North Cackalacky Visitor

My buddy from North Carolina came up to visit this past weekend. I lived in Raleigh during the dot com boom back around 1999 to 2001. I had my first tech job at that time and through a coworker I was introduced to a whole new crowd of folks. "E", as I'll call him, was one of those folks. He's the only one I still keep in touch with from those days.

In any event, once or twice a year either he'll come up to Virginia for a visit or I'll slide on down North Carolina-way. This time he paid us a visit.

Friday night we made the local brewery beer tasting rounds. We went to Blue Mountain Brewery and had many, many beers. We then swung on down to the South Street Brewery (affectionately known locally as the "Soussed Street Brewery"). After that it was off to Beer Run - not a brewery but a must on the beer Mecca rounds in the central Virginia area.

Saturday we mainly hung out around the house. E and I did some errands - got some lures at Dick's Sporting Goods, picked up a batch of California Common at the Fermentation Trap, dropped off recycling, and then went home. I whipped up the California Common and tossed it in the carboy to ferment.

We had a nice dinner - Apple Ginger glazed chicken on the grill, home made cornbread, and a salad along with multiple whiskey-n-coke drinks. Follow that up with some homebrew Oktoberfest, and then a sampler 12 pack of Victory Brewery beers and we were all lit up like three Christmas trees. Me, E, and the wife that is.

Sunday morning E and I went out to Barboursville to shoot some targets. I brought Hilda (SKS), Cletus (Remington D870 Express), and Harry (Ruger GP100 .357). Here are some pics:

Teh-hut!

Me and Hilda

Me and Harry

A nice action shot with E and Harry

We were firing Fiocchi 12ga. 00 law enforcement buckshot

Cletus putting the hurt down on E

E using Hilda's BSA Red Dot site to terminate the target

Ugly. Criminally Ugly.

In less than 18 months forty percent of global wealth has evaporated. Poof!

http://www.reuters.com/article/wtMostRead/idUSTRE52966Z20090310

That makes me think that forty percent (or more) of global wealth was pure bullshit.

In basic terms, this global economic crisis started in the U.S. housing market. Back during the late nineties, Phil Graham, a Senator, wrote legislation which majorly reduced regulation in the mortgage industry. This paved the way for the housing bubble.

People's income started going flat back around 2000. This meant that the housing party was going to be over and that housing prices would stop their meteoric rise and start to fall a bit as demand cooled. ARM and NINJA to the rescue!

ARM, as most people know, stands for Adjustable Rate Mortgage. This is a loan where you initially pay a lower interest rate. At a later date (2 years later, usually) the rate would increase, making mortgage payments as much as double in some cases. Designed for house flipping and speculation, many people were caught with these loans when the housing market started cooling off. Unable to sell, the higher interest rates kicked in and their payments went through the roof. Foreclosures by the millions followed.

NINJA is a less known type of loan. The acronym stands for No Income No Job Applicant. This initially started as a way to sell homes to illegal immigrants who could not legally be employed in America. They had jobs, they just couldn't claim them on the paperwork. The NINJA loan became a way for mortgage brokers to sell to any-old-body. Make a terrible loan, get your commission, and let the recipient of the loan deal with the fallout.

All of this was bad... oh, yes... but the worst has yet to be explained. Any idiot, even a Wall Street executive, could see that these were risky loans. There had to be some other way to make money off these loans aside from the monthly mortgage payment... let's think here, boys...

What Wall Street came up with was nothing short of criminal. Wrap these mortgages up into securities, price them at 20-30 times their value, break up the mortgages and slice them and dice them ten ways to Sunday so no one could tell what securities fund was comprised of what mortgages (and at what terms/rates), insure them, get them rated AAA, and sell them on the global markets.

All of this required massive collusion. The insurers had to be in on it. The rating agencies had to be in on it. Banks had to be in on it. Wall Street had to be in on it.

Massive. Criminal. Fraud. Conspiracy.

And now we, as the American tax payer, are expected to bail out the top 1%. Bail out the bankers. Bail out the insurance giants. Bail out Wall Street. And yes, it is the top 1% who dreamed up these loans and how to insure, rate, and sell them to make more money off of smoke and mirrors. Yes, it is the wealthiest Americans who are almost solely to blame for this mess we're in.

To top it all off, these same people are balking at a tax increase to help cover the fallout! Rich motherfuckers. Most of these people haven't been poor for generations and they have no idea what is is to live hand to mouth. They have no idea what it is like to have to scrimp and save for what they want or need. They have no idea what damage they have done.

Detroit is different. I have no problem bailing out Detroit, and here's why:

Without auto manufacturing in America we are no longer a superpower.

Never mind the fact that GM, Ford, and Chrysler are also victims of Wall Street's greed and incompetence. They are suffering from a lack of demand. Most of the green initiatives they are pursuing started long before the downturn. The Chevy Volt is a good example. They were in the process of changing their faulty business models when the recession hit.

The simple fact of the matter is that auto manufacturing is a matter of national security. It is this industry which provides the backbone for military industrial might. No modern nation can be a superpower without this component. It is a prerequisite.

But the right is using this as an opportunity to attack the unions. Yes, evil unions! Oh, noooo! They are responsible for such evils as child labor laws, workplace safety regulations, the forty hour work week, retirement and health benefits, and the list goes on. Do your research. Before unions, labor was exploited. It was during this time of rampant exploitation of labor that communist and anarchist movements in this country took hold.

Few people know this, but there was an anarchist movement and a communist movement afoot in this nation which was very strong around the turn of the century (1900). Much of their gripe was with industrial exploitation of workers. Horrible and dangerous working conditions where children worked like slaves, the hours were as long as the boss demanded, and the compensation incredibly low. This movement in America even managed to assassinate a President! William McKinley, to be specific.

Oddly enough, once the labor movement in this country started to gain ground and improve conditions for workers, the base for these more violent and destructive movements began to dry up. So why is it that unions get such a bad rap in this country?

Essentially, you can blame it on Jimmy Hoffa and the infiltration of some union shops by the mob. Much of this, at least on the larger scales, was cleaned up by the Justice Department under the RICO Act. However, the taint of this corruption provided the necessary "in" for some elements within our political establishment to go after unions and demonize them.

These same elements persist to this day. They are politicians in the pocket of the captains of industry and finance. These same politicians are eager to bail out Wall Street (no questions asked) and defuse any blame that anyone tries to place at the feet of these captains. At the same time they make Detroit grovel for an amount that was roughly 5% of what they approved for Wall Street with no strings attached!

All I am saying is that we have been taken for a ride. We've been pumped and dumped. Forces are at work that favor the extremely wealthy and screw the middle class and poor. And many of us still don't see it!

The American Dream once meant an honest shot at a decent life for anyone who would work hard and play by the rules. It has been hijacked to mean "wealth and glamor", or wild success. It is no longer good enough to simply own your home, raise your family without hunger or desperation, and retire with dignity. Now you have to have your ride pimped, granite counter tops, and take deluxe vacations to have attained the "American Dream."

By hijacking the American Dream to mean "extreme wealth" we have been made to think that any policies that do not favor the wealthy above all others are somehow unAmerican. We are meant to believe that tax policies that shift wealth upwards are fine, but that tax policies that shift wealth to the middle class or poor are "class warfare" or socialism at work.

Let me tell you something - America has never experienced class warfare. The French Revolution was class warfare. The Russian Revolution was class warfare. The American Revolution was not class warfare. The elite and wealthy in America lead a revolution against the wealthy and elite of England.

In France the wealthy were carted off and executed en masse at the guillotine. In Russia the ruling class was exterminated like rats. And so I say to you again - America has never seen class warfare. The wealthy are terrified of it here because the wealthy never win at class warfare. They die like rats.

Am I saying we should start killing rich people? Hell no! I'm saying that the wealthy interests in this country are doing everything they can to rip us off, to squeeze every last drop of blood they can out of us, and at the same time stave off retribution at the hands of the masses. These chickens always come home to roost, however.

One thing that France and Russia both had in common was an autocratic regime that ignored the people and favored the wealthy to the exclusion of everyone else. America is different in that we have a democracy which is at least marginally responsive to the will of the People.

We have flirted with open class warfare in the past and we were brought back from the brink by people like Teddy Roosevelt (Republican - trust busting) and Franklin Roosevelt (Democrat - New Deal). Regardless of whether or not you feel these initiatives were worthwhile or not, they altered public perception of the landscape and brought us back from potentially huge civil unrest as a result of the lower classes rebelling at their lot in society.

In both cases (trust busting and the New Deal), the public was outraged by the abuses of the wealthy. At the turn of the century it was the robber barons and industrial titans like Carnegie, Rockefeller, and Schwab who used the Pinkertons and like methods to brutally suppress worker strikes and unionization.

In 1929, short selling and abuses on the stock market were the cause of massive hardships in this nation. Forces beyond the average man's control had ruined his life and they were rightly angered by this. These forces were again comprised of those who had wealth and wanted more and more and more and more.

Forty percent of world wealth lost. The poorest among us always bear the heaviest brunt of these downturns. Historically, when the better educated middle class starts to feel the pinch is when things get ugly. They "rouse the rabble", as it were, and with numbers they break the back of the wealthy establishment and, at least, force concessions.

So let's all pull together before it gets that bad, eh? We're rocketing in that direction, if you hadn't noticed. How many people do you know who have lost a home, a job, or both? I am lucky in that I live in Charlottesville. Between the University of Virginia, hospitals, NGIC, and other agencies and industries our area only tends to get hit by the worst recessions.

I will tell you one thing, however... I walk to work every day right through our downtown and Main Street areas and I've been seeing a noticeable uptick in the number of homeless people or people begging for change. Old ladies living in tents, people pushing shopping carts around picking up cans, disabled people in wheel chairs on the Mall asking for money.

It's getting ugly.

Class Warfare? Yes, and We're Losing...

http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE50T11420090130

This makes my blood boil. $14 B in bonuses paid while receiving taxpayer money to bail them out of gigantic losses? How is this possible?!

The last eight years have represented a major redistribution of wealth from the bottom and middle to the top. Millionaires have turned to billionaires and billionaires have become even more filthy rich. All the while the middle class has shrunk, poverty grown, wages stagnated, and expenses skyrocketed.

Maybe when they empty Gitmo of terrorism suspects they should fill it with robber baron CEOs. Fucking thieves!! They run their companies into the ground and still get billions in bonuses?! How the hell can any bonus be justified when they are laying employees off and losing money? My head is spinning... how can we tolerate this?

Thieves! Thieves! Oh, Christ! I'm infuriated. The only thing these guys are good at is stealing! They are incapable of running a company with competence, but man can they steal! Please explain to me how this is anything but out and out thievery. They get our money and put it in their pockets.

All the while the average American is losing their job, their home, their dignity, their healthcare... We are losing EVERYTHING, and these guys are getting even more rich!

How much damned money do they need? And to top it off they are utterly shameless about it. CitiGroup just was caught buying another corporate jet for $50 million. They didn't even have the decency to buy and American made jet (it was French) !! This after receiving $45B in taxpayer bailout money!

Shameless thievery!! Please, someone tell me why these guys shouldn't be strung up in the public square by their tender parts! I'm almost serious about this. In my mind this is nearly treasonous.

The nation is in dire financial straits and these guys are conducting business as usual - heaping money stolen from the public coffers on themselves, buying more jets and sacrificing nothing themsleves whilst laying off employees. The later of which has the effect of removing that much more money from the hands of consumers which further undercuts the segment of the economy (consumer spending) which accounts for 2/3 of all economic activity in our nation.

On top of it all, they get to keep their jobs!!! This blows my mind. If it weren't for these "economic geniuses" repackaging shaky mortgages into securities and selling them at 20-30 time their capitalization, we wouldn't be in this mess! They perpetrated fraud and then when the house of cards collapsed they got your money, my money, our money and proceeded to use it not to save jobs, not to keep credit flowing, but to put in their pockets!

Thank God I don't live anywhere near Wall Street. I'm so mad right now I just might do something stupid...

Brick Controversy

Here in Charlottesville we have something called the Downtown Mall. This was once East Main Street, a two-lane street lined with shops and restaraunts. Very classic Americana Main Street.

I think it was 1979 (I could be wrong) when business was slumping on East Main Street and doing better in the new mall built on the Rt. 29 side of town. This new mall was a typical urban sprawl type development centered around the automobile.

So the city was faced with a problem: Main Street was obviously failing and many of the businesses on East Main were very close to closing down. So what to do?

Answer? Brick the street in, add some fountains, and turn the entire length of East Main into a pedestrian mall. Roll the clock forward thirty years and it is a model for urban renewal that has been emulated by Portland, Raleigh, and others. It's especially beautiful in the spring and early summer when the trees are in bloom, shading the patio dining areas for the various restaraunts. People fill the Mall most of these idyllic days and the vibe is very relaxed.

Also add thirty years of wear on the bricks. Toss in there obnoxiously drunk college girls snapping off the heels on their $200 ho-heels in between bricks and you have a call to action. Rebrick the Downtown Mall! Price tag? Nine million dollars.

At first I was pretty outraged. Nine million dollars!? Are you freakin' kidding me? In these hard financial times you're going to spend nine million tax payer dollars on rebricking a mall that doesn't really need it? I mean, there were some cracks and some bricks did need to be replaced, yes, but the whole mall didn't need to be rebricked.

Now I'm actually in favor of the idea. I was running an errand on the Mall the other day and I saw some construction workers on break. They were sitting around eating food from one of the restaraunts. One walked out of the CVS packing a pack of cigarettes against his palm.
Then it hit me: this is exactly the wrong time to can such a project. It has already been paid for. Who knows if this construction company has another gig lined up? These are guys who are gainfully employed on a project that reinvests in a community asset.

And they're doing it smarter this time. I'm no bricklayer or mason, but supposedly the method of bricking the Mall this time will be different. It is supposed to last much longer than the original method used.

But, in typical Charlottesville fashion, people have their panties all in a bunch. They fought the original idea of transforming East Main Street back in 1979. Now the Downtown Mall is credited with saving Charlottesville's downtown area and is the major social and commercial venue in the city proper. People mocked the city councilman who championed the 250 Bypass. Anyone who knows Charlottesville can imagine what a nightmare crosstown traffic would be if it weren't for the 250 Bypass.

Calm down people. It's an upgrade to a vital city resource and it's providing jobs in tough times.

Capitalists and Socialists

Where my free market capitalists at? What! What!

Where my socialists at? What! What!

Screw all you guys and your weak knees! Both of these groups are being wishy-washy and failing to have the courage of their own "convictions."

If you're a free market advocate then you have to be against any intervention by the government to save capitalism from itself. Let the chips fall where they may. Destruction is but the dawn of creation, right? Out of the ashes new enterprises will rise... stronger, leaner, more competitive. Innovation will save the day!

I don't see anyone espousing these ideas.

Stop snickering, you socialists! You don't even have the balls to openly call yourselves socialists! Ha! A real socialist would be standing in front of every mic and every camera screaming at America to wake up! Unbridled capitalism has failed you! Again! Nationalize the banks! Nationalize the automotive industry! And I don't mean these half-assed "bridge loans" or "bailouts", either. A socialist would advocate for open and total government control of these failed institutions. And don't kid yourselves - these are most definitely failed institutions. The writing has been on the wall for years and either through paralysis or willful blindness they failed to act in advance to save themselves.

Again - no one is openly advocating the government takeover of the means of production and capital.

Free market capitalists say "Ho!!"

<crickets>

Socialists say "Ho!!"

<crickets>

Hmmm... Maybe there are no real socialists or free market capitalists after all? Or not many, at least. In my humble opinion, we should go "all in" one way or the other. I'm tired of these half-measures that keep this crap limping along as-is.

In all honesty, our economy is a mixture of socialism and free market capitalism with a bit of a lean towards the free-market side of the equation.

So what do you want? The slow growth and predictable hum-drum of socialism or the roller coaster ride of boom and bust that is free market capitalism? There's no perfect economic formula, people. It just doesn't exist.

I just wish we'd be done with this - either we commit to an ideology and let that go where it may or we can drag this global economic collapse out for years and years and years. If we truly committed to an ideology, we could at least know once and for all which works and which doesn't...

Me, personally, I'd like to see it all go down the toilet. I have a feeling that's what's going to happen no matter what government does.

Life and existence in general resemble both systems, in some ways. Life is all about death and rebirth: the boom and bust of free market capitalism. Life also carries on - the more things change the more they stay the same: the safety net and static nature of socialism.

So what the hell? Let's try one of them out for once!

Trouble South of the Border

Mexico has popped up rather prominently on the Joint Operating Environment 2008 report. This is a report published by the United States Joint Forces Command, the military command in charge of almost all conventional forces in the continental U.S.

This report warns of the possible rapid collapse of our neighbors to the south. Currently, towns on the border between the U.S. and Mexico are riddled with violence. Battles between drug cartels and between these cartels and government forces have left these towns in a defacto "failed" cities with little actual authority being exercised from Mexico City. "Failed" being the more palatable word for "anarchy."

Daily security for Mexican citizens is a nightmare in these failed towns. Kidnapping, political corruption, and common crime are nearly unchecked. Given Mexico's 2000 mile border with America and the proximity of the epicenter of this crisis to that border, it is not inconceivable that a refugee crisis could emerge in the near future sending thousands and thousands of Mexican nationals to America seeking safety.

Add this strain to an already historically weak U.S. economy and you have the potential for a crisis to which the government may not be able to effectively respond. If Mexico as a whole fails, this will almost certainly require U.S. intervention. What form this intervention could or would take is uncertain.

What is certain is that any U.S. intervention that involved ground troops, even if only utilized as peacekeepers, would spark grassroots resistance. This resistance may even take on a criminal aspect as the drug cartels would probably prefer a weak Mexican government to any sort of peacekeeping operation with its checkpoints and US/UN soldiers milling about. The prospect of such a hostile environment towards drug running may cause various cartels and criminal gangs to unite.

This is all gross speculation on my part, of course. I don't, however, think that what I have speculated about is beyond the realm of possibility. These days entering failed states (or entering a functioning state and toppling it) is messy, messy business. Iraq and Afghanistan are all the examples you need. Afghanistan had failed before we entered and Iraq afterwards. In both cases our soldiers there are mired down in a political, religious, and sectarian bog from which there is no clear-cut path to victory.

America must learn its lesson from Iraq. We failed to learn the lesson of the defeat we inflicted on the Soviets in Afghanistan during their invasion. The lesson is this: A low intensity, low-cost war waged by guerrilla fighters can bog down the world's best militaries, causing massive financial strain on the invading nation's economy.

This is how the Soviets were laid low and may yet be a very central contributing factor to how America is laid low. This relates to Mexico in that if we manage to extract ourselves from Iraq and Afghanistan without destroying ourselves in the process, it would be pouring gas on the fire to then go and repeat the same mistake in Mexico.

Annexation of Mexico wouldn't work for a variety of reasons. One of the primary reasons would be that if Mexico were made into a state or a series of states within our union, then there would be no restriction on travel for millions of poor and dispossessed Mexicans to travel north looking for opportunity. The infrastructure disparities between the two nations alone would be daunting.
West Germany had a much easier proposition in absorbing East Germany. While German Unification certainly was not easy, they at least had the advantage of a common language and culture from which to start.

No, a failed Mexico is a giant shit sandwich that America would be virtually alone in having to eat.

Mindset

Let me be clear about the way I view our future and why I consider myself a survivalist... and for that matter, what I think of when I use a word like "survivalist."

The Future

Succinctly put, it's bleak. We've seen two million jobs evaporate this last year alone. Our manufacturing base is in serious trouble. Banks are clamming up with the credit and all our economy does is consume, consume, consume. We make nothing.

Politicians are more interested in scoring short term political victories than laying the foundation for long term sustainability and growth. The term "mortgaging our children's future" is such a cliche these days that the poignant image it is meant to convey is utterly lost. In short, politicians are long on gathering power und to themselves, and very short on actual, real leadership.

Our leaders, be they corporate or government, are no longer expected to produce results. They are bailed out or golden parachuted or pardoned when they fail or even commit criminal acts. There is no accountability. The meritocracy that once made this nation great is no longer. Our democratic ideals are dying out in favor of a nouveau nobility. Kennedys, Clintons, Bushes, and more.

Our executives in the governmental realm behave more like kings than officers of the public trust. Our corporate chiefs act like spoiled children of nobility who are given a small fiefdom to run... often into the ground. Corporate boards are comprised of executives from other, often competing, companies. One CEO may have a board whose members are CEOs at companies whose boards on which they themselves serve. Can anyone say mutual masturbation?

Our leaders are modern day robber barons; thieves, confidence men, and thugs. I mean that with no poetry and in all ways literally. We have yet to see the Obama Administration in action, of course. While I am allowing myself to hope a bit, I know history too well to get my hopes too high. Washington has a way of changing those who mean to come to town and root out the rotten core of our government.

The momentum of this financial crisis has not slowed one bit. No one talks about this, but the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are as much to blame for our financial problems as the mortgage crisis. The defecits we run (roughly $400 billion a year for the last few years) do not count the cost of the wars we are engaged in. They are funded with emergency supplemental spending bills - off books. The true defecits we have been running are north of half a trillion dollars a year.

Do you hear that sound? It sounds like a giant toilet flushing... and we're on our way out with the crap.

"Survivalist"

This word is oft maligned as meaning "gun nut", "militia freak", "racial supremacist", "radical", or "wingnut." This is not what the word means to most of the community.

While I am not a prominent member of the survivalist community, I do consider myself a survivalist. To me the word "survivalism" means, in its most basic form, "preparedness." So to be a survivalist means to be someone who is prepared or who strives to be prepared for the day when the trucks stop delivering me my food and when the lights go out.

To be honest, no one can foresee exactly what shape the coming gridcrash will take. Will the markets melt down and banks fail causing currencies around the globe to go into a hyper-deflationary spiral? Will there be an attack on Washington which will cause a lapse in centralized authority leading to riots born of panic? Or will budget shortfalls in the fed, state, and local levels coupled with high unemployment cause government to essentially be ineffective and overwhelmed leading to defacto anarchy? We saw how well the fed responded to a disaster like Katrina. Or, on the radical end of the spectrum, will a bug escape some Army lab and wipe out 90% of the world a la Stephen King's The Stand (minus the supernatural stuff)?

The point of the last paragraph is to say that there's no telling how, or even if, the shit will truly hit the fan. How does that influence the survivalist's mindset? I can't speak for others, but for me it means having a flexible, generalized plan that can handle as many eventualities as possible. It means learning a whole metric ass ton of information on the basics:

• Prioritization - What must you have? What can you do without if you had to? What do you do first?
• Water - Treatment and sourcing
• First Aid - Not bleeding to death
• Growing and Storing Food - Gardening, composting, and food preservation
• Hunting - When the supermarket runs out of meat, you'll need to hunt, kill, and prepare game of some sort. This will be especially important years when your garden's yield is less than expected
• Sanitation - Getting rid of waste and possibly using it as compost
• Energy Engineering - When the lights go out, can you get them back on? Can you setup a wind turbine? Could you construct one? How about biodiesel? A tractor would make that farm way more productive...
• Outdoorsmanship - If you had to spend a night outdoors in the winter, could you? How about a week? A month?
• Gunsmithing and Marksmanship - Fixing, cleaning, and shooting guns
• Construction - If a tree falls on your roof and knocks a hole in it, could you repair it?
• Brewing - Making your own beer, because what the hell is life without beer?

Just think of all the stuff you call on others to do. Do you have even the slightest clue how to do that yourself? Some things will just go away. For most, electricity will simply be gone or could be unreliable, at best. How will you preserve your food without the handy-dandy refrigerator?

Not too long ago we knew how to take care of ourselves. My grandparents canned food from their garden and so did my father and mother. They didn't do it because they were poor and had to, either. To the contrary, my grandparents and parents were on the more afluent side of the middle class. Our great-grandparents didn't have refrigerators and it was a way of life for them to grow food and preserve it themselves.

In hard times, can you trust the cop who hasn't been paid in two months? They may be in as tough or tougher a bind than you are (more likely the latter). They are just like you except they have authority and a gun. I have to admit, if my family were hurting and I had the gun and authority, I'd be sorely tempted to use it to my family's advantage.

A survivalist, in short, does not take for granted the notion that the cushy comforts of modern life will always be there. In many ways, a survivalist is a rationalist. Look at our economy. Unsustainable and obviously broken on a fundamental level. Look at our energy consumption habits. Unsustainable and terrible for our environment. Look at our modern society. Stupid, lazy, and isolated with no signs of improvement. Look at our leadership. Incompetent and corrupt.

Who wouldn't be concerned? Who wouldn't look at all of that and wonder when we'll reach the tipping point which brings it all crashing down? A survivalist is someone who sees the big picture and resolves to not be a victim. A survivalist may be your savior one day...

Ex-Commie Doom Prognostication

A Russian bloke by the name of Igor Panarin predicts that the U.S. will disintegrate by 2010. I'm not sure that I completely buy his prediction on how things will go down, but I do think it's interesting that notable people moving in high circles could openly espouse such an idea.

Reading a bit about him I see that he's basically a Russian talking head - like one of our Sunday morning pundits. According to one site, he moves around in Kremlin circles quite a bit, so maybe he's a step above punditry.

He's also a professor and published author. Okay - maybe two steps above punditry, seeing that many TV pundits in this country have no more qualifications than hosting a radio talk show in Albuquerque and a high school diploma. On slow news days the 24 hour news channels will probably put you on with just a diploma.

In any event, for an apocalypse junkie like me this is interesting stuff.

A Life Saved, Pay No Mind

I had the most bizarre experience last night. I keep thinking about it and when I do it keeps striking me as surreal.

I was at a local restaurant eating with three of my four kids when I noticed a girl sitting at the next table choking. Her Mom had a panic-stricken look and just kept asking her 9 year old daughter if she could breathe. The kid stood there choking... obviously unable to respond.

So after about 10 seconds of this I jumped up and went over and asked the Mom if she needed help. She said, "Yes, help!"

So I did. I may not be remembering the timeline perfectly here, but it went something like this:

• I pried the kid's mouth open and stuck my finger down her throat, trying to sweep out whatever was in the way. I actually felt something in there. It would later turn out to be a piece of pineapple. 10 seconds.
• She gagged and I thought for a second she was going to gag up the blockage. She didn't. Another 5-10 seconds waiting to see if she'd start to breathe.
• I stuck my finger down her throat again, and felt the object again (just on the tip of my finger). This time I really tried to aggravate her throat to induce a more powerful gag response, which worked but failed to dislodge the blockage. 5 seconds.
• Slap her on the back hard to try to get her to gag up the blockage. No luck. 10 seconds. Mom is really freaking out at this point. I'm not sure what she's saying, but it's repetitive and hysterical.
• There is a crowd of waitresses starting to gather at this point.
• I picked the girl up and gave her a good Heimlich thrust (I've actually been trained and certified on this). 5 - 10 seconds.
• She still isn't breathing. Now my heart is pounding in my ears. I'm really scared this kid is going to die. In a bit of a panic I give her a hard Heimlich. Her chest pops pretty loudly.
• 5 more seconds pass and I put the girl back down on her feet, grab her face with one hand, forcing her mouth open. I then jam my finger in starting at the corner of the mouth so I can get my finger in there deeper. I stretch her cheek pretty violently getting my finger as far back into her throat as I can.
• I still can't pull out the blockage, but I do manage to shove it down further, inducing a huge gag and I feel the blockage slip down and away from my finger.
• I pull my finger out of her throat (covered in pineappled bile up to my wrist) and am rewarded with a shuddering, raspy, and giant gasp of breath.
• I sit down, numb and relieved and absently start to wipe my hand off.
• The kid collapses in her Mom's arms, crying... the waitresses disperse.

I went to the bathroom and washed my hands. I came back and a waitress (who witnessed the whole thing) brings me my check. I'm a little surprised by this. Not that I did it for a free dinner, but if I owned that joint I'd comp the dinner for the guy who just stopped a little girl from dying in my restaurant!

Mom says nothing to me. The waitresses say nothing. My kids are the only one who react at all. The little girl seemed to want to come over to me at one point, but her Mom pulls the child back to her. No one in the restaurant so much as looked at me as I walked out.

Like I said, I'm not asking for a parade or anything, but the fact that no one reacted at all was just strange. Very bizarre. Surreal is the word that just keeps coming to mind. You just saw a little girl come close to death and... nothing? That's some high drama and... nothing?

What does it say about us when we can witness something like that and not react?

My kids, understandably, wanted to talk about nothing else in the car. At least my two oldest wanted to talk about it. My four year old may not have been able to compute what went on. I do remember she had a bit of a slack-jawed look on her face when I sat back down at our table. She was chatting about Christmas as we drove moments later, so I guess she was okay with the whole thing.

Prognostication

Let me tell you something here - if the US Auto Industry collapses then I officially deem this nation no longer a superpower. The long ride we've had as a preeminant global force will be done with if the industry that won World War II for us goes away.

There was a scene from Band of Brothers that leaps to mind where Webster (along with the 101st Airborne Division) is riding in the back of a long convoy of trucks along a highway where 300,000 German POWs are marching in the median going the other way.

They are walking and riding in horse-drawn carts and Webster screams at them, "What were you thinking!? Look at you! You have horses!! Say hello to Ford and General Motors! You ignorant, servile scum! What are we doing here? You interrupted our lives for this?!?!"

The idea that a nation could attempt to dominate the modern world on horseback was preposterous.

Our manufacturing base is without a doubt the central cog in our military machine. The auto industry is the wheel upon which almost all teeth in the industrial cog are mounted. When that goes, the last of anything we actually make is sure to soon follow.

Gut Punch Correction

(Click for larger image)

Slight correction from yesterday. It seems the Dow has lost 42% (rather than 40%) of it's value from its high on October 9th, 2007 of 14,164 down to its low of 8,175 as of October 27th, 2008.

The Grim Reaper of Greed

alternate title - Power Word Kill Rich Whitey

Recession Finally Admitted by the Fed

Finally there are rumblings from Washington that seem to admit to a recession. I think the American people have been tuned into the reality of an economic downturn for quite some time.

As of now, the Dow is down another 502 points. The other day it was up by around 900, but I knew that was mere volatility. This downturn won't stop until the actual fundamentals of the world economy are repaired.

The U.S. especially needs to put its economic house in order. We need to start making things again. That is what is fundamentally at the core of our floundering economy - we don't make anything any more. We make money off of money. We flip houses. We use credit.

There are many things that have gone awry, don't get me wrong. However, increasing manufacturing jobs in America would have the effect of decreasing unemployment, putting more money in the pocket of Americans. Two thirds of our economy is based upon consumer spending.

I think retail stores are going to take a major hit this Christmas. Americans are losing their jobs, their homes, and their confidence. Watch the stock market in late December and early January. Look for a big drop when the retail numbers prove to be abysmal.

I think the turnaround here will take a good long time. I think Americans have been shocked into waking up from a credit card coma. Spending will slow. Savings will increase. Less cheap crap will be bought in stores. Bad news for China, really.

If Americans are smart and we have good leadership we can come through this better and stronger. If the focus is on technology and research into alternative energy we have a chance. If America leads the way with a whole new fleet of battery driven and alternatively fueled cars we can again be the auto manufacturer of the world. If we invest in infrastructure like schools, roads, a new solar and wind electrical grid, and college we can again become competitive.

If our leaders have the political will to raise taxes we might be okay. If we are honest with ourselves then we see that raising taxes is unavoidable if we are to address our national debt and other needs simultaneously. If Americans can change their ways and refrain from spending what they don't have then each of us may yet find economic salvation.

If we hold our leaders accountable on the issues that matter to all of us we can save ourselves from ourselves. Issues like education, roads, jobs, a stagnating economy, and the environment are all interrelated and can all be solved on a single line of attack.

The simplest answer is usually the best answer. I usually denounce Occum's Razor as a means for oversimplification of complicated issues and ideas. In this case, however it is right on.

Problems like crumbling roads, vaporizing jobs and a worsening environment can all be solved by investing in green technology and providing government subsidies for green infrastructure projects. This would lay the foundation for jobs and a revitalized economy. It would allow us to export this technology and put America back on the economic map as a producer and exporter rather than an importer and borrower.

More Americans with good jobs boosts consumer confidence and provides the fuel for two thirds of our economy (consumer spending). More good jobs means a larger tax base. Government subsidies for technology research means many many small businesses getting startup money from either the government or venture capitalists.

And to cement the continued growth of this new economy you invest in education. A smart workforce is an efficient and innovative workforce. You also ensure this new boom is sustainable with massive infrastructure investment in both existing and new techologies (as they come online). Improve roads and build a new sustainable electrical grid. This will create jobs in and of itself as well - this will feed back into the positive cycle by putting more money in the pockets of Americans and growing the middle class.

That is a lot of "ifs." Believe me, I am aware of that fact. Every pay period I am putting a little bit towards survival gear and supplies. I am trying to hope for the best, but I am planning for the worst without a doubt.

EDIT: At close of trading today the Dow was down 733 pts.

Patriots, None and All

Don't talk to me about patriotism. None of you. This coming from a man who is not the patriot he could be.

First of all, the word is tainted in the modern context. Patriotism is not a bumper sticker or a ribbon. It is not the hollow words "support the troops." It is not blind allegiance to the flag.

You may believe that you support the troops, but what have you really done but say the words? Did you buy a t-shirt or did you put a magnetic ribbon on your SUV?

That same gas-guzzling behemoth that ships your petro-dollars to Saudi Wahhabi princes who then use that money to fund terrorists? Good job, Patriot.

Do you pay attention to politics? Do you vote? Do you volunteer your time or money? What civic virtues do you believe in? Do you actually know which candidates hold those same values? Do you even know what a "civic virtue" is?

Or do you vote a single issue and listen to slanderous mischaracterizations and vote on who you "feel" would be the best candidate?

Are you so ignorant that you wouldn't even know how to answer many of the questions above?

Enough questions. Too many Americans are satisfied to be ignorant. From rednecks and gang-banging thugs to soccer moms to businessmen in suits; ignorant one and all. Fat, dumb, and happy.

Modern pop culture is an incredible force for stupidity and ignorance. The Paparazzi and the obsession of the moment makes us stupid via distraction. Brad and Angelina adopted another baby? Who fucking cares!? MTV has been turning our teens into idiots for over two decades now.

Millions expend their energy tracking the lives of the famous when they should spend that energy in a way which might actually benefit themselves or their community. Watch C-Span if you must be a voyeur of the famous. You might just learn something.

Patriotism is love of the American Dream, not the flag or a President. Patriotism is a burning fire whose fuel is blood and sweat. With that blood and sweat we purchase freedom and opportunity. It is in serving country and community that we sweat and bleed. Service is the coin of patriotism.

And so we're clear on this - unquestioning patriotism actually goes by another name altogether. It's called fascism and it's completely un-American.

If I have to hear one more able-bodied man under the age of 50 tell me about how he supports the troops and we should invade Iran I will just loose it. Go volunteer if that's the way you feel. They'll take you these days, believe me. Shut the fuck up and put your own ass on the line if you think we should start a war that would spread across the Middle East, because you can't have my kids.

I swear to God, if this war is going on by the time my son turns 18 I will murder anyone who tries to take him off to fight in that tragedy. I mean that - I will stab you in the eye if you try to take my babies to go fight in a petro-war started by a retarded addict from Crawford.

But these same chickenhawks won't volunteer themselves because they are cowards. They are scared all the time because they're ignorant and they believe the local newsman when he says that there's "something in your house waiting to kill your children!!!" So of course they believe the President and other high officials when they intimate that Iraq will detonate a nuclear bomb in America.

These same officials who got six deferments themselves during Vietnam now want to commit our soldiers to wars everywhere. Fucking hypocrites. Fucking cowards. That's what enrages me about these couch-potato commandos: they assume since I don't like Bush and I think Iraq was a mistake that I must be some hippy-dippy left wing pacifist.

And in case you were wondering - yes, I have served a stint in the military myself. I was lucky enough to serve in a time of relative peace and under a President who didn't casually squander the lives of the military. I have spent time behind a trigger in the name of America. Have you?

I am no pacifist, ladies and gentlemen. I own 4 guns and I have served my country. I hate the Grateful Dead and love punk, metal, and rock. There's not a damned thing pacifist or hippy about me. Those who truly know me think I'm a bit on the militant side, as a matter of fact.

I volunteer my time and money to the causes I believe in. I serve on my neighborhood's HOA Board, I volunteer for candidates I believe in, and I put my proverbial money where my mouth is.

I recycle, am energy-conscious, I walk or bike to work, and I instill these actions as values in my children. Because what's more patriotic than taking care of the environment we all share? What is more an intrinsic part of our national heritage than the actual physical nation we leave our children?

And I think I should be doing more.

Hilda's First Run

I took Hilda out to the range for the first time post-makeover. I have to say that it's like shooting a completely different gun. The pistol grip, adjustable stock, and lighter weight give the gun a very different feel.

With the telescoping stock I can adjust the length of the weapon to fit me perfectly. The pistol grip gives the weapon a much more natural and stable carriage when sighting in and the lighter weight further enhances stability when aiming the weapon.

After a brief series of jams (two, to be exact) the weapon put another 50 rounds downrange without a single jam. I am confident that, had I brought more bullets, there would have been no more jams. So the composite magazine seems to perform well. I'm probably going to go ahead and order two more.

So many things about this makeover excite me, but the prospect of having a source of reliable magazines for Hilda has to be near the top of the list. I have a total of four metal, thirty round magazines for Hilda, only one of which actually works.

That's been my experinece, at least. Maybe if anyone actually reads this blog (doubt it) they could share any SKS magazine issues they may have experienced. I have had the worst luck with them. No more, though. I think this Tapco Fusion kit may have been the best gun investment under $300 that I've ever made.

Gunshow Review

This weekend I went to the C&E Gunshow in Richmond, Virginia. All in all it was a mixed experience, I have to say. Let me break it down into these 5 categories:

1. Website
2. Selection
3. Vendors
4. Facilities
5. Atmosphere

Website - 2 stars out of 5

Pretty bad, although they did just overhaul it over the weekend. Before it had a black and white repeating gif background, was rife with misspellings, and had scrolling banners. It still has the scrolling banners, but at least they're not blinking now.

http://www.cegunshows.com/

Selection - 5 stars out of 5

Anything you could ever want is what you could find. They had everything from AK-47s to AR-15s to Glocks to Siggs to G22s to MG-34s to Tommy Guns to Mosin Nagants (for $89!) to M1 Garands to Ruger Revolvers to S&Ws of all varieties. There was more, believe me. Much, much more.

They had ammo of every variety, knives (from the practical to the purely ridiculous), and accessories that ran the gamut from helmets (modern and antique) to holsters to ammo cannisters to gunsmithing tools and the list goes on.

Vendors - 4 stars out of 5

The vendors were all very knowledgeable and courteous. They didn't really pressure you, either. Every vendor selling guns that I saw had at least one laptop station set up with Sprint or Verizon Cards for High Speed Internet access in order to process background checks. The longest wait I heard of that day for a background check to process was 30 minutes. Not bad at all.

So why the 4 out of 5 rating, you ask? Certain vendors seemed like they were catering to the hard right wing elements out there. I mean the really hard right wing element. Like swastika hard. Certain vendors seemed to have just a little too much Nazi paraphenalia for my comfort. It wasn't like they were carrying WWII collectibles in general. Nope - just the Nazi stuff. I avoided these vendors completely in terms of my purchases.

I did speak with a couple of these purveyors of Nazi ... ummm - "goods." Only one would engage me on the topic of the Nazi paraphenalia when it became clear that I was probing for non-purchase related reasons. He simply stated that there's a market for the stuff at these shows and he's just turning a buck.

His argument, if you stop thinking right there is a good one. Legally that is where it stops. But these guys weren't simply turning a buck. There were plenty of vendors out there turning plenty of bucks there that day and without Nazi BS cluttering their stalls.

But legally that's fair enough and he has every right to sell this legal merchandise. But for a crowd which claims to be the reddest and the whitest of the red, white, and blue I have to take issue with those vendors who sport the Nazi goods. I mean - really? Naziism and fascism are about as anti-American in spirit and cause as you can get.

Chances are your granddad fought alongside mine in WWII. Or at least they served somewhere in that conflict. Would they approve? It's doubtful that they would do anything short of roll over in their graves (my grandad, at least) if they knew that Americans were glorifying the monstrous empire they fought and died to protect the world from.

Anyone who embraces fascism is a short-sighted political pervert who should be ashamed to hide behind the liberties that the Constitution offers them, seeing that under fascism those freedoms wouldn't exist. Ironic, ain't it?

Facilities - 2 stars out of 5

Meh. That's about all I have to say on that. Meh. There weren't enough bathrooms - there were long lines all day. The place got very hot as the day wore on. There was absolutely no shade outside, either. The only thing the facility itself had going for it was its size. It was a large venue that could fit many vendors.

Atmosphere - 3 stars out of 5

A very mixed bag. Everyone was very polite, but there was a bit of an edge to the crowd. For instance, there were Brown Shirts there. About three of them. There was also a bit of a skinhead presence. They didn't cause any problems, though. Maybe four or five guys?

The minorities that attended tended to travel in groups. I don't know why this would be, but it might have had to do with the Nazi paraphenalia and Brown Shirts walking around.

The one bright spot is that there was a booth for Sportsmen for Warner. Not that a Democratic candidate's booth makes it a bright spot for the simple fact that he's a Democrat. No, I mean more that you definately had a right-wing presence there and it was good to see at least a little bit of a center-left presence as well. The fact that a bit of balance was tolerated was a good thing, is all I'm saying.

Hillbilly Haiku

Biscuit on my shirt
Gunpowder buffets my face
Barboursville breakfast

Bumper Sticker Logic (Cooler War Ammo)

So many people will only grasp and retain "knowledge" if the idea or piece of "knowledge" can fit on a bumper sticker. A classic example of this is the pro-Bush, pro-Iraq, pro-Cowboy Diplomacy argument that goes:

"Well, if Bush is such an idiot then why haven't we been attacked again?"

You could also substitute in "If Iraq isn't a part of the War on Terror then why haven't we been attacked again?" It's essentially the same "argument" (throw in exaggerated air quotes around argument).

Here's the way you respond next time a hawk drops that on you at the water cooler:

1. Make sure they prepare themselves mentally for a response that will take longer than 10 seconds to explain. ("Now you know I'm going to have to talk for longer than ten seconds to explain this to you. Do you think you can handle that without screaming Clinton got a blowjob?")
2. Then tell them that Osama binLaden was a mujahadeen back during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. You may have to explain to them what a mujahadeen is.
3. Next explain that the Afghani mujahadeen bled the Soviets dry economically in Afghanistan, eventually causing the Soviet Union to collapse.
4. Then, go on to explain that 9/11 was a provocation, more or less. binLaden wanted to provoke America into a Middle Eastern war (in Afghanistan). Around this war he could declare another jihad and try to bleed America dry in the same way the Soviets were bled.
5. Unfortunately, the attack was much more successful than he could have imagined. It horrified the world and everyone united behind America. It appeared that his plan had backfired. America, with the aid and backing of the world, would invade Afghanistan. It would not be possible to bleed America dry when calls of jihad would be largely ignored by a horrified Muslim world. In addition to the lack of support binLaden would be getting, America would be assisted by everyone and wouldn't bear the burden of pacifying and rebuilding Afghanistan alone. There was no way the Taliban could protect al Qaeda now.
6. Then, Bush granted a wish binLaden could never have hoped for: he derailed the Afghanistan train and diverted America's resources to Iraq which not only allowed binLaden to evade capture in Afghanistan (a la Tora Bora), but squandered the goodwill of the Muslim world engendered by the horrors of 9/11. It also served to isolate America from her European allies. America would have to go it alone in Iraq.
7. Now America could be bled out in a protracted struggle against a low grade insurgency in Iraq... just like the Soviets were in the 80's in Afghanistan and just like the French were in the 50's and 60's in Algeria.

That's only seven points and it basically sums up the entire case against staying in Iraq. We fell for an old ploy which has destroyed other Western nations in the past.

We cannot afford Iraq. Period. Whatever your ideology we cannot afford it. No matter what you believe or don't believe about this war the simple fact is that we cannot sustain these expenditures much longer. It doesn't matter if you believe the seven points above, either.

Our. Sagging. Economy. Cannot. Afford. This. War.

If we do not begin withdrawing in short order our nation will sink into an economic depression like we've never seen before.

That's my ray of sunshine for the day.

Preparing for the Squeeze

It's all going to hell and probably faster than even I would like to consider. I'm the kind of guy with his eyes open, too. I just don't see anything encouraging.

The fundamentals are all screwed. We're mismanaging the land, our water, global warming, our national defense, our infrastructure, our education, and our economic base.

Every place I've ever worked has featured multiple (not just one, but multiple) managers with college degrees that were barely literate. These guys made much more money than I did and they wrote unintelligible emails. Emails that my ten year old daughter would have been embarrassed to send.

I'm not talking about a misspelling here and there. Hell, we all do that (although with spell checking I can't imagine why). I mean that these guys wrote emails that featured strings of alphanumeric characters which bore no resemblance to complete thoughts, let alone sentences. These are managers! Managers! They are supposedly our leaders and examples.

I don't need to get into the environmental stuff. At this point if you aren't on board with this notion you're an imbecile or you're on Chevron's payroll.

Everyone remembers the bridge that collapsed out of the blue in Minnesota and the tunnel collapse in Boston. Now there are cranes collapsing in New York. I read this Popular Mechanics article that made my toes curl. Popular Mechanics tries to look at this crisis in the best light possible, citing technology as our possible savior. I have to say that it takes will and people and dollars to apply technology. Where is the will and where are the dollars that will bring the people who will apply the technology?

I don't see them.

A staggering statistic from that article:

"One-quarter of the 599,893 bridges in the United States have structural problems or outdated designs."

That's 149,973 bridges in need of replacement or repairs. I could tick off three in my hometown alone that make me nervous. And that's just the ones I've noticed casually passing them by.

On national defense - every source from within the military will tell you our military is at its lowest state of readiness since before WW II (back when we basically had no military). Regardless of where you stand on why we got into Iraq or if we should have or if the public was lied to in the lead up there is one fact that stands undeniable:

Our military and our nation are being bled dry in Iraq. We are losing the lives of our valiant men and women in uniform and for what? For freedom and democracy in Iraq? Don't make me laugh. An altruistic invasion to spread democracy at bayonet-point? Really?

People keep comparing Iraq to Vietnam and I tell them they're wrong. While there are some similarities to America's involvement in Vietnam, our struggle in Iraq is much more like the Soviet Union's struggle in Afghanistan which started in 1979.

The Soviets invaded Afghanistan for murky reasons and ended up running 40 divisions through that meat grinder. This is what defeated the Soviets, not Reagan or Bush the Elder. The Soviets were economically and thus militarily ruined in Afghanistan due to a low grade insurgency like the one we're experiencing in Iraq and the one the French experienced in Algeria in the late 50's and early 60's.

We're bleeding out in Iraq. Our budget has massive defecits and here's the kicker, kids:

We aren't even counting the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan into the regular budget. They've been entirely funded by emergency supplemental spending which isn't factored into the budget and therefore wouldn't show up in any deficit numbers.

In short, as bad as you think the nation's budgetary crisis is - it is in fact much, much worse.

That is why, no matter what you think about our nation's War on Terror, we must withdrawl from Iraq. We simply cannot afford to continue. Despite what you think about our nation's treasury it is not a limitless treasure trove. If it were only empty there might be some hope.

Sadly our treasury is full to the rafters. It is not full with money or gold or reserves of any kind. No, our treasury is full of debt. Our treasury is, as of this moment, so bankrupt that only the continued denial of this obvious reality on the part of our creditors allows us to keep up our illusions of power and wealth. We are less than poor. We are absolutely destitute.

With no manufacturing base left we stand little hope of reversing this trend. During the Great Depression we were still a mighty manufacturing nation - our factories just stood silent, all full of potential jobs. Now these factories in many cases have literally been packaged up and shipped overseas. They simply aren't present any more.

We can't all work in high end service jobs like information technology. Somebody, somewhere has to actually make something in order for our economy to function. This isn't happening.

The thing that really scares me is this - it may be coming faster than I can prepare for it. I may not be able to complete my preparations for these hard times to come before they arrive.

Disclaimer

I'm really very psyched about this whole Hike-n-Shoot thing coming up on Sunday. In addition to my brother and I, a friend of mine from work will be joining us. Another very old friend of mine has a scheduling conflict, but wants to join us next time.

So the army grows. Mountain hiking for conditioning and shooting afterwards for training. I'm just kidding about growing the army. It's kinda silly that I would have to say that, but with all of the data mining going on and the growing police state we live in I feel that such a disclaimer must be made.

DISCLAIMER:

The author of this web log (referred to as a "blog" hereinafter) does not in any way wish to overthrow the United States Government by any means other than legal electoral processes. The Author also does not espouse violence of any sort on this blog. Any references to violence are explicitly meant in the context of self-defense and even then, mostly in reference to anarchistic periods following a general collapse of Government.

Such a collapse would occur as a result of foolish and myopic Government policies or geopolitical strife that the Author of this blog could neither incite nor control. Neither does the Author wish for this collapse to occur and would therefore not facilitate such disintegration of the authorities and machinations of Government.

The entire purpose of this blog is to chronicle the Author's attempts to reach a state of preparedness in the event of such a collapse, not to incite rebellion other than ballot box rebellion (which is still legal as far as we've been told). Should voting against the ruling party become illegal, one would expect that revolt and rebellion would come from so many directions that the Government wouldn't worry about this pathetic little blog that no one reads.