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Category: polemic

Tues. April 24, 2018 – another day another dollar….

56F, cool and sunny. Looks like it’s gonna be an awesome day to be outside.

[RBT always started with a weather report, and so I do, for continuity and as a measure of the passage of the seasons]

I’m committed to doing some work at our rec association today so I may/will be AFK most of the day.

[RBT usually updated what he was working on]

” Swedish Activist: “Everyone’s Afraid To Be Branded A Racist”

“I always say to my Christian friends, ‘What do you think, what will happen to you if Islam becomes dominant here?'” — Mona Walter.”

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-04-23/swedish-activist-everyones-afraid-be-branded-racist

[RBT often commented about a headline that caught his eye, esp. on prepping, decline of the west, muslim invasion, or terrorism.]

I could go on in this format, but I hope I’ve made a point. If not, here’s where I get out the whip and poor dead Trigger gets a beating…

====

Yesterday late in the thread bgrigg made a comment that I think opens up a couple of interesting points.

The first is ‘tone’. When I read it, I thought it was so over the top that it must be sarcasm and regretted that the internet hasn’t produced a widespread \\sarc tag or font. Upon re-reading I think it was sincere. Still seems out of proportion to me, but people are affected by things we don’t know about and in ways that don’t look rational from outside. I admit that I had to scroll back up to see what the joke was. I’m still not certain if it was the ‘ban white vans’ comment or my South Park ‘aaannnnd it’s Muslims’ meme.

If it was the van, well, after the mooslim mass murders in Europe, there were serious calls to ban white vans. Which is idiotic on its face, but our culture has been so degraded that people WILL NOT blame the actor (when it’s certain actors ie. muslims, blacks, illegal alien invaders) and so must blame the THING. For some of us in the gun rights blogosphere this is old hat, and we mock it reflexively. If it was the “rayciss” part of the comment, well, that triggers reflexive mocking now too. Far too many people have been screeching about racism in this country WHEN WE’D ELECTED A HALF BLACK BASTARD (literally- born to an unwed mother) TO THE MOST POWERFUL POSITION IN THE COUNTRY AND POSSIBLY THE WORLD. Pretty hard to cry about your lack of opportunity when someone who shares the supposed cause of your misfortune proves out the aphorism that anyone in this country can grow up to be President.

More likely that bgrigg was objecting to my South Park based meme though. All I can say about that is — it sure looks like sudden jhihadi syndrome from where I’m sitting. Attacks like this are nearly ALWAYS mooslim murder. To deny this is to deny reality. Even the Basque separatist ETA terrorists are apologizing these days. I mean, srsly, WHITE RENTAL VAN! Sidewalk in busy downtown! The only thing missing is him screaming Aloha Snackbar as the cops slam him to the pavement. Watching the video, I think he expected to be shot and killed by the cops, but forgot that he’s in Canada, not the US.

FWIW, there are plenty of examples of EXACTLY how RBT felt about pisslamic murderers to be found here, and I was hoping to make a point without the vitriol. Because frankly, I’m worn out. No, I don’t care much about the people in Toronto beyond the general loss of my fellow human beings who just wanted to live their lives. I feel anger at the murderer, and it is un-leavened by any sort of sympathy or understanding, especially if it turns out to be SJS. I am SADDENED but not SURPRISED that almost the first thing the Mayor of Toronto said was to reassure those listening that the city values its DIVERSITY. As noted above, there are certain people that you can NEVER blame for their actions, and the mayor is getting ready for the (inevitable) #Not all muslims statement…

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And so we circle around back to ‘tone’. bgriggs says “This place has gone downhill fast.” THIS bothers and worries me.

JimL observes:

“I believe I have noticed a shift here. RBT set the tone and steadied the site. We followed Bob’s interests with his daily posts.

Nick sets a different tone. More prepping, more of what Nick does daily. There is also an almost daily summary of what’s going on in the world that supports the proposition that we should prep. Definitely more TEOTWAWKI than RBT’s posts. “

…which gave me pause…

because I don’t really want to change the tone! I re-read old RBT posts at random as a ‘gut check’ and I’ve tried to stay within the framework he established over the years. Of course, I read his posts and comments thru MY filters, and you all have different filters, so we probably do remember different things.

What I remember (and shapes my efforts here) is during the run up to the move to Sparta and after, Bob started focusing much more on prepping. Part of that was his work on the book, part was his planning for a different future after the move. Prepping is part of my life and provides a framework for much of what I do, and most of my previous contributions here were prepping related, so I’ve continued to emphasize prepping.

Bob would also comment almost daily on his work on the science kits, shipping, writing effort, or how sales were doing for the month/year. Since I also work from home, I’ve continued posting about my work, but of course I’m selling on ebay (and the bit of other work I do) and not making science kits so the content is different. I think it’s important that everyone have some alternative stream of income, and a ‘home based business’ provides that. Hence the ongoing coverage of my efforts, provided as encouragement toward everyone doing something to take control of their work life.

As I remember it, Bob was less likely to pull more than one ‘current event’ per day, or link to headlines. OFD was much more likely to do so in a comment. Since OFD is recovering (and I owe an update on Project OFD), and not commenting here, I’ve been more likely to put links in the actual post, although I am aware of it, and USUALLY will save the linkfest and political commentary for the comments (I think). And yeah, I know that I’m linking to a tabloid and doom pron. Over the last several years I’ve distilled my ‘daily reads’ down quite a bit. I’ve found that between the Daily Mail, zerohedge, and gateway pundit, almost everything will come up there. Each has its own editorial slant and obsessions, but together they provide a better ‘heads up’ to what is going on in the world than a dozen other sources. If I’ve double checked or looked for an alternative point of view, I try to link that so it’s not Daily Mail and “peachy posteriors” or “ample assets” all day long…………….

And then there is ‘home life’ for lack of a better term. I don’t have a [hyper]active border collie to provide ‘blog fodder’ so you guys are going to get more ‘family’ stuff from me. I DO have 2 young kids, who are very active and that probably gives my posts and comments a different ‘feel’ than pet anecdotes. WRT other interests, I only post here about a subset of my life. I DO have at least one other hobby that I don’t post about at all. I’m trying to not overshare (and perhaps ironically) or inject TOO much of my own personality!

So thank you bgriggs for giving me a chance to look at this. I don’t want the ‘tone’ to change much. I liked coming here before, and am trying mightily to keep this a place where everyone who wants to continue coming by will find something worth coming for.

===

ok, some ‘meta’ stuff….

I remember what seemed like years of Bob posting that ‘there probably won’t be much posting’ and then continuing to post at pretty much the same rate and level 🙂 At one point, I was even going to do a search and poke at him about it. I also remember all those long months when he and Barbara were dealing with aging parents. I kept coming back, despite the pain, because I know I’ll have to go thru that eventually, and having someone else scout the territory ahead is a great help.

Daily blogging is HARD. Doesn’t seem like it would be, but it is surprisingly difficult some days. On those days, just flipping on the lights, unlocking the door, and setting out a bowl of snacks is about all you can do. Grabbing a quick headline or a garden/prep update is the easy path. And some days it’s just “here’s an open thread” which is the equivalent of tossing the keys to the door to the first patron to show up as you head the other way.

It is probably inevitable that there is a change in ‘tone’ as more of me comes out. It feels very different now (to me, internally) than it did when I was just a ‘caretaker’ while Bob was sick. There is a stronger sense of responsibility with the ‘legacy’ than there was when Bob could come back and ‘set me straight.’ YOU guys will have to set me straight when needed.

Even more meta- watching the numbers, attendance here has stayed pretty constant. The graph of number of visitors is a pretty straight line, with the visits varying a bit. This is gratifying, and I take it as indication that I’m doing my job, and that people are still coming by and hanging out. Incidentally, it’s roughly 2x visitors to number of registered commenters, so we still get some lurkers (HI!) The top ten posts are separated by only a couple of hundred views, and span from 2013 to just a bit ago, with about half being since Bob got sick.

And even more meta- I’ve noticed a bit of a change in my ‘style’ with more word play, and even the occasional pun (which is NOT AT ALL like me!) Bob would be poking me for my fondness for commas, which is much in evidence in the post above.

And lastly, finally, and just a tiny bit defensively, I’ll give the last word to Bob. In June of 2016 he asked OFD and me if we would be interested in guest posting. I was flattered and a bit intimidated. He was very encouraging, and had this to say:

“Post away. Anything you wish: personal observations, links to news
sites, prepping information, ham radio stuff, advice about how to get
started scavenging at yard/estate sales, etc. In fact, you may want to
go back and pull out some of your earlier comments and turn them into
posts. It’s a lot easier to do that with admin access.

Looking forward to your and OFD’s first posts.”

nick

(yeah I miss him too)

Read the comments: 105 Comments

Monday, 7 November 2016

09:02 – With one day left until the election, we’re settled in here, awaiting developments. Federal authorities have said there’s a heightened likelihood of attacks by muslim scum in Texas, Virginia, and New York today, and there have been other calls by muslim scum leaders to attack tomorrow to disrupt the election. Authorities are also on heightened alert nationwide for attacks by BLM scum, progressive scum, and other scum. Just as an aside, I noticed a possible solution yesterday when I picked up a bottle of household cleaner. Right there on the label it says, “Removes Scum”.

There’s been a lot of talk about how this election has meant the death of the MSM. No one on either side believes them any more. They’re talking to themselves and precious few other people. But this election may also mean the death of political polling organizations, whose results have been all over the map. Many people, again on both sides of the divide, no longer believe anything polling organizations have to say. They perceive, correctly in most cases, that polling is now purely politically motivated and that, rather than accurately forecasting results, the goal of polling organizations is now to provide an advantage to one or the other side. Everything is now political.

Tomorrow is not really the election, as most people think. Tomorrow is the first day of an election that’s likely to be drawn out for weeks. Whichever side “loses” tomorrow is very unlikely to concede and get on with normal business. There are likely to be an ongoing series of appeals, court cases, and possibly violence before this thing is settled. Oh, well. We’re prepared for the aftermath, come what may. We’re living in an area that’s as safe as any, where we can just sit back and watch what happens. Unfortunately, at the end of it all, whatever happens, it’s going be Meet the New Boss, The Same as the Old Boss.

There’s a lot of bad information in prepping literature about long-term food storage, both in terms of methods (no, freezing will not reliably kill insect eggs) and in terms of nutrition. Much of the advice is simply a repetition of something someone read somewhere.

With regard to LTS nutrition, many sources claim that you need to store x amount of various categories, including honey/sugars, fruits, vegetables, and so on. All of that is wrong. One can survive quite comfortably without any of those items. A human requires exactly three macro-nutrients (foods consumed in relatively large quantities) and numerous micronutrients (vitamins and minerals, elements, salt, and other things consumed in relatively small quantities).

Calories are an umbrella measure of overall nutrition. A human needs a certain number of calories per day, which varies according to that person’s basal metabolic rate–how many calories you need for basic body functions, assuming you’re just lying around and not doing any work at all–sex, weight, age, amount of work being done, environmental temperature, and many other factors. A small older woman who is not doing any heavy labor, for example, may need 1,400 calories/day, while a young man who is engaged in heavy physical labor may need 4,000 calories/day or more.

All of the three macro-nutrients contribute to caloric intake. Fat contains about 9 calories/gram, while carbohydrates and protein both contain about 4 cal/g. The Food and Nutrition Board of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies of Sciences publishes a list of Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs) that provides the Acceptable Macronutrient Distribution Ranges by age range. That information is summarized here:

Assume that you’re calculating nutrition needs for an adult who requires 2,000 cal/day. Fats should provide 20% to 35% of those calories (400 to 700 cal/day). Since fats average 9 cal/g, you’d need about 45 g to 78 g of fats per day for that person. Carbohydrates should provide 45% to 65% of those calories (900 to 1,300 cal/day). Since carbohydrates average 4 cal/g, you’d need about 225 g to 325 g of carbohydrates per day for that person. Protein should provide 10% to 35% of those calories (200 to 700 cal/day). Since protein averages 4 cal/g, you’d need about 50 g to 175 g of protein per day for that person.

Unfortunately, you can’t go to the store and buy a container of fats, carbohydrates, or protein. Well, you can, kind of. Vegetable oil, lard, shortening, and so on are essentially 100% fats, sugar is essentially 100% carbohydrates, and eggs or meat is mostly protein. But most of what you can actually buy is a mixture of two or all three, in varying proportions. Flour, for example, is mostly carbohydrates, but has a significant amount of protein and a tiny amount of fats. Most dairy products contain large amounts of fats and lesser amounts of proteins and carbohydrates.

And the amino acid balance of proteins is also important. Because different vegetable proteins have different balances of specific essential amino acids, one can starve to death eating only grains or only beans. Eating some of each provides complete protein. That’s why our ancestors for a million years have been eating a mix of vegetable proteins, such as rice and beans or wheat and beans or corn and beans. Animal proteins are inherently balanced, so if you can store lots of meat and eggs and dairy you needn’t worry about amino acid balance.

Of course, most people don’t want to deal with all these calculations. The simple way to balance things out is to store 30 pounds of grains (flour, rice, oats, pasta, etc.) per person per month, 5 pounds of beans per person per month, and one quart/liter of lipids (oils and fats) per person per month. Add half a pound of iodized salt and 30 multivitamin tablets per person per month to take care of micronutrient (vitamin/mineral/elements) needs, and you’re set for iron rations, at a cost of maybe $30/person-month.

Of course, that diet would get very old very fast, so assuming you have money left over, you can supplement it with things like a lot of canned meats, soups, vegetables, and fruits, a good stock of herbs and spices, cans of powdered eggs and butter and TVP bouillon, cans of powdered milk, and so on. It’s important to be able to continue eating whatever the situation.

Read the comments: 79 Comments

Thursday, 11 June 2015

08:36 – In a sign of the times, North Carolina education authorities are considering what to do about thousands of children who’ve flunked out of third grade. State law requires 3rd grade students to pass a reading test. Those who don’t are held back and undergo a summer reading course, after which they’re retested. But only about 100 of the 500 or so students in the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County schools who went through that course were then able to pass the test, leaving things up in the air for the 80% or so who failed the test twice. State law makes no provision for what happens next.

They can’t very well dumb-down the test any further. It already defines a third-grade reading level at what most reasonable people would consider to be a Pre-K level, “See Jack run” and so on. Of course, most of the problem pupils are ESL kids, who are illiterate not only in English but usually also in their native language, which is mostly Spanish. The obvious answer would be to export them and their families back to Mexico, but there’s not much chance of that happening.

As I sit here at my desk preparing to write huge checks for state and federal estimated taxes, I wonder how the hell it became my responsibility to pay for futile attempts to educate the ineducable children of Mexican peasants. I really have had enough, and I’m by no means alone. It’s long past time to roll things back to where they used to and should still be.

09:41 – Ooops. I just realized that my last post is what progressives would probably call a “microagression”. Or maybe a “macroagression”. I’d like to macroaggress those sons of bitches with a 12-gauge. Buckshot rounds aren’t cheap, but I wouldn’t begrudge the cost of 1,000 rounds or so. Hell, tar, feathers, and rails are cheaper still. (Note to censors: this isn’t true threat speech. I’m not saying I’ll do it, nor am I encouraging others to act. I’m merely saying that I’d like to. I wouldn’t actually do it unless I could get away with it, so this is merely free polemic speech protected by the shreds of the First Amendment.)

If you’ve ever tried to transfer bulk food like rice, flour, sugar, beans, etc. into clean 2-liter bottles, you probably already know how difficult it is to find a wide-stem funnel that fits inside the mouth of 2-liter bottles. There’s actually a company that makes such funnels specifically for filling 2-liter bottles, but their prices are outrageous. A few years ago, Barbara found the solution. It’s called The Pampered Chef Flexible Funnels. They come in a set of two nesting funnels. The small one is just a typical funnel. The larger is a wide-stem funnel that is a slip fit for the inside of the mouth of a 2-liter bottle.

Speaking of outrageous prices, though, you’ll have to check around to avoid being ripped off. Amazon has them, but for $22.19/set. I’ve seen them new on eBay for as little as $5/set. Barbara just bought two more sets as a gift for me, and thinks she paid about $8/set. They’re silicone, so they’re very flexible and nearly indestructible. This or a similar funnel is essential for filling 2-liter bottles without wasting effort or spilling food all over the place.

Read the comments: 44 Comments
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