A Little Funnin' on a Serious Subject

With Veterans Day coming up shortly, there will be enough somber moments and rememberances to do justice to our veterans and their sacrifices and this post changes none of that. As a veteran of Desert Shield/Storm/Provide Comfort, and having lost good friends in all 3 of those (and one of the current conflicts) I'd rather remember them for who they were, than what we lost. Their sacrifice isn't diminished by that fact, it's just I knew them as your average fun lovin kinda folk, committed to serving their country. The guys that could tell a joke and have everyone within earshot wetting their pants. They're the ones that without thinking would charge into a burning building to save a kitten, but blush if someone said "Thanks for your service". Guys, this one is for you.

Forwarded for your enjoyment from a .mil friend of many years:

Dear Civilians,
We know that the current state of affairs in our great nation has many civilians up in arms and excited to join the military. For those of you who can't join, you can still lend a hand. Here are a few of the areas where we would like your assistance:

1. The next time you see any adults talking (or wearing a hat) during the playing of the National Anthem - kick their butts.

2. When you witness, firsthand, someone burning the American Flag in protest - kick their butts.

3. Regardless of the rank they held while they served, pay the highest amount of respect to all veterans. If you see anyone doing otherwise, quietly pull them aside and explain how these veterans fought for the very freedom they bask in every second. Enlighten them on the many sacrifices these veterans made to make this Nation great. Then hold them down while a disabled veteran kicks their butts.

4. If you were never in the military, DO NOT pretend that you were. Wearing battle dress uniforms (BDUs) or Jungle Fatigues, telling others that you used to be 'Special Forces'. Collecting GI Joe memorabilia, might have been okay when you were seven years old, now, it will only make you look stupid and get your butt kicked.

5. Next time you come across an *Air Force* member, do not ask them, 'Do you fly a jet?' Not everyone in the Air Force is a pilot. Such ignorance deserves an butt-kicking (children are exempt).

6. If you witness someone calling the *US Coast Guard* 'non-military', inform them of their mistake - and kick their butts.

7. Next time Old Glory (the US flag) prances by during a parade, get on your damn feet and pay homage to her by placing your hand over your heart. Quietly thank the military member or veteran lucky enough to be carrying her - of course, failure to do either of those could earn you a severe butt-kicking.

8. Don't try to discuss politics with a military member or veteran. We are Americans, and we all bleed the same, regardless of our party affiliation. Our Chain of Command is to include our Commander-In-Chief (CinC). The President (for those who didn't know) is our CinC regardless of political party. We have no inside track on what happens inside those big important buildings where all those representatives meet. All we know is that when those civilian representatives screw up the situation, they call upon the military to go straighten it out. If you keep asking us the same stupid questions repeatedly, you will get your butt kicked.

9. 'Your mama wears combat boots' never made sense to me - stop saying it! If she did, she would most likely be a vet and therefore would kick your butt!

10. Bin Laden and the Taliban are not Communists, so stop saying 'Let's go kill those Commies!' And stop asking us where he is! Crystal balls are not standard issue in the military. That reminds me - if you see anyone calling those damn psychic phone numbers, let me know, so I can go kick their butt!

11. 'Flyboy' (*Air Force*), 'Jarhead' (*Marines*), 'Grunt' (*Army*), 'Squid' (*Navy*), 'Puddle Jumpers' (*Coast Guard*), etc., are terms of endearment we use describing each other. Unless you are a service member or vet, you have not earned the right to use them. Using them could get your butt kicked.

12. Last, but not least, whether or not you become a member of the military, support our troops and their families. Every Thanksgiving and religious holiday that you enjoy with family and friends, please remember that there are literally thousands of soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen far from home wishing they could be with their families. Thank God for our military and the sacrifices they make every day. Without them, our Country would get it's butt kicked.

13. If you ever see anyone either standing for or singing OUR National Anthem in language other than AMERICAN :) - KICK THEIR BUTT.

'It's the Veteran, not the reporter, who has given us the freedom of the press.'

'It's the Veteran, not the poet, who has given us the freedom of speech.'

'It's the Veteran, not the community organizer, who gives us the freedom to demonstrate.'

'It's the Military who salutes the flag, who serves beneath the flag, and whose coffin is draped by the flag, who allows the protester to burn the flag.'

WE LIVE IN THE LAND OF THE FREE, ONLY BECAUSE OF THE BRAVE!
Remember that this Veterans Day, and thank a Veteran.

Why Is Knowledge Not Power?

I know most of you at one time or another has heard the saying that "knowledge is power". Well, I want to disagree with that statement. That disagreement is the subject of today's post. This like some other of my ramblings here, comes after a spirited discussion with my dear mother last night. As some of you who follow my attempts at writing here know, my mom is an old lady (78 this Nov if the Lord leaves her here until then) and has lived and seen much in her lifetime. We as she likes to do on occasion were talking about the state of affairs in this country today. We got to talking about the depression in comparison to what is happening in our country today. During this part of the conversation she made what I consider a very profound statement. She said "You people today have a great advantage, you know it is coming and we didn't. After all you have TV and tons of newspaper and those god awful computers with the Internet , that you think is so great". Not that I would put much trust or faith in most of the print or TV reporting today in this country. We do however have access to the information with some good sources on the Internet for good reliable news that is factual and correct. I would even go so far as to say that some of the people that I read on the different web sites, blogs and forum boards put out good reliable information also. They do the digging and make it easier for the rest of us. So, we do have better access to the knowledge than they did I think we can all agree.
Therefore, if knowledge is power then it follows that everything will be fine because we have the knowledge. I submit to you that knowledge is not power because everything is not going to be fine. I instead would say to you that knowledge followed by action on mine and your part then gives us power. You could spend the next week 24/7 searching the Internet and at the end of that week you would have much more knowledge, and a very tired body, but no more power until you put some action with that knowledge. Then you will be empowered to do something to control your part of the future. Have you started taking action based on the knowledge that you have acquired?
The action of getting prepared with food storage, extra clothing,extra firewood or other fuel, putting some aside in precious metals or other tangibles and the other things we do to be prepared is what will give us the power over or at least the ability to negate the effects of what is coming. This is what gives us the power or control over our future so we are not dependant on someone else.
So in closing I say to you, if you have started continue as best you can. If you have not then get started today because anything you do is better than doing nothing and waiting for someone else to do it for you. We do not have time to do yours because we are busy doing ours. Remember, the action gives you power, not the knowing.
Everyone have a nice day, Gary.

Where the uSoA might be in short order.

I found this on another blog and I think This person does a super job explaining this and I think it is a great comparison to our situation today and the direction we are headed as a country. I think just like Germany we are being done in by our own government and it's complete lack respect for the American people. In other words, they don't care about us. Now is the time to be taking care of getting your preps in order, before the dollar is worthless or nearly so. I think we still have a small window of opportunity to get things done, but I don't know how long it will last with prices going and the value of the dollar going down. It seems like food prices are going up almost daily so don't delay any longer. Please take a look and carefully consider what this blogger has to say, and also the ramifications of something like this happening today in this country.

Economy: Anatomy of an Economic Collapse – Weimar RepublicOctober 7th, 2009 by Rudy

This is the first example of an economic collapse situation I want to highlight. I’ll do a couple different ones so that you, my faithful reader, will have an idea of some of the potential chaos that can happen. Normally this would be more of a scenario but as it’s a real historic event I figured I’d lay it out in its own category.
What was the Weimar Republic?
The Weimar Republic was a parliamentary republic in Germany after World War I. There was a constitutional convention of sorts in a town called Weimar which established this form of government to replace the imperial form of government that they had until WWI. The Weimar Republic was formed in 1919 after the period of social and political upheaval that swept Germany during the latter stages of the war.
Internal strife tears apart the Republic
Despite best efforts to the contrary political strife continued and got even worse after the republic was formed. Communists on one side and imperialists on the other violently opposed what the government was trying to establish. Violence spread from the politically involved to the average citizen on the street.
Groups at the extremes of the political spectrum formed paramilitary organizations that would regularly go to war against each other. In one case a coalition of the communists and anarchists took over the state of Bavaria and declared independence as the ‘Bavarian Soviet Republic.’ The imperialist paramilitary group came in and fought against them, effectively neutralizing the act. On the flip side, the imperialists then occupied Berlin and put their own chancellor in power. The legitimate government moved to a different city, calling for a general strike against the usurpers. The new government collapsed within four days.
This back and forth between the right and the left extremes of the political spectrum continued to escalate with entire cities and states being occupied by these paramilitary organizations. The regular army would generally act against the occupiers.
You can find the rest of Rudy's post here http://preparingyourfamily.com/2009/10/07/economy-anatomy-economic-collapse-weimar-republic/. You can follow his other post as they come and get a good idea of what happens when this happens to a country. Everyone have a nice day, Gary.

Some good info for preppers in all stages of preparedness.

Just a quick post this morning to point everyone to a bit of information that I think could be very helpful in your preps planning. Go here http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig10/gillespie2.1.1.html# to find some good thought provoking reading that will give you some things to think about and maybe help you with your planning and acquiring of preps. Hope this helps. Everyone have a good day, Gary

THIS Could Happen Today.

In Our Hands - Anti-fascist Film from 1940's (???) from henry birdseye on Vimeo.

Our government has been trying to take our freedoms away for years as we all should know by now. That makes this all the more believable to me . This should give everyone some thing to think about this morning. It looks like tptb have been working on their plans for years now and we haven't been paying attention very well have we. Things like this sure makes prepping more important as something similar is a definite possibility imho. Thanks to my friend Doctor Fungcool from http://www.preparingforthefuture.org/index.php for pointing me to this video. Everyone have a nice day, Gary

Follow up guest post.

Here is a post sent to me by WestTx753 on another method of storing meat. We do a lot of this also with lots of different meats. I use both methods, raw pack and hot pack.

Alternate methods of Food Storage II.
Ok so after some looking about how, and feeling that I am tied to the refrigeration, I decided to try another method. I have never really heard of home canning of meat, but it use to happen all the time. The canning books will still tell you how to do it. So after hunting down a pressure canner which is a requirement for canning meat, the better half and I got started. In order to learn we decided to start with hamburger meat out of the freezer. According to the Ball Canning book, we browned the meat, and then followed the directions for making a broth to put in with the meat prior to canning. At the same time we had a pot with boiling water that we were cleaning our jars and lids getting them ready for the processing. After you have this part done then you go to the actual canning process. For now we added the meat and broth to the clean jars using a canning funnel, and went ahead while the jars and meat were still hot and put the lids and rings on the jars.
The pressure canning process starts when you add the canning rack, and boiling water to the pressure canner. After you have this done you put your jars into the canner, and put the lid on the canner without the pressure regulator. The pressure canner directions tell you to setup this way, and then to let steam come out of the vent pipe for ten minutes until you have a constant release of steam. At that time you put the regulator on the vent pipe.
If you look at your canning recipe at this point it will tell you how long and at what pressure is needed for what you are canning. Ours was one hour and fifteen minutes at ten pounds of pressure. The canner will gradually build up pressure and when it gets to the required pressure is when your timer starts. On a electric stove you may have to watch the burner temperature and the pressure gauge to keep the pressure from going to high or dropping. According to what I have learned if it drops below your target you have to start the timer again.
We now have more things to put into storage without the freezer. Hope this helps others to do the same.
WestTx753

We Need Alternative Methods of Food Storage!!!!!

I was thinking that with the power grid being subject to failure at the most inopportune times we should maybe consider some other forms of storing things such as meat that doesn't all canned as much as some foods in our storage programs. I was chatting with my mom the other day when I sit with her for the day about the different ways my dad did it when I was young and I learned somethings I want to share with you. With this post and several others I'll try to give you some ideas of how it can be done with no electricity at all. One of the ways used quite often was corning, as in corned beef, which can also be used with other meats such as venison or mutton. The directions are as follows;
Corned Beef
Use well chilled meat cut to uniform a size as possible with the bone removed. Weigh the meat and and use 8-10 pounds of salt per 100 pounds of meat. Using a crock, or some similar container, sprinkle a light layer of salt on the bottom, then place a layer of meat then another layer of salt. Continue until all the meat is used or your container is full. Then the meat should set like this for at least 24hrs. You then cover the meat with a brine made with the following ingredients;
4 pounds sugar 5 ounces baking powder
4 ounces saltpeter(opt) 4 gallons water
For flavor you prepare a spice bag of cheesecloth containing 4 ounces of pickling spice and two cloves of garlic or two pounds of onion (or a combination of the two to taste) and place in the brine with the meat. This solution should completely cover 100 pounds of meat, if not add a bit more solution. You want the meat to be completely covered with the brine and a weighted clean board or large plate will help with this. The meat needs to cure for 30-45 days at temperatures between 38-40 degrees. If the temperature gets above 40 degrees the mixture could get ropy(don't ask me, I do not argue with the matriarch), stick your finger in the brine and if it sticks to your finger and forms strands it's ropy. If this happens you remove the meat and wash it very well and clean the container with boiling hot water and start over with a new brine. After the proper curing time remove the meat wash and drain well. You can then smoke or can the meat. I happen to love corned meat and perhaps some of you do also and can get some use from this old fashioned way of storing meat without electricity. Everyone have a nice day, Gary.