Our national bond future rating has been reduced from stable to vulnerable---gasoline in excess of $4.00 per gallon in most states, GDP at 1.8%, while the stock market and oil companies reach 3 year profit highs--Long term storage food is almost impossible to find at a reasonable price or even if you are willing to pay any price there are 6 week delays in ordering-------domestic food staple inflation rises, Wal-Mart has posted repeated losses indicating that the average citizen can no longer afford to shop there for Christ sake's.

This rape of the American public by the rich and their political lapdogs will not stop until there is nothing left---count on nothing but yourself.

Urban Fire Departments started out as rival criminal gangs that would take the opportunity of responding to your house fire to steal everything you owned---this was a fact no matter how hard it may be for you to believe....and not quite the picture of the noble fire fighter we now hold..with the current and upcoming cuts to public services and the descent into 3rd world status i expect the same culture to redevelop. Calling for fire assistance and having no response or the response of a drunken gang of volunteers helping themselves to your food supplies while your world burns to the ground would be a crushing scenario...

Urban homestead fire protection was something we just hadn't thought of until we realized how vulnerable our home and supply stockpile would be in our American 3rd world status ---checking the smoke detectors is one thing but then we purchased three fire extinguishers...two for placement in the house itself and one for placement in the survival supply storage area. It would do no good to go through the work and effort of preparing to watch it all go up in smoke.

http://www.fire-extinguisher101.com/

A link to a very interesting article on exactly the amount of money saved by a family of five through gardening---the author has much more dedication than i could ever have, weighing all vegetables produced by his home garden, comparing against store pricing, tracking expenses vs. savings and did an excellent job----the result was over $2400.00 US in savings over a year...an excellent article worth the time to read....

http://kitchengardeners.org/blogs/roger-doiron/home-garden-worth

Summer is a bitch for everyday carry....weapons carry switches to a smaller caliber semi-automatic pistol in an ankle holster...and carrying a large bug out bag/pack becomes a back sweaty, heavy problem. When the seasons change i modify what i carry on a daily basis switching from winter gear requirements to a lesser, smaller load for the summer---- but my attempts to modify how i carry my essential stuff during hot weather has still eluded me....

My winter carry packs and bags are just too big and i wind up filling them with winter equipment that i do not actually require---i am hoping the Maxpedition AS bag that i just ordered (pictured above) will solve my summer bug out bag problem. Small civilian and military shoulder bags have been, well, too small---this bag bigger than a musette bag but smaller than a messenger bag, big enough, i hope, to carry the necessary material that makes me feel independent of whatever situation i may find myself locked into by fate. I'll advise how this works out..

I am lost in the Metrozone that Simon Morden creates in his novels---I last read and advised on the first novel in this series, Equations of Life--and after reading it straight through twice I am savoring Theories of Flight---the second of 3 novels set in post, well post everything future London.

http://www.simonmorden.com/

Strong, very unusual characters, an ability to construct a society, a future that you can travel to through the written word, strange plot twists all combine in Morden's Metrozone for great reading---especially for those of us still lamenting the loss of cyberpunk fiction. Even as i read and will re-read this second novel i can't wait for the 3rd---i recommend.

"The Big Lebowski: I just want to understand this, sir. Every time a rug is micturated upon in this fair city, I have to compensate the owner?"

It is impossible to actually think on an average day---has it been designed it that way?---similar to when it was illegal to teach a slave to read ?---is it illegal to allow a man time to think today? ----I seem to wander zombie like through the workdays until the weekends when I can pause for those brief moments when i own myself----

I am slowly beginning to understand why the great mass of the American Public prefers not to think.....to huddle within their group of like individuals---blaming those other groups for their problems.....

I simply await retirement when I can own myself---

and back their stupid world off of me---

I feel absolutely no sympathy for the Fox watching, flag waving, Republican, American Middle class over the recent increases in gasoline prices.....none what so ever.....

In 2008 when gasoline hit over $4.00 per gallon did the American public learn anything---

of course not....

I was at the pump yesterday putting $16.00 worth of gas into my Prius and a Pickup truck driving, old fat guy yelled at his wife in the truck that he had just rang up $87.00 and was outraged....this of course was not a work truck---it was just a big ole truck to carry him and his fat wife around...I felt nothing for him---nothing----This refusal to change from experience is what will destroy our society and perhaps our species....

Once gasoline prices fell after 2008 the Amazing American voter when right back to buying huge SUV's to run their snotty children to soccer practice at 10 mpg...without a thought of what the future might bring---without a dent in the mental armor protecting the stupidity of their lifestyle....I therefore feel nothing for the American Middle class this time around---they have brought this economic crunch on themselves. These people,of course, are the same group whose favorite Politicians vote against high speed rail---or public transport of any kind---- I have noticed this time around, that drivers at the pump do not even want to look at my Prius ----during the 2008 price gouging they would ask me questions--blahblahblah---but this time they just stare, cow like, at the rate their money is vanishing into the tank, knowing they have only themselves to blame....the category of person i do feel for is the Secretary or McDonalds worker driving a compact car trying to stretch their dollar as far as it will go...I do feel sorry for them....but for the American middle class---- tough shit---the stupid go extinct---if you hadn't cut the Theory of evolution out of your species knowledge base you might understand this....but then again understanding when it comes too late is useless....

The Big Lebowski....My favorite of all Cohen Brothers films.

It was a complete, suck week at work--- more like the Apollo program of a suck work week---i had not purchased an action figure in a very long time----I decided to center up and survive this past work week by ordering a set of obscure action figures I have had on my wish list for a year...The Dude and Walter...(how a 58 year old hippie developed a Jones for action figures you will have to search the blog archives to discover)---these figures have been a yes/no yes/no yes/no situation for me for a year----they are sitting here in my nerd cave teaching me to ABIDE....

Walter Sobchak:

Nihilists! Fuck me. I mean, say what you like about the tenets of National Socialism, Dude, at least it's an ethos.

Touch me again and you won't get that hand back.

I have posted here on the incredible gap between the rich and the middle class in the United States and it's results being that of our descent to 3rd world status.

I have posted here that the rich after raping the banking, real estate and government systems would pay no price.... they are after privatizing social security the last surviving possibility of middle class security in our society.

I have posted here of the upcoming food collapse--the necessity to store and produce your own food. Of the upcoming increase in the cost of gasoline and the reduction in infrastructure and basic human services.

I hate being right---i really do.

I've been buying knives---it must seem as if lately every week i post on a new knife i have in route...i suppose i could justify this through globalization...China has opened the knife market to people like me providing unique knife designs and quality at a reasonable price that previously were only available at tremendous expense through custom hand makers. So while there is still oil for transporting Chinese products and while our currency is still worth something I guess you could say that i am talking advantage of this window of opportunity to knife up...I am also good with what i buy---use and appreciate them, and carry 2 on me and 1 in my bug out bag everyday.

In route this week is the CRKT, assisted opening, M4-02 bone and black folder displayed below.

My black cat pocket knife described in a previous post came in and is a tremendous buy. Inexpensive, thin, useful and a great addition to my daily knife carry. The black cat has become my pocket utility knife...doing the work I do not wish to force on say on a knife like the CRKT folder...

I have been the subject of mystery old man injuries lately...these are the ones where you wake up in the morning and think "damn, how'd I hurt my ________" (fill in the blank with a body part). You have no idea how something on you got hurt, bruised or damaged enough for you to notice it now but have absolutely no idea of when or how this damage to an important body part occurred ?

I like it when strangers come into my office and the first words out of their mouth is

"are you leaving?"

I keep my office completely bare of personal items so i can just walk away.

Work is not home--

I was up late last night, walking into the bedroom i could hear the sounds of the wife and the dogs sleeping---breathing in sync.

The Republicans only care about embryo's,

they would let all their chickens die while protecting the eggs.

40% of our domestic corn crop now goes to Ethanol due to Government subsidies.

It is now officially more important to feed an SUV

than a person.

All the tea baggers can talk about is what the Founding Fathers would do or say.

What they would have said to that crowd is----

"Back to work indentured servants".

Better mad with the rest of the world than wise alone.
Baltasar Gracian

Spent this week amazed at America's collective stupidity---

This weeks budget fiasco in Washington is best summed up by Strother Martin's statement in movie, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, "I've got Morons on my team". Billions cut for needed social programs but nothing taken from the government give aways for oil companies or agra-business--nothing stripped from the American elite's private military...GE pays no tax and that is not enough for Rep. Ryan who wants to reduce taxes on the rich by another 30% in the 2012 Republican budget proposal---- because trickle down economics has worked so well over the past 10 years for the average American's income. Our politicians make Gordon Gecko look like Captain Kangaroo....

Where are the women of America in the war against the Republican Taliban? When American women wind up only being allowed to grind wheat in long skirts and poop out babies like the Duggars they will have no one to blame but themselves...It will soon be too late for them, too late for your daughters to hope for any kind of real life....

I had been focusing my reading lately on informational material for the urban homestead. I desperately needed a fiction break and found "Equations of Life" by Simon Morden. This novel is perfect. Post cyberpunk in nature, the novel focuses on a brilliant, former technical support specialist for Russian Mob kidnappers, now living in London. To complicate things a bit more this world takes place long after there has been a complete social breakdown across the the planet and the use of nuclear weapons by multiple terrorist type groups. Japan has sunk into the pacific and there are no go zones all over London. The existence of a ninja like order of Catholic Nuns who's vows are based on body guarding Priests round out the uniqueness of this novel...I am loving every moment of reading it and am planning on pre-ordering Morden's next three novels from Amazon immediately.

April's EDC, geezer tactical centers around Germany and Austria for unknown reasons...

I needed an additional pair of work boots/shoes with warm weather coming on...My Oakley, black, high top tactical boots are excellent but too hot for the upcoming New Mexico summer..and although my wonderful, French Foreign Legion boots are cooler, they are still high topped boots----I desired something similar in a shoe height so that I could conceal my .32 automatic in an ankle holster during the summer...which one cannot do well with high top boots.

After researching I purchased, the above pictured, blue/gray Lowa hiking shoes. Leather and rubber construction, made in Germany rather than Southeast Asia. Although I have no opposition to Asian production and it is more expensive to go German, i went with the user reviews advising that this particular shoe was worth the extra price in comfort, construction and durability...

The second item featured this month is the purchase of the above pictured Mercador Black Cat pocket knife..the unofficial pocket knife of the German Army in WW2---- I have wanted one of these for years but just never got around to purchasing one...until now. A simple single, locking carbon steel blade is all you get with this inexpensive pocket knife...nothing fancy, designed in the 1920's. Reviews of this knife are focused on the fact that it doesn't hold an edge for long---that's OK by me because I enjoy sharpening my knives on a weekly basis--it is very calming. I also carry a diamond sharpener for touch ups if necessary in my work bug out bag....the simplicity of this item and it's history is what lured me.....

Lastly for April, i purchased an IMCO cigarette lighter...a manufactured copy of hand made cigarette lighters from the trenches of WW1 which both sides ingeniously constructed from spent rifle shell casings. I am just amazed at this item..cheap---but works perfectly, using any fuel if necessary. The fuel and wick compartment pulls out to make a candle which will stand up on any flat surface. This lighter works perfectly and like the black cat pocket knife i am so happy that these types of practical, well designed, inexpensive items are still being manufactured...for purchase by bizarre individuals like myself.

It is hard to feel individually responsible with respect to the invisible processes of a huge and distant government.
John W. Gardner