. Long before that, we’ll see surrogates become common, as poor women rent themselves out to richer men and women. It’ll start benevolently enough, have one and raise yourself out of poverty. Eventually, price competition will end up enslaving a generation or more… maybe that’s the end goal. Impoverish the anglos so you have a source of ‘rent a wombs’ in your skin tone, and a ready supply of spare parts–turn Europe and North America into India.
nick
@Eugen,
I don’t believe you can reduce your way to prosperity. Per capita energy consumption is a pretty good proxy for wealth. Cheap and abundant energy fueled (literally) the rise of the US as an industrial and political power. (This is true for the major powers throughout history- cheap fuel in the form of trees, coal, or even whale oil led to vast increases in wealth in Europe as well.) Control over cheap energy is the ONLY reason the middle east has any importance to the West.
Most of the reduction and conservation effort in the EU or in the US is driven by political goals. It’s difficult (politically) to build new power plants, so conservation measures become law. Preventing new power plants preserves the existing monopoly power of the providers. But all this does is delay the moment of reckoning when shortages become acute, and it pushes those costs into the future. Because of geometrical progression, that transition from “we’ve got enough if we’re careful” to “we can’t keep the lights on for everyone” will be sudden.
China has approved about 150 NEW coal fired plants PER YEAR. This is an astonishing number. They are bringing the equivalent of 2 plants online EVERY WEEK. There are other factors in china besides need for power, but they will have excess capacity (which is also called “Room for growth”) for some time, while EU and N.A. will continue to try to squeeze more out of less.
Oh, and it’s not heavy industry or people using all that power in the US. Google is the biggest single electrical user in the US. Data centers eat a LOT of power, and google and others have a lot of data centers. Wal*mart is second after Google.
Cheap abundant power- we need more, not less. “Excess” capacity is room for growth. Without it, you stagnate or shrink.
nick
@ofd
“Mrs. OFD is a member of the United Club, at $500/year” look at their Presidents Club credit card. For less than the cost of the Club membership by itself you get a card with points, Club membership, and the benefits of silver level status (short line, and free bags.) This was the option I went with when I quit traveling for work and lost points-based status on United.
nick
Control over cheap energy is the ONLY reason the middle east has any importance to the West
You mean camel dung and sand are not valuable? With all the squabbles in the middle east you would that stuff is worth it’s weight in Doritos.
Yes, and I say “let them learn to eat sand and drink oil” not one penny more to fund terror.
n
I don’t believe you can reduce your way to prosperity. Per capita energy consumption is a pretty good proxy for wealth. Cheap and abundant energy fueled (literally) the rise of the US as an industrial and political power.
Nor can you tax yourself into prosperity as the dumbocrats and the repuglicans have advocated in the recent decades. I believe that Mr. Trump has a few changes in mind along these lines.
Nor can you tax yourself into prosperity as the dumbocrats and the repuglicans have advocated in the recent decades.
But but bu… it’s for the children! Says I as I look at my property tax bill.
Nick,
thanks for the informative comment.
I found this Wiki page with per capita energy consumption by country:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_energy_consumption_per_capita
But the idea is not only to reduce, but also to minimize waste, maximize what you have already, and create new sustainable energy plants.
In Romania, the last 5 years or so, many plants have been build, mostly eolian and photovoltaic. The eolian development was so big, that from nothing, Romania has now one of the biggest eolian farms in Europe.
You can see in the pie chart at the bottom of the page, live stats about the electricity production in Romania:
http://transelectrica.ro/web/tel/home
Eolian is now first with 30%. During the daylight I saw Hidro at about 25%. Now it’s only 9% (it’s night now here).
But but bu… it’s for the children! Says I as I look at my property tax bill.
I have not even finished paying mine yet. I have $10K to go, I’ve paid almost $19K to date.
US too has some decline in energy consumption lately.
The US has cut greenhouse gas emissions significantly. Why? Because fracking has dramatically lowered the cost of natural gas and many coal-fired power plants have gone offline and been replaced by natural gas generators.
Because of the high price of petrol in Europe, diesels are much more common there than in the US, and diesels emit a lot of particulates into the air compared to gasoline engines.
As for air quality, the general air quality (and water quality) in the US is much, much better than it was in the 1960s. I remember days when the smog was so bad it looked like fog. Today, when we have days like that it’s generally due to natural causes – pollen from the nearby pine forests or dust from North Africa making it to the US. Right now they are trying to regulate pollutants that couldn’t be detected 30 years ago.
Almost done with second season of “Walking Dead.” Mainly watching for any decent story line and realistic chit concerning prepping ideas.
One fail: they enter a bar in an abandoned town and it’s still apparently fully stocked with booze. I don’t fucking think so.
And one thing to remember: you can’t have enough ammo. Don’t be fighting off or getting chased by goblins with just the rounds in your lousy little handgun. If you’re gonna be involved with chit like that, carry a rifle with extra mags. No rifle? Have extra mags or speedloaders for your handgun. Some goblins don’t go down with one, two or three shots and they can still be firing at you or coming at you. Other times one shot does the trick; lay it on ’em until they’re DOA. Gotta run past ’em? Put another couple into ’em on your way. Sucks getting shot in the back.
Also heard from vets service officer this AM: we’re gonna hook up with a rating review officer from the VA in January or February about my disability claim, I guess. Running into some of the same shit my old paratrooper buddy has run into: I was in BOTH Laos and Cambodia when I wasn’t supposed to be, officially, and gee whiz, lookee here, no record of it or they can’t find any so far. Fuckers.
My military records are missing a few elements but they’re classified so that’s not surprising. Since I no longer have an active security clearance, I don’t think I’d be allowed to see the entirety of my own records, ridiculous though that may be. Not a problem, so far as any medical or other claims go. I didn’t get any physical injuries beyond the usual minor cuts and sprains, and I continue to maintain that no matter what I saw and did in the military (and some of it was awful), my childhood was worse.
“…and I continue to maintain that no matter what I saw and did in the military (and some of it was awful), my childhood was worse.”
There are at least two guys in my vets group with a similar childhood growing up and the military was like a day at the beach for them; and one other guy on this board had the same deal. I had a pretty good growing up, minus a few slaps, kicks, punches and being bounced off the wall at home and at school when they could still do that, and some psychological abuse from a couple of teachers, but fuck it, water under the proverbial bridge. My mil-spec time was actually worse, in several cases, MUCH worse.
Then, of course, because we continue to engage in risky behavior and dig the adrenaline rush, we gravitate to occupations like firefighter, cop, bounty hunter, vigilante, etc. I did that but got tired of it, actually boring after a while, and gravitated further into IT. Which started out OK for a few years and then it all went to shit around 2002.
I wouldn’t go so far as “a day at the beach”. I got as pissed off at abusive or incompetent “superiors” as anyone else did and was fully unenthused about carrying a third of my weight on a 12 mile road march at 0530 after having worked all night. However, home and school molded me so that I was able to see the aftermath of a village destroyed as if the Mongols or Kossacks had been through, and not freak out or go catatonic or anything, and I’ve always been able to do what needed to be done, no matter how horrid or morally or legally questionable.
Funny thing was, it took me until I was 30-ish before I realized there was something wrong with my childhood. I knew it hadn’t been a bed of roses, but I didn’t think there was anything notable about it. But eventually I noticed that when I told stories from my childhood, a large fraction of the listeners would look at me in horror or back away and get furniture between us or (rarely) say “you poor baby!” I don’t have a clue what it is that sets them off, but it happened regularly enough that even someone as thick-headed as I finally noticed. Either something wasn’t right about it all or I’m one hell of a storyteller without even meaning to be.
Probably something wasn’t right about it. I didn’t realize until my forties that shit that went on back then was really not good at all and no way to treat kids, but blew it off, as did my next-older brother who still says “Maybe they didn’t hit us enough, hahaha!”
Then I blew it off some more after being in the military and cops and seeing far worse shit go down. Mine didn’t seem so important then, and even my military stuff is like nothing compared to some of the shit I’ve heard in the vets group. Make your hair stand on end. Even after having seen several villes get torched and bodies stacked like cordwood in downtown Phnom Penh and left there for weeks in 100+ heat. Shit, now Anthony Bourdain goes over there and eats cobra hearts raw and hangs out at local bars with the homies.
I can’t trump any of the stories, my childhood was pretty vanilla for someone in the chicongo area, at that time, and with the sort of friends I had.
I’ll just say that it has taken me a few decades to get to the point where I think I’m human, in that I have an essential humanity. I wasn’t real connected to people in general, and didn’t realize there was something missing there until a few years ago. Then with traveling for work, you can become even more disconnected from society, which for someone that wasn’t that tightly attached to people anyway isn’t a good thing. 15 years of that would erode anyone’s soul.
Having kids has connected me to here and now in a way nothing else did. 30 plus years of adulthood has contributed of course, but there was definitely an evolution.
I look at some of my friends who have had F’ed up childhoods and young adulthoods, and I see the same growth/transition in them that I felt if they lived long enough.
don’t know if this is making any sense…
One example. I’ve been comfortable with the thought of my own death since my teens. Never thought I’d see 25 and when I saw 26 is was a shocking wakeup call to change some things in my life. Anyway, in ~30 years of being aware of my own death, and feeling ok with it if it came, I NEVER ONCE considered how anyone ELSE might feel about it. It just never crossed my mind. I was cool with it and I (in a very fundamental and F’d up way) was the only one who mattered. When that awareness hit, it was a bit shocking in its own right.
Looking back I’m very surprised by some of the things I did, and didn’t do. To say I’m a different person would be an understatement. And in today’s environment, I’m completely unfit for a job with public exposure, as someone would find those things that other person wearing my skin did, and would out them. I’d say F them, and double down, but it would certainly get me out of the .gov trough.
nick
“I NEVER ONCE considered how anyone ELSE might feel about it.”
Yes. We sure are full of ourselves when we’re young. I came back from the wars and the cop work and didn’t for a fucking second think that anyone else was affected by it all, by my behavior, speech, attitude, etc. All. About. Me. And MY suffering and problems.
Then, ironically, I was stuck in taking a distribution requirement course during my aborted PhD program at a large “cutting-edge” Northeast university, in Afrikan-American Poetry, with a gay black prof on loan there from Columbia. The prof and the class itself sucked rocks, but some of the readings caught my eye and made me sit up and take notice. One in particular was a poem by a black woman poet during World War I that talked about her guy being Over There and how it hit her every minute of every day and night, worrying, fretting, etc. And I thought, GODDAM, that shit hits people at HOME, TOO!
Shortly after that, another kicker; I mentioned to my mom that gee whiz, my dad, uncle and granddads had all been in wars. So she said, that’s right, my brother, my husband, my father, and my father-in-law. So another dawning upon my poor ignorant-ass, selfish soul.
And it comes up in the vets groups, too; the PTSD, for example, that hits us, also has a secondary and tertiary effect on our families and friends. And WE have often been the recipients ourselves of PTSD stuff from our dads and uncles and granddads, before going on out and getting a nice big dose, too.
“And in today’s environment, I’m completely unfit for a job with public exposure…”
Ditto. I found that out over the course of several public exposure jobs and I’ll never do it again. It’s like being on another fucking planet. And some of them can see that in me. Shit, I can’t even walk through the Healthy Living market down in Burlap without peeps giving me plenty of room.
Well, anyway, we do what we gotta do to get through each day; my crutch, so to speak, is Holy Mother Church, and knowing that my wife cares about me enough to put up with all of my shit for the past nearly twenty years now. I hear that from the other vets, too, and also from the female vets who are married. The spouses will never “get” what we experienced or what is in our heads, but they stick with us anyway.
Pax vobiscum, fratres
Tomorrow is…whoops, today is, another day. TGIF, I guess, though for we who are unemployed, underemployed, retired, semi-retired, whatever, weekends are just another two days in the week.
One more shot across the cyber void tonight:
“Nothing seems settled or certain. All is in flux. But change is coming. “Things are in the saddle, and ride mankind.””
http://buchanan.org/blog/trumpian-revolution-begun-126120
it took me until I was 30-ish before I realized there was something wrong with my childhood
About the same here. My realization came when I was about 35 and started thinking back on what my aunt and uncle did to me. The realization came when they were visiting in Texas and got pissed off at something I did or said. Went to visit them at the RV park in Corpus Christi and was totally snubbed by my uncle. Left after about an hour and went back to SA. Swallowed my pride a week later and went back down to visit and found they had left and did not even tell us. Did not speak to them for about a year, or rather they did not speak to me. Began doing some soul searching and came to the conclusion they were abusive assholes.
I thus eventually started a document of several dozen pages that documented the abuse from when I was seven. Going through all the memories helped me but it also certainly pointed out how bad the abuse was. Gave a copy of the document to my former neighbors and they said they were not surprised as they knew something was not right. Also said had they know they would have taken legal steps to remove me from the environment.
Problem is this was the 50’s and 60’s and no one believed a kid. Much different today where the precious snowflakes can accuse you of simply talking hateful. Pendulum has swung the other way to the detriment of an entire generation of brats. Need to get a happy medium of discipline that is not abusive.