What is going to happen to us and what is going to be done about our problems? Much and nothing. There will be more protests--groups will form and dissolve--and accomplish nothing....the two week darling of the press, the false leader will appear--and disappear with greater and greater frequency.

The Right wing, Republican, Religious fanatic Taliban of our country will continue their search for a cult leader who meets all their bizarre parameters and false beliefs. The formal Government will stumble from one emergency to another without solutions, new scapegoats will be named, the unknown enemy amongst us will become the new target for fear mongering..and politicians will enrich themselves and delay any and everything smelling of solutions.

For in confusion there is profit.....

The 99% will continue to hope their jobs, investments, retirements and promised future come back to them as in the good old days--which is an impossibility----unemployment has to run out sometime, leading to that new housing development under the bridge---None will care as long as it doesn't happen to them and those working will accept the larger and larger shit sandwich of no benefits, urine tests, longer hours=lower pay and the boot of the man on their neck constantly threatening replacement or closure of the workplace to provide stock dividends to the overlords of the 1%.

Nothing will change---no one will appear to lead us from this morass of stupidity and greed that has become our culture...there are no solutions. The time for action and solutions was long ago...it is time now to ride this endless loop of incapability, stupidity, and sound bite intelligence to the end....every piece of the future that is coming will have a bit less and then less and then less until we wake up with nothing.

There is a gun show in a nearby town the end of January. I am planning on attending and thoughts of what i desire and what i hope I can obtain there swirl through my thoughts. I never desire the things that others do--standard firearms---Glocks and such....I attend gun shows searching for things only I desire and never find...When we attend this show at the end of the month I will be searching vainly, I am sure for a Star Model D series, single action, .380 caliber Pistol...manufactured over 30 years ago the Star model D is a very small frame, single action, Pony or Pocket pistol. You'd never actually carry this weapon in a pants pocket, it's just a term denoting it's small size

Illustrated below you can see the difference between a full size pistol, a colt 1911a1 and beneath it a star Model D. The model D is an excellent example of a last generation personal protection pistol---and when i attend gun shows i search all the dealers tables but have yet to find one.

http://www.star-firearms.com/firearms/guns/d/

"Men prefer to fight with swords, so they can see each other eyes!

Sometimes, this is not possible. Then, they fight with rifles."

The Wind and the Lion

I have also desired a French, caliber 7.5x54 caliber, MAS 1936/1939 military surplus bolt action rifle, and hope against hope to find one at a gun show someday. They are rare apparently in my area---no demand I am sure.

The Mas 1936 was the last bolt action rifle accepted and adopted by any of the worlds armies. Semi-automatic rifles became the norm even during the issue period of the MAS. Ah! the French you just have to love them. Durable, dependable, with a 5 shot magazine, firing a large caliber round with no manual safety, the MAS 36 was the end of the trail for the 5 shot, bolt military weapon. Utilized by the French in Algeria, Vietnam, Africa and for many of the post war years this rifle is a curiosity now---The type of curiosity that fits my mentality of never desiring anything easy to obtain or that anyone else would ever want---i own none of the new plastic pistols or black rifles--i have no desire for them...but a MAS 36 I desire...Ammo for these rifles is somewhat rare but available from factories in the former Yugoslavia...at a bit less than a dollar a round.

This is not a rifle that fires promiscuously so massive amounts of ammunition on hand is immaterial..this is a make each round count rifle....500 rounds in the homesteading stock would last a lifetime.

Of course to accompany the Mas I desire one of the old style Boer War bandoleer's for the carriage of spare ammunition with the rifle. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boer_Wars

There is something appealing and old world about slinging a leather bandoleer of full caliber rifle munition across your body, picking up one's bolt rifle to defend the homestead. In my heart I know that when I walk in the door of this upcoming small gun show--there will be no Star Model D or Mas 1936/1939 waiting there for me, nor bandoleer. Just row after row of modern, high capacity assault rifles, and large magazine plastic pistols, row after row.....what a shame....what a loss...but until I leave that show the end of this month I can dream.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MAS-36_rifle

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7.5x54_French

I have been doing very good with the new austerity measures...that is until I found this Boker Gnome knife on sale...I had been wanting one of these small, straight blade knifes for quite awhile but i could never justify the required price...until...I found one at half off. Although designed as a neck knife I may modify the standard sheath or build a new sheath from Kydex for belt carry which is what i prefer....austerity vs. sale and sale wins eh? At least impulse was not involved....I also ordered a kydex paddle holster for my makarov pistol...this was a need and not a want item...

I had considered building a holster for the Makarov---but building your own pistol holster is somewhat like building your own space capsule----there are many possibilities for tragedy involved.....

"A house is not a home unless

it contains food and fire for the mind as well as the body"

Benjamin Franklin

Snow and rain this week, big snow and good rain in Southeastern New Mexico--water is so important to us here we are dancing for joy...this coming summer may not have the rabid drought conditions we fought so hard in the garden last summer....As I write this we are pretty well snowed in 12/24..and happy for it. I have a list of small inside jobs for this weekend...and the list includes many naps.

JoJo and I don't do Christmas---or any other commercial holiday hiding behind corporate religion. The buy-buy-buy holiday machine gets not a dime from us. Halloween and giving out candy to children is the only Corporate Festivus we do..and that's to enjoy the children getting the candy and for no other reason....I've given up on the concept of peace and goodwill to everyone one as a corporate motto to inspire Shopping Mall soldiers---because in our society it is just words, and words to us now have no meaning. We are snowed in, huddled up reading and computing and I have an extra day off---this is fine enough by us. Good Luck to the rest of you.

My most recent book orders are pictured--a post cyberpunk novel "Blueprints of the Afterlife" by Ryan Boudinot--and "The Wall, Rome's Greatest Frontier" By Alistair Moffat. I just ordered these and will have to advise on them in a later post. I am always on the search for any Cyberpunk or Post-Cyberpunk author/novel---this is the SF category which I am addicted to.....Blueprints for me is an ongoing hope for a new William Gibson----Roman Britain's war against the Outlanders, the Irish, the Picts, whatever they are called by whichever authority happens to be writing on them--is also one of my bizarre specialist interests...this interest has been heightened lately due to my tattoo design/application process...so the wall is a book that i am tremendously interested in reading. Time to huddle up on the couch with a dog or two and read an afternoon away--with the occasional doze of course.

What is there to say after the death of nearly 5,000, and who knows how many crippled and mentally destroyed young people...unknown thousands of Iraqi's dead....and the loss of our national fortune....the Bush--Cheney--Powell--Rice great lie war is finally over.

The audacity of the murder, lies and robbery the Bush Gang committed on the American public outranks anything that Goebbels could have dreamed of doing for the third reich. I was against this stupidity from it's onset--and suffered from the over-exuberant patriotism of those around me when it started...we have left a wasteland of stupidity behind us, as Iraq already begins to fall apart, just as any intelligent human recognized would happen...what of all the money spent there on infrastructure projects??? eh you bastards? There's no money for food banks in our country--is there?----what about Detroit? There's no money in infrastructure projects in Detroit for Cheney's Halliburton is there? The best thing that can be said about this is we are out of there, other than the thousands of State Department and contract workers left barricaded up against the nation outside, in the green zone---- the worst thing is that this will happen all over again in Afghanistan...

I just despise us for this war and despise the American people for having been so gullible to jump when having a flag waved at them by an ignorant texan and his gang.....you believed them and we paid for it and we will have learned nothing by suffering through it------

Mission Accomplished my Ass......I'm just thankful this is over.

As of this writing ( 12-24-11) my forearm tat has been healing for 14 days now---I've got to advise that this one is a bitch. It may be the different position on the body--more sensitive--the greater work involved since this tat is extensive--but my whole forearm is slightly red at this point but starting to feel semi-normal....I am taking into consideration the fact that I can see the healing process this time as compared to it being hidden from instant viewing the last time.....this is going to take a bit to recover from--I'm sure of it. I still have no regrets and am planning the next work to have done once this arm heals completely.

Art and everyday carry have an overlap---there are lots of on the move sketchers out there, displayed on FLICKR--but I found a rare combination displayed below. Six, small, sketch pencils an eraser, and a sketch pad all sized to fit within a CD case, for $5.00. This way I can have the ability to create with me anytime---I have been pushing myself to draw and sketch again--i have somehow lost my way in doing this on a routine basis.. I also can't wait to see how they worked this CD case sketch kit out....into the military shoulder bag it goes.

"For I can raise no money by vile means"

William Shakespeare

Out of touch with the world this week---sick, retreating, sleeping....body and brain feeling like a rusted machine, grinding parts when required to move.....No excuses...I am physically sick and do feel overwhelmingly tired....hopefully I will bounce back this weekend.

With the conclusion of a year's debate we have decided to add chickens this spring to our urban homestead....eggs and compost are the desire, not meat....I am reading up on the how to aspects of this project and planning the coop and fencing for an area..This will be an interesting new endeavor for us---taking the homestead and our independence to a new level. Neither JoJo nor I have a background dealing with animals like this so it should be interesting...sort of like a Rocky Balboa keeps chickens kinda thing....we're going to try it no matter what this spring.....

We are all the resistance...every one of us is a possible solider in the fight to change the death spiral that our society is in. The question is what can I as an individual do to change anything? What can I do, when i cannot or am unable to man the barricades against corporate greed and governmental corruption in a formal way?

Daily life provides the weapons to be used against the elites and their lapdogs...To assist in the resistance against the machine you need to change your protocols and thought patterns....a small list of possible actions-----requiring little or no change to daily life but a hit against the powers destroying our class and pushing us to third world slavery...........

Pull your funds from corporate banks and place them in locally owned banks or credit unions.

This takes a day to accomplish and is made as tough as possible by the corporate banks but withholding your funds from them is a rewarding small blow to their machine.

Keep cash on hand

There was a reason grandma kept cash in her mattress---she'd been through the last attempted elite and banker take over in the 1930's---no cash is a way to control society...keep cash on hand to prevent them blackmailing you in the future.

Pay cash for everything

No corporate fee's on your local merchant or on you when you get rid of your credit cards for any purchase other than on the net. No possibility of facing the usury interest of the banking elite. Plus no transaction records.

Buy used

buy used whenever possible--I do this with my books, computing equipment, DVD's, vehicles----buying used if done correctly with the proper research makes your dollar go a longer distance...and prevents overspending. Buying quality used items recycles from those who are still lost in the consumer culture...and hits the corporate elite in the pocketbook....

Stop watching Television

The conduit to rot your brain--commercial television is brain washing, politically and economically---- pure and simple..it exists to reshape your opinions and make you purchase what you do not need.

Grow as much of your own food as possible

spoken of constantly here on my blog--grow your own food..cheaper, healthier, and protects you against corporate poisoning.

Stay out of debt as much as possible

This is the most difficult form of resistance--but stay out of debt when possible or close out debt as soon as possible..they use your own money against you! Give the elite as few tools against you as possible, the elites exist off the interest you give them.

Do not be active in the sham

Many will take exception to this but stay out of the theater of the absurd--don't fly, don't vote, don't do corporate fund raising holiday's like Christmas, don't believe them, don't support imperial wars, bicycle, walk, use less gasoline...do not be a part of supporting the elites.

Learn a post-collapse skill

Use the time we have left to learn a skill viable for the after the upcoming economic collapse--repairing, modifying hardware, blacksmithing anything valuable to a world which changed into one of reuse...and rescue.

Becoming your own independent human---free of corporate mesmerism---free of intervention...is the resistance...In this manner we can all be fighters.

I am as frustrated with society as a pyromaniac

in a petrified forest.

A. Whitney Brown