The Survival Laboratory

Look! Six "Youths" That Need Executed...

2012-01-17T21:46:00.002-05:00

Really...seriously...the next time you hear about "innocent young people" getting shot by people trying to defend themselves...flush out your skull if you think they're all just "innocent young people."

Five Minutes To Midnight...UH-GAIN...

2012-01-10T17:32:00.001-05:00

Hmm...can you say, "apocalypse?"

Nice try...

The Clock has gained a minute - Read all about it!

If the screws had not arrived, he might have died...but...

2012-01-06T19:04:00.000-05:00

You never know when you might have to defend yourself under rather bizarre circumstances...learn to kick...and most of all...learn when not to kick.

Fox News Fux Up...

2012-01-03T15:06:00.001-05:00

The murder of Park Ranger Margaret Anderson, which is just the most senseless type of tragedy that any family can endure, was committed by someone who was either mentally ill or just violent, angry and stupid. It doesn't matter now, he apparently died of exposure which leads us to the main point - Fox news - the media - are stupid. They regurgitate anything they are told or what they simply dream up. After the murder of Park Ranger Anderson was reported, Fox actually reported that the person, who shall remain nameless as I hope everyone forgets his name forever and remembers Ranger Anderson, had "survivalist skills." Apparently he was ill-equipped for the season and weather and didn't quite possess the skills as reported.

This is the kind of nasty, yellow journalism, and that's exactly what the reporting on this issue was, yellow journalism, that I have observed all of my life from ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN. So, congratulations, Fox, you finally joined the ranks of the rest of the sensationalist news pimps.

Rest Easy, Mrs. Anderson.

Beebe, Arkansas - Second New Year's Eve in a row...massive bird kill...

2012-01-01T15:59:00.001-05:00

Okay, okay...I'm fairly cynical about life in general and all of this "2012" hoopla in particular...but this is really stretching it for me...

Story...

6.8 Earthquake Off The Coast of Japan...

2012-01-01T13:00:00.001-05:00

Starting the New Year off with a bang...and a shake...

The Story...

30 Minutes to New Year...DOOM ON YOU!

2011-12-31T23:30:00.004-05:00

I wonder what 2012 will bring with it...I wonder what all of the people who believe THE END of EVERYTHING is going to happen because of The Mayan Calendar will do when...that doesn't happen...

Happy New Years!

Closing Out 2011...

2011-12-26T13:30:00.003-05:00

We had a lot of activity across the globe when it came to disasters this year.

Read about it here...

SOPA

2011-12-25T10:00:00.000-05:00

It's not good enough that they basically have control of everything. They have long had their eyes on the Internet. Imagine a world where information is TOTALLY GOVERNMENT APPROVED. Yeah...it would be like that...really terrible.

Visualizing SOPA...

Lauren Weinberg, 10 days in her car, stranded in the snow...

2011-12-22T22:36:00.000-05:00

Two candy bars, melted snow, NO heavy winter clothing or a blanket...and a lot of luck.

See, this really illustrates something very important about surviving various types of incidents. Her life was really in jeopardy because of the temperatures and she survived it...but imagine how much more of a simple inconvenience this would have been had she had a good survival kit in the trunk of her vehicle.

Read the story...

A lot of people will inevitably look at this and they will say, "Well, that's why I don't need a coat or a blanket or sleeping bag and a bunch of other stuff. She made it on two candy bars and melted snow. That's why I think all this survival stuff is paranoid and stupid."

And I'm sure a lot of people do think that way. I think a lot of them become the "tragic" news stories, too.

Doug Ritter, speaking about Knife Rights...

2011-12-21T20:58:00.000-05:00

...and...he is absolutely correct. The control freaks are relentless.

Suburban Whitetail...

2011-12-21T00:35:00.001-05:00

See? If there is a total collapse in society and you cannot afford bread or no longer have a job to be able to purchase bread...I'll still be eating for a while.

This Whitetail Deer was legally hunted, killed, tagged and logged in at a station and then butchered and part of him ended up in my Rival Crockpot.

The Voice of Reason...falls silent...

2011-12-20T22:51:00.003-05:00

I have been listening to Ron Smith for a very long time, he will be missed. He died approximately 24 hours ago, at home, surrounded by his family.

Rest easy...

South Korea on alert now: Kim Jong Il is dead...

2011-12-19T00:58:00.000-05:00

Let's hope everything works out for our South Korean friends...

Kim Jong Il dead at 69.

Sarajevo Survival Tools

2011-12-19T00:54:00.002-05:00

Well, none of this could ever happen here, right? I mean, no one in The United States would ever use food and water or possibly medicine or access to a doctor as a weapon...would they?

Sarajevo Survival Tools

I'm going to attempt to write!

2011-12-13T19:56:00.003-05:00

So, this might sound sort of odd...but in order to set up some type of advertising on this blog, they have to be able to automatically verify my blog. So, I have to place the next sentence in this post. This is rather strange... 8-)

Whatever hatred saves the number.

The terror...

2011-12-13T17:09:00.002-05:00

So, Verizon Wireless sends out a text message to all of its customers in New Jersey alerting and alarming them that there was a civil emergency and that they should take shelter now. They signed it US Govern

But they didn't say that it was a TEST they were running...

MY...my...

The Future?

2011-12-10T20:50:00.001-05:00

I saw this one a forum and there was no attribution to it, so I cannot give any. Might even be prophetic.

I picked up a Wife at Target...

2011-12-09T01:21:00.001-05:00

it was my Wife though...she just turned 40. I'm 43...I guess some people would say this is stupid or childish behavior...we love each other and we have enough in life that we have to be serious about. When we get a chance to act like we're two little kids and our teenage son is not around...we do. You don't like it? Fine! Get out of my blog-house! 8-)

After I took her for a tour trying to find a copy of Aerosmith's stupendous 1970s release, "Get Your Wings," and being totally unsuccessful at Target...I always check out the flashlights and outdoors stuff...

I was SHOCKED!

Gerber's line of Bear Gryll's approved survival gear was there! Yes, the guy that will climb a greased aluminum lightpole to escape a stampede of scorpions high on crank, he stares back at you from the blister carded Gerber tools and doo-dads, dirty faced...

I've never watched an entire episode of the guy's show. Every time I see a glimpse of it he is doing something so incredibly stupid, I go back to VH-1 Classics or something...I mean, well...you know what I mean.

Gerber makes quality gear. Is it "high" quality...why...I don't rightly know anymore! I know they used to, I don't know about now and I don't know about the Gryll's line of gear. He is just funny to me...and the people that think that show is like a training program amuse me as well.

The Urban Widow

2011-12-08T20:39:00.001-05:00

Just because there is carpet and, in this case, beat-up drywall, it doesn't mean you shouldn't watch where you put your hands. Me and a friend of mine at work got pictures of her at about 9:50 this morning before sending her off to the next life.

2011-10-06T23:36:00.001-04:00

I don't quite know what to do right now about this. I have the website up and running again and I am going to do my best to update it regularly and make it a very, very active website.

I can take what I want from this blog and then archive or delete it and then what I have taken, I can turn into articles for the website.

So, what do you people think?

High-Tech Hobo Stew

2011-09-21T20:47:00.000-04:00

Who hasn't heard of "Hobo Stew?" I mean, is there anyone in The United States that has not, at one time or another, at least heard about this legendary dish? Hobo Stew is a very tasty and incredibly easy stew to make. It's not even a stew really...

According to the amount of people that will be eating this delight, take a chunk of ground beef and throw it into a glass casserole dish, disposable aluminum pan or perhaps a Dutch Oven. With that chunk of ground up goodness, you add potatoes, carrots, onions, celery, fresh garlic and black pepper. Bake it covered at 375 degrees for about 90 minutes. At the end of this adventure, you will have an incredibly tasty dish.

If you are not accustomed to eating this type of food, you will be in the bathroom for quite some time! The hamburger grease will run through you like a laxative and what follows will be a freight train of misery.

The older I get, the less I can tolerate greasy food. It makes me feel terrible immediately afterwards and later on, when the squirts begin...I would just rather avoid all of that.

So, I pre-cook the meat and then I drain it. I use just a little bit of butter to keep the taters, carrots, onions and celery soft and tasty and it's better for you! You don't hover over the commode for a while this way.

Now, you can substitute and instead of using ground beef, you can use beef chunks that people generally use for beef stew, chili, etc. This works out great, too. Just cook them up with a liberal amount of black pepper, garlic powder and onion powder in a skillet and then add them to your pile of vegetable goodness with a smidge of butter and you are ready to go.

If you want to Cajunize, add Cayenne red pepper and some Chili Powder.

If you want to Italianize, add a smidge more garlic and some Oregano if you want HOT Italiano, add red pepper flakes...it's easy to make good food.

Another thing...before you seal up this masterpiece and bake it, add three ounces of water and a couple tablespoons of Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce. If you want some kick, add in a couple tablespoons of Tabasco, Crystal or Texas Pete - Tejas Pedro for you people down South. 8-)

Another favorite of mine is Pick-a-Peppa Sauce - LOVE IT!

Three ounces of water, have some class, use a shot glass. This, along with the butter and additional sauces steams the vegetables very, very nicely!

Here are some preparation pictures from the other night. We were so hungry, I forgot to take pictures of the cooked dish! Use your imagination!

Wal-Martalists

2011-09-18T22:43:00.000-04:00

Wal-Mart and its Ozark Trails brand of camping and outdoor merchandise are the skidmarks in the underwear of survivalist gear and disaster preparedness.

The aisles are littered with the most low-quality, Chinese junk and when you run into something from Coghlan's or Coleman, you breathe a sigh of relief...and that's not saying much at all because there is very little gear from either one of those companies I would trust my life to. Coleman sure as hell isn't the Coleman brand of the 1970s and early 1980s, I can tell you that.

I cannot for the life of me begin to understand why someone with any outdoors experience whatsoever would choose a lensatic compass from Mal-Wart.

(And, NO, I don't like that company and I don't appreciate what they have done to my country so, yeah, when I get a chance to bust their ass and be honest about it, I'm going to do it!)

Worse yet are the rocket scientists on various survival-based forums who think that a "fish-eye" compass like you can find at China-Mart is "serious survival gear." And they get their ass up on their back if you inform them otherwise, too.

You know, if there was a massive strike against the United States involving dozens, or perhaps hundreds, of thermonuclear weapons and the only thing I had was a fish-eye compass or a piece of shit lensatic compass made by some slave named Wan Hung Lo that I found lying in the street, so be it! But I would not choose to go into a survival situation with that type of low-quality, shitty gear.

It's just me...

..and I hope you, too, or I might be wasting my time talking about this sort of thing. Why even have a blog at that point? To tell people how great garbage gear is and how overrated real gear is?

I am NOT the kind of guy that has to have a Busse survival knife because ESEE Cutlery and Beckers are not good enough, that's just goofy to me. The increase in quality is nowhere near the increase in cost. Yet, I see people who have these "Bug Out Bags" and they just have them packed with trash because it's easier to go to China-Mart and drop less than $200.00 to buy a bunch of stuff than it is to spend a few hundred over the course of months or a few years purchasing real gear.

CDC's Zombie Apocalypse Ads! Our Tax Dollars At Work!

2011-09-18T22:39:00.000-04:00

Well, I have to say, this made me chuckle. I would rather my tax dollars go to some advertising campaign on disaster preparedness like this than for some foreign, tyrannical puppet's prostitutes.

Here is a beautiful quote!

"Foreign aid might be defined as a transfer of money from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries." ~ Douglas Casey

And to crazy old sonsabitches hiring hookers on our dime. Anyway...back to the CDC ads...

"Talk & Toss" Phones

2011-09-17T12:51:00.000-04:00

Jeff Randall of ESEE Cutlery (formerly RAT) fame wrote something about these over a year ago or so. I don't know if I have that stuff saved or not. However, I have been looking into this sort of thing more and more for emergency gear, disaster preparedness, etc.

"Talk and Toss" Wireless Phones

A couple of these cheap, disposable wireless phones along with a couple Pre-Paid Calling Cards and some Pre-loaded Visa cards - all of which can be purchased at various little shops generally where checks are cashed, lottery is played and Western Union and MoneyGram and Money Orders can be had. In short, shady little places in strip malls that smell like criminality. 8-)

Ten Long Years...

2011-09-11T19:22:00.000-04:00

I really can't believe it's been ten years...a decade. That's a long time. My son was five years old when it happened. I have friends in their early, almost mid-20s now, they were about the age my son is now when it happened back then. September 11, 2001 has taken on the kind of power that only certain tragic incidents in our history develop.

Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941.

President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, murdered November 22, 1963.

There are more. Some of them not tragic but triumphant as well.

Watch...remember...

From a different angle...

"Lonely, ten second journeys..."

That second, horrible piece of video reminds me of part of "Have You Forgotten?" by Darryl Worley

"They took all the footage off my T.V.,
said it's too disturbing for you and me,
it'll just breed anger that's what the experts say,
if it was up to me I'd show it everyday,
some say this country's just out looking for a fight,
after 9/11 man I'd have to say that's right...

Have you forgotten how it felt that day?
To see your homeland under fire,
and her people blown away,
have you forgotten when those towers fell?
we had neighbors still inside going thru a living hell,
and you say we shouldn't worry 'bout bin Laden...
have you forgotten?"

Yeah, all of our "betters" have decided that we don't need to see two people, facing being burned alive, deciding to hold hands and take that final step towards eternity...we don't need to see that.

On the other hand, a lot of the stuff that has been going on with so-called, "security" in this country is the sort of thing that you read about in a George Orwell novel. As the modern saying goes, "It was supposed to be a warning, not an instruction manual." Referring to Orwell's novel, "1984."

A lot of my countrymen have confused jingoism with patriotism. They're not the same...but to many people...they are.

"The Remnants of Tropical Storm Lee" a/k/a Agnes Redux

2011-09-08T19:47:00.001-04:00

While I was watching Hurricane Katia, I never really considered that Lee would be a repeat of a legend - Hurricane Agnes.Throughout all of my childhood, storms were judged by the destruction of "Hurricane Agnes" or simply, "Agnes." My mother and father were always telling me stories about how Mr. Such and Such was going to buy groceries in his flat bottom boat. How my Dad drove a Mack dump truck with water up to the running boards through the flood waters.

Every summer we went to a small, privately owned campground on a creek off of the Susquehanna River. I can't quite recall how far below the Conowingo Dam it was, but it was a ways. I almost got killed on more than one occasion, due to my own stupidity, on that portion of the river.

So, tonight, thirty-nine years and a few months later, what is being referred to as, "The Remnants of Tropical Storm/Depression Lee" is threatening to repeat the devastation of "Agnes." Please take the time to read the links on Hurricane Agnes and The Conowingo Dam in this entry. They are simply fascinating.

The area is saturated, before the arrival of "Lee," we were pretty well soaked. If you read the history of Agnes, you will see that this is basically a repeat of the event so far. The only thing left is for everything to max-out and then to observe the aftermath of it all. Who knows what is going to happen tonight or over the next 100 hours or so.

Hurricane Katia

2011-09-07T00:14:00.000-04:00

It's been really interesting watching Hurricane Katia. At one point the other night, she dropped to a Tropical Storm and when I checked her the next morning, she was a Category Two Hurricane again. Up and down and all around.In this neat graphic I have altered slightly, you will clearly see that if it were not for the incredible stench emanating from the Washington, D.C. - Baltimore Corridor, Hurricane Katia would not have been so easily repulsed. It's as if the cesspit stench were acting like a protective force-field for the Delmarva Peninsula causing her to almost do a U-Turn.

Fruity Police?

2011-09-03T20:09:00.003-04:00

So...uh...Apple Employees can search a person's home while the police wait outside the residence? This country just keeps getting more and more bizarre every week.Link.

Jobs Report for August 2011

2011-09-03T16:35:00.000-04:00

9.1% Unemployment rate. No jobs created in August.This whole unemployment rate thing just gets me. I can't believe they are still lying about this. I guess as long as the American People are buying the lies, the government is going to be selling them. It's between double and triple the 9.1% they are citing. When people no longer qualify for unemployment or they don't sign up for it, they are not considered "unemployed." How convenient!

Hurricane Kat(r)i(n)a as of September 2, 2011 @ 11:00 P.M. EST

2011-09-03T01:38:00.002-04:00

"Katia?" Seriously? You can't make this kind of stuff up. Good grief.

Hurricane, dropped down to a Tropical Storm, now she is a Hurricane again.

The dreadful phrase, "...poses no threat to the United States..." has been used.

Some of you might not remember this and I'm sure that some will say it's misogynistic or something, but hurricanes, for years, only had female names. Why? Well, because they were unpredictable, that's why!

So, at a straight shot, looks like the border between North and South Carolina but who knows if she will continue to be a storm at all or where she will go? She could continue to strengthen and take the same path as Hurricane Irene.

In Maryland? As of 3:00 P.M. Friday afternoon, 28,000 homes were still without electric, six days after Irene passed.

The 9:00 P.M. 8-27-11 Update...

2011-08-27T21:10:00.003-04:00

If I heard the radio correctly five minutes ago, they just reported Irene has entered the area of the mouth of The Chesapeake Bay in Virginia.

Irene!

2011-08-27T10:54:00.000-04:00

Classic Gear: U.S. Government Issue Lensatic Compass

2011-08-27T03:32:00.002-04:00

Some people are fond of saying that a certain piece of gear is "bombproof." The USGI Lensatic Compass is such a piece of gear. Mine is dated 12-59 and it's still going strong. I have had mine for approximately 25 years. I don't even think anymore to calculate how long it has been, I stopped at 25 years. But the compass is older than I am!

The one thing you should probably steer clear from is the Tritium version of the USGI Lensatic Compass. You know, the type that "glows on its own" without an additional light source. They are definitely awesome pieces of gear and function the same as the regular USGI Lensatic but they go for two times the cost of the standard model, sometimes 125% or 150% more, depending on who you are dealing with. Most of the people on E-bay and forums are not listing the date of manufacture so you are probably just wasting your money as the Tritium has a life expectancy of 10-12 years.

While these are excellent compasses, top-notch gear, if you don't get resupply from the great helicopter in the sky, you might want to stick with the standard, rugged and accurate USGI Lensatic Compass and purchase a Petzl Headlamp, battery caddy and extra Energizers for it with the spare loot you save.

USGI Lensatic Compass = Excellent lifesaving gear.

USGI Lensatic Compass with Tritium and manufactured one year or less from time of sale = good deal if you can justify the additional cost for the ability to see the compass in darkness without a flashlight.

USGI Lensatic Compass with Tritium and no date of manufacture available or over a year old = if the individual or dealer still wants top dollar, avoid them.

Hurricane Irene, 1:00 A.M., 8-27-11

2011-08-27T03:15:00.002-04:00

Marching ever closer. Everyone is freaking out. I heard a story from two different sources of borderline fistfights at Costco over bottled water on Friday.

Hurricane Irene...11:00 P.M.

2011-08-25T23:59:00.002-04:00

I can't wait to see what tomorrow brings.

Hurricane Irene... 8 P.M.

2011-08-25T21:32:00.003-04:00

Looks like this will be an event for me and "Blackthorn."

The only way it will get worse for me is every bit it drifts more to the west from this point and if it goes west of Baltimore, I will get the east wall, as with Isabel(le)...which was one hell of a night.

Hurricane Irene...

2011-08-25T18:05:00.002-04:00

As of 5:00 P.M. EST, it looks as if she doesn't get a Carolina Bounce, Maryland is going to take more of a hit than expected but less than Hurricane Isabelle a few years ago.

And Hurricane Irene takes a turn more to the west today...

2011-08-25T18:01:00.002-04:00

From this afternoon...National Weather Service...

Hurricane Irene...almost 14 hours later...

2011-08-24T23:12:00.002-04:00

Just another snapshot and projected path from The National Weather Service.

Hurricane Irene

2011-08-24T09:17:00.003-04:00

She is now a Category 3 Hurricane.

Image courtesy of The National Weather Service.

My first real earthquake...and a lesson learned, too...

2011-08-23T17:42:00.003-04:00

Well, I survived my first real earthquake. I can remember three very minor tremors in years past, the latest was last year, that were more of a novelty than anything else.

This one was shaking! I was at a 7-11, sitting in a vehicle and I thought one of the motor mounts broke and something was wrong and then as soon as I had that thought, it got quite a bit stronger. So, this was around 1:45 - 1:50 P.M. EST. It was first recorded as a 5.8 and then they reported 6.1 and it has apparently settled into the 5.9 range.

Man, people were everywhere!

What lesson learned?

Verizon Wireless was down for the count in less than two minutes, yes, 120 seconds and I tried to call my wife at work, my son at home and two different friends and a client as well, "Call failed, please try again." I think out of a dozen tries I got through once and that was to my son, at home on a landline.

If there is a real disaster, wireless phones are not going to be much good at all. Better look into three GMRS Radios, home, work, mobile.

Watching the news? What's old is new again...some Kipling for you this morning...

2011-08-18T09:12:00.001-04:00

The Gods of the Copybook Headings

As I pass through my incarnations in every age and race,
I make my proper prostrations to the Gods of the Market Place.
Peering through reverent fingers I watch them flourish and fall,
and the Gods of the Copybook Headings, I notice, outlast them all.

We were living in trees when they met us. They showed us each in turn,
that water would certainly wet us, as fire would certainly burn.
But we found them lacking in uplift, vision and breadth of mind,
so we left them to teach the gorillas while we followed the march of mankind.

We moved as the spirit listed. They never altered their pace,
being neither cloud nor wind-borne like the Gods of the Market Place.
But they always caught up with our progress, and presently word would come,
that a tribe had been wiped off its icefield, or the lights had gone out in Rome.

With the hopes that our world is built on they were utterly out of touch,
they denied that the Moon was Stilton; they denied she was even Dutch;
they denied that wishes were horses; they denied that a pig had wings;
so we worshipped the Gods of the Market who promised these beautiful things.

When the Cambrian measures were forming, they promised perpetual peace.
They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease.
But when we disarmed they sold us and delivered us bound to our foe,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "Stick to the Devil you know."

On the first Feminian Sandstones we were promised the fuller life
(Which started by loving our neighbour and ended by loving his wife)
Till our women had no more children and the men lost reason and faith,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "The wages of sin is death."

In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,
by robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul;
but, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy,
and the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "If you don't work you die."

Then the Gods of the Market tumbled, and their smooth-tongued wizards withdrew,
and the hearts of the meanest were humbled and began to believe it was true.
That all is not gold that glitters, and two and two make four,
and the Gods of the Copybook Headings limped up to explain it once more.

As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man,
there are only four things certain since social progress began.
That the dog returns to his vomit and the sow returns to her mire,
and the burnt fool's bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the fire.

And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins,
when all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
as surely as water will wet us, as surely as fire will burn,
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return! - Rudyard Kipling

Warner Bros. Movie - Big Budget, Big Names - "Contagion"

2011-07-18T22:44:00.003-04:00

I wonder how much anti-gun, anti-survivalist bullshit this one is going to have. It has Matt Damon and Paltrow in it, two flaming liberals.

Ron Hood

2011-06-23T15:15:00.001-04:00

You will notice in my list of DVDs...many by Ron Hood. He died yesterday in his sleep. Rest easy.

"Depression was not accidental..."

2011-06-11T09:54:00.000-04:00

"Depression was not accidental. It was a carefully contrived occurrence... The international bankers sought to bring about a condition of despair here so that they might emerge as rulers of us all." ~ Louis T. McFadden, Chairman of the House Banking and Currency Committee, 1932

Everyone uses the term "conspiracy theory" to demonize and silence their opposition. It's pretty easy to look at that quote above and discount it as "conspiracy theory" unless you are actually paying attention to what has been going on in this country over the last few years. Then, all of the sudden, it doesn't seem so far-fetched, does it?

"Give me control of a nation's money and I care not who makes her laws." ~ Mayer Amschel Rothschild

Should we pay attention to this man who has been dead for nearly two centuries?

Probably so.

In the eyes of The Federal Reserve, Public Enemy Number One is Congressman Ron Paul.

Who is going to be overseeing The Federal Reserve when the new Congress is seated in 2011?

Representative Ron Paul.

The Headline? "More Americans Think Economy Will Never Recover..."

2011-06-04T10:36:00.002-04:00

See? I should have went to college and then I would be so smart, people could refer to me as "Captain Obvious." 8-)

Read this quote which is also a hyperlink to the article.

"It's a vicious cycle," Crawford said. "Americans need to see a significant decrease in unemployment to feel confident in the economic recovery, but companies are waiting to see increased demand for their products and services before they begin hiring and making job-creating capital expenditures."

Just a thought on the continuing Beavis & Butthead Moron-A-Thon that is the world...

2011-05-25T22:10:00.001-04:00

"Some scientists say that the major building block of the universe is hydrogen because it's the most plentiful element. But my theory is the universe is made out of stupidity because it is more plentiful than hydrogen. And since it's more plentiful, then why shouldn't we talk about it?" - Frank Zappa

More Zero Tolerance From The People More Intelligent Than We Are...

2011-05-12T00:10:00.000-04:00

Arrested for a Leatherman Tool, a penknife and a cigarette lighter.

Yeah...to the people that are supposed to be educating our kids, a cigarette lighter is an "explosive device."

Zero Tolerance = Zero Intelligence

Have to protect the children! Give them criminal records before they even graduate over three tools in their equipment bags to fix Lacrosse Sticks.

I think that we should call in the profilers, anyone that is not an absolute SLAVE should be considered a risk and incarcerated for life. That's what they want. Anyone that is not an absolute SLAVE and will serve as a BITCH to authority is definitely a threat to society.

What a joke we have become.

Social (in)Security

2011-04-12T16:56:00.002-04:00

What a joke this system is. My Dad started paying into the system in 1943, assuming that he paid in starting with his first "employment" beyond being on a farm, joining the Marine Corps in 1943. If not that year, then when he was discharged in 1946.

He died in May of 1982.

Let's say it was 1946 that he started paying in.

So, he basically paid into the system for approximately 34 years until he was incapacitated by cancer in 1980.

He died just shy of his 57th birthday, he never got to retire.

Being his son, my mother received a Social Security check for me, from his account, which in 1982 was about $480.00 per month or so. A couple years later it went up to about $511.00 and then I was off of it after approximately four years and three months.

Now they want to raise the age to 70 because "Americans are living longer."

WOW. It's not only a Ponzi/Pyramid Scheme run by government that they make you participate in by force, but now it's "bait and switch," too.

I'm supposed to work for 52 years before I get my lousy Social Security benefits because people who sit behind a desk for a living are living longer now.

What about all of the people that paid in for decades and never received ANY of it? Never had any kids or a spouse, etc.? I guess all of that money just got heisted.

I've had a fairly hard life and I am betting I don't see a dollar of that money.

Not a single cent of it.

What's the difference between Bernie Madoff and Social Security? Well, the government passed laws against individuals creating Ponzis and Pyramids while reserving the right to do it for government. The other difference is one of scale.

There is no real difference between the two.

Government passing a law saying that they can steal doesn't make it moral or even ethical, just "legal."

And at that point, what good is the word "legal" anymore?

If the rules change, again, why should I have to participate in this nonsense?

Because I have to, that's all.

One of the greatest "survival" websites...

2011-04-06T17:47:00.002-04:00

...is "Listening to Katrina." I recently browsed a forum and re-found this website again after having read it and "lost" it in a crashed PC's bookmarks.

An Interesting Interview With James Keating...

2011-04-03T14:29:00.002-04:00

A great read on one of the world's best edged weapon instructors. You can read it here.

I don't think I would even have a website if it were not for James Keating.

Wal-Mart...again...

2011-04-01T00:09:00.002-04:00

Another article about The Beast That Continues To Eat Everything In Its Path - Wal-Mart...

Remember the entry some time ago, "The man that said 'no' to Wal-Mart?" This is another good article like that one. 8-)

We Have 31 Associates...

2011-03-31T19:31:00.003-04:00

So, anyone that wants to receive some interesting PDFs and other E-mail exchanges, you have to shoot me an E-mail so I can establish the list. I have T.T., Joe. S., Joe E., K.C., Grizz, T.J., AC and I think it would be best for the rest of you folks not mentioned to shoot me that E-mail, please.

Look in the links section, to the right, on this blog. Go to my website and shoot me an E-mail through the website. In the subject line, just put "SURVIVAL LAB LIST." Tell me what your name is as a Associate/Follower on the blog and what your name is and I'll shoot you a mail back.

I have to say this because of the world we live in and the nature of the Internet. I don't know many of you. Some of you, I have known for years. So, please try to put yourself in my shoes and what I am doing combined with human nature and please try to understand the following and don't be offended by it.

I'm not doing this, "going private" in a way, because I'm a "closet racist" or "domestic terrorist" or trying to establish "contacts with like-minded" people who are racists, bigots, terrorists or wannabe badasses and other bullshit of that nature.

I am not a member of any organization, legal, illegal, whatever. I don't want to be a member of any organization or "movement" or ANYTHING of that nature. I am a registered republican but that is basically meaningless at this point in my life. I'm not a member of The Tea Party and I don't want to be, I'm not a member of the Constitution Party or anything like that. Not interested in any of it, either.

If you are a republican, democrat, libertarian, that's fine with me. Tea Party? Whatever, I don't care.

What I don't like and don't appreciate are authoritarian control freaks - public sector or private sector - I don't care which. Please, move on. I don't like all of the klan/neo-nazi bullshit and, I don't like those who see a neo-nazi, a skinhead or a klansman behind every tree (or politically incorrect or unpopular statement), either. Those people are WORSE than the people they "investigate." They all need to get a life.

So, the idea is to put forth good survival information. It's nothing that would be earth-shattering, per se. But I have had a lot of stuff lifted and I'm just sick of it. It's also easier to do it this way.

If you're in, you're in. If not, it was good knowing you. 8-)

A few pages I wrote about six years or so ago...

2011-03-29T21:23:00.002-04:00

I kept them concealed because of a couple things I had to say that and I didn't want to get into the whole mess again with some people online.

The Eden Tree was all about the forbidden fruit, right? I just sent out links to these simple pages to friends, most of these friends knew I got doinked on a couple designs by other people. I figured I would put it up here and see if anyone finds any value in them.

They were also sort of the death knell of me writing about self-defense issues. If people want to believe that whatever they are into is going to save them above and beyond anything else, that's fine.

There was a time when I was a lot more altruistic. Most people thought I was just on a powertrip. There was some ego involved but I really did care about people taking some goofy or stupid martial arts class and learning something that would get them killed on the street.

I care about smart people who reject dogma, popular opinion, trends, fashions and conventional wisdom.

War is a strange thing...

2011-03-27T12:54:00.002-04:00

Once again, we see "democrat start war, war good..." But the other side of that is..."Hmm...republican start war, war bad..."

Why isn't Cindy Sheehan all over the nightly news now? Hmmm...I wonder... Could it be that the media...no...it couldn't possibly be that the media is actually in cahoots with the democrats!!! No, that would be paranoia, wouldn't it? Perish the thought.

And people eat up the rhetoric and the promises of "change" and the rest of that B.S., like candy to a child on Easter morning.

What is your focus when it comes to survival skills? Also, what would you like to see?

2011-03-25T23:09:00.004-04:00

When it comes to "survival," what is your focus and what would you like to see?

If I know about it, I will write about it. If not, perhaps we will find out together.

Japan: Two Weeks In...

2011-03-25T00:35:00.002-04:00

Everything is settling down...the warning has gone out that residents of Tokyo who have infants should not give their infants tap water. Tokyo is, if I remember correctly, over 100 miles from Fukushima. Not good. There is also bottled water rationing going on now.

I don't think regular people will ever know the full scope of this disaster, all we can hope is to get bits and pieces of valuable information.

The DVD List...

2011-03-23T00:12:00.001-04:00

is a good thing. I will put up entries from time to time on some of the DVDs listed but not all of them. All of them have value or they would not be there. The order is a rough order, depending on what your focus is.

Coast to Coast AM, Alex Jones, etc...

2011-03-21T21:04:00.004-04:00

I had a person E-mail me through my website and asked me why I don't have a link to Coast to Coast AM, the old Art Bell Show, and Alex Jones' websites "InfoWars" and "Prison Planet" on my website and my blog. (Not the first E-mail about this, either!) Especially since I have cited elsewhere that this is where I discovered Gerald Celente and Frosty Wooldridge, among other people that I pay attention to. (To clarify, I heard of both of them on Coast to Coast AM when I used to work midnight shift...)

The reason I don't have links to them is simple: there is so much negative baggage associated with Coast to Coast AM because of all of the UFO - Alien Abduction shows that I don't want to link to it because the first thing people think is, "He believes all of that stuff..."

Because...I don't.

I don't know if there are aliens but I know I went to see "Battle L.A." the weekend before last because it looked like it was going to be a good movie. It was and it's entertainment.

When I know someone interesting is going to be on Coast to Coast AM, I listen to the show. Otherwise, I don't. It's really that simple. I have better things to do with my time than listen to some lunatic rambling on and on with these fantastically stupid tales. Hour upon hour of audio dementia about various species of aliens and which President really knew about it all and entered into secret deals with the aliens so they could check our innards with telescoping ass probes like some demonic proctologist.

Or, babbling incoherently about numerology for over an hour.

Alex Jones and InfoWars and Prison Planet?

Where do I start?

About the time that Alex Jones was finishing up High School, I was already hearing about mobile guillotines on tractor trailers traveling through Montana to some secret location. Ostensibly so United Nations troops could round up all the Christians and behead any of them that would not deny their Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. All you had to do to hear such stories was go to a gun show.

You could read the fliers about VHS videotapes that had all of the "proof" of these things.

When I was a Cub Scout, I remember going to a church one evening and they showed us a movie. It was called, "A Thief in the Night." That was probably about thirty-three years ago, so I might be mistaken, it might be one of the sequels to "A Thief in the Night."

Nonetheless, it was one of the three movies in that series. I guess this is where the whole "guillotine" propaganda originated. Ah, the good old days, back around 1977 or so.

By the way, I'm not kidding about this guillotine stuff. I actually saw that movie in the Cub Scouts and actually remember reading the handouts at gun shows in the early 1990s.

There are actually places on the internet, wonder of wonders that it is, where you can actually read where people think they suffer Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from watching "A Thief in the Night" as a young child. This country is so obsessed with mental illness, most people cannot wait to be diagnosed as being crazy. I mean, this is pretty sad really. It's becoming like a status symbol.

Anyway, when I hear the latest twist on hidden U.N. troops or mobile head-choppers or FEMA internment camps or the long laundry list of secret government projects and nefarious plans, I really don't get riddled with anxiety. I'm sorry. This has been going on for years, the talk and the rumors.

There are plans in place, and they have been in place for decades, for "continuity of government" in case of nuclear attack or something on that level. Or whatever they deem to be a "National Emergency" on such a level that they should initiate these plans.

If they will take a Citizen's home and give the property to Pfizer (Kelo Decision) by using Eminent Domain and The Supreme Court of The United States agrees with it, it's pretty safe to say if there is a major disaster in this country they will do just about anything they want to in order to preserve their way of life. I know some people will be wondering how I talk about "continuity of government" and end up talking about the Kelo Decision, it's very simple. It's about government power.

(The Kelo Decision is just about the most blatant example of corporate welfare and crony capitalism gone mad.)

The government serves itself. It doesn't serve the people and has not served the people in decades...maybe a lot longer than that.

Another thing that a lot of people on forums are not discussing is the fact that the government, in the case of some massive disaster, can basically show up with refugees from whatever area and relocate them. To your small town or perhaps the field in your backyard. I'm just mentioning this because it's on the periphery of the whole "FEMA internment camp" issue that people talk about.

Alex Jones is right about a lot of things. In fact, a frightening amount of things. I just don't want to be linked to all of the stuff that is being ranted about that is on the fringe...sometimes the lunatic fringe.

If people want to judge me by what I write, well, that seems fair enough. If they want to judge me by what I believe, well...also fair. Although I don't always communicate as well as I think I am at the time of expressing views and opinions and upon reflection tend to wish I would have said something different or differently, I don't want to be judged via guilt by association. Of course guilt by association is unfair but that never stops people.

I do believe that so many laws are being passed for two main reasons:

1. So the every day common person will find it very difficult to navigate them without running afoul of them somehow. The more people that have a criminal record, the more people they can exert even greater control over.

2. Money. Even if #1 is "nonsense," #2 cannot be denied. I think it's both of them actually, a great two-fer for them. Money-money-money, increased fines for everything.

When Red Light Cameras became all the rage so every jurisdiction could rake in the cash, they set the yellow light for a shorter duration to catch more "Red Light Runners." More fines.

The companies that made the cameras and serviced them, along with the jurisdictions that passed the laws and had them, they laughed all the way to the bank. They did it for our own good, don't you know? Because as you might have already guessed, someone running a red light does pose a great danger to everyone. Someone gets T-boned by someone flying through a red light and crippling injury or fatality is oftentimes the result. Unfortunately, by shortening the duration of the yellow light, they created "The Dilemma Zone."

They sold their money making scheme, otherwise known as "Red Light Scameras," to "save lives." They created more accidents that were rear-end collisions because people were being nailed and fined because of the shorter yellow so the people started slamming on the brakes when the light turned yellow and the car behind them would plow into them.

Now we have "Speed Cameras" and laws being passed. And laws about using a cellphone or texting on a cellphone, which really is a problem. But like mandatory seatbelt laws, the concept that one of these politicians really "cares" about you or your family is a sick joke. It's all about the money, these people are not altruistic.

So, I look at everything, the continued militarization of police departments, the over-use of Tasers, even on kids, law enforcement and their cheerleaders saying, "If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear" when it comes to every new intrusion on our private lives. You name it and they're doing it.

And, law enforcement is also not fond of the camera being aimed at them. Apparently their own rhetoric about, "If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear" is lost on them.

So, I'm incredibly pessimistic about the future of our country and what freedoms we are going to have in just another decade. It appears as though they have out-Orwelled - George Orwell. Evey year it is something else. Another law, another rule, another regulation. Another fine, another fee, another toll, they're non-stop. It just keeps coming and coming and there doesn't seem to be any end in sight for all of this, the vise, the pressure cooker. And you, the regular, every day person, are the target of their efforts.

Even the Department of Transportation has expressed a positive attitude towards tracking you via GPS and taxing you, per mile driven. That is something else Alex Jones was talking about six years ago and everyone thought he was nuts. LPRs - "License Plate Readers." Jones spoke of them around the same time and, again, people thought he was either making it up or was being an "alarmist" about something that law enforcement was never going to use. Well, they're using it now. He also spoke at great length about our highways being whored out to the private sector...toll roads. It's not enough that you get charged all of these fees and taxes every step of the way for owning a vehicle, not enough that you pay tax on the fuel, not enough that you get taxed for your labor...they just keep finding new ways to squeeze and liberate more and more of your money from your possession.

If Alex Jones would just turn his Nonsense Discriminator on the maximum level, I would link to him. But for now, too much stuff that is being thrown around all the time is too much for me. Same with Coast to Coast AM, but the content I don't want to be associated with is different when it comes to that show.

Coast to Coast AM can do great things when it comes to informing people about survival kits and, from time to time, they will have a show on about that.

Unfortunately, the subject matter experts they usually have on are more well known for other subjects on the show...like UFOs...aliens...alien abduction...giants.

"Giants," you ask?

Yes..."giants."

I would like to hear, for once, someone on that show for hours telling people why they need a good knife and the ability to start a fire under adverse conditions and a host of other real survival topics instead of the generic lists for survival kits. What is your first line shelter? The clothes on your back. Things of that nature.

I'm still waiting for that show.

AP's Todd Pitman in Japan

2011-03-20T11:19:00.003-04:00

Todd Pitman reporting from Japan, this is a great read and much too short. Oftentimes on forum threads, you will see these lists of survival items, especially for urban and suburban disaster scenarios. Being a journalist, he has a few other concerns as well. I have one of the power inverters he is talking about, very important item to have.

"We have survived mostly on snack food — peanuts and potato chips and canned coffee scavenged from mostly empty street-side vending machines. When we found one small food store open, it's dwindling stocks already plundered, we bought everything left that we could fit in our car — raw sausages, dried squid, bread."

More On Nuclear Power Plants

2011-03-19T15:22:00.002-04:00

I was reading more about nuclear power plants in general and The Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant in particular. Since this would be the one that could cause me to have to evacuate if something goes wrong.

There was mention in that article that The Chesapeake Bay acts as a heat sink for the power plant. So, this might be why Fukushima was built near the ocean and why so many of these types of plants are built near water.

I am 100% Pro - Nuclear Power. I think we should be building more of these power plants but I think only having one backup pump for the cooling system is almost ludicrous. The same goes for generators that would be so critical to run the pumps to begin with.

I also don't believe much of anything that Constellation Energy or Baltimore Gas and Electric have to say about anything.

As far as I'm concerned, electric power and natural gas in this country should be nationalized and take the profit out of all of it. Is that a "great" idea? No, it's not, but it sure beats being held hostage out of the mad profit monsters in this game. Ditto for all of the speculators in oil causing prices to climb.

Sorry, I'm not much of a "conservative" anymore on a lot of issues. But it's pretty hard to take the hits I have taken while watching companies that have been doing the hitting continue to pay their executives all of these high salaries and bonuses while lobbying local government for more corporate welfare and to allow them to screw consumers.

Posts Per Page

2011-03-19T11:49:00.002-04:00

I had boosted it up to 50 posts per page so people didn't miss anything. I just knocked it back down to 30 posts per page. So, don't forget to hit the older posts button at the bottom of each page if you are visiting for the first time.

Japan: "Faith"

2011-03-19T10:57:00.004-04:00

I'm not an engineer or nuclear physicist. That should be obvious, right? Still, I am saddled with this quandary when it comes to nuclear power plants. I have about as much faith in the media as I do in government. Basically, none. I guess when either one of those entities does something that makes them trustworthy, I'll have a little bit more faith in them. That having been said, I can only go by what I have watched, listened and read about Toshiba's Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant.

They have the main (primary) water coolant pump and then the emergency (secondary) coolant pump - for each reactor.

Since the impact to the environment and the populace from meltdowns and partial meltdowns can be so horrific, why did all of these great scientific minds only decide to have one backup coolant pump? I mean, even if this is per reactor, that is still woefully deficient when you consider what can happen when your emergency pump fails.

It's sort of like parachuting. You have your main and your emergency reserve, right? Well, anyone that skydives realizes that if their main fails and the reserve fails, they are a dirt torpedo - they're going to die. A person, the skydiver die, singular. Nuclear reactor emergency plan fails, many die, plural. Dozens, hundreds, thousands, perhaps tens of thousands. Maybe more.

Why did they build this power plant in such a low-lying area in the first place? Japanese engineers did not realize that the word "Tsunami" is a Japanese word?

The Great Chilean Earthquake of 1960 was a 9.5 and the most powerful earthquake ever recorded.

Just back in 1960, not ancient history.

The 51st anniversary is coming up on us fast. Some of the local Tsunami waves from this earthquake were 82 feet high. Think about that for a moment. The Tsunamis from this quake destroyed Hilo, Hawaii. Six-thousand miles from the epicenter, the waves from the Tsunamis were 35 feet high. Japan also received Tsunamis from this earthquake.

The Japanese engineers are to be praised for the earthquake resistance of the design at Fukushima. It actually withstood an earthquake much more powerful than it was designed to withstand.

Unfortunately, that doesn't quite make up for the short-sightedness and lack of study when it comes to Tsunamis. The Fukushima plant was commissioned in 1971, just eleven years after the aforementioned Chilean earthquake which locally created Tsunamis up to 82 feet high.

So, it's no great leap of logic to think that this could happen in Japan or am I mistaken?

If you cannot use salt water to cool the reactors without damaging them, what is the rationale for building such a sensitive power plant basically at sea level? This just doesn't make any sense at all. Sure, if there is a desalination plant adjacent to the power plant to convert sea (salt) water to fresh water, that would make some sense but not enough to trump the fact that this is a Tsunami-prone area and one where 30-85 feet high Tsunami waves could be anticipated because it did happen before elsewhere.

So, we all look at the footage with awe and horror, at these waves over 30 feet high, smashing through everything. Imagine 82 feet high waves, would there have been anyone left to fight these reactor fires for the last week had that happened?

It would seem that all nuclear power plants that only have single emergency coolant pumps and single emergency generators for those pumps, that this should be increased dramatically. Why not have multiple emergency pumps and generators?

Of course it would increase the cost of the plant. You know why equipment like that is so expensive? Because it's worth it, that's why.

You cannot plan for every possible combination of terrible things a disaster could bring, but it seems you could lessen the damage by not building these plants in low-lying areas and whenever one is built in the future, it should be built on higher ground or far enough inland that only the most incredible disasters could touch it. I mean, we couldn't really prevent an asteroid from striking whatever ocean and sending a massive Tsunami into whatever area, but we can plan for what we have already experienced.

Another thing is planning for disruption in water flow to the pumps. All of the emergency pumps in the world and generators to run them won't make any difference if there is no water to pump. I don't know about other countries, but The United States is littered with water tank towers. Communities have excellent water supply and pressure thanks to these. A few of these ringing the area to supply the emergency pumps might be a good idea. If they could not be earthquake-proofed due to their height, then build them lower and let the pumps do the work, at least the water would be on tap for the plant.

I know that you cannot possibly plan for every contingency and as I said before, the Japanese really need to be congratulated for the earthquake-resistance the power plant had. However, it seems to me that when these types of power plants are planned and then built, very little thought...no, let me strike that out, not enough thought is put into what has happened in the past and what might happen in the future.

We have a lot of faith in science, including medicine. I have read many debates on forums - the religious folks battling it out with the atheists. There is a funny thing about atheists. A lot of the time, they bring in science and medicine as some type of ultimate tool of winning debate. Let me tell you something, absolute blind faith in science and medicine will enslave and kill all of us just as absolute blind faith in religion could enslave and kill all of us. Science and medicine have become new religions to many people. Faith in things that are still created and controlled by easily corrupted people.

Not to get too far off track...my Wife suffers from ovarian cysts from time to time. One time she had such a terrible flare-up they though that she had appendicitis and they actually removed her appendix...only to discover that her appendix was fine and that it was her ovarian cysts flaring up.

A couple years later, she had a return of the pain and went to see her primary care physician. Indian lady, seemed nice enough at the time. This "doctor" ignored every, single thing that my Wife had to say about her lower abdominal pain and then went on to sing the praises of Lipitor. She wanted to push Lipitor on my Wife without so much as a blood test to check for cholesterol issues, etc.

A few weeks later, my Wife collapsed at home and started vomiting and I called her primary care physician and got her on the phone and we then got into an argument about my Wife EVER having ovarian cysts! This is what I was told on the phone, "I did not diagnose her with these..."

This "doctor" was obviously getting some type of kickback "rewards" program[1] for pushing Lipitor and even when it came to the health of her patient a few weeks later, it was as if she didn't even know her. If it wasn't about putting her on a drug so she could get a cash reward or a free trip to the Bahamas, she wasn't interested. So, we fired her ass. But you know what? This sort of corruption is everywhere. Not all Doctors, but enough of them that you should not have faith in them anymore. When you look at the hospital or a doctor's office, you should see a fast food restaraunt. It's just a business.

And today's entry has been about "faith."

At this point in the development of our species, I have about as much faith in science and medicine as I do in religion. Not much at all.

[1] By the way, representatives from pharmaceutical companies do have bennies they give out to doctors for prescribing their medications. Just in case you didn't know. So, doctors can be rewarded for writing more prescriptions for certain medications. Oh, yeah, by the way, police do have ticket writing quotas to meet as well. Maybe not in all departments, but in most of them. Yes they do. When your job performance is measured in how much paper you produce and you don't produce much paper, that's called, "poor job performance."

Japan: Seven Days Later...

2011-03-18T21:33:00.002-04:00

Well, it's been a week.

Read this: "He said officials should have admitted earlier how serious the radiation leaks were.", it's a very in-depth page. Interesting admissions, interesting pictures...

I knew they were lying about it. Governments lie over things they don't even have to lie about, over trivial matters. So, when something really bad happens, it's not a great leap of pessimism to expect them to lie about that, too.

Just a word about pessimism. The pessimist is basically looked down on. Our country, our society, as well as others, is based on a constant level of positivity. Big used yacht salesmen smiles, sunshine and puppydogs. Not a rainy day or a three-legged, one-eyed dog in sight. We can't even refer to as a used car as a used car anymore! We're so entirely full of shit - they're referring to used cars as "pre-owned cars." Yeah, no shit, Sherlock, ya think? What did the prior owner do with it? He drove it, didn't he? Sort of makes it a used car since the prior owner used it. But used car sounds so low-rent, so negative, so pessimistic, doesn't it?

Pessimism, to me, is simply expecting the worst and preparing for the worst while hoping for the best. That's it. When something goes wrong, I already figured it would so it's less of a pain in the ass or a shock to the system in any event. But if it doesn't go wrong and everything is OK, great! That's a win I didn't expect.

I didn't sit here for a week and believe all of the used yacht salesmen with the reassuring statements.

Like I wrote days ago, the moment they said it would not be a Chernobyl level event, that is precisely what I figured it would be. A little less or much more, same ballpark. It's not going to be "Chernobyl" because these disasters are very unique.

And this is not some concealed liberal versus conservative or republican versus democrat statement, either. They all lie. Apparently it's their job because it's all they're really good at if you look at the performance of governments over the years.

Reality...Our Fragile Systems...

2011-03-17T22:06:00.003-04:00

Life is a struggle. And the further we get from the struggle of finding food and making shelter and creating warmth, the further we get from reality and the closer we get to being so dumbed-down and stupid that we can't survive whenever there is a belch in our life-support systems.

I admit it, I love the fact that we have the medical science that saves newborn children with severe medical problems who would have died just two decades ago. What is not to love about that? It's wonderful!

I like movies and music and books. I don't just "like" these things, I do love them.

I know, "survivalist types" are not supposed to like things like movies and music. They're supposed to shun things like MP3 Players and Ipods, etc. I like my MP3 Player.

I love the fact that I can flip a switch and have light in the middle of the night or turn a knob and fire magically appears and I can have a can of safe and nourishing chicken noodle soup whenever I want it. But I always keep in mind that these things are supported by very fragile systems. Our systems are not robust. We have been very lucky...very fortunate.

From time to time, we see glimpses of reality. They oftentimes have names. Names like Camille, Agnes, Andrew, Hugo, Katrina, Ivan, and Rita. Tornadoes don't have names, but they have dates, locations and Fujita Scale designations. Locations become the thing of legend for those who survived them, places like Xenia, Ohio and Mattoon, Illinois.

Hurricanes have the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale but we name them, so the names are remembered along with their "Category" of power via that Scale.

Earthquakes? Richter Scale designations go along with the locations, Loma Prieta and Northridge and many others. And then we have the Tsunamis...don't we?

The 2004 Indonesian Tsunami which killed over 200,000 people. The current, unfolding horror in Japan - the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami.

Volcanic eruptions...some ancient, like the destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum from a massive eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

The massive explosion of Krakatoa. In more modern times? Mount Saint Helens.

How many people are aware of the Yellowstone Caldera or Supervolcano?

Most Americans have heard of the San Andreas Fault. How many know about the New Madrid Fault?

Then we have manmade disasters. Sometimes they are coupled with a natural disaster like Hurricane Katrina followed by the failure of the Levee System in New Orleans which turned the natural bowl that is New Orleans into what some people referred to as a "toxic bowl of soup."

Then we have human error or stupidity as was the case with the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill or hubris and avarice with the Deepwater Horizon or B.P. Oil Spill.

The Union Carbide Plant in Bhopal, India. The meltdown at Chernobyl. The partial meltdown and successful containment of Three Mile Island.

Then, a natural disaster that becomes so much worse when the human element, the ever-present fragile system...fails...as we see with the current Fukushima Event.

Then there are the incredibly strange events like London's Great Smog of 1952 which killed 4,000 people in London. Four-thousand people or "Lake Overturn" or Limnic Eruption. "Exploding Lakes," add that wonderful phenomenon to your ever-expanding disaster lexicon.

The Blackout of 2003. When this happened everyone wondered how one substation could take down such a massive portion of "The Grid."

Survival in Urban and Suburban areas is basically snubbed by most people writing about "survival" on forums and websites. Sure, there are a few, but at the core of most of those pages you see the hawking of gold and silver or seeds...which is the real focus of the writing.

Not all, but most people who are writing about "survival" are writing about "wilderness survival." Again, this is fine, I'm interested in that as well. Or, they are writing about primitive living skills and holding that up as the answer to the problem of surviving. The large flaw, perhaps the fatal flaw for some of these folks is, you would have to put yourself into a situation like that. It won't naturally occur unless you hunt, fish, hike, camp or do some combination of all of them, in a remote area.

You are much more likely to encounter some other type of disaster and then...to be caught up in that disaster or some other event on the periphery of it and it won't be by choice. It will just happen. But these problems are, as I said earlier, basically snubbed by the survival folks. Some of them like to make fun of the whole Urban and Suburban element to survival.

So, what I wanted to try to do with this blog is write about that. That doesn't mean that I won't talk about surviving in the wilder areas, but I wanted to talk about surviving in a wide range of areas. Years ago I put up this article that this guy wrote, The Joys of Being Homeless. I don't know what happened to Jerry Leonard, but he is the guy that assembled all of that information and I just wanted to save it for as long as I have a website.

Seven years ago, that's the date at the bottom of that article. A long time. I've been beating the drum for a very long time. So, this is nothing new but a lot of people think it is something new for me. 8-)

So, what is your own threat assessment for the area you live in?

I left non-hurricane and non-tsunami flooding out of the hyperlinks up above! Should I bore you and include some of them as well?

Flood-prone areas, a large concern as well. There are so many things you have to look at and then adjust your preparations accordingly.

Do you live near a nuclear power plant? What would you do if the unthinkable happened at that plant? How about a Hydroelectric Power Plant...a Dam?

Do you live near a major interstate or railroad tracks? Do you have any idea what flies down the roads and rails on a daily basis? One goofball does something in traffic around a tractor-trailer tanker full of chemical nastiness and you might have to evacuate...a train derailment with multiple tankers of chemical nastiness...have you thought about this?

Societal collapse...tyranny in infancy...so many possibilities.

Kelly McCann's "Combative Pistol"

2011-03-16T15:04:00.002-04:00

I am not even going to address the handgun fighting aspects of this video. Kelly McCann's background, who he is and what he created in The United States Marine Corps is enough of an accomplishment.

What this video is, beyond the handgun material presented, is a look into prison and street knife attacks. McCann and The Late, Great Bob Kasper boiled down some of the most nasty knife attacks and then Kelly McCann created a close-quarter handgun system based on that.

In the video, he demonstrates the use of the knife to show the crossover to the handgun.

That is very, very valuable to anyone wanting to learn how to defend against edged weapons or how to use a knife under the most dire circumstances. This video is a perfect compliment to the aforementioned videos and I highly suggest you purchase it and study it.

Japan's Fukushima Plant - evacuation of workers...

2011-03-15T23:25:00.004-04:00

"The government has ordered some 140,000 people in the vicinity to stay indoors. A little radiation was also detected in Tokyo, 150 miles (240 kilometers) to the south and triggered panic buying of food and water."

That entire statement is a hyperlink to the story.

It's so predictable nowadays. From the very start with the reactor's emergency pumps failing and the remarks about this situation not being another Chernobyl made me wince. It's getting to the point where if you are told by the media not to worry about something specific, that is precisely what you should be worrying about.

I hate to be so pessimistic, I know people like to say that statements like that are the thing of "tinfoil hat wearing conspiracy theorists," but what do you say, or do, when the negative side of things is the reality? Just shut your mouth and listen and do as you're told?

I think we should be building more nuclear power plants, not shutting the ones that we have down. But we certainly need to be smarter instead of building them on coastlines or fault lines and the other madness that we have been doing for years.

"We" meaning "mankind" and not just The United States of America, or Japan or the former Soviet Union, etc.

More on Japan...

2011-03-15T15:00:00.002-04:00

2,000 bodies wash up on the coast yesterday. Three explosions in as many days and then, this morning, BOOM-BOOM-BOOM, three of them, I don't know how far apart.

Aftershock earthquakes that are quite powerful have been going on all along, impressive from a scientific point of view, terrible for the people trying to survive this and those on-scene helping them. All with the specter of breathing in radiation.

Now, here is the most important part to remember - because governments lie constantly so people don't panic, including on the West Coast of The United States, and because anti-nuke activists are used as scientific experts on all of this as it unfolds, even on FOX News, YOU CAN'T BELIEVE WHAT ANYONE HAS TO SAY ABOUT ANY OF THIS.

They were very quick to say that Fukushima would not become the next Chernobyl. A little too quick to be believed.

Will Tokyo become the next Prypiat? Only time will tell now, but nothing looks very good or hopeful at the moment.

Japan...

2011-03-14T19:37:00.003-04:00

With the meltdown of multiple reactors looming, everyone is playing the threat down so no one panics. Which is typical. The West Coast of The United States is now threatened by whatever radiation released.

Japan has over 10,000 dead and counting and over a half million people are homeless.

The Poor Man's Plumpy'nut and More...

2011-03-13T00:13:00.004-05:00

I need to give you two warnings about the following information.

I don't know about longevity and safety issues of do-it-yourself (DIY), made-at-home recipes of anything involving dried milk products. So, if you decide to make a batch of home-made, "Poor Man's" "Plumpy'nut", I would not keep the finished product outside of a refrigerator. I also don't know how long it will last inside the refrigerator but to be on the safe side, I would treat it like leftovers (three (3) days) if you have added dried milk to it.

If you end up in the hospital with some type of food poisoning because you did not heed the warnings given, you accept full responsibility for your own actions. I also cannot control the cleanliness or lack of same with your mixing utensils, etc.

The other warning I would like to give you is this, this is a very powerful concoction and if you eat a lot of it, you might have to butter your hips to get your quickly-widening ass through your front door. This stuff is a very powerful emergency ration. It's not something that you sit around and eat while watching television.

"Plumpy'nut" was developed by a French Pediatrician as a food for use in famine-stricken countries.

While I don't have the formula for actual "Plumpy'nut", I can tell you what I have tried at home. It is tasty and it's no wonder it turns around severely malnourished children on death's door in a matter of a couple or a few weeks.

This is the incredibly simple recipe:

1. Dried (Powdered) Milk
2. Peanut Butter
3. Honey

That's it! Isn't it great? Purchase some Dried Milk, Peanut Butter and some Honey and whip up a small batch in your kitchen and try it out. You can mix it just about any way you want to, it's very versatile. Start out with a cup of dried (powdered) milk and a cup of Peanut Butter and about a quarter cup of Honey. Add more Honey as required. Just start mixing it up until it is mixed well and you should have a very, very thick goop and, VOILA! You have Poor Man's "Plumpy'nut"!

You can also use Nutella, Ovaltine or Nestle's Milo added to the ingredients or in just about any combination that your taste buds find appealing.

All of these ingredients with the exception of the powdered milk don't have to be refrigerated. These are all basically dry goods that you can use and then put back in the pantry, right? Honey, Peanut Butter, Ovaltine, Milo and Nutella don't have to be refrigerated once opened.

I'm also not a chemist or some type of food safety specialist so I don't know the long-term ramifications of combining these foodstuffs together and leaving them together for long periods of time.

I do know that if used carefully, this is a very valuable list of ingredients to have in your pantry in case of emergency. It could save your life. In the future I want to run some experiments with a Rival or Tilia Brand Food (Bag) Sealing appliance and see how everything turns out. I'd also like to contact powdered milk manufacturers and find out about the safety of that material once the foil envelope is opened and the product is added to these other ingredients and re-sealed in another air-tight bag.

My entry on Honey from over a year ago is a must-read for survival food information as well.

Explosion at Fukushima Nuclear Power Plent

2011-03-12T11:17:00.000-05:00

Versatile Tools for Survival

2011-03-12T01:09:00.000-05:00

You can spread peanut butter with it. You can slice the sandwich in half with it on the diagonal when you are done...with it. You can open a box with it. You can cut the tape when you are sealing up a box...with it.

We are being dumbed down. We are being turned into a more primitive people because of childish fear and hateful bigotry and stupidity.

The Knife.

Yes, former pro-football "stars" can kill their ex-wives and the friend of the ex-wife with it. Violent, hardcore felons can use it to settle scores or impose their will on their fellow inmates with it. And, yes, as unpopular as it might be in some areas of the Internet to discuss it, it can be used to save your life in a self-defense situation.

I cannot understand the myopia that some people suffer from when it comes to this stuff. Whatever you have available to you, you should be able to utilize for self-preservation. I cannot understand how people can be interested in "survivalism" and not want this capability. Yet, I see it all the time on forums and on websites.

Some of it is simple protectionism. They value knives highly for survival purposes and anything that casts a dark shadow on knives, real or perceived, giving them a bad reputation, is viewed as negative and not only something to be avoided...but attacked. They don't understand that the best way to protect the right to own, carry and use the knives of their choice is to legitimize their other uses as well instead of trying to appease the control freaks who want to ban everything. Because you're never going to sate the control freak's appetite for power.

As Winston Churchill so brilliantly explained the dynamic - “An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile - hoping it will eat him last."

That's why so many duck hunting NRA Members wrote in to The National Rifleman, the NRA's monthly magazine, during the debate over "assault weapons" back in the 1990s, saying that they were going to cancel their membership to the NRA if the NRA continued to protect politically incorrect firearms like "assault weapons."

And, yes, some of them don't like handguns, either. It was "protectionism." Nothing more and nothing less. They hoped to save their precious shotguns that they use to hunt fowl with by throwing the rest of the gun owners to the political wolfpack that is always waiting in the wings to ban another class of firearm until they are all ultimately gone from the hands of the Citizenry.

And this is why you should also not flee in terror from the words "survivalism" and "survivalist." The root word of both is "survival." So, when you acquiesce to the demands of the control freaks and you bend to their philosophy of demonizing the people they wish to control, you give them even more power.

Legitimize survival. We have become so politically correct that we have to defend variants of the word "survival." Don't you find that rather disturbing?

The control freaks will never stop thinking the way they do. You can call yourself a "prepper" or whatever cute term you can think up, it is what you are doing that they find so offensive. Things like "self-defense" and "self-reliance" are anathema to the authoritarian control freak.

Back in December, I wrote this blog entry on Jeff Snyder's incredible essay, A Nation of Cowards." You can find it here.

In that entry, I quoted a website which quoted former Attorney General Ramsey Clark and I shall do so again right now:

"Former Attorney General Ramsey Clark calls gun ownership an insult to America: 'A state in which a citizen needs a gun to protect himself from crime has failed to perform its first purpose.' Clark denounces this kind of society as a return to barbarism, and anarchy, 'a jungle where each relies on himself for survival.'"

Can you believe it? What about survival kits? The same thing could be said. It's an insult to governmental control freaks that you should have the capability of surviving without their help. They want you helpless and totally dependent on them for your every need. That's power.

And so it goes with knives and especially talking about using them for self-defense. There are some people that simply collect knives and they might use them once in a while but by and large, they are nothing more than Lionel toy trains or Barbie Dolls to them. They are some of the most nasty people on forums when it comes to discussing these things. The other main group of people use knives as tools, in their work or out in the woods. Using them for hunting, fishing, hiking and camping. Some of them are vehemently opposed to discussing knives as weapons. While they are a more respectable lot than the pure collectors, they are still getting it wrong.

Of course, there are those that think it's just stupid to use a knife for self-defense. Which, of course, is a stupid opinion to have.

I'm not saying knives are "better" self-defense weapons than firearms. I'm saying they are viable and there are some situations where they are the only realistic alternative to a firearm. Or, if you have it with you because you spend a lot of time in the woods, why not learn to use it for self-defense? Why carry something around that has the potential to do so much more and then just decide not to do it? It doesn't make any sense to me at all.

The Stick.

To be cold and calculating about self-defense, taking firearms out of the self-defense lineup for a moment, it is better to knock someone unconscious quickly than it is to use a knife. A cane or a walking/hiking staff is an excellent self-defense weapon because it has the ability to simply knock an attacker out. You can do the following:

Strike them to dissuade them.

Systematically disable them, up to and including breaking bones.

Render them unconscious.

Choke them out.

Restrain them.

The simple cane or hiking/walking stick has all of the utility in the woods that these tools are known for plus they have this incredible capability as a self-defense weapon. The stick also possesses a precious commodity in self-defense: the ability to keep someone at a distance. If you get skilled with the cane/stick, you can do that with all but the most skilled of attackers.

I would much rather face law enforcement, be it a regular police officer or a park ranger, after a self-defense situation and have to explain that I had to thump someone (or multiple attackers) with a hiking stick than use a knife.

This is pragmatic and realistic with all of the fantasy eliminated. Logical and reasonable. But that does not mean that I would not use a knife if I had to. It really doesn't do you any good to be the most politically correct dead person, does it?

So, if you are really interested in surviving whatever life may throw at you, I think you should be able to use anything you can get your hands on in a self-defense situation. Even if you have a firearm on you, even if you have a carry permit, it doesn't matter. Learn to use knives and sticks as well. It only makes sense.

The life you save may be your own.

Kelly Worden's "Practical Knifefighting For Personal Protection."

2011-03-11T22:30:00.005-05:00

"Practical Knifefighting For Personal Protection" Volumes One and Two by Kelly Worden

After all of these years and so many training videos released by so many people, these two videos remain the best "Nuts and Bolts" training videos as far as I'm concerned.

There is a whole line of thought that it is impossible to learn from a video. For most people, that is all too true. I started out wanting to learn how to use two things because of a job that I had. I wanted to learn how to best use the ASP Telescoping Baton and edged weapons.

The reason was very simple, I had a very dangerous job that used to not only allow employees to carry a handgun open or concealed, but they encouraged it. One anti-gun corporate weasel who would rather shed crocodile tears at the needless death of an employee instead of giving them the tools that would give them a fighting chance put an end to that.

So, I already knew what I needed. I needed Filipino Martial Arts (FMAs) training and I sought that out. I was disappointed because what I needed, I needed in a short period of time. I didn't expect to "master" what I needed in a short period of time, but I needed to start learning it NOW, not weeks, months or years later.

I was in an Arnis Class and things were going at a snail's pace and what I learned was valuable but I had been reading for years about Dan Inosanto's thoughts on FMAs and I thought that was the way to go. The reputation of FMAs when it came to sticks and knives was solid and that's what I wanted.

Unfortunately, the guy running the school had other priorities and one of them was Tae Kwon Do. I had already been through the whole Tae Kwon Do and Tang Soo Do thing when I was a teenager and I was simply not interested in it. But that was the cash cow and if you didn't cough up the money and get into that as well, you just were not going to get what you wanted.

So, I learned what I could and I was frustrated and eventually I left that school. A few years later I started reading about James Keating and Kelly Worden and after a while and some rave reviews in Fighting Knives and Full Contact Magazines, I started pouring some money into those materials. And what I learned was amazing. Now, I already had the all-important understanding of the footwork from FMAs, I was already skilled to a degree. I just needed the knife-specific material but I couldn't obtain it. I mean, I didn't just want it, I had a legitimate need above and beyond the legitimate need of a regular Citizen wanting to learn these arts. I didn't want it for cultural reasons or as a hobby, I wanted lifesaving skills.

So, my advice to you is, as it has been a constant coming from me for years, you need to get into a Filipino Martial Arts class. You need to learn that and then, if you are not getting what you want out of it or, you want to take a look at other people's movements, then you can go and purchase material like this.

These two videos are an awesome foundation, bedrock, to lifesaving skills using edged weapons. I know that other "names" in "knifefighting" have criticized Kelly Worden for some of his materials over the years. It's really easy to do when you are putting out stuff that's demonstrably not as good, trying to knock down your competition. Or, more cowardly, you send out your students and your online fans to basically stalk and harass your competition. Now, isn't that low? I've watched it for years.

A lot of people think you need to spend years and years and years in this stuff, to learn how to tear someone to pieces in a few seconds. It's simply not true. As one Pekiti Tirsia Instructor told me years ago, Doctors, Surgeons, spend about a decade and a half learning to put people back together that have been shot, stabbed, cut, beat up, stomped or torn apart in car accidents. Why should it take that long to learn how to tear the body apart? That's wisdom. This is a science, but it's not rocket science.

Likewise, our wonderful friends on the street and some that eventually go on to serve prison time, what about them? They're pretty effective at what they do and what they do is victimize some of the most violent and paranoid people on the planet - their fellow prisoners. The only kids they put through college was their lawyer's kids, not some martial arts instructor. So, you don't have to pay thousands and thousands of dollars to the guy who has the knowledge you want anymore, you don't have to stroke his ego and kiss his ass. You can pour your foundation and then go your own way and build on it if you are serious.

If you can only afford two DVDs on using an edged weapon for self-preservation, these would be the two to purchase. They are that good.

The World Ends For Many Japanese

2011-03-11T18:49:00.002-05:00

Waves 22+ feet high moving with the full force that such a seismic event can propel it, three miles inland in some places. Entire villages wiped from the face of the earth. People dying on film, trying to run from it. Oil refinery on fire and a nuclear reactor dangerously close to melting down. The scenes look like a Roland Emmerich film, but it's real.

Rearranging the Blog and Adding Lists, etc.

2011-03-11T00:26:00.004-05:00

Just doing some housecleaning and adding some other elements.

Book, yeah, no kidding, "How To Shit In The Woods..."

2011-03-10T21:54:00.004-05:00

"How to Shit in the Woods" by Kathleen Meyer is the treatise on how to relieve yourself in the woods. If the word "shit" offends you and you are put off by it, you're really missing out on an excellent book. The book is actually all about the importance of water purification and if you are "into survival," you really need to pick up a copy. Sure, it's funny, how could it not be? But it is a very serious book on the subject. The more genteel forums won't even discuss this very important topic because, well, they're offended by everything, not just the word "shit."

We need 7 more Associates

2011-03-10T21:51:00.001-05:00

We need some more folks. 8-)

The Membership Drive For "Followers" Continues...

2011-03-07T22:41:00.004-05:00

If you find this blog to be valuable in your preparations or if you simply enjoy reading it, please choose to "follow" it.

I search for new twists and information on survival related topics and I see a whole lot about buying gold, silver and seeds. I see a whole lot of "inside" information on Wall Street games and other things that have to do with investments and other things and how that relates to the current mess we are in and what might happen in the future.

Are you really out there buying K-Rands and bags of old silver coins? Really? Is that type of information which is so readily available nowadays really that valuable to warrant such a vast audience?

But then I see the BIC lighters and the common stuff that everyone already knows about and because Joe Smuckatelli thinks he has it figured out, he then shares that information with the world. 8-)

If 75% of the people who read this blog would officially "follow" it, we could make this a powerhouse together.

Would Anyone Be Interested In This?

2011-03-04T22:54:00.002-05:00

Establishing an E-mail list where we could all communicate and swap pictures and information, etc.?

It sure beats forums and it wouldn't be the end of this blog or my website but would just be something extra.

The one thing that I would like is for anyone interested in this to join this blog, "follow" it, I hate that term, and post in the comments section of THIS post.

I would greatly appreciate it.

Don

A Good Read...

2011-03-02T17:42:00.001-05:00

So here is an interesting article by John Robb of "Global Guerillas." A few years old but well worth reading.

"The Coming Urban Terror."

Links Gone...

2011-03-02T17:36:00.002-05:00

Survival Today...it doesn't look like much of any real substance is being offered at this point in time.

EDC Forums, intellectual dead zone along with a couple other forums that are supposed to be survival based but are really, really lame in that regard. Picking through the camping section to get the Ozark Trails Wal-Mart brand matches isn't exactly conversation-worthy.

No time for nonsense.

"Freegans"

2011-03-01T14:42:00.002-05:00

I found this over on the ESEE Forum. Things rapidly deteriorated and the thread was locked.

There might be some valuable information on that website. I certainly don't agree with many of the views expressed on that website, but, times they are a changing. You never know, might be my way of life two years from now. :::shrug:::

Frank Buckles

2011-02-28T17:20:00.000-05:00

The last U.S. World War One Veteran has died at the age of 110. The day before Frank Buckles died, he spent three hours in the sun on his front porch with his daughter.

I'm glad he got his final day in the sun.

Rest easy.

Link.

Judgment Day, The Rapture, The End Of The World...

2011-02-27T00:39:00.003-05:00

Doom On You.

OK, so, The Rapture, according to this website, is supposed to occur on May 21, 2011.

And then on October 21, 2011, the world will be destroyed by fire.

I'm facing the Apocalypse and I don't have enough food stored up! 8-)

Twilight Zone Zero Tolerance Nonsense...

2011-02-26T23:34:00.002-05:00

In some school districts, kids cannot play "cops and robbers" or "cowboys and indians" or apparently "army and aliens."

I wish it was unbelievable. But it is very believable.

"Outdoor Survival: Spending a night in your vehicle"

2011-02-26T23:20:00.004-05:00

This is a great article on surviving situations like blizzards while you are in your vehicle. "Outdoor Survival: Spending a night in your vehicle" is a really good primer. The one thing that grabbed me when I read the first part of it was running out of fuel. Let me put this in the most simple terms - every time your vehicle's fuel gauge hits the 1/4 mark, fill it up.

Other than that, there are sometimes issues with snowplows striking vehicles that have been covered by so much snow the snowplow driver doesn't see the stranded vehicle. This is a very real concern and if you have the right gear, you might not even have to spend the night in the vehicle. I am sure the author of the article is writing it for the masses and what he puts forth is excellent advice for most people because most people are more likely to die outside of the vehicle.

Social Networks: Facebook, Twitter, etc.

2011-02-24T20:38:00.005-05:00

Read this.

Amazing, innit?

The Unlikely Survivors

2011-02-21T15:23:00.003-05:00

There have been hundreds of thousands...probably millions...of words written condemning folding knives for survival purposes. But the lockback knives...or knives with no lock at all...draw the most ire.

Knives pictured...

Buck Prince Model #503 (2 of them)

Buck Knight Model #505

Case Trapper

Camillus "Demo" Knife Model #1760

What did we ever do before the Liner Lock, the Frame Lock and other locks like Benchmade's Axis Lock? Well, we whittled are way to snare building success with knives like those pictured above, that's what we did!

We cleaned squirrel, rabbit and various types of squab with them, we cleaned deer with them. Some of us even cleaned some snakes with them. We cleaned and scaled fish with them. Cut cord and rope, did all of these marvelous things that a person in a survival situation would have to do.

To hear people talk now, "surviving" with some pocketknife just started to be viable because of the invention of some new lock on a folding knife or some new wondersteel.

Like the additions of "safeties" on firearms that already have safeties, you can't make a tool idiot-proof. It's not that I don't admire something like a Sebenza (Frame Lock) or the Doug Ritter Benchmades (Axis Lock) because I do. I value them highly as a matter of fact!

But I also value these simple tools...highly.

Survivalism: American Style

2011-02-20T01:34:00.000-05:00

You know, being interested in survival methods and gear basically marks you as a nut in the minds of most people. It took September 11, 2001 to really rattle the cage of complacent Americans. Then everything started to settle down again into the same groove and Hurricane Katrina and the levee failures in New Orleans rekindled a lot of the talk of "Emergency Kits" and "Go Bags." Then, just a horrible series of Hurricanes...well...it seemed as though people were finally going to wake up out of their American Idol slumber and get it together...but it only lasts so long.

Gone are the nightly news stories of assembling your "Go Bag" or whatever other metrosexual term they could muster for "BUG OUT BAG" and we are settling down into the old habits again.

Well, some of us are...

Having this mindset and this type of gear is slowly becoming the mark of the lunatic fringe again. Viewed as an insult once again because it now points to someone being prepared for some other eventualities like Wall Street crashing again, etc. Which is oftentimes viewed as a lack of faith in The United States itself.

Then there is the slow burn of "2012" looming on the horizon which has the capability of making the "Y2K" freakout look tame in comparison. I really wonder how badly "2012" is going to ratchet up the fear of every day, ordinary people.

As with "Y2K," I'm not concerned with "2012." I'm slightly concerned with people turning it into some sort of self-fulfilling prophecy through overactive imaginations slamming head-on into their own skittish nature.

ESEE Fire Kit

2011-02-20T00:55:00.004-05:00

The first versions of the ESEE Fire Kit used a Misch Metal Rod as the firestarter. I think ESEE now uses a more conventional Ferrocerium Rod. Both are reliable firestarting devices.

The body of this Fire Kit not only serves as a good handle but it's also a storage compartment for a button compass in the end cap and whatever you wish to store in the hollow cavity as well.

In this picture you will see that I am using it for a mini-fishing kit with lures, braided nylon line, steel/nylon leader, snap swivels, split-shot sinkers. three small Eagle Claw Hooks, a treble hook for snagging fish and a single cotton ball to keep everything from rattling in storage and for use as tinder.

You can pack the entire cavity with tinder if that's the way you want to go, you can place money in there, whatever you want within reason.

As with the Advanced E&E Survival Kit below, this item is available from most knife dealers who carry ESEE Cutlery.

I think a 20mm button compass is now included with the newer versions of this tool, but the contents shown in these pictures are not, that is up to you, to come up with your own valued items for survival purposes.

A very tough and simple piece of equipment that will serve you well.

ESEE Advanced E&E Survival Kit

2011-02-20T00:02:00.011-05:00

The PSKT Nylon Pouch, closed and open (below).

In this second picture below, you see in the top row of items, left to right: signal mirror, wire saw, Katadyn Micro-Pur Water Purification Tablets. Then you drop down to the next row of items, left to right: Tornado Whistle, a cluster of items, folding razor, folding saw, combo-tool - spoon and P-38 type can opener and bottle opener, mini - prybar, a polymer universal handcuff key and a 20mm button compass. Moving to the right again there are four pieces of highly compressed cotton tinder in a ring of brass snare wire. After that you see a red plastic sleeve which contains a Fresnel Lens (magnifier) under some loose leaf Rite-in-the-Rain paper and a "golf" pencil.

In the third picture, below, you see another grouping of items. The two items up top, left to right are a fishing kit and a storage baggy with a good amount of Mil-Spec Cord. Dropping down (same picture) you see a ferrocerium rod and a piece of sharpened hacksaw blade on ball chain and one ALOKSAK bag is located directly under it. Moving to the right are the items listed in picture two (directly above) and then under that is a pack of Caffeine GUm and a 2X2 Hemostatic Guaze Pad

The remaining items in the two pictures below are assorted First Aid items described in the List of Contents.

Direct information from ESEE's Website, list of contents:

Contents contained in a Cordura Nylon PSKT pouch (5.0" x 3.75" x 1.5"). Offered in two configurations: Advanced and Basic.

Advanced Kit Contents:

1 ea. PSKT Pocket Container
1 ea. Pencil
1 ea. Mini Pry Bar
1 ea. Survival Saw Blade w/ Handle
1 ea. Original SAS Wire Saw
1 ea. Surgical Scalpel w/ Handle
1 ea. Button Compass
1 ea. Rescue Whistle
1 ea. P38 Can Opener
1 ea. Signal Mirror w/ Aiming Screen
1 ea. Ranger Fire Starting Flint
1 ea. Tinder Tabs
4 ea. Water Treatment Tablets
1 ea. Fresnel Lens Magnifier / Fire Starter
1 ea. Utility Wire
1 ea. MilSpec Cord
1 ea. AlokSak
1 ea. Personal Survival Fishing Kit
1 ea. Disposable Handcuff Key

1 ea. Mini First Aid Kit

Aspirin Packs
Non-Aspirin Packs
Imodium
Medi-Lyte
Triple Antibiotic Ointment
Band-Aids
SteriStrip Bandage
Lip Balm
Sting Relief
Sun Screen Packet
Insect Repellant Wipes
Alcohol Wipes
2 x 2 gauze w/ Haemostatic Clotting Agent
3/0 Nylon Suture - Reverse Cutting Needle

A lot of knife dealers that stock ESEE Cutlery items will have this kit. You can simply do a Google search and find the best price you can. Remember, this is the Advanced Version of the Kit, the Basic Version has a few less items and costs a little bit less.

The pouch/kit container is available from Best Glide and it is heavy duty, to say the least. There is room to place a small, French Douk-Douk or a Buck Knight or Prince folding knife in the pouch along with other items as well. This kit can be carried in the supplied pouch zip-tied to another pack or alone on your belt, etc.

These pouches were originally intended to hold BCB Survival (Tobacco Tin) Survival Kits.

Garbage Gripper: A New Product I Have Been Using...

2011-02-19T00:14:00.003-05:00

You can find them here.

I have been using these at work and at home for about three weeks now and they are as good as new and have retained their strength as well. Only time will tell.

The website and the blister card packaging cites a few other uses such as securing yoga mats and sleeping bags, good idea!

Sure, ParaCord and just any old cord can do these jobs as well. They really work as intended for trash cans but putting two to six of these in your pack, using them along with contractor size/toughness bag liners, you could make a shelter incredibly weather-resistant.

Sure, there are about 873,534 ways to make a lean-to shelter or some variation of the wickiup.

This could be just another tool in your survival kit. If nothing else, your trashcans in your home will thank you.

The Consumer Price Index...

2011-02-17T20:38:00.003-05:00

You can read about it by going to this link.

It's incredibly interesting. Everyone that goes grocery shopping on a weekly basis and actually cashes a PAYCHECK from an EMPLOYER knew three years ago that we were in a recession. Only through constant manipulation of numbers and lying, lying by omission and redefining words could they could arrive at the conclusion that we were not in a recession.

They do the same thing with unemployment numbers.

They do the same thing with "inflation."

And many of us have been suffering under "stagflation" for quite some time now. It's not likely to get better in the short term...and I don't think the long term prospects look too good, either.

Anyway, read the article. Have a nice night.

Learning from the mistakes of others...

2011-02-14T20:46:00.004-05:00

The purpose for this blog is to pass on good information that makes people think and, it keeps me sharp. Writing is a discipline and I'm not a very disciplined person at times.

Here is something to keep you sharp. When you hear names like James Kim, Aron Ralston, Timothy Treadwell or Christopher McCandless, do you simply emote like some demented Ing'enue, or do you look at what they did wrong and decide not to do that? Or see a lack of preparation and then decide to prepare?

In some circles, any critique of these people is viewed as "Monday morning quarterbacking" or some other nonsense. Then we come to the chestnut of the idiotic, "It's better to be kind than to be right."

Dorcy Penlight Update

2011-02-07T23:16:00.003-05:00

I have located a source for the Dorcy Penlight I wrote about in this blog entry. It is in the tool section at Sears.

If you don't have a Sears close by, I guess you have to stick with the Energizer Penlight. They are equal in brightness but the Dorcy has a protected LED.

The Urban Exploration "Controversy," again...

2011-02-07T23:10:00.000-05:00

The real "controversy" is...there is nothing "controversial" about it! People read way too much into some things.

Don't go "draining" (exploring storm drains) because you can get injured or killed in them, OK?

Don't go trespassing to explore old nuthouses and factories because, you can get injured or killed or arrested for doing so, OK?

What originally interested me, when I was much younger and a lot more stupid, was the line of thought of using storm drains as a shelter. An idea I got out of a book.

So, my post below about the Undercity Website stirred up a couple of comments which I have deleted.

I'm not encouraging you to become involved in Urban Exploration anymore than I am encouraging you to be homeless and live in your vehicle or encouraging you to break your arm so you can see what type of emergency firestarter will really work for you. What I am encouraging you to do is read about it and learn from it. Nothing more, nothing less. Some people think that simply by squashing information that certain things are just going to go away. The world doesn't work that way.

Clint Eastwood: The Libertarian

2011-02-07T22:25:00.001-05:00

"And I became more of a libertarian – let’s leave everybody alone, quit screwing with everybody and don’t over-regulate. It’s about giving people a chance to live by their own decisions. And today the liberals aren’t really liberal at all because they won’t leave people alone, and a lot of the conservatives have lost their way fiscally. That’s why the UK, America, Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain are all in a mess right now."

Attribution.

Thomas Jefferson: Another Point Of View...

2011-02-07T22:20:00.004-05:00

A lot of people love Thomas Jefferson, when he agrees with their point of view. When they can quote him and it supports their world view or argument, he is a wonderful "Founding Father." When it comes to his views on limited government or his views on firearms, well, he's just another dirty old dead white guy who owned slaves.

The more liberal among us who cry constantly about the People having the right to "choose," (Pro-"Choice," etc.) when it comes to their sacred cow issues will cite the obscure letter to the Danbury Baptists and build an entire Constitutional line of thought, a doctrine, about the "separation of church and state" and then they will ignore the many quotes of Thomas Jefferson where he believed the right to keep and bear arms was an individual right for American Citizens.

They have been doing this for years, treating the Constitution and the first ten amendments to it, the Bill of Rights, as a buffet table where they can pick and choose what they want and ignore the rest in the desperate hope that what they ignored will quickly be swept into a waiting trash receptacle and silently disposed of.

Not to be outdone, "conservatives" and "libertarians" who claim to be capitalists but really worship at the altar of crony capitalism, they love to quote Thomas Jefferson as well.

Some of Jefferson's thoughts are simply brilliant. Jefferson said enough in this quote to make both sides of the political spectrum roll their eyes or get angry.

"I am not among those who fear the people. They, and not the rich, are our dependence for continued freedom.

And to preserve their independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude. If we run into such debts, as that we must be taxed in our meat and in our drink, in our necessaries and our comforts, in our labors and our amusements, for our callings and our creeds, as the people of England are, our people, like them, must come to labor sixteen hours in the twenty-four, give the earnings of fifteen of these to the government for their debts and daily expenses; and the sixteenth being insufficient to afford us bread, we must live, as they now do, on oatmeal and potatoes; have no time to think, no means of calling the mismanagers to account; but be glad to obtain subsistence by hiring ourselves to rivet their chains on the necks of our fellow-sufferers.

Our landholders, too, like theirs, retaining indeed the title and stewardship of estates called theirs, but held really in trust for the treasury, must wander, like theirs, in foreign countries, and be contented with penury, obscurity, exile, and the glory of the nation. This example reads to us the salutary lesson, that private fortunes are destroyed by public as well as by private extravagance. And this is the tendency of all human governments. A departure from principle in one instance becomes a precedent for a second; that second for a third; and so on, till the bulk of the society is reduced to be mere automatons of misery, and to have no sensibilities left but for sinning and suffering.

Then begins, indeed, the bellum omnium in omnia, which some philosophers observing to be so general in this world, have mistaken it for the natural, instead of the abusive state of man. And the fore horse of this frightful team is public debt. Taxation follows that, and in its train wretchedness and oppression." ~Thomas Jefferson, letter to Samuel Kercheval, July 12, 1816.

Some Of The Forgotten...

2011-02-06T19:02:00.006-05:00

New Hooverville in Southern California. Tents and shanties.

Homeless in the woods in Florida.

I'm speechless.