You may have heard about the famous riot dog that’s become a symbol of Greek resistance (or Greek mayhem, depending on your point of view). Well, check out these photos. And this being Halloween, be sure to check out the very last one on the linked page.
Whole gangs of “constitutional sheriffs” in Northern California? Wonders never cease. (Too bad this intriguing article never gets around to mentioning the very important state of Jefferson.)
Via Wendy McElroy: You’ll never believe the latest group the FBI considers a threat. (I’m going to have to create a new topic category for Stupidity Above And Beyond the Call of Even the Government.)
While I don’t agree with this writer’s snarky take on Occupy Wall Street, it sure does seem some young lefties are learning some real-life lessons. Including one right out of Atlas Shrugged.
Hard to know whether to say OMG on this Stupid Government Trick or what the hell did you think would happen when you got in bed with the regulators in the first place.
Speaking of getting in bed with the wrong people … lessee, you get yourself on a TV show that’s promoted as being all about “drunken dares … to war-like fights and sexcapades” … then you claim they didn’t treat you nice???
Good on you, Canadians, especially all you patient gun-rights activists. It seems you’re finally, really and truly to be rid of that ridiculous long-gun registry. (D’you suppose the gov will actually wipe all trace of it from existence, though? Only if your politicians and bureaucrats are more honest than ours.)
The real contagion risk from Europe or how the U.S. treasury market might go blooey. (Tip o’ hat to D.)
Scott Olsen’s condition is improving and he is now conscious, but he’s still likely to need surgery to relieve the pressure on his swelling brain.
My brain, OTOH, still feels as if it’s going to explode from the pressures of deadlining. But I’m sneaking out of the office this afternoon for Costco therapy with girlfriend L. The nearest Costco is more than an hour away. Fortunately it’s also at the end of a very scenic drive that features not only some lovely portions of the great NorthWET, but several latte stands. And being a Friday, there might even be — garage sales! See ya later.
Man, this round of deadlining is hurting my head and my whole self. I’ve just done the second draft of the most difficult article I’ve written in years. Probably wrote 15,000 words overall (that’s about 1/6th of a novel, people) to get 4,000 that I hope are useable. Write, rewrite, cut, cut, cut, rewrite, cut, cut. Have a feeling the client will still want one more session of slash and burn. Maybe tear the thing down to 3,000 or 3,500.
After that, more deadlines. More challenging ones, in a way. Some days, I wish I’d taken up a promising career in ditch-digging when I had a chance.
But you know us writers and arty types. We Suffer in true capital-S style.
In the meantime, while I’m destroying my health and sanity for The Sake of My Art (but don’t worry about me ...), you might want:
To check out this advice for the single or small-space food shopper.
To read Roberta X’s comment on the upcoming demonstration of FEMA Power. Turns out she’s somewhat of an insider to this Emergency Alert System business.
And most fervently … to send your best hopes, or prayers if you’re the praying kind, for Scott Olsen.
… Well, we’ll see about that on November 9. From Jim B. in a comment section, the feddies will try to take over all radio and television broadcasting at 2:00 p.m. EST on that date as a “test” of the system.
As one of the commentors on that article put it, this isn’t actually a test — which would be done at oh-dark-thirty. This is a demonstration. Of power. And fear.
Odd, too. The old Emergency Broadcast System (EBS), which has been around since the cold war, relied on the discretion of the broadcasters (which, granted, could be fallible). The upcoming shutdown is the first nationwide use of EBS’s successor, the Emergency Alert System (EAS), which is centralized. One man, the Big Boy himself, has the power to activate it, and he has delegated that power to the always-competent and of course democratically elected [/sarcasm] head of FEMA.
EAS has been around nearly 15 years — before many people were even aware of some newfangled thingie called the Internet. And they’re just getting around to “testing” it now?
The EAS is a national public warning system that requires broadcasters, cable television systems, wireless cable systems, satellite digital audio radio service (SDARS) providers, and direct broadcast satellite (DBS) providers to provide the communications capability to the President to address the American public during a national emergency. The system also may be used by state and local authorities to deliver important emergency information, such as AMBER alerts and weather information targeted to specific areas.
… So the capital-P President needs to address every TV zombie and Limbaugh listener during a national emergency? Might we ask, “Whuffor?” This ain’t the day when Roosevelt comforted our grannies and grampies with his famous Fireside Chats. We are just a leeeetle bit smarter and more skeptical of power now. And the dangers we face today are no worse than we faced when the USSR and USSA held each other as nuclear hostages under the doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction.
And if you want to see “fallible” on a grand, nationwide scale, just put something in the hands of FEMA. Yeah, that’ll work out real well.
So really, ya gotta wonder what they’re thinking.
And oh yeah … they forgot the Internet. Now shutting down that would be an interesting project …
A Lyttony of bad writing: Every winner of the Edward Bulwer-Lytton contest, 1983 to the present. That’s the contest where entrants write just the opening paragraph of a really, really, really bad novel. (Thank heaven that’s as far as they go!)
Speaking of really bad, these guys (source) look like like something from the opening scene of a really bad horror movie. A nest of identity-stealing pods? Giant worms? Articulate brains?
Excellent collection of links on multiple aspects of bug-out bags — everything from “What is a bug-out bag?” to special-needs bags. Great site in general. Links, links, links on many aspects of preparedness. (A couple of the links are to this blog, I’m happy to say. But there’s so much more.)
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Speaking of preparedness, here’s a real-world idea from a real do-er. One of the readers of this blog, who doesn’t want to be named, is helping his friends develop their preparedness mindset and skills in a way that is both painless and clever. Maybe even fun.
He purchased copies of the booklet Surviving a Disaster by Tony Nester and distributed them to relatives and acquaintances in his area who were receptive to the idea of preparedness but maybe needed a nudge.
Then he set up an invitation-only email list using one of the common online resources (e.g. Yahoo!, Google, or MSN groups ) and asked those same people to join him for regular, structured discussion. And I know this guy; he is all thumbs when it comes to technology. He says if he can set up a discussion list, anybody can.
I didn’t ask, but I suspect he chose Nester’s book partly because it’s small and not daunting and partly because the book has a specific focus: evacuation strategies and kits. He lives in an area subject to several “predictably unpredictable” types of disasters, and Nester’s advice is appropriate for common non-TEOTWAWKI emergencies group members might find themselves in.
He didn’t just say, “Come join me to talk about it.” He’s assigned reading (“Pages 1-5 by this Thursday”) and is keeping discussions targeted and action-oriented.
What a great way to build a small preparedness community while also looking out for the people you most care about.
Surely this is something any of us could implement without breaking a sweat.
Okay, maybe in our case participants would have to buy their own books. OTOH, instead of books, you could easily base the discussion around online articles; your assigned reading would be in the form of links — of which there just happen to be tons.
Survival Tips and Tricks (linked above) and MD Creekmore’s Survivalist Blog are good places to start. But yeah … when it comes to this topic, you’ve already got your own favorite sources, right?
