Talk of Secession

The White House website apparently allows people to petition. One of the petitions is for Louisiana to be allowed to peacefully leave the union. Only a little over 9,000 signatures currently.

This Is Going to Get Out of Hand...

Syrian forces have sent two shells into the Golan Heights the last couple of days, and Israel finally responded with a guided missile--the first time Israel has fired on Syria since 1973.

The situation is going to deteriorate, although the EU lacks the resources to effectively intervene, and I don't see the U.S. doing much either. (Besides, France and U.S. will probably be too involved in Mali). Thus, the day may come when the regional powers, Turkey and Iran, start committing troops. And when that's done, and they have a large military force sitting in Syria, what could they do then?

Incompatibility

In his classic work, Life After Doomsday, Bruce Clayton recognized that there is an inevitable cross-over between prepping and politics. Clayton's concern, when he published his book, was that survivalists needed to oppose implementation of the MX missile system which would have put ICBMs on mobile launching platforms so they could be moved around. His reasoning was that such a system would, in the event of a nuclear attack, require the Soviets to saturate certain areas with nuclear weapons in order to destroy all of the mobile launch platforms. Whatever its strategic value, it would have put far more fallout into the air, and made it harder for civilians to survive and recover after such an attack. Consequently, he encouraged survivalists to get involved in political issues that would impact their survival.

Sandy and, earlier, Katrina, pointed out some stark areas where politics and government have a direct impact on surviving and recovering from disasters. Instapundit linked to this piece today from the Small Dead Animals blog that is illustrative:

FEMA, while it is a clusterfrig of titanic proportions, could not cause this much misery on its own. Although they FAILED to have emergency generators at key fuel distribution points (read gas stations) and although they FAILED to have any kind of plan to move food and fuel to the affected areas, and although they FAILED to even have a forward based supply of bottled water and ran out last Friday, even these gold plated MORONS couldn't have frigged things up this badly alone.

Do you want to know why the power is STILL off on Long Island, Davenport? Read this here: http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Sandy-LIPA-Outages-Power-Long-Island-Defense-Military-178115341.html

In it you will find reference to a report from 2006, SIX YEARS AGO, which found that Long Island Power Authority had not done the basic maintenance required to secure the power grid from weather damage. The maintenance they're talking about here is tree cutting mostly, and replacing bad power poles.

I lived in New York in the 1990's. I could have written that report. The f-ing power went off every time it snowed because they didn't cut trees and the trees ripped the lines down. They also didn't plow the roads, but that's a story for another day.

You want to know why they don't cut the f-ing trees Davenport? It isn't because they are stupid, it isn't because they don't know, it isn't because private enterprise is inherently corrupt, it isn't even because union workers are a bunch of rent-seeking layabouts. Its because every time they go to cut down a tree, some local Greenies get up a petition or a court order to make them stop. So they stop. So the trees break and knock down the power lines. Same thing all over the North East until you get up into snow country, where even the f-ing tree huggers know better.

Well -this- time it all came home to roost the same day, and every overhanging branch from New Jersey to Connecticut took out a line.

But don't get me wrong, there's a ton of corruption and scamming going on too. Paying off inspectors, hockey tickets for town council, that sort of thing. That's why all those flooded switching stations were within reach of a flood in the first place, because the money to move them was skimmed off by graft. That's why FEMA didn't have any forward located stuff, because it all either vanished or was never there to start with except on paper.

But now that there's been a disaster the LIPA wankers are screaming for crews. And they aren't getting them. You know why Davenport? Because volunteer crews from as far away as Florida showed up Monday -before- the storm and cooled their heels until Friday, didn't get any assignments because they WERE NOT UNION, and then those volunteer crews went the hell back home.

And FEMA didn't say jack about it, did they? Nor did anyone else. One phone call from Barack "The Golfer" Obama to the head of the union could have fixed that. Just one, single phone call. Didn't get made, did it? He made a speech on Wednesday and then flew to Vegas.

Some of the people displaced by the flooding are still in tents. FEMA is supposed to find or make housing for these people, its been a week and a half now, and they are in tents. Looked out the window today? Its cold. People are going to -die- in tents this time of year. It is reported today that some of these cold tent dwelling people started calling the news media, and the FEMA types running the camps started confiscating cameras and refusing to charge up cell phones. No power, they said.

The only organizations in this whole farce that showed up like they meant it have been churches. Not seeing much of that covered in the MSM are we?

But the crowning touch Davenport, the cherry on top of it all that just makes it all the more outrageous and mind numbing is that New Yorkers voted for MORE of it on Tuesday. More graft. More incompetence. More better and bigger Big Government. Gimme my Obama phone.

Say, d'ya think LIPA and ConEd will be laying off because of Obamacare? I bet they will. I bet they lay of a thousand guys right before January first.

I prophesy this: until people like YOU, Davenport, stop actively sabotaging everyone who's trying to make our civilization work, there's going to be ever-increasing numbers of people dying of exposure in tents waiting for help from Big Brother that never comes. I also predict that the ones who survive are going to be p1ssed.

The liberals, the tree-huggers, the big government types, those obsessed with identity politics--they and their believes are incompatible with prepping. These people are more dangerous than nuclear weapons or an intense solar flare or worldwide pandemic. You survival planning should include voting or, given the opportunity, running against these type of people.

Fall Colors

A recent photo of mine:

(c) 2012 - The Docent

The Mayans and Climate Change

The theory that changes to climate (specifically drought) may have caused, or been a significant factor, in the collapse of Mayan civilization has been around a while. The Daily Mail reports on some new research into the matter:

According to findings published in the November issue of Science, anthropologists have found evidence to support the idea that radically altered weather patterns led to a long dry spell that triggered a decline in agricultural productivity eventually fueling social fragmentation and political collapse.

Rather than being man made, scientists attribute these alterations to the combined effects of El Niño events and changes in the northeast and southeast equatorial winds known as the intertropical convergence zone.

What? It wasn't their SUVs?

 

Anthropologist Douglas Kennett's team came to this conclusion from studying the chemical composition of stalagmites in caves that indicate relatively wet periods versus dry periods. 

They pulled a 22 inch stalagmite from deep within the cave and using its chemical record to guide the way found that there were droughts lasting decades between the years 200 to 1100 B.C.

Those dates coincide with periods of upheaval and hardship in Mayan history.

. . . The worst drought from 1020 to 1100 B.C. coincides with the accepted end of Mayan culture itself.

Kennett added that the greatest periods of rainfall were in line with eras that Mayan culture thrived from 450 to 660 B.C. and the proliferation of their greatest cities.

4.3 Earthquake in Kentucky

The size of the earthquake is not what is significant (it is, after all, a relatively small one), but that it is near the New Madrid fault. (Full story here).

Government Workers Hoarding "Free" Gas

CBS New York has discovered that NYC employees are hoarding gas meant for "first responders."

As millions of drivers alternate days and run on fumes, CBS 2 has uncovered a disturbing loophole for a privileged few.

An exclusive investigation discovered city employees getting free gas — originally meant for first responders.

There were cars getting fueled up. A woman was spotted putting two gas cans into her trunk. There were long lines.

They seem like scenes from a typical gas station, right?

Well, not quite. They were taking place in the parking lot at the World’s Fair Marina on Friday.

It was a fueling station, not only for first responders and NYC vehicles, but also, it seems, for the personal vehicles of any city employee.

And the gas was free!

“It’s a great break for us,” FDNY administrator Maria Mercado said.

The gas is delivered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency in huge tanker trucks. Drivers roll up and an attendant immediately fills up the tank without ever taking a dime.

These people should be tarred and feathered, and run out of town on a rail.

Another reason not to trust government in an emergency.

"Food Security 101"

An article by Rowena Aldridge at Backwoods Magazine setting out some basic tips on more efficiently using and storing food. Since one of my concerns is having sufficient protein in food storage, one of the tips I appreciated was on processing and storing ground beef:

Now here's the way to get the most — and I'm not kidding — from a ground beef windfall. Let's assume you've gotten a great deal and purchased 10 pounds of hamburger.

Usually, the first step in any ground beef recipe is "brown the meat." Do you know how long it takes to brown that much ground meat? So we're going to cut some corners. I guarantee you won't notice the difference.

Start with your 10 pounds of ground meat (which can be a mix of meats if you prefer). Put it all in a big stock pot, cover with as much water as you can reasonably put in the pot, plus a net onion bag full of veggie trimmings and a few herbs. Then boil. You heard me. Boil. Stir it from time to time and break up the meat as you do. Boil it as long as you can stand it. Eventually you'll look at it and think, "hmmm, that looks done." At that point, take it off the stove and let it cool down a bit, then put it in the fridge to cool completely.

I recommend boiling the meat instead of browning because it not only saves time, but you will end up with broth. You don't get broth when you brown meat, at least not without adding another time-consuming step. Since you're going to season this meat later, it doesn't matter that you boiled it. The seasoning gives it the characteristic flavor of the dish in question, and you have converted both the broth and the meat to very low-fat foods.

If you do this process late in the afternoon you can take some of the meat for dinner — tacos, sloppy joes — use your imagination. After that, put the pot of cooked meat in the fridge overnight. Now you get to sleep through the whole cooling process.

When it's cool, skim the fat off the top of the broth. Strain out the ground meat and set it aside (covered and in the fridge is good). Reheat the broth to boiling, ladle it into jars, and process it in your pressure canner according to the manual and the USDA instructions for processing meat broth.

While the jars are in the canner you can start working on the meat. Divide the cooked ground meat into portions that are the right size for your family's needs. Season each portion according to the kinds of meals you want to serve. I do some with taco seasoning, some with sloppy joe seasoning, and I leave some unseasoned to use in spaghetti sauce or shepherd's pie.

When the broth comes out of the canner you can process your jars of meat. They can all go in the canner together because they all have the same processing time. Again, follow all instructions for safe ground beef processing.

When everything is cooled and you've confirmed that the seals are good, you are ready to tuck your precious jars into the pantry.

Your finished amounts will depend on the size of the portions you created and the amount of water you used to make your broth. For my family, this process yields: eight pints of broth, two dozen tacos, six sloppy joe sandwiches, six spaghetti servings, and two big pots of chili (more than two dozen servings).

The meat you left unseasoned can be used for so much more than just spaghetti sauce. Pull it out when you want to make quick stuffed peppers or cabbage rolls. Make your own Hamburger Helper meals or a Tex-Mex salad. Ground meat is pretty flexible and having it already cooked makes dinner a breeze.

The seasoned beef is plenty versatile too. Use your taco meat mix for nachos or burritos or empanadas. Use spaghetti sauce for lasagna. Use sloppy joe mix for dressing up baked potatoes or in lettuce wraps.

Tip: Remember the beef fat you skimmed off? You can use a little of that when you heat up the meat prior to seasoning; it adds back that little bit of browning that some people miss.

Read the whole thing.

The Christian Genocide Continues ... in Syria

Often forgotten is the suffering and persecution that Christians regularly experience at the hands of Muslims. In that regard, German Chancellor Merkel's pointing out the elephant in the room was a refreshing change. However, the few Christians in Syria are being driven out or killed by the Syrian rebels (yes, the same ones to whom Obama is secretly supplying weapons).

In recent days news agencies published the story about the death of the last remaining Christian in the city of Homs, a city that has undergone a religious “clean up” by Islamic rebels. Elias Mansour, 84, a Greek Orthodox Christian, had not wanted to abandon his house in Via Wadi Sayeh because he had to look after his handicapped son. The neighbourhood in which he lived was the scene of violent clashes. An Orthodox priest is looking for his son, whose whereabouts are unknown.

. . . At the end of mass, the priest advises faithful in Bad Tuma to leave quietly, in small groups. Groups of more than four people have to split up. “Christians feel they are being targeted. On one church wall they wrote: “Christians, it’s your turn”. At the beginning, one of the slogans being shouted out was: 'the Alawites to the graves and the Christians to Beirut”. Now it is: “Alawites and Christians to the cemeteries”.”

I've been thinking recently of the Lord's Prayer:

  After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.

  Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

  Give us this day our daily bread.

  And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

  And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

I wonder how many of us actually pray "Thy kingdom come." From my own perspective, at least, I worry about all the horrible things that precede the Second Coming, so that I want to put it off. However, maybe it is time that we Christians earnestly begin to pray that the Lord return.

Ode to a Smashed Grecian Urn

I wish I could write poetry more complicated than "roses are red...," but I can't. So, I'll just quote from Fox News on some of the latest from Greece:

Life in Athens is often punctuated by demonstrations big and small, sometimes on a daily basis. Rows of shuttered shops stand between the restaurants that have managed to stay open. Vigilantes roam inner city neighborhoods, vowing to "clean up" what they claim the demoralized police have failed to do. Right-wing extremists beat migrants, anarchists beat the right-wing thugs and desperate local residents quietly cheer one side or the other as society grows increasingly polarized.

"Our society is on a razor's edge," Public Order Minister Nikos Dendias said recently, after striking shipyard workers broke into the grounds of the Defense Ministry. "If we can't contain ourselves, if we can't maintain our social cohesion, if we can't continue to act within the rules ... I fear we will end up being a jungle."

. . . Private businesses have closed down in the thousands. Unemployment stands at a record 25 percent, with more than half of Greece's young people out of work. Caught between plunging incomes and ever increasing taxes, families are finding it hard to make ends meet. Higher heating fuel prices have meant many apartment tenants have opted not to buy heating fuel this year. Instead, they'll make do with blankets, gas heaters and firewood to get through the winter. Lines at soup kitchens have grown longer. 

. . . In September, gangs of men smashed immigrant street vendors' stalls at fairs and farmers' markets. Videos posted on the Internet showed the incident being carried out in the presence of lawmakers from the extreme right Golden Dawn party. Formerly a fringe group, Golden Dawn — which denies accusations it has carried out violent attacks against immigrants — made major inroads into mainstream politics. It won nearly 7 percent of the vote in June's election and 18 seats in the 300-member parliament. A recent opinion poll showed its support climbing to 12 percent.

Immigrant and human rights groups say there has been an alarming increase in violent attacks on migrants. Greece has been the EU's main gateway for hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants — and foreigners have fast become scapegoats for rising unemployment and crime.

While there are no official statistics, migrants tell of random beatings at the hands of thugs who stop to ask them where they are from, then attack them with wooden bats.

. . . Healthcare spending has been slashed as the country struggles to reduce its debt. Public hospitals complain of shortages of everything from gauzes to surgical equipment. Pharmacies regularly go on strike or refuse to fill subsidized social security prescriptions because government funds haven't paid them for the drugs already bought. Benefits have been slashed and hospital workers often go unpaid for months.

The story also indicates that doctors at at least one hospital have been unpaid since May at at least one hospital, while strikes by judges and prosecutors have essentially brought the justice system to a standstill.