I am supporting Ron Paul in this presidential election. I don't imagine that surprises any of you. I am sorely concerned about where this country is headed. That is why I write this survival blog. There are a million or more folks out there who feel the danger the same as I do and there is a reason for that.
This country is getting as close to a dictatorship as I could ever imagine. The Shrub has passed the most illegal bunch of laws imaginable. This is not the country in which I was raised. It is becoming an alien land, void of familiar recognition. Void of comfort. You don't know from day to day what new form of enslavement this government is going to come out with. The conspiracy guys have laid it out that Bush is going to retire at a 100,000 acre ranch in Paraguay when he leaves the Whitehouse. I wish he would go now. And take Dick Cheney with him. And while he is at it I wish he would tale that billionaire Mike Bloomberg with him. People with that kind of money are great menaces to our society. The sheeple are prone to believe whatever the television tells them and Bloomberg can buy all the TV tme he wants.
Of all the candidates who entered the presidential race, Ron Paul is the most honest of the bunch. No one has caught him flip-flopping on any issue. He is as consistant as can be. And I go along with his reasoning on most issues. He will piss a lot of liberals off when he gets to be president, but that con't be helped. And who cares if a liberal gets pissed off? Not I, said Michael.
I am a part of humanity and I recognize others, and their needs. We all have to live on this beautiful planet and we really ought to get along a lot better than we do. There is land aplenty and it will produce food for us. But we get these governments that are run by apes and we have to have wars and such. This is abusive to the whole human family. But Ron Paul would deny our presence in these wars. The war you would get out of him would be the war you got for attacking this nation. Not a bad way to live. Certainly better than our pre-emptive strike policy we have in place right now. And this would be a strategy we could live with. The pesent policy of Eternal War is being used to control us and manipulate us and take away our rights as human beings. It will either be used to tax us into poverty or borrow us into poverty. This Eternal War has got to stop. Our goose is cooked if it isn't stopped. The apes have got to be controlled better than they have been. We used to have Mutually Assured Destruction. This just meant that anyone who fired upon us was gong to be incinerated. A helluva lot cheaper than keeping hundreds of thousands of troops stationed all over the globe.
Our tax burden has got to be lifted. We will need all the money we can find to send our kids into schools that really teach skills that we can use to build our industrial base. And we really do need to get rid of the Department of Education in Washington and take back our authority over the school systems on the local level. Keep Big Government and Big Judiciary out of our schools and let our children learn something of value. Millions of kids in America are being home schooled because they can't get a proper education from the public system. Their parents are really doing their best for our country. They are the elite patriots of our time. They are giving us the brains we need to build a better life. And I bet they teach the Constitution. Just like Ron Paul would do.
Our Constitution is not a perfect document but it has the basics for a decent life in it. Despots all over the planet hate our Constitution. Their people hear aboiut freedom and they are much harder to control. The Marxists use the cry of freedom to gain initial power in a country but they soon show their dictatorial nature as they subjegate the populace. Marx, by the way, stole all of his basic ideas from the New Testament and couched them in non-religeous language. What a jerk.
I think that Ron Paul is our last chance to get someone in the office the president who is not going to allow the country to slide into the slime of a dictatorship. If we don't get him elected we may as well follow Claire Wolfe's admonition and declare it to be the time.
I ain't afraid. Go Ron Paul!
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Survival and the Diabetic
[I requested this of my friend William Michael Kemp. I know of no one who knows as much about diabetes as Mr. Kemp. If this condition touches your life or the life of a loved one or friend, pay attention!]
SURVIVAL AND THE DIABETIC
This will be directed largely at the type one (juvenile) diabetic, and
the very insulin-dependent type two. I was diagnosed diabetic in 1963.
I am a severe, extremely brittle, type one diabetic. If I go 24 hours
without insulin, I am greatly debilitated. If I go 48 hours, I am not
very functional at all. If I go 72 hours, I am at death's door. Any
more, and no matter what happens, I will likely not survive,
regardless.
One half of all type one diabetics die within 20 years of their
diagnosis. One half of the remainder die within the next 20 years. It
only gets worse from there. If anything, type 2 diabetics, and
particularly severe type 2 diabetics, exhibit worse statistics. I am
within a few of months of being 45 years a diabetic. I am 20/20 or
better in both eyes, which have never seen a laser used for 'treating'
diabetic retinopathy. My kidneys are fully functional. My blood
pressure is normal and untreated. I have both feet, minus a little
surgical whittling on two toes. Forgive my boasting, but for an old
diabetic, that not only 'ain't bad', it is in fact exceedingly rare.
And my path has not been smooth. I have been incarcerated several
times, and survived less than stellar care. In fact, in three of those
instances, I lived through periods of 48 to 72 hours with no care at
all. An old jailbird, eh? Yeah. But do note that I am still legally
entitled, even in these days of the war on gun ownership, to own
firearms. I trust that those reading this understand from this that
while I may be an old jailbird, I am NOT a 'criminal'.
I was taught, within a few months of my diagnosis, by an old doctor
who was not only a diabetic specialist, but was in fact a severe type
one diabetic himself. He was literally saved in his youth by the
discovery of insulin by Drs. Banting and Best. He KNEW diabetes, and
was world-renowned in his field.
For a tidbit of information, he
discovered, at the summer camp for diabetic children which he ran, the
fact that if you shine a bright flashlight in the eyes of a sleeping
diabetic child, he will squint a bit, if his blood sugar is in the
safe range. If the blood sugar is not above, let's pick a number--
70-- he will not squint. Thus you wake the child and feed him.
This camp for diabetic children typically had 100 children attending
every summer. And every two hours during the night, it was necessary
for competent staff to circulate among them all, checking each for
signs of sweating or other overt signs of distress, usually awakening
them to verify their safe condition. This became a real chore as the
number of children increased. This response to a light in the eyes is
referred to as 'The Smelo Response', after Doctor Leon Smelo, the man
who taught me and whom I must here thank for teaching me to live. I
have done my utmost to 'pay this gift forward', first by going back to
the camp for diabetic kids as a counselor as soon as I got 'a real
job' after taking a Bachelor's in chemistry from Tulane, and thus had
vacation, and subsequently by preaching Dr. Smelo's gospel to all
diabetics who will listen. And this is more of the same effort.
Dr. Smelo taught me that I am my best physician. He taught me that
only the diabetic is a truly competent judge of his condition and his
needs. He taught me that no doctor can guide me through my life. If
life were such that you could get up at the same time after precisely
the same amount of sleep, eat precisely the same breakfast, engage in
precisely the same activities, eat precisely the same lunch, the same
supper, every day precisely the same as the day before and the day
after, it STILL would not be sufficient to follow a
physician-prescribed regimen. The diabetic's body and condition simply
is not stable.
EVERY day brings new challenges, even if you approach
the ideal of exactitude in all fundamentals. It simply doesn't behave
that way. That said, I further state that routine and habitual
behavior is the ONLY friend a diabetic has. It provides the basis to
judge variations, in activity, in composition of meals, in disruptions
caused by the activity of the liver in acquiring and shedding glucose,
in disruptions caused by periodic illnesses. Let me repeat this--
routine is the diabetic's ONLY friend and ally. The more you vary from
routine, the more difficult the task becomes. You are required to be
technically competent with the minutae of diabetes.
So he taught me that I must depend on myself, on my knowledge and my
studied and considered best opinion. I have not been under a
physician's care since I was old enough to smile and agree with
whatever physician I was afflicted with, then go do what I thought
best and necessary. Not only have I suffered maltreatment at the hands
of jailers, I have lived an active and athletic life, with
construction work, field work, and varying and unpredictable
conditions throughout.
I say this to encourage you to trust my words. I DO know of which I speak.
The first thing required is this: you must make a conscious decision
to survive, no matter what.
The next thing required is, you must act on this decision. You must
consciously take specific actions in order to live through whatever
may come, or at least to live as long as is physically possible, for
once you are dead, you are dead. And until you are dead, you are
alive. I wish to stay that way. Not only do I 'wish', I have acted and
do act and intend to continue to act to maximize the likelihood of
that happening.
I will pass by the obvious, that you will need to eat, at least a
couple or three times a week, minimum. Since your food supply is
likely to be haphazard, and not necessarily of your choosing, you will
need a GOOD supply of a GOOD multivitamin. Further, you will need
water. You would be astounded at what you can safely drink, if you put
a little chlorine bleach in it. You may immediately think of gallons
of Clorox, but granulated swimming pool chlorine is far cheaper than
clorox, much more concentrated, and if kept tightly sealed in the
original container, will last a very long time. Portable filters are
good, but that can be expensive and commonly requires replacement
filters. A 20oz soft drink bottle, thoroughly cleaned and absolutely
dry, makes a convenient container for a goodly supply of granulated
chlorine bleach to throw into a 'git kit'. Do not get anything that is
not pure chlorine bleach. It will add unwanted taste and may be less
than good for you.
Diabetics particularly need to keep their hands and feet as dry and as
warm as possible. Deal with it.
It would be really nice to have a blood sugar meter, some extra
batteries, and a supply of reagent sticks. More is better.
Moving along, now we come to the 'diabetic specialty' stuff. You will
need insulin. You will need syringes. This is not as simple as you may
think, and there are ways and means of extending what you have.
It is preached that you should 'dispose' of used syringes. As I have
stated, I have survived conditions less than ideal. There have been
times, more than I care to recall, when had I not retained my used
syringes, I would have had no syringes at all. Yes, I know the proper
and approved method of disposing of used 'sharps'. Sorry, but you may
not always have a handy pharmacy to insure this supply.
So, rule one, be very careful with the needles. This violates all
principles, but hear me. Very carefully recap your syringes, being
most particular to leave the needle uncontaminated by contact anything
other than your clean skin-- as clean as you can manage. Alcohol
swabbing cleans the skin, it does not 'disinfect it'. But it helps.
Soap and water is just as good as an alcohol swab, perhaps better. Do
not allow the needle to touch anything after you give an injection. Do
not blunt the needle by carelessly recapping it, hitting the cap while
recapping. Take an empty gallon milk jug, or the equivalent, label it
'ONCE USED', and drop it in. When it is full, store it and get
another. If you damage or contaminate the needle in the recapping
operation, discard it-- safely discard it. Consider it your store of
'cleanest dirty shirts'. If pressed into a survival situation, use
another container labeled 'twice used', and place those reused
syringes into that container.
So we come to insulin. I am going to use rough numbers and
descriptions, do please apply my teachings and modify your behavior to
your conditions.
If pressed into a survival situation, where food supply becomes
chancy, realize that your body requires a 'base load' of insulin even
in the absence of food. I have on two occasions fasted for a week at a
time, for my own enlightenment. My insulin demand, by blood sugar
monitoring every three hours, declined from a nominal 50 units per day
to perhaps 12 units per day, administered in 2 unit increments of R
insulin every 3 to 4 hours. I was not immobile nor non-functional
during these periods of fasting. With an intermittent supply of food
in varying amounts, your bodily demand will reach perhaps one third to
one half the normal 24 hour requirements. You will lose weight. You
probably eat too much anyway (a little humor there-- lighten up). A
little extra body mass may even help you live through a limited period
of a survival situation. In the absence for several days of any food,
it will likely drop to one fourth or less of your normal insulin
demand.
But you must be prepared to adapt to the here and gone food supply.
You must know how to use the insulin that you have, and know how all
the types act.
The most commonly used insulins for 'day long' use are NPH (N) and
Lantus. NPH is an 'old' type of insulin, in use for some decades. It
is 'insulin' physically modified by admixture of zinc crystals and
protamine, which is a protein. The body, over a nominal 12 hours,
strips the admixture away and accesses the insulin itself. An
injection lasts a nominal 12 hours, but in fact there is residual
activity beyond the 12 hour nominal. In 'normal' times it is typically
given twice a day, morning and night. If possible, I would recommend
that this be continued in a survival condition. Rather than one
'larger' shot, I would recommend two smaller shots-- likely MUCH
smaller. Your target will be to maintain a blood sugar in the nominal
range of 200, perhaps a bit lower, but to venture much lower than this
blood sugar level of a nominal 200 is to invite catastrophic drops in
blood sugar level that you may not have the means to correct-- that
is, you may not have handy some fast carbohydrate to 'rescue' you from
hypoglycemia-- 'insulin reaction'.
This is vastly higher that what is 'medically recommended', but do
understand, you are not in a normal situation. This comment is
particularly for type ones, who seem to exhibit better resistance to
higher blood sugars without immediate harm than can insulin dependent
type twos. I do not know why that is, I have simply observed it. In
type ones, it is considered that real damage is not occurred below a
blood sugar of approximately 240 or 250. I, personally, find that
level to be the point where I begin to overtly notice that my blood
sugar is too high, without a blood sugar test..
Moving on, there is Lantus insulin. This differs from NPH, 'N'
insulin, by being CHEMICALLY modified to extend the time of uptake. It
is strictly a once-per-day insulin. If Lantus has a down side, it is
in that it seems to deteriorate a bit faster after you begin to use
it. Placing air in the bottle for withdrawal exposes it to oxygen,
which is the enemy of complex organic molecules, such as insulin. I
will add that sunlight and temperature deteriorates all insulins, as
well. Protect your supply from any elevated temperatures, from
sunlight, and do not allow it to freeze.
Lantus has a drawback in that it is available by prescription only.
NPH (N) and Regular (R) insulin are available over the counter, no
prescription required, in almost all jurisdictions. This allows you to
stockpile N and R to your heart's content, so long as you have
finances.
Moving along, there is Regular (R) insulin. This is straight,
unmodified human insulin. It is also available over the counter in
almost all jurisdictions. You can purchase all you have funds for. It
has a nominal 4-6 hour activity in the body, and to use only R insulin
will require you to give at least three of four injections a day.
Divide your total daily insulin requirements as described below, and
spread that among three or four injections, equally spaced, during the
24 hour time span.
Use a rule of thumb-- add your daily insulin requirements in 'units'
of all types which you inject in 'normal' times, total it. Then divide
by two or three or four for your requirements in severe survival
conditions, and this will depend purely on the food available to you.
In the absence of food, your daily insulin requirements may be as low
as one fourth or even less of your 'normal' requirements. This is
something which must be worked out purely by experiment. Remember your
target blood sugar of 200. Realize that to err on the side of too much
insulin for available food will place you in hypoglycemia, insulin
reaction. This runs the risk of placing you in a condition of impaired
judgment, physical disability, and if severe, becoming immobile and
comatose. Without an adequate supply of 'rescue' carbohydrates, this
is a very serious condition.
The last type of insulin is Humalog (the Eli Lilly trade name-- the
'other' brand is called Novolog). This is also a prescription-only
insulin, and is specially modified to provide very fast activity after
injection, perhaps twice the rapidity of onset, and half of the
nominal time of activity of R insulin. In normal circumstances, it is
used to provide a quick bump of insulin activity to cover meals. If
you have the luxury of having either Lantus or NPH (N) AND Humalog
available to you in a survival situation, you can use Humalog as an
adjunct to the Lantus on the happy occasions of finding food. If you
use Humalog insulin normally, I would again suggest that you use no
more than one half of what you would normally use to cover a meal. NO
MORE than half, and perhaps considerably less than one half the
'normal' dose.
Humalog alone, in a purely survival circumstance, will be difficult to
meter, will require 6 or more equally spaced injections per day to
maintain some reasonable level of insulin activity and reasonable
blood sugar levels. And realize that it is sudden and drastic in its
onset and effects. This is a dangerous insulin to depend on, much like
trying to start and maintain a fire with ether. To maintain a low
steady fire, ether as an accelerant is most difficult and dangerous to
use. Therefore, I would not suggest overly stockpiling Humalog
insulin. But in a survival situation, insulin is insulin, and ANY
insulin is vastly better than NO insulin.
So we come to another consideration. How do you accumulate a supply of
insulin? With R or N insulin, you can simply go purchase whatever
makes you comfortable, but do understand, there is no such thing as
'too much'. In a survival condition, there is no resupply.
Insulin is available in nature from fetal mammals, and that was the
exclusive commercial source of insulin for nearly 50 years. Cows and
pigs were and are sent to market pregnant, to boost slaughter weight.
These fetal animals were harvested at slaughter, their pancreases
harvested, 'pureed', and the insulin extracted and purified. This is a
very complicated and difficult thing to do, particularly for the
layman in a survival situation. This is necessary because the
pancreases of animals, once born and having had even one meal of
anything, contain powerful digestive enzymes which, if released by the
mechanism of 'blending' or 'pureeing' will utterly destroy the insulin
which is present and necessary for the metabolism of the fetal animal
in the womb. So, absent the ability and knowledge to carefully
separate the insulin-producing areas of the pancreas from the
remainder of the adult or 'once-fed' juvenile pancreases, pancreases
of adult mammals are useless.
Whatever insulin you have when the flag goes up is what you have. To
maximize this, particularly for Lantus and Humalog insulins which
require prescriptions and are very expensive, I suggest the following
strategies.
When dealing with a physician, which you must to obtain Lantus or
Humalog, you have to have a prescription. So, when your physician asks
you how much Lantus or Humalog you take, arbitrarily drastically
increase it. If you take 40 units a day of Lantus, tell your physician
that you take 60 or more units. This bumps your monthly requirement
from a bit over one bottle a month to two bottles or more a month.
Store the surplus in a non-freezing refrigerator, and use the oldest
(soonest expiration date) first. Accumulate to the extent you can. If
you have some sort of insurance, this provides a surplus which someone
else helps pay for. Sorry, we're talking about survival here. Use the
same strategy for your Humalog requirements.
When obtaining syringes, and particularly if you have to have a
prescription, plead to your doctor that you are clumsy and prone to
dropping syringes and thus wasting them, so instead of one syringe a
day for your Lantus, claim that a good third of the time, you are
likely to drop or damage the syringe, and thus need considerably more
than one syringe a day.
Humalog is generally taken in much smaller doses than Lantus or N, so
tell your doctor that you eat 6 small meals per day, and thus give 6
small injections per day. This is best accomplished by using the 0.3cc
syringes rather than the 0.5 or 1.0 cc syringes usually used for
Lantus insulin. Stockpile like mad any excess. Inflate shamelessly
your actual dose per meal. And don't worry about having too many of
the 0.3 cc syringes, because your injections of Lantus will be vastly
reduced in size if you are in a survival situation, and thus most
likely the smallest volume syringes will be usable for the vastly
reduced requirements of Lantus per day.
Worried about fooling your doctor, and having a problem? Don't.
YOU meter your injections, not a physician, and the worst thing that
can happen is to find yourself in a hospital situation where IN THE
BEGINNING, they may marginally overdose you. In a hospital situation,
you should be closely monitored anyway, and such a mistake will be
(should be, but as in all things relating to diabetes, take NOTHING
for granted. If you piss off your doctor by your intransigence, well,
he'll get over it) quickly noticed and the size of the injection
reduced. Mitigate against this possibility upon admission to the
hospital by telling your doctor that your insulin requirements 'have
been grossly unstable and unpredictable RECENTLY'. And, thus, that he
should be most careful about the size of the injections until the
'immediately normal' is determined.
I proceed here to ancillary considerations. Every successful diabetic
I have ever known, excluding myself, have or have had a 'minder', a
'keeper', a 'helper' who is knowledgeable in the patient's
requirements and peculiarities. Someone to keep up with injection
times, dosages, types... someone to help maintain the blood sugar
testing regimen, someone who knows how to react to blood sugar
fluctuations, variations in food types and the daily variations in
diet and activity. This is very important. A husband, a wife, a son, a
daughter, a lover... SOMEONE to help or even to directly manage the
diabetics' requirements in the face of variations and individual
peculiarities. Someone to note when behavior becomes a bit out of
normal, often meaning low or marginally low blood sugar levels.
What this means, is, if you are 'soloing', it is greatly to your
benefit to bring someone close to you into your particular regimen, so
that in the event of your disability, can respond appropriately-- AND
PRESERVE YOUR LIFE.
SURVIVAL AND THE DIABETIC
This will be directed largely at the type one (juvenile) diabetic, and
the very insulin-dependent type two. I was diagnosed diabetic in 1963.
I am a severe, extremely brittle, type one diabetic. If I go 24 hours
without insulin, I am greatly debilitated. If I go 48 hours, I am not
very functional at all. If I go 72 hours, I am at death's door. Any
more, and no matter what happens, I will likely not survive,
regardless.
One half of all type one diabetics die within 20 years of their
diagnosis. One half of the remainder die within the next 20 years. It
only gets worse from there. If anything, type 2 diabetics, and
particularly severe type 2 diabetics, exhibit worse statistics. I am
within a few of months of being 45 years a diabetic. I am 20/20 or
better in both eyes, which have never seen a laser used for 'treating'
diabetic retinopathy. My kidneys are fully functional. My blood
pressure is normal and untreated. I have both feet, minus a little
surgical whittling on two toes. Forgive my boasting, but for an old
diabetic, that not only 'ain't bad', it is in fact exceedingly rare.
And my path has not been smooth. I have been incarcerated several
times, and survived less than stellar care. In fact, in three of those
instances, I lived through periods of 48 to 72 hours with no care at
all. An old jailbird, eh? Yeah. But do note that I am still legally
entitled, even in these days of the war on gun ownership, to own
firearms. I trust that those reading this understand from this that
while I may be an old jailbird, I am NOT a 'criminal'.
I was taught, within a few months of my diagnosis, by an old doctor
who was not only a diabetic specialist, but was in fact a severe type
one diabetic himself. He was literally saved in his youth by the
discovery of insulin by Drs. Banting and Best. He KNEW diabetes, and
was world-renowned in his field.
For a tidbit of information, he
discovered, at the summer camp for diabetic children which he ran, the
fact that if you shine a bright flashlight in the eyes of a sleeping
diabetic child, he will squint a bit, if his blood sugar is in the
safe range. If the blood sugar is not above, let's pick a number--
70-- he will not squint. Thus you wake the child and feed him.
This camp for diabetic children typically had 100 children attending
every summer. And every two hours during the night, it was necessary
for competent staff to circulate among them all, checking each for
signs of sweating or other overt signs of distress, usually awakening
them to verify their safe condition. This became a real chore as the
number of children increased. This response to a light in the eyes is
referred to as 'The Smelo Response', after Doctor Leon Smelo, the man
who taught me and whom I must here thank for teaching me to live. I
have done my utmost to 'pay this gift forward', first by going back to
the camp for diabetic kids as a counselor as soon as I got 'a real
job' after taking a Bachelor's in chemistry from Tulane, and thus had
vacation, and subsequently by preaching Dr. Smelo's gospel to all
diabetics who will listen. And this is more of the same effort.
Dr. Smelo taught me that I am my best physician. He taught me that
only the diabetic is a truly competent judge of his condition and his
needs. He taught me that no doctor can guide me through my life. If
life were such that you could get up at the same time after precisely
the same amount of sleep, eat precisely the same breakfast, engage in
precisely the same activities, eat precisely the same lunch, the same
supper, every day precisely the same as the day before and the day
after, it STILL would not be sufficient to follow a
physician-prescribed regimen. The diabetic's body and condition simply
is not stable.
EVERY day brings new challenges, even if you approach
the ideal of exactitude in all fundamentals. It simply doesn't behave
that way. That said, I further state that routine and habitual
behavior is the ONLY friend a diabetic has. It provides the basis to
judge variations, in activity, in composition of meals, in disruptions
caused by the activity of the liver in acquiring and shedding glucose,
in disruptions caused by periodic illnesses. Let me repeat this--
routine is the diabetic's ONLY friend and ally. The more you vary from
routine, the more difficult the task becomes. You are required to be
technically competent with the minutae of diabetes.
So he taught me that I must depend on myself, on my knowledge and my
studied and considered best opinion. I have not been under a
physician's care since I was old enough to smile and agree with
whatever physician I was afflicted with, then go do what I thought
best and necessary. Not only have I suffered maltreatment at the hands
of jailers, I have lived an active and athletic life, with
construction work, field work, and varying and unpredictable
conditions throughout.
I say this to encourage you to trust my words. I DO know of which I speak.
The first thing required is this: you must make a conscious decision
to survive, no matter what.
The next thing required is, you must act on this decision. You must
consciously take specific actions in order to live through whatever
may come, or at least to live as long as is physically possible, for
once you are dead, you are dead. And until you are dead, you are
alive. I wish to stay that way. Not only do I 'wish', I have acted and
do act and intend to continue to act to maximize the likelihood of
that happening.
I will pass by the obvious, that you will need to eat, at least a
couple or three times a week, minimum. Since your food supply is
likely to be haphazard, and not necessarily of your choosing, you will
need a GOOD supply of a GOOD multivitamin. Further, you will need
water. You would be astounded at what you can safely drink, if you put
a little chlorine bleach in it. You may immediately think of gallons
of Clorox, but granulated swimming pool chlorine is far cheaper than
clorox, much more concentrated, and if kept tightly sealed in the
original container, will last a very long time. Portable filters are
good, but that can be expensive and commonly requires replacement
filters. A 20oz soft drink bottle, thoroughly cleaned and absolutely
dry, makes a convenient container for a goodly supply of granulated
chlorine bleach to throw into a 'git kit'. Do not get anything that is
not pure chlorine bleach. It will add unwanted taste and may be less
than good for you.
Diabetics particularly need to keep their hands and feet as dry and as
warm as possible. Deal with it.
It would be really nice to have a blood sugar meter, some extra
batteries, and a supply of reagent sticks. More is better.
Moving along, now we come to the 'diabetic specialty' stuff. You will
need insulin. You will need syringes. This is not as simple as you may
think, and there are ways and means of extending what you have.
It is preached that you should 'dispose' of used syringes. As I have
stated, I have survived conditions less than ideal. There have been
times, more than I care to recall, when had I not retained my used
syringes, I would have had no syringes at all. Yes, I know the proper
and approved method of disposing of used 'sharps'. Sorry, but you may
not always have a handy pharmacy to insure this supply.
So, rule one, be very careful with the needles. This violates all
principles, but hear me. Very carefully recap your syringes, being
most particular to leave the needle uncontaminated by contact anything
other than your clean skin-- as clean as you can manage. Alcohol
swabbing cleans the skin, it does not 'disinfect it'. But it helps.
Soap and water is just as good as an alcohol swab, perhaps better. Do
not allow the needle to touch anything after you give an injection. Do
not blunt the needle by carelessly recapping it, hitting the cap while
recapping. Take an empty gallon milk jug, or the equivalent, label it
'ONCE USED', and drop it in. When it is full, store it and get
another. If you damage or contaminate the needle in the recapping
operation, discard it-- safely discard it. Consider it your store of
'cleanest dirty shirts'. If pressed into a survival situation, use
another container labeled 'twice used', and place those reused
syringes into that container.
So we come to insulin. I am going to use rough numbers and
descriptions, do please apply my teachings and modify your behavior to
your conditions.
If pressed into a survival situation, where food supply becomes
chancy, realize that your body requires a 'base load' of insulin even
in the absence of food. I have on two occasions fasted for a week at a
time, for my own enlightenment. My insulin demand, by blood sugar
monitoring every three hours, declined from a nominal 50 units per day
to perhaps 12 units per day, administered in 2 unit increments of R
insulin every 3 to 4 hours. I was not immobile nor non-functional
during these periods of fasting. With an intermittent supply of food
in varying amounts, your bodily demand will reach perhaps one third to
one half the normal 24 hour requirements. You will lose weight. You
probably eat too much anyway (a little humor there-- lighten up). A
little extra body mass may even help you live through a limited period
of a survival situation. In the absence for several days of any food,
it will likely drop to one fourth or less of your normal insulin
demand.
But you must be prepared to adapt to the here and gone food supply.
You must know how to use the insulin that you have, and know how all
the types act.
The most commonly used insulins for 'day long' use are NPH (N) and
Lantus. NPH is an 'old' type of insulin, in use for some decades. It
is 'insulin' physically modified by admixture of zinc crystals and
protamine, which is a protein. The body, over a nominal 12 hours,
strips the admixture away and accesses the insulin itself. An
injection lasts a nominal 12 hours, but in fact there is residual
activity beyond the 12 hour nominal. In 'normal' times it is typically
given twice a day, morning and night. If possible, I would recommend
that this be continued in a survival condition. Rather than one
'larger' shot, I would recommend two smaller shots-- likely MUCH
smaller. Your target will be to maintain a blood sugar in the nominal
range of 200, perhaps a bit lower, but to venture much lower than this
blood sugar level of a nominal 200 is to invite catastrophic drops in
blood sugar level that you may not have the means to correct-- that
is, you may not have handy some fast carbohydrate to 'rescue' you from
hypoglycemia-- 'insulin reaction'.
This is vastly higher that what is 'medically recommended', but do
understand, you are not in a normal situation. This comment is
particularly for type ones, who seem to exhibit better resistance to
higher blood sugars without immediate harm than can insulin dependent
type twos. I do not know why that is, I have simply observed it. In
type ones, it is considered that real damage is not occurred below a
blood sugar of approximately 240 or 250. I, personally, find that
level to be the point where I begin to overtly notice that my blood
sugar is too high, without a blood sugar test..
Moving on, there is Lantus insulin. This differs from NPH, 'N'
insulin, by being CHEMICALLY modified to extend the time of uptake. It
is strictly a once-per-day insulin. If Lantus has a down side, it is
in that it seems to deteriorate a bit faster after you begin to use
it. Placing air in the bottle for withdrawal exposes it to oxygen,
which is the enemy of complex organic molecules, such as insulin. I
will add that sunlight and temperature deteriorates all insulins, as
well. Protect your supply from any elevated temperatures, from
sunlight, and do not allow it to freeze.
Lantus has a drawback in that it is available by prescription only.
NPH (N) and Regular (R) insulin are available over the counter, no
prescription required, in almost all jurisdictions. This allows you to
stockpile N and R to your heart's content, so long as you have
finances.
Moving along, there is Regular (R) insulin. This is straight,
unmodified human insulin. It is also available over the counter in
almost all jurisdictions. You can purchase all you have funds for. It
has a nominal 4-6 hour activity in the body, and to use only R insulin
will require you to give at least three of four injections a day.
Divide your total daily insulin requirements as described below, and
spread that among three or four injections, equally spaced, during the
24 hour time span.
Use a rule of thumb-- add your daily insulin requirements in 'units'
of all types which you inject in 'normal' times, total it. Then divide
by two or three or four for your requirements in severe survival
conditions, and this will depend purely on the food available to you.
In the absence of food, your daily insulin requirements may be as low
as one fourth or even less of your 'normal' requirements. This is
something which must be worked out purely by experiment. Remember your
target blood sugar of 200. Realize that to err on the side of too much
insulin for available food will place you in hypoglycemia, insulin
reaction. This runs the risk of placing you in a condition of impaired
judgment, physical disability, and if severe, becoming immobile and
comatose. Without an adequate supply of 'rescue' carbohydrates, this
is a very serious condition.
The last type of insulin is Humalog (the Eli Lilly trade name-- the
'other' brand is called Novolog). This is also a prescription-only
insulin, and is specially modified to provide very fast activity after
injection, perhaps twice the rapidity of onset, and half of the
nominal time of activity of R insulin. In normal circumstances, it is
used to provide a quick bump of insulin activity to cover meals. If
you have the luxury of having either Lantus or NPH (N) AND Humalog
available to you in a survival situation, you can use Humalog as an
adjunct to the Lantus on the happy occasions of finding food. If you
use Humalog insulin normally, I would again suggest that you use no
more than one half of what you would normally use to cover a meal. NO
MORE than half, and perhaps considerably less than one half the
'normal' dose.
Humalog alone, in a purely survival circumstance, will be difficult to
meter, will require 6 or more equally spaced injections per day to
maintain some reasonable level of insulin activity and reasonable
blood sugar levels. And realize that it is sudden and drastic in its
onset and effects. This is a dangerous insulin to depend on, much like
trying to start and maintain a fire with ether. To maintain a low
steady fire, ether as an accelerant is most difficult and dangerous to
use. Therefore, I would not suggest overly stockpiling Humalog
insulin. But in a survival situation, insulin is insulin, and ANY
insulin is vastly better than NO insulin.
So we come to another consideration. How do you accumulate a supply of
insulin? With R or N insulin, you can simply go purchase whatever
makes you comfortable, but do understand, there is no such thing as
'too much'. In a survival condition, there is no resupply.
Insulin is available in nature from fetal mammals, and that was the
exclusive commercial source of insulin for nearly 50 years. Cows and
pigs were and are sent to market pregnant, to boost slaughter weight.
These fetal animals were harvested at slaughter, their pancreases
harvested, 'pureed', and the insulin extracted and purified. This is a
very complicated and difficult thing to do, particularly for the
layman in a survival situation. This is necessary because the
pancreases of animals, once born and having had even one meal of
anything, contain powerful digestive enzymes which, if released by the
mechanism of 'blending' or 'pureeing' will utterly destroy the insulin
which is present and necessary for the metabolism of the fetal animal
in the womb. So, absent the ability and knowledge to carefully
separate the insulin-producing areas of the pancreas from the
remainder of the adult or 'once-fed' juvenile pancreases, pancreases
of adult mammals are useless.
Whatever insulin you have when the flag goes up is what you have. To
maximize this, particularly for Lantus and Humalog insulins which
require prescriptions and are very expensive, I suggest the following
strategies.
When dealing with a physician, which you must to obtain Lantus or
Humalog, you have to have a prescription. So, when your physician asks
you how much Lantus or Humalog you take, arbitrarily drastically
increase it. If you take 40 units a day of Lantus, tell your physician
that you take 60 or more units. This bumps your monthly requirement
from a bit over one bottle a month to two bottles or more a month.
Store the surplus in a non-freezing refrigerator, and use the oldest
(soonest expiration date) first. Accumulate to the extent you can. If
you have some sort of insurance, this provides a surplus which someone
else helps pay for. Sorry, we're talking about survival here. Use the
same strategy for your Humalog requirements.
When obtaining syringes, and particularly if you have to have a
prescription, plead to your doctor that you are clumsy and prone to
dropping syringes and thus wasting them, so instead of one syringe a
day for your Lantus, claim that a good third of the time, you are
likely to drop or damage the syringe, and thus need considerably more
than one syringe a day.
Humalog is generally taken in much smaller doses than Lantus or N, so
tell your doctor that you eat 6 small meals per day, and thus give 6
small injections per day. This is best accomplished by using the 0.3cc
syringes rather than the 0.5 or 1.0 cc syringes usually used for
Lantus insulin. Stockpile like mad any excess. Inflate shamelessly
your actual dose per meal. And don't worry about having too many of
the 0.3 cc syringes, because your injections of Lantus will be vastly
reduced in size if you are in a survival situation, and thus most
likely the smallest volume syringes will be usable for the vastly
reduced requirements of Lantus per day.
Worried about fooling your doctor, and having a problem? Don't.
YOU meter your injections, not a physician, and the worst thing that
can happen is to find yourself in a hospital situation where IN THE
BEGINNING, they may marginally overdose you. In a hospital situation,
you should be closely monitored anyway, and such a mistake will be
(should be, but as in all things relating to diabetes, take NOTHING
for granted. If you piss off your doctor by your intransigence, well,
he'll get over it) quickly noticed and the size of the injection
reduced. Mitigate against this possibility upon admission to the
hospital by telling your doctor that your insulin requirements 'have
been grossly unstable and unpredictable RECENTLY'. And, thus, that he
should be most careful about the size of the injections until the
'immediately normal' is determined.
I proceed here to ancillary considerations. Every successful diabetic
I have ever known, excluding myself, have or have had a 'minder', a
'keeper', a 'helper' who is knowledgeable in the patient's
requirements and peculiarities. Someone to keep up with injection
times, dosages, types... someone to help maintain the blood sugar
testing regimen, someone who knows how to react to blood sugar
fluctuations, variations in food types and the daily variations in
diet and activity. This is very important. A husband, a wife, a son, a
daughter, a lover... SOMEONE to help or even to directly manage the
diabetics' requirements in the face of variations and individual
peculiarities. Someone to note when behavior becomes a bit out of
normal, often meaning low or marginally low blood sugar levels.
What this means, is, if you are 'soloing', it is greatly to your
benefit to bring someone close to you into your particular regimen, so
that in the event of your disability, can respond appropriately-- AND
PRESERVE YOUR LIFE.
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
The Monster Never Sleeps
From: BlaineDate: Jan 29, 2008 7:57 PM(http://www.in.gov/legislative/bills/2008/PDF/IN/IN1260.1.pdf) [LSA BillInfo]
House Bill 12602008 Regular SessionLatest Information
DIGEST OF INTRODUCED BILLEncoded ammunition. Requires ammunition manufacturers to encode all ammunition:
(1) provided for retail sale in Indiana; and
(2) used in handguns and assault weapons; by July 1, 2009. Prohibits a person from selling ammunition at retail after June 30, 2009, unless the ammunition has been encoded by a manufacturer.
Requires the superintendent of the state police department to establish and maintain an encoded ammunition data base before July 1, 2009.
Requires ammunition manufacturers and persons who sell ammunition at retail to provide certain information concerning encoded ammunition sales and persons who purchase encoded ammunition to the superintendent for inclusion in the data base.
Imposes a fee of $0.05 per round on the sale of encoded ammunition that is sold at retail.
Requires the fees to be deposited in the encoded ammunition data base fund to operate the data base. Requires a person who owns ammunition for a handgun or assault weapon that is not encoded ammunition to dispose of the ammunition before July 1, 2011. Makes an appropriation.
Current Status:
First reading: referred to Committee on Public PolicyTO VOICE YOUR OPINION ABOUT HB 1260 INDIANA CALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 1-800-382-9842
Bill Crawford is the POS responsible for house bill 1260
(http://www.gunco.net/forums/showthread.php?t=36423) _Join American Citizens for Truth !_ (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/American-Citizens-for-Truth/join)--
This message was sent by Nicole (nicolellang@aol.com) from Bloomington/I.U. for Ron Paul 2008 Meetup.
To learn more about Nicole, visit his/her member profile
To unsubscribe or to update your mailing list settings, click here
Comment from a friend:
roaring)
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
(pause for breath)
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
(wheezing and picking myself up from the floor)
Do I hear the fat lady warming up?
Does this indicate where the Soopreems are gonna land on 'reasonable regulations' to 'shall not be
infringed'?
(snicker) scuze me. I'm overcome.
I love being proven right, even when it threatens to kill me.
This is an idea whose time seems to have come. This is in place, maybe
different mechanism, but in place in Kali, starting... some time soon.
I misremember when.
They want the gun itself to 'stamp' the case.
It was actually whispered about in the Miss-sippy legislature, and
while I can't pick up any radio but NPR, I understand the more 'urban'
(snicker) portions of Miss-sippy literally exploded on talk radio,
foaming at the mouth and otherwise calm and thoughtful folk openly
threatening necktie parties for the legislature should any such
actually come to consideration, much less actuation.
This from a genetically and culturally polite population which doesn't raise their
voice and doesn't speak harshly in public.
Kali and NY today, flyover country in 5 years.
And the Soopreems are going to affirm 'shall not be infringed'?
Forgive me while I suppress another laughing fit.
It no longer matters what the people think, Michael. They may vote for
some scalawag who makes the appropriate noises, but it doesn't matter.
Government uber alles, and they will NOT relent in suppressing the
people in any way they can imagine.
At least the Indiana bill envisions a method which is not
technologically all but impossible, and surely outrageously expensive.
The Kali bill seems designed to remove ALL sales of new firearms.
And your little closet neocon buddy of Bush has already taken a giant
step towards the NWO by giving that highway to the Australians, or
wherever they're from.
If you want to get your asshole really slammed shut, go to youtube and
search for Alex Jones End Game.
Michael, I've preached and pontificated and pleaded and reasoned until
I'm blue in the face and exhausted. My efforts, best I can tell, have
only gotten me nearly killed and actually thrown in jail for a while.
What can I say? What can I do? The juggernaut is rolling, and not
abating, but picking up speed. Georgie Dubya 'Da Shrub' Bush and the
Reprobates are the friends of the 2nd Amendment? May God have mercy on
His faithful.
Once upon a time, our ancestors, unlike Belshazzar, understood the
writing on the wall and beat feet away from the inevitable and growing
tyranny. Now, and for over 35 years, I have searched for haven. I find
none.
My options are to bend the knee and beg for mercy, or screw my
navel to soft, wet, sandy ground and prepare to be overrun and swept
away. Rights!?! WHAT rights? The right to suck my masters' *****?
Should I wail and rend my hair and gnash my teeth? Or glory in having
seen the inevitable when others were excoriating Dims and arguing
about how Reprobates and Reprehensibles were going to be our
salvation? Laughing at the 'Republican Revolution'? Reaming Bob Barr
in public? When, in truth, if anything, Reprobates and Reprehensibles
are worse than the Dimocrats? Shouting till I was hoarse that
government had been hijacked, and had become the principal enemy,
empowering all the rest?
The time is rapidly coming upon us, and we will reap the whirlwind.
Lord have mercy. I just heard that the new attorney general stated
that waterboarding is legal or illegal, depending on the value of the
information it yields. Is there any better description of
'expediency'? End justifying the means? RULES!?!?!? WHAT 'rules'?
(sneering)
Have I made my point?
Mike (William Michael Kemp)
House Bill 12602008 Regular SessionLatest Information
DIGEST OF INTRODUCED BILLEncoded ammunition. Requires ammunition manufacturers to encode all ammunition:
(1) provided for retail sale in Indiana; and
(2) used in handguns and assault weapons; by July 1, 2009. Prohibits a person from selling ammunition at retail after June 30, 2009, unless the ammunition has been encoded by a manufacturer.
Requires the superintendent of the state police department to establish and maintain an encoded ammunition data base before July 1, 2009.
Requires ammunition manufacturers and persons who sell ammunition at retail to provide certain information concerning encoded ammunition sales and persons who purchase encoded ammunition to the superintendent for inclusion in the data base.
Imposes a fee of $0.05 per round on the sale of encoded ammunition that is sold at retail.
Requires the fees to be deposited in the encoded ammunition data base fund to operate the data base. Requires a person who owns ammunition for a handgun or assault weapon that is not encoded ammunition to dispose of the ammunition before July 1, 2011. Makes an appropriation.
Current Status:
First reading: referred to Committee on Public PolicyTO VOICE YOUR OPINION ABOUT HB 1260 INDIANA CALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 1-800-382-9842
Bill Crawford is the POS responsible for house bill 1260
(http://www.gunco.net/forums/showthread.php?t=36423) _Join American Citizens for Truth !_ (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/American-Citizens-for-Truth/join)--
This message was sent by Nicole (nicolellang@aol.com) from Bloomington/I.U. for Ron Paul 2008 Meetup.
To learn more about Nicole, visit his/her member profile
To unsubscribe or to update your mailing list settings, click here
Comment from a friend:
roaring)
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
(pause for breath)
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
(wheezing and picking myself up from the floor)
Do I hear the fat lady warming up?
Does this indicate where the Soopreems are gonna land on 'reasonable regulations' to 'shall not be
infringed'?
(snicker) scuze me. I'm overcome.
I love being proven right, even when it threatens to kill me.
This is an idea whose time seems to have come. This is in place, maybe
different mechanism, but in place in Kali, starting... some time soon.
I misremember when.
They want the gun itself to 'stamp' the case.
It was actually whispered about in the Miss-sippy legislature, and
while I can't pick up any radio but NPR, I understand the more 'urban'
(snicker) portions of Miss-sippy literally exploded on talk radio,
foaming at the mouth and otherwise calm and thoughtful folk openly
threatening necktie parties for the legislature should any such
actually come to consideration, much less actuation.
This from a genetically and culturally polite population which doesn't raise their
voice and doesn't speak harshly in public.
Kali and NY today, flyover country in 5 years.
And the Soopreems are going to affirm 'shall not be infringed'?
Forgive me while I suppress another laughing fit.
It no longer matters what the people think, Michael. They may vote for
some scalawag who makes the appropriate noises, but it doesn't matter.
Government uber alles, and they will NOT relent in suppressing the
people in any way they can imagine.
At least the Indiana bill envisions a method which is not
technologically all but impossible, and surely outrageously expensive.
The Kali bill seems designed to remove ALL sales of new firearms.
And your little closet neocon buddy of Bush has already taken a giant
step towards the NWO by giving that highway to the Australians, or
wherever they're from.
If you want to get your asshole really slammed shut, go to youtube and
search for Alex Jones End Game.
Michael, I've preached and pontificated and pleaded and reasoned until
I'm blue in the face and exhausted. My efforts, best I can tell, have
only gotten me nearly killed and actually thrown in jail for a while.
What can I say? What can I do? The juggernaut is rolling, and not
abating, but picking up speed. Georgie Dubya 'Da Shrub' Bush and the
Reprobates are the friends of the 2nd Amendment? May God have mercy on
His faithful.
Once upon a time, our ancestors, unlike Belshazzar, understood the
writing on the wall and beat feet away from the inevitable and growing
tyranny. Now, and for over 35 years, I have searched for haven. I find
none.
My options are to bend the knee and beg for mercy, or screw my
navel to soft, wet, sandy ground and prepare to be overrun and swept
away. Rights!?! WHAT rights? The right to suck my masters' *****?
Should I wail and rend my hair and gnash my teeth? Or glory in having
seen the inevitable when others were excoriating Dims and arguing
about how Reprobates and Reprehensibles were going to be our
salvation? Laughing at the 'Republican Revolution'? Reaming Bob Barr
in public? When, in truth, if anything, Reprobates and Reprehensibles
are worse than the Dimocrats? Shouting till I was hoarse that
government had been hijacked, and had become the principal enemy,
empowering all the rest?
The time is rapidly coming upon us, and we will reap the whirlwind.
Lord have mercy. I just heard that the new attorney general stated
that waterboarding is legal or illegal, depending on the value of the
information it yields. Is there any better description of
'expediency'? End justifying the means? RULES!?!?!? WHAT 'rules'?
(sneering)
Have I made my point?
Mike (William Michael Kemp)
More on Materials and Supplies
I made it through the Polar Express of last night. The temperature dropped from 59 degrees to 12 as of this morning. Really kickin' butt out there. That steady relentless 30 mph wind is really something. No mercy. And some of the gusts just literally blew things over. Even the cat den was on it's side. Serves 'em right. They complain all the time. Especially about their food. The Handmaiden is so fussy about getting them their food and water and all they do is complain. If I need bait for my trout lines after SHTF I think I know a couple of donors.
Tomorrow is the last day of January and I think it ought to be a national holiday. I know, I know, February is just as cold, but it's shorter and I like that part of it. This is leap year so we get the extra day in February. I can take it, I think. Then it's only three weeks until Spring. Ahh...Spring. One of my favorites. Summer is generally too hot in Indiana. Hot and humid. Grows great corn and soybeans but is hard as hell on humans. Fall is about my favorite time of the year. The harvest comes in and we get goodies for the pantry and all that, plus it is time to get ready for deer season. Guys will be practicing with their bows and their shotguns and the smell of a successful hunt will be in the air.
Getting back to what you will need to survive, I got to thinking about seed this morning. Heirloom garden seed is right for what is important. Store it in sealed containers if you are keeping it for more than a couple seasons. Keep it cool and dry and you should be okay. Be sure to store enough. Crop failures do happen. There is a word making the rounds of the survival blogs called redundancy. It is normally used in relation to guns. But it can apply to seed for your garden. Things don't always turn out the way we intend and that means you need more seed for another go at getting your food. Buying yourself a good book on organic gardening is a good survival tactic. Study the sections on plant diseases very closely. It can help you identify what is attacking you and what you can do about it. Do whatever it takes to cure your problem. You gotta eat.
I was thinking about different types of forage for your fields. The original prarie grasses were good. They reseeded themselves quite nicely. You can learn about these grasses with a web search. Type in Original Prarie Grass. That should get you started. You can also buy some clover and alfalfa seed while the getting is still good. I never could figure out how to save clover seed but I'm sure it can be done. The more potent your forage the more weight your cattle will gain in a shorter anount of time. Cattle you select to fatten will also gain quicker with corn or other grains, if you have the seed to plant the stuff. Grow your grain seed in your garden where it will get more attention and protection. After you have enough saved, go plant for your cattle, keeping enough for another crop for your garden. Always give yourself room for error. You have to think about this stuff while you still have time..
When the SHTF you will not have time to study and cogitate. Your ass will be busy trying to stay alive. Cattle do not magically gain weight. Canning jars do not suddenly fill themselves. It all takes work and planning. You can do a lot of that work and planning right now, while there are no bombs going off nearby. For instance, you can get several years supply of canning lids and seals right now, while there is no shortage. This would shine quite a bright light on you path. And you could be studying how to preserve your food without canning lids and seals. Even better. Canning lids and seals are relatively new in the scale of human survival years. I'd say maybe a hundred years old?
That's all for right now, but I have plans for a lot more. And it just might be good stuff!
Stay prepared and stay alive.
Michael
Tomorrow is the last day of January and I think it ought to be a national holiday. I know, I know, February is just as cold, but it's shorter and I like that part of it. This is leap year so we get the extra day in February. I can take it, I think. Then it's only three weeks until Spring. Ahh...Spring. One of my favorites. Summer is generally too hot in Indiana. Hot and humid. Grows great corn and soybeans but is hard as hell on humans. Fall is about my favorite time of the year. The harvest comes in and we get goodies for the pantry and all that, plus it is time to get ready for deer season. Guys will be practicing with their bows and their shotguns and the smell of a successful hunt will be in the air.
Getting back to what you will need to survive, I got to thinking about seed this morning. Heirloom garden seed is right for what is important. Store it in sealed containers if you are keeping it for more than a couple seasons. Keep it cool and dry and you should be okay. Be sure to store enough. Crop failures do happen. There is a word making the rounds of the survival blogs called redundancy. It is normally used in relation to guns. But it can apply to seed for your garden. Things don't always turn out the way we intend and that means you need more seed for another go at getting your food. Buying yourself a good book on organic gardening is a good survival tactic. Study the sections on plant diseases very closely. It can help you identify what is attacking you and what you can do about it. Do whatever it takes to cure your problem. You gotta eat.
I was thinking about different types of forage for your fields. The original prarie grasses were good. They reseeded themselves quite nicely. You can learn about these grasses with a web search. Type in Original Prarie Grass. That should get you started. You can also buy some clover and alfalfa seed while the getting is still good. I never could figure out how to save clover seed but I'm sure it can be done. The more potent your forage the more weight your cattle will gain in a shorter anount of time. Cattle you select to fatten will also gain quicker with corn or other grains, if you have the seed to plant the stuff. Grow your grain seed in your garden where it will get more attention and protection. After you have enough saved, go plant for your cattle, keeping enough for another crop for your garden. Always give yourself room for error. You have to think about this stuff while you still have time..
When the SHTF you will not have time to study and cogitate. Your ass will be busy trying to stay alive. Cattle do not magically gain weight. Canning jars do not suddenly fill themselves. It all takes work and planning. You can do a lot of that work and planning right now, while there are no bombs going off nearby. For instance, you can get several years supply of canning lids and seals right now, while there is no shortage. This would shine quite a bright light on you path. And you could be studying how to preserve your food without canning lids and seals. Even better. Canning lids and seals are relatively new in the scale of human survival years. I'd say maybe a hundred years old?
That's all for right now, but I have plans for a lot more. And it just might be good stuff!
Stay prepared and stay alive.
Michael
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
More on supplies and materials
This post is to get back to supplies and materials for the concerned survivalist. I copied and pasted that last article about Sibel Edmunds because it is a good reminder that you cannot trust ANY government on this planet. They are all as crooked as a dog's hind leg. We are under pressure from these people. They are making the odds of a nuclear war go higher and higher against our favor. Thus we take what measures we can to keep on staying alive and living and trying to bring forth hope for the future.
I ain't gonna let them talk me in to giving up. I am a stubborn S.O. B. and if you knew Mom you would understand. These people have pushed my head around for 40 + years and I am getting tired of it. Thus I say "Bring it on, you miserable bastards." And there are probably a million more just like me. They can't get us all. And they would lose a few of their NWO puppies if they did come to get us. My crazy conspiracy friends say that the police and the war fighters will not be the ones who come to get us. It will be Mercs hired by Blackwater that do the dirty deed. Outsourcing taken to the bitter end. And they will use our tax dollars to pay Blackwater.
Life is tough and then you die, or so they say. I aim to get around that prophecy if at all possible. Let life be tough and the bad guys die. Much more to my liking. The greatest stud outlives his enemies. And God is maybe 15 or 20 or 30 biillion years old and I reckon you know what that makes him. The master of everything, including having immortality. It's pretty neat to be associated with such a man. He's a good guy to know.
I need to get back to materials and supplies for those thinking about avoiding death and destruction from SHTF. It is going to be a horrible ordeal. The pollution will be such as never dreamed about by our environmental friends. The Earth has never seen, once it cooled down from all the volcanos, all the filth that will be on the land and the sea and in the air. So buy filter masks. If nothing else by dust masks from Lowes or somebody like that. They ain't the best but they beat the hell out of nothing. If you get real inspired then you can buy surgical /scientific grade masks and they do a lot better. But they cost more. Gas masks are nice if you can get a good one. The filters on them wear out so buy extra filters. But we are prisoners of the neccessity of air. We have to breath and we have to accept what we are breathing. You are going to breath even if it kills you. At least you will try to breath. If you force yourself to not breath you will only pass out and then you will start breathing again due to the old autonomic nervous system that is hard wired into your neurological make-up.
What we are talking about here is minute particles in the air that can kill us. It just may be that these particles are radioactive and that is a no no for the human existance. So, in order to protect ourselves, we have to plug the body orifices that could take these particles into our bodies. Simple solution but I wonder how many will be ready when it's needed. You will need a nose and mouth filter. You will need to get something, goggles or whatever, that will seal your eyes from the air and still let you see. And you will need to plug your ears or block the air from them. Leave no holes exposed. If you're worried about your anus then stick a piece of corncob in it. It's gonna hurt but if it makes you feel safer then do it. Don't use a piece that was outside when the bombs went off.
The next thing to worry about it water. I have an abundance of water around me and I am not too worried about having it. I'll get it. But others may need suggestions as to how to address this problem. If you live in your shelter, as I have admonished, then you can have plenty of water stored in your food cellar. Just use your good tap water and replace it if things seem to be alive in it. This means you will have to check it occasionally. Do not neglect this duty. It is my humble opinion that you should not use distilled water for drinking. Distilled water will literally leech minerals out of your body and you won't have anything to spare in SHTF. Use your regular drinking water. Keep water in glass containers but use plastic if you must. Plastic may turn out to be a killer but it is a slow one and you can do way with it when times are more fortunate. A hand pump well inside you shelter is perfection. Have it checked and forget about it. No sense in worrying about things you can't change. An electric powered well may not be to your advantage. If the power goes off then you have no water. Any old pond or stream will give you water to flush your toilet or wash your clothers and dishes. Water will not be radiaton emitting. I look for a severe weather pattern after a nuclear attack and it should produce storms that will provide the rain to rinse us off. Hope for the best. There is really nothing else to do unless you want to go through lfe in a radiation hazard suit and I don't think that is in the cards. For lack of anything else, stay in your foodcellar for as long as you can stand it. I can't find it right now but there is a set of plans on the web for a homemade dosimeter that really works. It's cheap and fairly accurate. Try to google Home Made Dosimeter and see what you get.
Your food should already be taken care of. You should have canned an abundance of vegetables for your security. And the food should be stored in a secure place. This is not a classroom recital, folks. This is real straight talk to help you stay alive. You must take care of these things. You will not have access to stores or Sam's Club or whatever if the hukes go off. You will be on your own without the super system to back your play. You will become the system. You wil make the critical decisions. God bless you in the endeavor. We have alrady discussed guns and ammo and they should be ready to go in an emergency. Keep those suckers dry and ready. You might not need them for a few days but then again you might need them at once.
Any medical supplies you can acquire will be simply bonus survival points. I have my Iodine pills in my guncase. A registered nurse lives across the pond from me. We have another girl who is going to change her major to nursing. My son is on the East Coast learning how to be a Paramedic. He was interviewed by the head of emergncy services at a Childrens Hospital is Philly and if he will get his nursing degree after he gets his Paramedic Certification they will pay him an incrdible amount of money to ride in their emergency helicopter. I sure do hope to drag his ass back to Indiana before the SHTF. He is already a fireman in Dover, Delaware. And he works while he goes to school for Safeway Grocery. Busy young man. And he likes being busy. He has always been one of those types who can hardly sit still. I have a picture on my wall in front of me showing my son on the roof of a burning farmhouse out in the Delaware countryside. He is quite a stud. But I thing life will temper him down a bit.
I must go now. There is a Polar Express blowing in and the temperatue is due to drop 45 degrees. You never know when the power will go out and I don't want to lose this.
Stay safe and stay alive.
Michael
I ain't gonna let them talk me in to giving up. I am a stubborn S.O. B. and if you knew Mom you would understand. These people have pushed my head around for 40 + years and I am getting tired of it. Thus I say "Bring it on, you miserable bastards." And there are probably a million more just like me. They can't get us all. And they would lose a few of their NWO puppies if they did come to get us. My crazy conspiracy friends say that the police and the war fighters will not be the ones who come to get us. It will be Mercs hired by Blackwater that do the dirty deed. Outsourcing taken to the bitter end. And they will use our tax dollars to pay Blackwater.
Life is tough and then you die, or so they say. I aim to get around that prophecy if at all possible. Let life be tough and the bad guys die. Much more to my liking. The greatest stud outlives his enemies. And God is maybe 15 or 20 or 30 biillion years old and I reckon you know what that makes him. The master of everything, including having immortality. It's pretty neat to be associated with such a man. He's a good guy to know.
I need to get back to materials and supplies for those thinking about avoiding death and destruction from SHTF. It is going to be a horrible ordeal. The pollution will be such as never dreamed about by our environmental friends. The Earth has never seen, once it cooled down from all the volcanos, all the filth that will be on the land and the sea and in the air. So buy filter masks. If nothing else by dust masks from Lowes or somebody like that. They ain't the best but they beat the hell out of nothing. If you get real inspired then you can buy surgical /scientific grade masks and they do a lot better. But they cost more. Gas masks are nice if you can get a good one. The filters on them wear out so buy extra filters. But we are prisoners of the neccessity of air. We have to breath and we have to accept what we are breathing. You are going to breath even if it kills you. At least you will try to breath. If you force yourself to not breath you will only pass out and then you will start breathing again due to the old autonomic nervous system that is hard wired into your neurological make-up.
What we are talking about here is minute particles in the air that can kill us. It just may be that these particles are radioactive and that is a no no for the human existance. So, in order to protect ourselves, we have to plug the body orifices that could take these particles into our bodies. Simple solution but I wonder how many will be ready when it's needed. You will need a nose and mouth filter. You will need to get something, goggles or whatever, that will seal your eyes from the air and still let you see. And you will need to plug your ears or block the air from them. Leave no holes exposed. If you're worried about your anus then stick a piece of corncob in it. It's gonna hurt but if it makes you feel safer then do it. Don't use a piece that was outside when the bombs went off.
The next thing to worry about it water. I have an abundance of water around me and I am not too worried about having it. I'll get it. But others may need suggestions as to how to address this problem. If you live in your shelter, as I have admonished, then you can have plenty of water stored in your food cellar. Just use your good tap water and replace it if things seem to be alive in it. This means you will have to check it occasionally. Do not neglect this duty. It is my humble opinion that you should not use distilled water for drinking. Distilled water will literally leech minerals out of your body and you won't have anything to spare in SHTF. Use your regular drinking water. Keep water in glass containers but use plastic if you must. Plastic may turn out to be a killer but it is a slow one and you can do way with it when times are more fortunate. A hand pump well inside you shelter is perfection. Have it checked and forget about it. No sense in worrying about things you can't change. An electric powered well may not be to your advantage. If the power goes off then you have no water. Any old pond or stream will give you water to flush your toilet or wash your clothers and dishes. Water will not be radiaton emitting. I look for a severe weather pattern after a nuclear attack and it should produce storms that will provide the rain to rinse us off. Hope for the best. There is really nothing else to do unless you want to go through lfe in a radiation hazard suit and I don't think that is in the cards. For lack of anything else, stay in your foodcellar for as long as you can stand it. I can't find it right now but there is a set of plans on the web for a homemade dosimeter that really works. It's cheap and fairly accurate. Try to google Home Made Dosimeter and see what you get.
Your food should already be taken care of. You should have canned an abundance of vegetables for your security. And the food should be stored in a secure place. This is not a classroom recital, folks. This is real straight talk to help you stay alive. You must take care of these things. You will not have access to stores or Sam's Club or whatever if the hukes go off. You will be on your own without the super system to back your play. You will become the system. You wil make the critical decisions. God bless you in the endeavor. We have alrady discussed guns and ammo and they should be ready to go in an emergency. Keep those suckers dry and ready. You might not need them for a few days but then again you might need them at once.
Any medical supplies you can acquire will be simply bonus survival points. I have my Iodine pills in my guncase. A registered nurse lives across the pond from me. We have another girl who is going to change her major to nursing. My son is on the East Coast learning how to be a Paramedic. He was interviewed by the head of emergncy services at a Childrens Hospital is Philly and if he will get his nursing degree after he gets his Paramedic Certification they will pay him an incrdible amount of money to ride in their emergency helicopter. I sure do hope to drag his ass back to Indiana before the SHTF. He is already a fireman in Dover, Delaware. And he works while he goes to school for Safeway Grocery. Busy young man. And he likes being busy. He has always been one of those types who can hardly sit still. I have a picture on my wall in front of me showing my son on the roof of a burning farmhouse out in the Delaware countryside. He is quite a stud. But I thing life will temper him down a bit.
I must go now. There is a Polar Express blowing in and the temperatue is due to drop 45 degrees. You never know when the power will go out and I don't want to lose this.
Stay safe and stay alive.
Michael
Get this story out, please
Monday, January 28, 2008
Sibel Edmonds: 'Buckle up, there's much more coming.'
In the last few weeks, UK's Times has run a series of articles about the so-called 'Sibel Edmonds case.' ('For sale: West’s deadly nuclear secrets, 'FBI denies file exposing nuclear secrets theft' and 'Tip-off thwarted nuclear spy ring probe')Former FBI translator Sibel Edmonds stumbled into a world of espionage, nuclear black market, narcotics trafficking, money laundering, and corruption at the highest levels of the US government.
I interviewed Sibel yesterday regarding the current investigation and reporting by the Times, the failures of the US media, and last week's decision by the Bush administration to legalize the sale of nuclear technology to Turkey, in an apparent effort to exonerate prior criminal activity by officials in his administration.Sibel also has some urgent 'action items' so that we can stop these dangerous nuclear proliferation activities. I urge you to act on her suggestions.
*************Luke Ryland:
What do you have to say about the recent work by the Insight journalists - Chris Gourlay, Jonathan Calvert, Joe Lauria - at the UK's Times?
Sibel Edmonds:
They've done good, solid reporting so far by doing what reporters are supposed to. They have been chasing sources and getting their hands on documents. It's pretty simple. As you know, this story has been available to any journalist for six years now.There's been a lot of speculation in the last few weeks that American reporters haven't touched this story because they are 'corporate owned' but it is wrong to exonerate these reporters so quickly. Many of them are too close to their official sources, and some are simply lazy. This Times team chases sources, and if they can't reach them one way, they'll try and try again, or they'll seek out alternate sources, or find other ways to ensure that they get the story.When I hear from US reporters, they say 'Sibel, give us all the documents we'll need, and you line up all the sources for us, and then maybe we'll do a story' and if one source doesn't return their phone call, they simply give up. That's not journalism!
Luke Ryland:
Why has the US failed on this story so dramatically for 6 years?
Sibel Edmonds:
It's a combination of things, obviously. You need to consider that the entire US press corps has failed on this story; not only the regular print and TV media, but the alternative media has failed on this too.Part of the reason is that journalists are simply too close to their official sources. Those sources might tell the journalist that there's nothing to the story, and so the journalist gives up on it, or the official sources might 'request' that the journalist to stay away from the story, and the journalist is then concerned about losing access to the source in the future.Another reason is the partisanship. With the foreign press, there is no partisanship, and that's one reason why they have been more effective at covering this case, and I'm not just talking about the recent Times articles here. With the US media, it appears as though if there is no clear partisan angle, then there's no story. As you know, this case is spread over two administrations, and that appears to make it difficult for the reporters to cover the story. Even within one news organization you might have one journalist who wants to use the story to indict Clinton, and another who wants to use the story to bash Bush, and in the end neither of them write about the story because it doesn't fit their partisanship, their 'narrative', so they just drop it altogether.I had such high hopes for the alternative press, and they do a lot of good work, but partisanship repeatedly gets in the way there too, on both sides.The US media also suffers from a pack mentality. I was told by one executive that they weren't doing the story because it was 'old news' because 60 Minutes did a single segment in October 2002, even though they only covered a tiny part of the case. This executive literally told me that he'd only cover the story if it was 'hot and sexy.' I often think that I'd need to be able to hire Britney Spears to be a spokesperson - and this is not just for my case, but for any of the many other solid, important cases at the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition. Apparently this is what it would take to get any coverage.Of course, given the pack mentality, if any of these stories does become 'hot and sexy' then all the journalists focus on the same issues and there's no differentiation in their reporting.The other major problem in the US is the focus on symptoms, rather than root causes. My case is a good example, but there are lots of others too. Look at the early reporting on my case in 2002, the Washington Post broke the story in July 2002 about the espionage in the translation bureau and then they dropped the story after two weeks. They stopped reporting on it when more important information came out and the State Secrets Privilege was invoked. To this day not a single US reporter has asked 'Why was the State Secrets Privilege been invoked here? What is going on?'Just this week I was approached by a major US outlet who wanted to do a story on Kevin Taskesen! [Ed note: Taskesen was an incompetent FBI translator who got his job because his wife worked in the administrative office] This is absolutely the most trivial element of the case, and it has already been reported at length. I told them that they could learn everything they needed to know by watching 60 Minutes, 2002. Again, the US media needs to start looking at the root causes of these problems, not the symptoms.
Luke Ryland:
Will the US media start reporting on this now that it is 'hot and sexy' again?
Sibel Edmonds:
It's hard to know. After being told for years that they won't cover it because it is 'old news,' now there are certain officials in the agencies quietly telling journalists to stay away from the story because I came across a highly sensitive covert national security operation.Also, Turkey's army of lobbyists in DC are very effective. The US press tends to stay away from any stories critical of Turkey, I would say even more than Israel.There's also the possible problem of 'eating crow' but I hope this isn't an issue, this story is way too important for any of that. The information that has been published in the Times recently could have easily come out four years ago in the US press. We now need everyone to focus on the important issues.I have one message for the US media: If they think this is over, it's not over. Much more will come out. They won't be able to ignore it any longer, and so I hope they get over any reluctance they might have.Look at the positive press that the Times' series has received since their first article ran. Do you think their editors haven't noticed? The Times is adding more and more resources to the story, more journalists, bigger budgets, and more importantly, they are getting more and more sources coming forward to shed light on these illegal activities. As I have said from the beginning, this story is not about me, there are many sources who have been waiting for the right time to come forward, I've probably never even heard of most of them, and now they are coming forward. This will play out like Watergate played out, with the drip, drip, drip. So I say to everyone 'Buckle up, there's much more coming.'So, hopefully American reporters will start to cover the story. I'm not particularly confident, but to a certain degree it doesn't matter that much because the internet and the blogs can spread the reporting from the UK as soon as it hits the wires.
Luke Ryland:
Two weeks after the first article in the Times about the involvement of high-level US officials being involved with Turkish and Israeli interests in supplying the nuclear black market, President Bush quietly announced that the US will start supplying nuclear technology to Turkey. Do you think that is a coincidence?
Sibel Edmonds:
The timing is certainly very, very suspicious. The proposals that are being floated are very suspicious too. There are reports that Turkey will build an enrichment facility, and that Turkey will become the key supplier of nuclear fuel to other Muslim countries who want nuclear power plants. None of this makes any sense.And again, the US media is nowhere to be seen on this issue. Where are the journalists? Do you remember the noise made a couple of years ago when the US announced that it would supply India with nuclear technology? So far, nearly a week after the announcement and not a single major US media outlet has even reported on the deal! Think of the hypocrisy, with all the saber-rattling at Iran over enrichment.If it's such a good idea to sell nuclear technology to Turkey, why isn't the White House out there selling the idea? Where are the arguments in the press saying that this will be good for regional stability, or that it will help reduce demand for oil, or even that it is simply good business because US firms will be able to sell their hardware and knowledge? There's nothing! Silence. What does that tell you?
Luke Ryland:
What needs to be done?
Sibel Edmonds:
The way they've structured this deal is that Congress has 90 days from the announcement, now 84 days, to block the 'agreement' otherwise it basically becomes law.The first thing that we need to do is to make sure that this doesn't 'automatically' become law. We need the journalists, the experts, and the bloggers to raise hell over this issue, and we need to make sure that Congress investigates this properly before rubber-stamping it. The clock is ticking and we need to act now.As you know, and this was even published in the White House press release on this issue, certain 'Turkish private entities' have been involved 'in certain activities directly relating to nuclear proliferation.' This includes supplying the A.Q. Khan network - which built Pakistan's nuclear bomb, and also supplied North Korea, Iran and other countries - but as the recent Times stories indicate, so much more as well.The White House press release states that all these issues have been resolved; that the Turkish government has addressed these issues, that the US government has evaluated these actions and that the US government is satisfied, and that all of this is secret, classified!Given the track record of this administration in abusing classification and distorting intelligence, why on earth would we trust them with this? What is in the report? Is it truthful? Why is it classified? We saw these exact same people do the same thing in the late 80s when they enabled Pakistan to get nuclear weapons. Richard Barlow did his best to stop them then, but if Congress doesn't hold hearings this time around the same thing will happen again. We should have stopped Pakistan then, but unless this 'classified' report is made public and the contents publicly debated, then the Barlow of today won't even get the chance to debunk whatever is in that 'classified' report. What conceivable logic is there in classifying the details of how Turkey has cleaned up its act regarding nuclear proliferation? If they have, they should be proud of it!There are many great anti-proliferation organizations out there, we need to rally all of them, and all of the 'pro-transparency' organizations, to this cause. We need journalists to contact these experts for their opinion and expertise, and we need these experts to contact journalists to ensure that the story, and the issues, is covered, and covered thoroughly.We also need to recruit bloggers and alternative media to keep the pressure on. Perhaps a 'countdown clock' as we count down the 90 days might help.
Luke Ryland:
What are the next steps in the process?
Sibel Edmonds:
I'm not exactly sure of the process at the moment, but it has been reported that this 'automatically' becomes law after the 90 days, somehow, unless Congress blocks or amends the legislation.Apparently the approval process somehow includes convincing the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee not to object, so those committees appear to be our first firewall.(Ed note: Senate Foreign Relations Committee includes Joe Biden (Chair), Chris Dodd, John Kerry, Russ Feingold, Barbara Boxer, Barack Obama and Jim Webb for the Democrats, and Richard Lugar, Chuck Hagel and George Voinovich for the minority. Hopefully one of them will stand up on this important issue. The House side looks more difficult, the Chairman is Tom Lantos who was listed in Sibel's Rogue's Gallery, which apparently identifies 18 of the guilty parties in her case, so that might be a problem. Ron Paul is also on that committee, he might be a prime target for this campaign.)
Luke Ryland:
Is there anything else we can do?
Sibel Edmonds:
There is one other hope. As last week's White House press release states, Bill Clinton tried to pass this legislation in 2000 but "immediately after" Clinton tried to send it to Congress it was blocked because some people apparently highlighted Turkish involvement in the nuclear black market and, who knows, maybe threatened to blow the whistle. Those same individuals, and others like them, can stop this again, and they should do everything they can to make sure that this doesn't happen. They should try to do it internally, and if they can't do it internally, then they need reach out to journalists, either on or off the record. Hopefully some honest, dedicated people will try to block it again, but we can't rely on that. We need to pressure congress to ensure that this doesn't go through.Time is running out, the countdown clock is ticking down, and we need to stop this now. We need the help of journalists, congress, nuclear proliferation experts, bloggers and those active citizens in the blogosphere and elsewhere.--------------
Many thanks to Sibel, as always.Please do what you can to help block this proposed legislation.If you can create a 'countdown clock' please contact me, and we'll offer it so that everyone can place it on their blogs and use it in their sigs etc.-------------
Regarding alternative media, Sibel is particularly grateful to American Conservative and Antiwar.com for their objectivity and non-partisanship in covering this case. In particular, Phil Giraldi, Justin Raimondo, Joshua Frank and Scott Horton.To reiterate Sibel's emphasis on the importance of the internet to help get the story out, Daily Kos statistics for the week Jan 19-25 have been released. During a primary week when many were (rightly) complaining that campaign diaries made it almost impossible for other issues to get any attention, diaries related to Sibel's case dominated the list. Sibel's story was both #1 and $2 for the week, and filled 3 of the top 11, and 4 of the top 25 diaries. Statistics at Democratic Underground will demonstrate the same level of interest in the case. Thank you to all of you, and I ask that you continue to support the case, and I ask that journalists and bloggers pick up the story and support the great work done by the Times. It's about time, no?
Sibel Edmonds: 'Buckle up, there's much more coming.'
In the last few weeks, UK's Times has run a series of articles about the so-called 'Sibel Edmonds case.' ('For sale: West’s deadly nuclear secrets, 'FBI denies file exposing nuclear secrets theft' and 'Tip-off thwarted nuclear spy ring probe')Former FBI translator Sibel Edmonds stumbled into a world of espionage, nuclear black market, narcotics trafficking, money laundering, and corruption at the highest levels of the US government.
I interviewed Sibel yesterday regarding the current investigation and reporting by the Times, the failures of the US media, and last week's decision by the Bush administration to legalize the sale of nuclear technology to Turkey, in an apparent effort to exonerate prior criminal activity by officials in his administration.Sibel also has some urgent 'action items' so that we can stop these dangerous nuclear proliferation activities. I urge you to act on her suggestions.
*************Luke Ryland:
What do you have to say about the recent work by the Insight journalists - Chris Gourlay, Jonathan Calvert, Joe Lauria - at the UK's Times?
Sibel Edmonds:
They've done good, solid reporting so far by doing what reporters are supposed to. They have been chasing sources and getting their hands on documents. It's pretty simple. As you know, this story has been available to any journalist for six years now.There's been a lot of speculation in the last few weeks that American reporters haven't touched this story because they are 'corporate owned' but it is wrong to exonerate these reporters so quickly. Many of them are too close to their official sources, and some are simply lazy. This Times team chases sources, and if they can't reach them one way, they'll try and try again, or they'll seek out alternate sources, or find other ways to ensure that they get the story.When I hear from US reporters, they say 'Sibel, give us all the documents we'll need, and you line up all the sources for us, and then maybe we'll do a story' and if one source doesn't return their phone call, they simply give up. That's not journalism!
Luke Ryland:
Why has the US failed on this story so dramatically for 6 years?
Sibel Edmonds:
It's a combination of things, obviously. You need to consider that the entire US press corps has failed on this story; not only the regular print and TV media, but the alternative media has failed on this too.Part of the reason is that journalists are simply too close to their official sources. Those sources might tell the journalist that there's nothing to the story, and so the journalist gives up on it, or the official sources might 'request' that the journalist to stay away from the story, and the journalist is then concerned about losing access to the source in the future.Another reason is the partisanship. With the foreign press, there is no partisanship, and that's one reason why they have been more effective at covering this case, and I'm not just talking about the recent Times articles here. With the US media, it appears as though if there is no clear partisan angle, then there's no story. As you know, this case is spread over two administrations, and that appears to make it difficult for the reporters to cover the story. Even within one news organization you might have one journalist who wants to use the story to indict Clinton, and another who wants to use the story to bash Bush, and in the end neither of them write about the story because it doesn't fit their partisanship, their 'narrative', so they just drop it altogether.I had such high hopes for the alternative press, and they do a lot of good work, but partisanship repeatedly gets in the way there too, on both sides.The US media also suffers from a pack mentality. I was told by one executive that they weren't doing the story because it was 'old news' because 60 Minutes did a single segment in October 2002, even though they only covered a tiny part of the case. This executive literally told me that he'd only cover the story if it was 'hot and sexy.' I often think that I'd need to be able to hire Britney Spears to be a spokesperson - and this is not just for my case, but for any of the many other solid, important cases at the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition. Apparently this is what it would take to get any coverage.Of course, given the pack mentality, if any of these stories does become 'hot and sexy' then all the journalists focus on the same issues and there's no differentiation in their reporting.The other major problem in the US is the focus on symptoms, rather than root causes. My case is a good example, but there are lots of others too. Look at the early reporting on my case in 2002, the Washington Post broke the story in July 2002 about the espionage in the translation bureau and then they dropped the story after two weeks. They stopped reporting on it when more important information came out and the State Secrets Privilege was invoked. To this day not a single US reporter has asked 'Why was the State Secrets Privilege been invoked here? What is going on?'Just this week I was approached by a major US outlet who wanted to do a story on Kevin Taskesen! [Ed note: Taskesen was an incompetent FBI translator who got his job because his wife worked in the administrative office] This is absolutely the most trivial element of the case, and it has already been reported at length. I told them that they could learn everything they needed to know by watching 60 Minutes, 2002. Again, the US media needs to start looking at the root causes of these problems, not the symptoms.
Luke Ryland:
Will the US media start reporting on this now that it is 'hot and sexy' again?
Sibel Edmonds:
It's hard to know. After being told for years that they won't cover it because it is 'old news,' now there are certain officials in the agencies quietly telling journalists to stay away from the story because I came across a highly sensitive covert national security operation.Also, Turkey's army of lobbyists in DC are very effective. The US press tends to stay away from any stories critical of Turkey, I would say even more than Israel.There's also the possible problem of 'eating crow' but I hope this isn't an issue, this story is way too important for any of that. The information that has been published in the Times recently could have easily come out four years ago in the US press. We now need everyone to focus on the important issues.I have one message for the US media: If they think this is over, it's not over. Much more will come out. They won't be able to ignore it any longer, and so I hope they get over any reluctance they might have.Look at the positive press that the Times' series has received since their first article ran. Do you think their editors haven't noticed? The Times is adding more and more resources to the story, more journalists, bigger budgets, and more importantly, they are getting more and more sources coming forward to shed light on these illegal activities. As I have said from the beginning, this story is not about me, there are many sources who have been waiting for the right time to come forward, I've probably never even heard of most of them, and now they are coming forward. This will play out like Watergate played out, with the drip, drip, drip. So I say to everyone 'Buckle up, there's much more coming.'So, hopefully American reporters will start to cover the story. I'm not particularly confident, but to a certain degree it doesn't matter that much because the internet and the blogs can spread the reporting from the UK as soon as it hits the wires.
Luke Ryland:
Two weeks after the first article in the Times about the involvement of high-level US officials being involved with Turkish and Israeli interests in supplying the nuclear black market, President Bush quietly announced that the US will start supplying nuclear technology to Turkey. Do you think that is a coincidence?
Sibel Edmonds:
The timing is certainly very, very suspicious. The proposals that are being floated are very suspicious too. There are reports that Turkey will build an enrichment facility, and that Turkey will become the key supplier of nuclear fuel to other Muslim countries who want nuclear power plants. None of this makes any sense.And again, the US media is nowhere to be seen on this issue. Where are the journalists? Do you remember the noise made a couple of years ago when the US announced that it would supply India with nuclear technology? So far, nearly a week after the announcement and not a single major US media outlet has even reported on the deal! Think of the hypocrisy, with all the saber-rattling at Iran over enrichment.If it's such a good idea to sell nuclear technology to Turkey, why isn't the White House out there selling the idea? Where are the arguments in the press saying that this will be good for regional stability, or that it will help reduce demand for oil, or even that it is simply good business because US firms will be able to sell their hardware and knowledge? There's nothing! Silence. What does that tell you?
Luke Ryland:
What needs to be done?
Sibel Edmonds:
The way they've structured this deal is that Congress has 90 days from the announcement, now 84 days, to block the 'agreement' otherwise it basically becomes law.The first thing that we need to do is to make sure that this doesn't 'automatically' become law. We need the journalists, the experts, and the bloggers to raise hell over this issue, and we need to make sure that Congress investigates this properly before rubber-stamping it. The clock is ticking and we need to act now.As you know, and this was even published in the White House press release on this issue, certain 'Turkish private entities' have been involved 'in certain activities directly relating to nuclear proliferation.' This includes supplying the A.Q. Khan network - which built Pakistan's nuclear bomb, and also supplied North Korea, Iran and other countries - but as the recent Times stories indicate, so much more as well.The White House press release states that all these issues have been resolved; that the Turkish government has addressed these issues, that the US government has evaluated these actions and that the US government is satisfied, and that all of this is secret, classified!Given the track record of this administration in abusing classification and distorting intelligence, why on earth would we trust them with this? What is in the report? Is it truthful? Why is it classified? We saw these exact same people do the same thing in the late 80s when they enabled Pakistan to get nuclear weapons. Richard Barlow did his best to stop them then, but if Congress doesn't hold hearings this time around the same thing will happen again. We should have stopped Pakistan then, but unless this 'classified' report is made public and the contents publicly debated, then the Barlow of today won't even get the chance to debunk whatever is in that 'classified' report. What conceivable logic is there in classifying the details of how Turkey has cleaned up its act regarding nuclear proliferation? If they have, they should be proud of it!There are many great anti-proliferation organizations out there, we need to rally all of them, and all of the 'pro-transparency' organizations, to this cause. We need journalists to contact these experts for their opinion and expertise, and we need these experts to contact journalists to ensure that the story, and the issues, is covered, and covered thoroughly.We also need to recruit bloggers and alternative media to keep the pressure on. Perhaps a 'countdown clock' as we count down the 90 days might help.
Luke Ryland:
What are the next steps in the process?
Sibel Edmonds:
I'm not exactly sure of the process at the moment, but it has been reported that this 'automatically' becomes law after the 90 days, somehow, unless Congress blocks or amends the legislation.Apparently the approval process somehow includes convincing the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee not to object, so those committees appear to be our first firewall.(Ed note: Senate Foreign Relations Committee includes Joe Biden (Chair), Chris Dodd, John Kerry, Russ Feingold, Barbara Boxer, Barack Obama and Jim Webb for the Democrats, and Richard Lugar, Chuck Hagel and George Voinovich for the minority. Hopefully one of them will stand up on this important issue. The House side looks more difficult, the Chairman is Tom Lantos who was listed in Sibel's Rogue's Gallery, which apparently identifies 18 of the guilty parties in her case, so that might be a problem. Ron Paul is also on that committee, he might be a prime target for this campaign.)
Luke Ryland:
Is there anything else we can do?
Sibel Edmonds:
There is one other hope. As last week's White House press release states, Bill Clinton tried to pass this legislation in 2000 but "immediately after" Clinton tried to send it to Congress it was blocked because some people apparently highlighted Turkish involvement in the nuclear black market and, who knows, maybe threatened to blow the whistle. Those same individuals, and others like them, can stop this again, and they should do everything they can to make sure that this doesn't happen. They should try to do it internally, and if they can't do it internally, then they need reach out to journalists, either on or off the record. Hopefully some honest, dedicated people will try to block it again, but we can't rely on that. We need to pressure congress to ensure that this doesn't go through.Time is running out, the countdown clock is ticking down, and we need to stop this now. We need the help of journalists, congress, nuclear proliferation experts, bloggers and those active citizens in the blogosphere and elsewhere.--------------
Many thanks to Sibel, as always.Please do what you can to help block this proposed legislation.If you can create a 'countdown clock' please contact me, and we'll offer it so that everyone can place it on their blogs and use it in their sigs etc.-------------
Regarding alternative media, Sibel is particularly grateful to American Conservative and Antiwar.com for their objectivity and non-partisanship in covering this case. In particular, Phil Giraldi, Justin Raimondo, Joshua Frank and Scott Horton.To reiterate Sibel's emphasis on the importance of the internet to help get the story out, Daily Kos statistics for the week Jan 19-25 have been released. During a primary week when many were (rightly) complaining that campaign diaries made it almost impossible for other issues to get any attention, diaries related to Sibel's case dominated the list. Sibel's story was both #1 and $2 for the week, and filled 3 of the top 11, and 4 of the top 25 diaries. Statistics at Democratic Underground will demonstrate the same level of interest in the case. Thank you to all of you, and I ask that you continue to support the case, and I ask that journalists and bloggers pick up the story and support the great work done by the Times. It's about time, no?
The Garden
This article is about food. A very basic commodity necessary for human life. Most of what we eat is not so good for us anymore. Some of us rejoiced when the fedgov set organic standards back in the Clinton administration. There was an enormous out pouring of emails to the Secretary of Agriculture and it seemed to get us what we wanted. But that is not the case. The lawyers went to work on the standards and it has been an uphill fight for clean food ever since. Money is at the root of this problem. We lovers of clean organic food made the market we have today. We were the ones who supported it and nurtured it. We were the ones who paid a premium for the right food, grown how we wanted it grown. And the market started taking off, rising to a higher level of consumer spending every year. And not by one or two percent but by ten and twenty percent. Every year! And the money boys started looking at these numbers and the profit looked irresistable. To make a long story short, we had to start growing our own food to assure the quality again.
Growing your own food is not without it's pleasures but it is surely not without it's work and sweat. And you haven't had a thrill if you haven't watched a herd of the neighbore cattle get into your garden and eat the plants you were growing for seed. My, my, my, how the blood doth boil. And don't think those cows didn't know what they were doing. We lease out most of our farmland to a share cropper for money to pay our land taxes. Those cows walked past two fields of modern corn, with no fences and no ditches to protect them, to get to my seed beans and corn. Clipped my plants off right next to the ground. They knew the good stuff.
So the garden has been promised a fence this Spring. Thank you God.
Growing food is most beneficial if you can preserve it for eating when there is no garden. To ease the effect of a SHTF type of event, you must have stored food. The grocery store is not going to be open anymore. It may be open but it probably won't have anything you can eat after you walk in the busted door or the busted window and look around. So you must grow it yourself and you must preserve it. Preserving food not only entails canning and drying and wrapping and storage bins and what not, but it also means that your food is relatively safe from thieves and vandals. But we covered guns earlier. The food gets saved for the women and the kids and yourself, and your shotgun sees to it that it remains for those particular people. We have a long concrete cellar that has some very strong Elm shelves already in place. For those who aren't familiar with the basic uses of woods, Elm will not be affected by moisture as much as some other woods. Cut the logs into 8/4 which is 2" to those of you among the uninitiated and you will have fine strong shelves. The front legs are angled out a little bit for more added stability. Wouldn't do to have some hapless female pull a wall of several tons of wood and glass and food down on herself.
But this cellar also has a very strong door with big homemade solid steel hinges. And it has a big homemade solid steel locking hasp that takes a big padlock. Not foolproof but very inconvenient for thieves and vandals. But security is paramount to warding off starvation. And if you are fighting to keep from starving, think of all those poor unfortunates who have nowhere near the preparation you have. Don't you think they might get a little greedy for that cellar of yours? You bet your ass they will. Security is vital to staying alive and protecting what you have. Don't fall short of the mark after you have done all the other work. This is why I am a strong advocate of not having a retreat but rather living in an isolated area full time. Its a lot easier to stay on top of a situation if it's where you live. It's a lot easier to build and maintain. It is a lot more comforting to know that you don't hve to run away if danger is near. Get out of Dodge while the getting is good. Find ten guys that feel like you do and everybody sell all they have and take the money and go to distant areas of the country. Try to get into the hills. Try to get where there are natural springs for a free water source. Get enough land to support some survival agriculture. You don't need a thousand acres of flat-as-a-pancake Iowa farm land. There is a guy out on the West coast that says he can grow enough food for a family on 5000 square feet and that includes grains. It seems like an acre per family would be a good food production site. Plenty for all.
So, you hve your fenced garden and your secure food cellar and you are living on your land with other like minded individuals. Sounds like a winner to me! Now, what are you going to grow? Can I interest you in some tomatoes? They are mighty fine nutrition. And here ain't anything better than a vine ripened eating tomato in the Summer. Just take a little salt shaker down to the garden patch and go fo it. You did the work and it's fine. But what kind of tomatoes will you grow? I have some suggestions in that area. For Summer eating I think big ol' juicy table tomatoes are wonderfull. The bigger the better. You can cut the slices about 3/4" thick and just piut them on a couple slices of bread with some mayo and you have a sandwich. Eat a couple of them. They're good for you. I try to hold down my carbohydrate intake so I might not use the bread but if you aren't battling the battle of the bulge, make the sandwich and eat the bread, When the SHTF then carbs won't be too much of a problem anymore. Your activity will pick up with the local conditions and you wil be moving around a lot more and the weight won't accumulate. But big ol' table tomatoes don't can too well. They are mostly water and that is not what you want to can, unless you wish to put up tomato juice, which is good too! But for canning mostly tomato solids I suggeest the Roma tomato. Not as juicy as your table tomato but they have some real meat to them. They make good tomato sauce and tomato puree. These are pretty essential to cooking. If you get some hog sausage with some of that good fennel in it you might want to make pizza and tomato sauce is the thing to have. Fennel is the key to transforming ground pork into Italian Sausage. There are other ingredients of course but you can surf around and get a recipe and start experimenting to make yourself a recipe to your supreme liking. May as well have some things you can enjoy as you make this trip through life.
After you have the tomatoes in the ground I would suggest that you plant beans. Beans are a wonderful food. Serve 'em with rice and you can have a complete protein package delivered to your system. I like Pinto beans because I was hooked on tacos years ago. Don't get 'em as much as I used to but I still enjoy 'em. But you can also plant regular green beans for canning. Pintos are what we called shell-outs when I was a kid. You let the beans finish on the plant and get dry then you split the pods and got the bean out for cooking or saving. If you have planted non-hybrid beans you have also created seed for next years crop. Hot damn. You have a renewable resource. But the green beans are the ones you can use to fill your food cellar with nutritious food for the hard times of Winter and early Spring. This is for staying alive. And beans are easy to can. Plant bush beans and you will have an easy time of harvesting. The trick to beans is to plant different times so that your crop doesn't hit all at once. Put your rows in 2 or 3 weeks apart. Plant double what you need. When a section comes do for picking just go pull up all the beans in that area and pluck the beans off at your leisure. Planting extra is so that the young beans who never made it to full maturity are not goingto hurt your harvest results. Check with your state agriculture people and they might have some figures as to how many pounds of beans it will take to feed your family for 6 months. Put those public servants to work, We pay for them. They will be gone one day but they can be used while they are still around. I reckon they are disposable.
The next crop I suggest is Cayenne pepper. Wonderful stuff. It stimulates your pancrease and it will warm your feet in the Winter is you pour it into your boots or socks. But it is an amazing spice for your Kitchen. You have heard the phrase "spice of life" I am sure. Well, some spice in your food can perk of your attitude real well. You need that when times are tough. You need a reward for all the planning and sweating and misgivings you suffered while you were making up your mind to survive. Try not to forget that.
My next suggestion is Rutabagas. I love rutabagas. Golden goodness if I ever tasted such a thing. And they store well. Just peel the damn things and chunk 'em up in some water and boil 'em awhile. Then you drain them and mash them and get to it. A little butter and salt is nice. Get on the Internet and check the nutritional value of rutabagas. They will knock your nutritional socks off! They are so much better than potatoes that any comparison is a waste of time. Surf around and find out how to store rutabagas. They aren't hard to keep. The ones we buy at the store have a thin coat of wax on them. Keeps 'em perfect.
Potatoes are another big favorite of those that don't appreciate rutabagas. They are easy to keep and all their nutrition is in their skins. They ae basically a great vehicle for salt, butter, and sourcream. They are almost total carbohydrates. My friend who is a diabetic says blood sugar spikes after eating potatoes. He likened it to throwing gasoline on an open fire. Grow them in hills with very loose dirt. Hard dirt will cause them to grow small and stunted.
Cabbage is another fine crop to grow. Some say that cabbage is a Super Food and I am inclined to believe them. I went 60 years without knowing how good cabbage was for you. It is NOT easy to grow. There are worms and flies that love cabbage as much as you do. They will riddle your plants with holes. Those little microscopic wasps are the best thing for the worms but they are pretty expensive and I don't now if there will be any microscopic wasp vendors around after the SHTF. But you can use diatomaceous earth relatively cheap. And you can even go back to picking the little wormy bastards off with your fingers if you have to. Some folks leave sorta flat bowls of wine out at night in the garden and it is amazing how many critters drink it and die. Alcohol is a poison, you know. That good sugar in the wine attracts them and the alcohol kills them.
Thats about all I need to say about gardens this morning. You can research the various crops yourself. But now is the time to start buying your garden seed. You can't order too early as far as I am concerned.
Stay fed and stay alive.
Michael
Growing your own food is not without it's pleasures but it is surely not without it's work and sweat. And you haven't had a thrill if you haven't watched a herd of the neighbore cattle get into your garden and eat the plants you were growing for seed. My, my, my, how the blood doth boil. And don't think those cows didn't know what they were doing. We lease out most of our farmland to a share cropper for money to pay our land taxes. Those cows walked past two fields of modern corn, with no fences and no ditches to protect them, to get to my seed beans and corn. Clipped my plants off right next to the ground. They knew the good stuff.
So the garden has been promised a fence this Spring. Thank you God.
Growing food is most beneficial if you can preserve it for eating when there is no garden. To ease the effect of a SHTF type of event, you must have stored food. The grocery store is not going to be open anymore. It may be open but it probably won't have anything you can eat after you walk in the busted door or the busted window and look around. So you must grow it yourself and you must preserve it. Preserving food not only entails canning and drying and wrapping and storage bins and what not, but it also means that your food is relatively safe from thieves and vandals. But we covered guns earlier. The food gets saved for the women and the kids and yourself, and your shotgun sees to it that it remains for those particular people. We have a long concrete cellar that has some very strong Elm shelves already in place. For those who aren't familiar with the basic uses of woods, Elm will not be affected by moisture as much as some other woods. Cut the logs into 8/4 which is 2" to those of you among the uninitiated and you will have fine strong shelves. The front legs are angled out a little bit for more added stability. Wouldn't do to have some hapless female pull a wall of several tons of wood and glass and food down on herself.
But this cellar also has a very strong door with big homemade solid steel hinges. And it has a big homemade solid steel locking hasp that takes a big padlock. Not foolproof but very inconvenient for thieves and vandals. But security is paramount to warding off starvation. And if you are fighting to keep from starving, think of all those poor unfortunates who have nowhere near the preparation you have. Don't you think they might get a little greedy for that cellar of yours? You bet your ass they will. Security is vital to staying alive and protecting what you have. Don't fall short of the mark after you have done all the other work. This is why I am a strong advocate of not having a retreat but rather living in an isolated area full time. Its a lot easier to stay on top of a situation if it's where you live. It's a lot easier to build and maintain. It is a lot more comforting to know that you don't hve to run away if danger is near. Get out of Dodge while the getting is good. Find ten guys that feel like you do and everybody sell all they have and take the money and go to distant areas of the country. Try to get into the hills. Try to get where there are natural springs for a free water source. Get enough land to support some survival agriculture. You don't need a thousand acres of flat-as-a-pancake Iowa farm land. There is a guy out on the West coast that says he can grow enough food for a family on 5000 square feet and that includes grains. It seems like an acre per family would be a good food production site. Plenty for all.
So, you hve your fenced garden and your secure food cellar and you are living on your land with other like minded individuals. Sounds like a winner to me! Now, what are you going to grow? Can I interest you in some tomatoes? They are mighty fine nutrition. And here ain't anything better than a vine ripened eating tomato in the Summer. Just take a little salt shaker down to the garden patch and go fo it. You did the work and it's fine. But what kind of tomatoes will you grow? I have some suggestions in that area. For Summer eating I think big ol' juicy table tomatoes are wonderfull. The bigger the better. You can cut the slices about 3/4" thick and just piut them on a couple slices of bread with some mayo and you have a sandwich. Eat a couple of them. They're good for you. I try to hold down my carbohydrate intake so I might not use the bread but if you aren't battling the battle of the bulge, make the sandwich and eat the bread, When the SHTF then carbs won't be too much of a problem anymore. Your activity will pick up with the local conditions and you wil be moving around a lot more and the weight won't accumulate. But big ol' table tomatoes don't can too well. They are mostly water and that is not what you want to can, unless you wish to put up tomato juice, which is good too! But for canning mostly tomato solids I suggeest the Roma tomato. Not as juicy as your table tomato but they have some real meat to them. They make good tomato sauce and tomato puree. These are pretty essential to cooking. If you get some hog sausage with some of that good fennel in it you might want to make pizza and tomato sauce is the thing to have. Fennel is the key to transforming ground pork into Italian Sausage. There are other ingredients of course but you can surf around and get a recipe and start experimenting to make yourself a recipe to your supreme liking. May as well have some things you can enjoy as you make this trip through life.
After you have the tomatoes in the ground I would suggest that you plant beans. Beans are a wonderful food. Serve 'em with rice and you can have a complete protein package delivered to your system. I like Pinto beans because I was hooked on tacos years ago. Don't get 'em as much as I used to but I still enjoy 'em. But you can also plant regular green beans for canning. Pintos are what we called shell-outs when I was a kid. You let the beans finish on the plant and get dry then you split the pods and got the bean out for cooking or saving. If you have planted non-hybrid beans you have also created seed for next years crop. Hot damn. You have a renewable resource. But the green beans are the ones you can use to fill your food cellar with nutritious food for the hard times of Winter and early Spring. This is for staying alive. And beans are easy to can. Plant bush beans and you will have an easy time of harvesting. The trick to beans is to plant different times so that your crop doesn't hit all at once. Put your rows in 2 or 3 weeks apart. Plant double what you need. When a section comes do for picking just go pull up all the beans in that area and pluck the beans off at your leisure. Planting extra is so that the young beans who never made it to full maturity are not goingto hurt your harvest results. Check with your state agriculture people and they might have some figures as to how many pounds of beans it will take to feed your family for 6 months. Put those public servants to work, We pay for them. They will be gone one day but they can be used while they are still around. I reckon they are disposable.
The next crop I suggest is Cayenne pepper. Wonderful stuff. It stimulates your pancrease and it will warm your feet in the Winter is you pour it into your boots or socks. But it is an amazing spice for your Kitchen. You have heard the phrase "spice of life" I am sure. Well, some spice in your food can perk of your attitude real well. You need that when times are tough. You need a reward for all the planning and sweating and misgivings you suffered while you were making up your mind to survive. Try not to forget that.
My next suggestion is Rutabagas. I love rutabagas. Golden goodness if I ever tasted such a thing. And they store well. Just peel the damn things and chunk 'em up in some water and boil 'em awhile. Then you drain them and mash them and get to it. A little butter and salt is nice. Get on the Internet and check the nutritional value of rutabagas. They will knock your nutritional socks off! They are so much better than potatoes that any comparison is a waste of time. Surf around and find out how to store rutabagas. They aren't hard to keep. The ones we buy at the store have a thin coat of wax on them. Keeps 'em perfect.
Potatoes are another big favorite of those that don't appreciate rutabagas. They are easy to keep and all their nutrition is in their skins. They ae basically a great vehicle for salt, butter, and sourcream. They are almost total carbohydrates. My friend who is a diabetic says blood sugar spikes after eating potatoes. He likened it to throwing gasoline on an open fire. Grow them in hills with very loose dirt. Hard dirt will cause them to grow small and stunted.
Cabbage is another fine crop to grow. Some say that cabbage is a Super Food and I am inclined to believe them. I went 60 years without knowing how good cabbage was for you. It is NOT easy to grow. There are worms and flies that love cabbage as much as you do. They will riddle your plants with holes. Those little microscopic wasps are the best thing for the worms but they are pretty expensive and I don't now if there will be any microscopic wasp vendors around after the SHTF. But you can use diatomaceous earth relatively cheap. And you can even go back to picking the little wormy bastards off with your fingers if you have to. Some folks leave sorta flat bowls of wine out at night in the garden and it is amazing how many critters drink it and die. Alcohol is a poison, you know. That good sugar in the wine attracts them and the alcohol kills them.
Thats about all I need to say about gardens this morning. You can research the various crops yourself. But now is the time to start buying your garden seed. You can't order too early as far as I am concerned.
Stay fed and stay alive.
Michael
Monday, January 28, 2008
SURVIVAL GUNS PART II
This is my second article on materials and supplies. I am still on the subject of GUNS.
There is a lot of words typed to show favoritism for one gun or another. Bolt actions, semi-automatics, even single shots. I think they are all good. I think what eveer you can afford and what ou can honestly shoot with accuracy is what counts. I am going to talk about Main Battle Weapons.
Some men figure on shooting an M-15, which is the civilian version of the M-16 our armed forces fight with. I've owned one. They are one of the most accurate rifles right out of the box I have ever fired. I have a friend who goers to Camp Perry to shoot at their big tourney and he does quite well with the M-15. It gets knocked becuse it doesn't have a lot of knock down power as opposed to a .308 or a 30-06. That is going to be debated until Hell freezes over. But I will tell you that if you have one of them and you like it and you have some ammo to back it up then keep the thing. They are good weapons. Like I said, a lot of purists don't like defending with a .223 bullet, but that round will kil your enemy and that will save your life.
FAL's are very popular with some people I respect. But I don't want one and I damn sure don't want to feed the thing. .308 ammo is expensive.
But I also shoot a 30 year old Ruger Model 77 in .308. Shoots very well and my son loves it. It I neeed heavy firepower I will take that rifle with me. I know its not a fancy semi-auto but it shoots and it is reliable as the day is long. God help the guy who gets in front of it. It is also very good on large game and will put meat on the table. It has a 4 power scope which is pretty accurate and serviceable for shots around here. I live in the uplands of the state and it's hills and small valleys for the most part. My neck of the woods is not given to bean-field rifles. There just aren't that many long shots to be had.
I am familiar with the Ruger Mini-14 also. Owned one and liked it. Very dependable weapon. For a semi-auto it did not cycle as rapidly as my Colt M-15. Nor was it as accurate. But it was stainless steel and it functioned flawlessly. Magazines were more expensive and harder to find for the Mini. Don't know if that has changed with the passing of time or not.
The Ruger Mini-30 or Ranch rifle is a good gun. The 7.62 X 39 round is not a hair different from the old 30-30 round that has put more deer on americas tables that any other round. The old lever action 30-30 was our first assault rife. You just carry loose rounds in your pockets and as you move toward your objective you keep stuffing more rounds in the tube as it will hold. You can do it while you are running or while you are hiding behind a tree or while you are laying prone on the ground. It's not that big a deal, really. I own a 30-30 Winchester and I don't feel ashamed of it at all. I just don't have a supply of ammo worth talking about. The Handmaiden likes to shoot it and I may talk her into spending some of HER money on a stash of ammo. Then I have to get her to practice when the weather gets nice. She will complain then about the high cost of ammo and know what I face.
I keep a Wingmaster pump beside me against the wall in our bedroom. I was talking to my friend who lives next door to us and he does the same thing. I recently bought a Black and Decker Million Candlepower flashlight that recharges with house current or from a cigarette lighter outlet in a vehicle. Neat machine. If you hear a commotion outside at night you can just go out on the balcony with your shotgun and your light. It's a comforting feeling. I take 00 Buck for that mission.
As far as pistols are concerned I think we have four in the house. A .44 Magnum. A .45 acp. A .22 semi-auto and a .22 wheel gun for the Handmaiden. For strange work I have a full scale broadsword that is sharp as a razor. It will take the head off an adult sheep with one swing.
That's all for a while. I hope to have more soon.
Stay safe and stay alive.
The Handmaiden go this for me from Information Clearing House. It's just another example of how Facism is coming to control the country. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17190.htm
There is a lot of words typed to show favoritism for one gun or another. Bolt actions, semi-automatics, even single shots. I think they are all good. I think what eveer you can afford and what ou can honestly shoot with accuracy is what counts. I am going to talk about Main Battle Weapons.
Some men figure on shooting an M-15, which is the civilian version of the M-16 our armed forces fight with. I've owned one. They are one of the most accurate rifles right out of the box I have ever fired. I have a friend who goers to Camp Perry to shoot at their big tourney and he does quite well with the M-15. It gets knocked becuse it doesn't have a lot of knock down power as opposed to a .308 or a 30-06. That is going to be debated until Hell freezes over. But I will tell you that if you have one of them and you like it and you have some ammo to back it up then keep the thing. They are good weapons. Like I said, a lot of purists don't like defending with a .223 bullet, but that round will kil your enemy and that will save your life.
FAL's are very popular with some people I respect. But I don't want one and I damn sure don't want to feed the thing. .308 ammo is expensive.
But I also shoot a 30 year old Ruger Model 77 in .308. Shoots very well and my son loves it. It I neeed heavy firepower I will take that rifle with me. I know its not a fancy semi-auto but it shoots and it is reliable as the day is long. God help the guy who gets in front of it. It is also very good on large game and will put meat on the table. It has a 4 power scope which is pretty accurate and serviceable for shots around here. I live in the uplands of the state and it's hills and small valleys for the most part. My neck of the woods is not given to bean-field rifles. There just aren't that many long shots to be had.
I am familiar with the Ruger Mini-14 also. Owned one and liked it. Very dependable weapon. For a semi-auto it did not cycle as rapidly as my Colt M-15. Nor was it as accurate. But it was stainless steel and it functioned flawlessly. Magazines were more expensive and harder to find for the Mini. Don't know if that has changed with the passing of time or not.
The Ruger Mini-30 or Ranch rifle is a good gun. The 7.62 X 39 round is not a hair different from the old 30-30 round that has put more deer on americas tables that any other round. The old lever action 30-30 was our first assault rife. You just carry loose rounds in your pockets and as you move toward your objective you keep stuffing more rounds in the tube as it will hold. You can do it while you are running or while you are hiding behind a tree or while you are laying prone on the ground. It's not that big a deal, really. I own a 30-30 Winchester and I don't feel ashamed of it at all. I just don't have a supply of ammo worth talking about. The Handmaiden likes to shoot it and I may talk her into spending some of HER money on a stash of ammo. Then I have to get her to practice when the weather gets nice. She will complain then about the high cost of ammo and know what I face.
I keep a Wingmaster pump beside me against the wall in our bedroom. I was talking to my friend who lives next door to us and he does the same thing. I recently bought a Black and Decker Million Candlepower flashlight that recharges with house current or from a cigarette lighter outlet in a vehicle. Neat machine. If you hear a commotion outside at night you can just go out on the balcony with your shotgun and your light. It's a comforting feeling. I take 00 Buck for that mission.
As far as pistols are concerned I think we have four in the house. A .44 Magnum. A .45 acp. A .22 semi-auto and a .22 wheel gun for the Handmaiden. For strange work I have a full scale broadsword that is sharp as a razor. It will take the head off an adult sheep with one swing.
That's all for a while. I hope to have more soon.
Stay safe and stay alive.
The Handmaiden go this for me from Information Clearing House. It's just another example of how Facism is coming to control the country. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17190.htm
SURVIVAL GUNS
I said I would get around to typing out some lists of suggestions for things you might need if the SHTF and here is where I start.
Guns.
Guns are one of my favorite topics. Love 'em. In the survival priority of things you need air and water and then you need a gun. A gun can protect you and feed you. Both very important if things get a little ragged along the lines of a collapse of society.My favorite gun is my 870 Remington Express Magnum. It is a jewel. I can kill a Beaver at 50 yards with 00 Buck and have done it more than once. If we have to defend our home I will probably have this gun in my hands. I won't be much good at long range but I can sure bring hell up close. We have a lot of trees around here and things can get close without being seen and that is where my 870 comes in handy. It also pays to know that a lot of deer have been harvested at 20 feet in these parts. And that 20 feet was mostly straight down.
I have a good sized photo right in front of me that has my son showing off his 10 point Buck that he killed with one of my shotguns. I paid to have a shoulder mount done on that guy. Sure did.
I bought my 00 Buck at http://www.ammunitionstore.com/. They are down until September 1, of this year for restocking. I also bought some down at the Knob Creek Machine Gun Shoot and Gun Show. I wouldn't want to watch a Knob Creek Machinegunfest every day, but it sure is impressive occasionally.
You can go to Walmart and buy #8 shot for about $15 a hundred rounds. There are a lot of things to kill and eat that don't take 00 Buck. Blackbirds and Boattailed Grackles and Robins and others are delicious. Wild Pigeon is almost without comparison. Meat so rich that it's purple. They like to hang out in old deserted houses and barns. They feed on local crops and such. Delicious. Squirrels and rabbits are also good eating. Around these parts you don't kill and eat Rabbit until after a good hard frost. Rabbits can get Worbles or what ever you call them in your area. It makes them sick and weakens them to the point they don't survive a hard frost.
As far as inside the home defense, I would suggest that you use a very light shot to keep from penetrating walls and hitting someone who is not involved. I don't know that for sure so you might check around.
That should do it for my pump shotgun. The only thing that is a trouble is that the Handmaiden can't shoot one of the damn things. Following my personal philosophy of never getting with a woman who can bet me two out of three falls, my wife is a small woman. She just can't handle that 12 gauge. She loves the effect of it but she can't deal with all that recoil. So, she is going to be handling a
Ruger 10/22 rifle.
I got her about 10,000 rounds to shoot. If she finally does go practice I will gladly buy her some more ammo.
The 22 LR cartridge will put down most animals in these parts, including deer. You have to be right on the mark and hit where you need to but it wll kill your supper for you. A lot of men have killed full grown cows and steers with a 22 LR round. It is also a self defense weapon. You just point the damn thing at the enemy and turn on the sewing machine and stitch 'em up. You just keep a good sight picture, cause there ain't any recoil to fool with, and you keep pulling the trigger until the bad guy goes down. And I realize that this is not your standard protocol at shooting schools, but it will damn sure work. And if the bullets don't penetrate and kill the bad guy they wil sure let him know he is being shot at and he'll duck foir cover.
As mentioned earlier, the 22 LR wil kill most small game with ease and keepyou in meat. Mighty handy things to have around, especially the Ruger 10-22. You can get them in stainless steel and that is a good deal for the gun owner. Ammo is still cheap by other standards. Some people are selling 10,000 round cases for a decent price if you are interested in a large buy. If we can get the Chinese to quit buying all our scrap brass we might be able to afford ammo again. But they won't do that until they are shooting it at us so that probably ain't gonna happen.
I'll write more on weapons shortly.
Be wise and stay alive.
Guns.
Guns are one of my favorite topics. Love 'em. In the survival priority of things you need air and water and then you need a gun. A gun can protect you and feed you. Both very important if things get a little ragged along the lines of a collapse of society.My favorite gun is my 870 Remington Express Magnum. It is a jewel. I can kill a Beaver at 50 yards with 00 Buck and have done it more than once. If we have to defend our home I will probably have this gun in my hands. I won't be much good at long range but I can sure bring hell up close. We have a lot of trees around here and things can get close without being seen and that is where my 870 comes in handy. It also pays to know that a lot of deer have been harvested at 20 feet in these parts. And that 20 feet was mostly straight down.
I have a good sized photo right in front of me that has my son showing off his 10 point Buck that he killed with one of my shotguns. I paid to have a shoulder mount done on that guy. Sure did.
I bought my 00 Buck at http://www.ammunitionstore.com/. They are down until September 1, of this year for restocking. I also bought some down at the Knob Creek Machine Gun Shoot and Gun Show. I wouldn't want to watch a Knob Creek Machinegunfest every day, but it sure is impressive occasionally.
You can go to Walmart and buy #8 shot for about $15 a hundred rounds. There are a lot of things to kill and eat that don't take 00 Buck. Blackbirds and Boattailed Grackles and Robins and others are delicious. Wild Pigeon is almost without comparison. Meat so rich that it's purple. They like to hang out in old deserted houses and barns. They feed on local crops and such. Delicious. Squirrels and rabbits are also good eating. Around these parts you don't kill and eat Rabbit until after a good hard frost. Rabbits can get Worbles or what ever you call them in your area. It makes them sick and weakens them to the point they don't survive a hard frost.
As far as inside the home defense, I would suggest that you use a very light shot to keep from penetrating walls and hitting someone who is not involved. I don't know that for sure so you might check around.
That should do it for my pump shotgun. The only thing that is a trouble is that the Handmaiden can't shoot one of the damn things. Following my personal philosophy of never getting with a woman who can bet me two out of three falls, my wife is a small woman. She just can't handle that 12 gauge. She loves the effect of it but she can't deal with all that recoil. So, she is going to be handling a
Ruger 10/22 rifle.
I got her about 10,000 rounds to shoot. If she finally does go practice I will gladly buy her some more ammo.
The 22 LR cartridge will put down most animals in these parts, including deer. You have to be right on the mark and hit where you need to but it wll kill your supper for you. A lot of men have killed full grown cows and steers with a 22 LR round. It is also a self defense weapon. You just point the damn thing at the enemy and turn on the sewing machine and stitch 'em up. You just keep a good sight picture, cause there ain't any recoil to fool with, and you keep pulling the trigger until the bad guy goes down. And I realize that this is not your standard protocol at shooting schools, but it will damn sure work. And if the bullets don't penetrate and kill the bad guy they wil sure let him know he is being shot at and he'll duck foir cover.
As mentioned earlier, the 22 LR wil kill most small game with ease and keepyou in meat. Mighty handy things to have around, especially the Ruger 10-22. You can get them in stainless steel and that is a good deal for the gun owner. Ammo is still cheap by other standards. Some people are selling 10,000 round cases for a decent price if you are interested in a large buy. If we can get the Chinese to quit buying all our scrap brass we might be able to afford ammo again. But they won't do that until they are shooting it at us so that probably ain't gonna happen.
I'll write more on weapons shortly.
Be wise and stay alive.
Correction and Clarification
This is an important comment from my wife, commonly referred to as my Handmaiden.
On the eggshell thing:
Wash the eggshells after putting the eggs in a pan.
Then save all your eggshells in a bag until you have enough.
Bake the eggshells at 350 for 20 min or so to kill any bacteria. Each eggshell contains approx. 1800-2000 mg calcium and 70-80 mg phosphorus.
HM
On the eggshell thing:
Wash the eggshells after putting the eggs in a pan.
Then save all your eggshells in a bag until you have enough.
Bake the eggshells at 350 for 20 min or so to kill any bacteria. Each eggshell contains approx. 1800-2000 mg calcium and 70-80 mg phosphorus.
HM
Retreats and History
I have been reading about retreats and how to deal with outsiders wanting to come into the little Ark of Refuge you have created for your own personal continuity. My answer to that is to have your security people question these people and find out if they are toxic or nutrient to your situation. I live in a very large retreat in southern Indiana. We have almost 3000 acres. We used to be communal when we were all working to buy and build our home. We worked like dogs. Six days a week and we didn't work most Sundays because people just need a day off when they work as hard as we did. But we have our little nest and we live in it, albeit in more conventional lifestyles.
If people come to us in a time of economic stress or war stress then we will talk to them. If they seem to be decent folk then we will probably let them in and let them go to work producing for the group survival. If the SHTF then all help witll be needed. Schools will come back to life and dining halls will spring up. Huge gardens of non-hybrid vegetables will be planted. The local deer population will find itself under hunting pressure. We know how to build log cabins and we will get them built and show the new people how to build them also.
We have the biggest hardwood sawmill in the state. It's not running now but it can be fired up pretty fast. We bankrupted it and a bunch of our young men bought it at an IRS auction. They got a million dollar mill for sixty five thousand dollars, the minimum bid, and we got the IRS off our backs. Life goes on. The lumber market has gone to hell and we can't sell Red Oak lumber for any price that makes it feasible to cut. So it sits quiet. We have our land in a land trust that we had drawn up by an attorney who is now an Appeals Court Judge here in this state. It's pretty solid and you can't touch the land. Unless of course we fail to pay the land taxes. But that is being worked on with the idea of having 5 years of taxes ready to go if the SHTF. It will be pretty neat if it happens, and it probably will.
We are a bit cynical about banks and the IRS an so forth. If it comes time to throw the monkey wrench in their gears we do it and there is no remorse. If anyone still has any respect for the banks and the federal government then I suggest that they have not been paying attention. And if you snooze, you lose.
Our founder died in January of 2001. We expect that the SHTF will start in a year or so. Don't ask why but that is just the way we feel about it. There is coming a time of tribulation on this poor old planet and it will be a very trying time for millions of folks. But I and my friends will be doing our best to stay alive. Our plan is to dig under these southern Indiana hills and get a few hundred feet of rock between us and the sky. No one else but the New World Order group up in Canada is getting underground. The biggest bunker buster bomb they make will not penetrate three or four hundred feet of rock. Just a suggestion to those who care to survive.
This thing of predicting the time of the SHTF is impossible to forecast. It is merely human speculation. At this time do not accept any time schedule for the coming destruction. But it is coming. Don't worry about that part. Just get underground and have your survival supplies in order and in abundance. Remember that passage of scripture that talks about the caves and dens of the Earth? Take heed of that scripture. It can help you save your life.
I can, and will, get into survival tools and supplies that you can strive for. But it will be based on group survival and having people live in their "retreat" full time. Having a bug out place to get to if the SHTF is like keeping a concubine in a faraway place. You want to get to where the good times are and not play around with games and email. We have a strong ethic of owning our own businesses and working them hard and fast. Any credit we may have is tied to those businesses and not to our property. We don't mortage the home. My parents and grand parents lived throught the Great Depression and I talked about it with them. Today's modern idea of having a mortgage and maybe even a second mortgage on your home was a curse to them. And it is with us also.
This is enough of my ranting for right now. Take care and prepare.
Stay alive.
If people come to us in a time of economic stress or war stress then we will talk to them. If they seem to be decent folk then we will probably let them in and let them go to work producing for the group survival. If the SHTF then all help witll be needed. Schools will come back to life and dining halls will spring up. Huge gardens of non-hybrid vegetables will be planted. The local deer population will find itself under hunting pressure. We know how to build log cabins and we will get them built and show the new people how to build them also.
We have the biggest hardwood sawmill in the state. It's not running now but it can be fired up pretty fast. We bankrupted it and a bunch of our young men bought it at an IRS auction. They got a million dollar mill for sixty five thousand dollars, the minimum bid, and we got the IRS off our backs. Life goes on. The lumber market has gone to hell and we can't sell Red Oak lumber for any price that makes it feasible to cut. So it sits quiet. We have our land in a land trust that we had drawn up by an attorney who is now an Appeals Court Judge here in this state. It's pretty solid and you can't touch the land. Unless of course we fail to pay the land taxes. But that is being worked on with the idea of having 5 years of taxes ready to go if the SHTF. It will be pretty neat if it happens, and it probably will.
We are a bit cynical about banks and the IRS an so forth. If it comes time to throw the monkey wrench in their gears we do it and there is no remorse. If anyone still has any respect for the banks and the federal government then I suggest that they have not been paying attention. And if you snooze, you lose.
Our founder died in January of 2001. We expect that the SHTF will start in a year or so. Don't ask why but that is just the way we feel about it. There is coming a time of tribulation on this poor old planet and it will be a very trying time for millions of folks. But I and my friends will be doing our best to stay alive. Our plan is to dig under these southern Indiana hills and get a few hundred feet of rock between us and the sky. No one else but the New World Order group up in Canada is getting underground. The biggest bunker buster bomb they make will not penetrate three or four hundred feet of rock. Just a suggestion to those who care to survive.
This thing of predicting the time of the SHTF is impossible to forecast. It is merely human speculation. At this time do not accept any time schedule for the coming destruction. But it is coming. Don't worry about that part. Just get underground and have your survival supplies in order and in abundance. Remember that passage of scripture that talks about the caves and dens of the Earth? Take heed of that scripture. It can help you save your life.
I can, and will, get into survival tools and supplies that you can strive for. But it will be based on group survival and having people live in their "retreat" full time. Having a bug out place to get to if the SHTF is like keeping a concubine in a faraway place. You want to get to where the good times are and not play around with games and email. We have a strong ethic of owning our own businesses and working them hard and fast. Any credit we may have is tied to those businesses and not to our property. We don't mortage the home. My parents and grand parents lived throught the Great Depression and I talked about it with them. Today's modern idea of having a mortgage and maybe even a second mortgage on your home was a curse to them. And it is with us also.
This is enough of my ranting for right now. Take care and prepare.
Stay alive.
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Herbs and some minerals
Did you ever think about what would become your pharmacy if the SHTF? The drug companies will go under or get blown up. People will really feel the anguish of not being able to take their medications as they are supposed to take them. What to do? What to do? I'll tell you what to do. You download a ton of information about herbs of your region and you study everything you can about how herbalists have treated every illness. You study that stuff as far back as we have records. You study how the modern herbalists work things also. This is the pharmacy of the future. Buy some of these herb and wild plant books that they have out right now. Great pictures. You want to know what some herb looks like, there is a book that has it's picture. Good books. One of thse days I'll publish a list of a few that I think are good. I don't really hunt for herbs, but my wife does. And she is learning little by little. She is even drying a few. You can also grow herbs that are good for you. You ever take garlic in the Fall and Winter? Works wonders. I had the wife pick up a garlic press at a gourmet cooking utensil store. Solid steel and cost her $20. It has never missed for pressing garlic to a manageable pulp that she dearly loves to bring to me to get down my throat. It's quite spicey, to say the least.
But it is a mild antibiotic when warmed up by your stomach and intestine. Take it BEFORE you get sick. Taking herbs for a cure can be a long drawn out process. Taking herbs when you don't need them is the best time. Take your garlic, and your cayenne, and your horseweed. Take your Sambucol. Sambucol? Yep. It's a tincture of Black Elderberry. It costs money if you buy it but it is cheap if you make it with Elderberries and grain alcohol. Won't cure flu but it sure will shorten it's impact. That can be important in a time of stress when everyone is needed and you are coming down with the flu.
You have a problem pancease? Take a jolt of ground cayenne pepper on your eggs in the morning. It sorta jump starts it. I use it seven days a week.
You want minerals with your herbs? How about some calcium and phosphorous? Simple. Just keep the egg shells from your breakfast eggs and when you get enough to cover a small cookie sheet, pour them out over the cookie sheet and put them in a preheated oven of 300 degees for 20 minutes. Do yourself a favor and keep them in the refridgerator while you are amassing enough to bake. Keeps the germ count down to something the oven can handle. After the eggs have been heated in the oven take them out and put them in a cheap coffee grinder and it will turn the shells into powder. If the power is out just put them on one half of a smooth fabric towel and fold the other half over it and go over the towel with a rolling pin or an old whiskey bottle full of water or what ever you have handy that will crush the damn things. You can hit them with a hammer if you wish. It will get the job done. You now have a supply of high quality calcium and phosphorous. Keep it cool so that you don't grow germs in your mineral stash. That would defeat the purpose. And what is the purpose?
The purpose is to please the doctor and the doctor is your immune system. You actually cure yourself. Or God can do it if He wants to. But unless you are subject to divine intervention I would suggest keeping your immune system in top shape. Study nutrition. Doctors don't so you will have to. What the doctors study about preventative maintenance of the body is pretty well pointless. Over in China you pay your doctor while you are well. If you get sick he doesn't get any more money until you are healed. But not in the good old USA. We have a whole flock of doctors that are highly skilled at treating symptoms. Sorta like you getting a flood in your yard and the doctor treats it for making it feel dry. Stupid? You bet. Your doctor can't cure a damn thing. Your immune system has to do that. Keep that old immune system in top shape and you might just survive a lot of B.S. that others don't.
Stay Alive.
But it is a mild antibiotic when warmed up by your stomach and intestine. Take it BEFORE you get sick. Taking herbs for a cure can be a long drawn out process. Taking herbs when you don't need them is the best time. Take your garlic, and your cayenne, and your horseweed. Take your Sambucol. Sambucol? Yep. It's a tincture of Black Elderberry. It costs money if you buy it but it is cheap if you make it with Elderberries and grain alcohol. Won't cure flu but it sure will shorten it's impact. That can be important in a time of stress when everyone is needed and you are coming down with the flu.
You have a problem pancease? Take a jolt of ground cayenne pepper on your eggs in the morning. It sorta jump starts it. I use it seven days a week.
You want minerals with your herbs? How about some calcium and phosphorous? Simple. Just keep the egg shells from your breakfast eggs and when you get enough to cover a small cookie sheet, pour them out over the cookie sheet and put them in a preheated oven of 300 degees for 20 minutes. Do yourself a favor and keep them in the refridgerator while you are amassing enough to bake. Keeps the germ count down to something the oven can handle. After the eggs have been heated in the oven take them out and put them in a cheap coffee grinder and it will turn the shells into powder. If the power is out just put them on one half of a smooth fabric towel and fold the other half over it and go over the towel with a rolling pin or an old whiskey bottle full of water or what ever you have handy that will crush the damn things. You can hit them with a hammer if you wish. It will get the job done. You now have a supply of high quality calcium and phosphorous. Keep it cool so that you don't grow germs in your mineral stash. That would defeat the purpose. And what is the purpose?
The purpose is to please the doctor and the doctor is your immune system. You actually cure yourself. Or God can do it if He wants to. But unless you are subject to divine intervention I would suggest keeping your immune system in top shape. Study nutrition. Doctors don't so you will have to. What the doctors study about preventative maintenance of the body is pretty well pointless. Over in China you pay your doctor while you are well. If you get sick he doesn't get any more money until you are healed. But not in the good old USA. We have a whole flock of doctors that are highly skilled at treating symptoms. Sorta like you getting a flood in your yard and the doctor treats it for making it feel dry. Stupid? You bet. Your doctor can't cure a damn thing. Your immune system has to do that. Keep that old immune system in top shape and you might just survive a lot of B.S. that others don't.
Stay Alive.
Hello again out there in cyberland. I'll bet yu're surprised to see me back so quickly. So am I. I got in a group discussion about survival this afternoon. One man wanted to build a warehouse and start stocking up stores for a calamity. Very good idea said I. But I don't think you will get any of our group to go along with it. People don't believe in storing up for bad times. It has been bred put of the national community. We are all slaves to the system.
This morning at the communal Barn meeting one of the brothers thought it good to say that we needed to get more wood heat for our buildings. Not a bad observation since we live in the heart of the hardwood forest. We have hundreds of acres of free fuel. Not free in the sense of no sweat running off our brow, but free in the sense that we can have all we can cut and pay no money for it. Think of the millions of people who can't do this. People who would get arrested and charged with all kinds of violations if they did it. I am for more wood heat. Once this gloabl warming B.S. gets halted by global freezing, that wood heat will be a wondrous thing. Indeed.
I can not help but identify with the survivalists of this world. They make sense to me. I read the Natural Bible and it says that humanity is about to take it where it hurts. I wonder how many will be like the poor folks that waited for help after Katrina. They're still waiting. My sense of coming danger is sending me signals like crazy. The talk is just bubbling away inside of me. My faith is that God will give us a warning that is unmistakeable in it's content. I really think he will do that for us. As dumb as this world is, the message had better be very plain and unmistakeable.
My instinct tells me that group survival is more apt to succeed than a small family survival effort. There is a scripture that says that there is safety in numbers. And if the numbers have a can of hot food in one hand and an AK 47 in the other then you are looking at some people who can make it. At least for a while. And who knows? They may get lucky and really survive and repopulate the earth with decent folk. But don't count on that decent folk part of it. I have members of my own family who are very intelligent but will vote for Hillary Clinton because the right to have an abortion will be safe while she is President. Since I am a male I will not have to give my strength to Hillary because I won't ever need an abortion.
I am tired and I want to rest. I will get back tothis blog later, as long as the computer still works. Maybe I ought to lay hands on it and get it a healing. That would be quite a story.
Stay safe and stay alive.
Michael
This morning at the communal Barn meeting one of the brothers thought it good to say that we needed to get more wood heat for our buildings. Not a bad observation since we live in the heart of the hardwood forest. We have hundreds of acres of free fuel. Not free in the sense of no sweat running off our brow, but free in the sense that we can have all we can cut and pay no money for it. Think of the millions of people who can't do this. People who would get arrested and charged with all kinds of violations if they did it. I am for more wood heat. Once this gloabl warming B.S. gets halted by global freezing, that wood heat will be a wondrous thing. Indeed.
I can not help but identify with the survivalists of this world. They make sense to me. I read the Natural Bible and it says that humanity is about to take it where it hurts. I wonder how many will be like the poor folks that waited for help after Katrina. They're still waiting. My sense of coming danger is sending me signals like crazy. The talk is just bubbling away inside of me. My faith is that God will give us a warning that is unmistakeable in it's content. I really think he will do that for us. As dumb as this world is, the message had better be very plain and unmistakeable.
My instinct tells me that group survival is more apt to succeed than a small family survival effort. There is a scripture that says that there is safety in numbers. And if the numbers have a can of hot food in one hand and an AK 47 in the other then you are looking at some people who can make it. At least for a while. And who knows? They may get lucky and really survive and repopulate the earth with decent folk. But don't count on that decent folk part of it. I have members of my own family who are very intelligent but will vote for Hillary Clinton because the right to have an abortion will be safe while she is President. Since I am a male I will not have to give my strength to Hillary because I won't ever need an abortion.
I am tired and I want to rest. I will get back tothis blog later, as long as the computer still works. Maybe I ought to lay hands on it and get it a healing. That would be quite a story.
Stay safe and stay alive.
Michael
Introduction
I am new to this blog writing but I have read plenty of other folks stuff. Bear with me as I get thorugh the rough times and get this process down to something I can understand.
Michael
Michael
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