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Remember the time you could get real news on the internet? Bill Clinton does not.

May 19, 2011 by A

I guess too many people are getting their news from many different independent sources on the internet, and then you know, deciding the credibility of the source on their own. Former president Bill Clinton has proposed that there is too much incorrect information on the internet and has advocated for a sort of “ministry of truth” to regulate the veracity of information on the web. If you haven’t read Nineteen Eighty-Four, now would be a good time to do it. Clearly the United States has decided that it won’t come in second place for anything, censorship included.

A guest on RT proposed that the “impracticality” of the idea was the biggest issue with this cause. I would argue that if it isn’t possible to completely regulate the “truth” of the internet now, it will be possible eventually. However, if the only truth that is allowed to be propagated is the truth of Fox News, MSN, CNN, and your local paper, we’re all in trouble.  The story pointed to the Demand Progress campaign a way to “let law makers know that you don’t want this to happen.” It’s worth doing, but I’m pretty sure they already know.

The Ministry of Truth, which concerned itself with news, entertainment, education, and the fine arts. The Ministry of Peace, which concerned itself with war. The Ministry of Love, which maintained law and order. And the Ministry of Plenty, which was responsible for economic affairs. Their names, in Newspeak: Minitrue, Minipax, Miniluv, and Miniplenty.  - George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four

Posted in Patriot | Leave a Comment »

Tin Can Cabin – Why a Shipping container house won’t be our next home…probably.

May 18, 2011 by A

Photo compliments of tincancabin.com

This is the second installment of Operation Debt Free Housing.

Before I get into the reasons why we didn’t choose to pursue the path of building a shipping container home, I would like to offer a little advice to single men, women, and couples without children. If you are in one of these positions, and have just recently opened your eyes to preparedness, resist the urge to buy a conventional home like our culture expects you to. The prequalification process has become more like vanity sizing….no we can’t actually afford what we were prequalified for, and taking out a loan for as much is the fastest way to becoming a slave to debt. Do yourself and your future children a favor and live in a camper, renovate a shipping container, build a house out of pallets, insulate and add plumbing to a barn…don’t invest in anything you can’t pay off in 10 years, but aim for less than three. Better yet, save up and build as you can afford it. Use the money you save on building a “real house” that is paid in full. On a mortgage of $200,000 at a 5% IR, you will pay $186,511.58 in interest over the course of your mortgage. Roughly double. I regret not making this decision before I had children. Children change the amount of free time you have to work on a project like alternative housing, your available capital to invest in the build or renovation, the acceptable standard of living during the build, and of course the size of a home needed.

My love affair with the shipping container house proceeded as follows:

Advantages:

  1. A shipping container offers a complete structure that can be added onto with minimal planning. You could technically sleep under the roof the first night it arrives.
  2. A shipping container home allows for exceptional security in terms of home invasion. All the exterior walls are made of steel and you can design your doors to have steel flaps.
  3. Shipping containers are relatively inexpensive, meaning the cost of your unfinished structure is very low per square foot. A 45’ by 8’ shipping container can be purchased for $1720.00 without shipping. A little math plus a lot more welding and you can have a 1440 square foot home (4 containers) for $6880. Woah. But that doesn’t include things like dry wall, flooring, electrical…etc.
  4. Getting the design approved by the powers that be is a lot easier than other alternative housing methods because these containers are already rated for safety and are built to withstand loads encountered in transoceanic shipping.

Disadvantages:

  1. After looking at the tincancabin’s set up of three containers raised over concrete piers, I immediately envisioned the scariest vulnerability of a family holding up in a tin can retreat- a fire underneath it. I’m not sure what baking to death would feel like, but I am uninterested in that as a potential vulnerability.
  2. Being a good welder is a prerequisite to building this type of a home affordably and having the ability to modify it along the way. Welding can be dangerous however, and it takes time to gain confidence.
  3. Condensation can be a problem. Condensation can lead to mold, and mold to certain death.
  4. The only person we can find who has built a shipping container home out of more than one container states that his cost per square foot was 80 dollars a square foot. Zillow is reporting that housing prices are falling by at least 1% a month, so that doesn’t exactly make this a cheap option in this real estate market.
  5. Resale value. You would have to do a lot to make a shipping container house-like enough to sell to the average buyer.
  6. Lastly, we prefer an open floor plan, and while not impossible, a large amount of planning for the bracing of walls would be involved.
After crunching some numbers we think it will be around 100k to build a 1440 square foot shipping container home, once you consider dry wall, insulation, plumbing, electric, roofing, foundation, well, septic, and land. We could probably do a little better with a conventional house for money. But, we really couldn’t beat the security of a shipping container home or the sheer awesomeness of doing something different. I wish we could do it cheaper, but this kind of construction might be better off as a small bug out retreat rather than a permanent residence. If you live in a shipping container house or are on a path to, I’d love hear from you.

Photo Compliments of TinCanCabin.com

Posted in Investor, Survivor | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment »

Pretty exciting stuff…..

May 18, 2011 by A

An article I wrote can be read on Survivalblog.com tonight.

Yeah, I’m excited. Here is the link.

Though, I’m slightly disappointed that Rawles inverted my initials…

Posted in Survivor | 1 Comment »

End of the World on May 21st?

May 17, 2011 by A

Probably Not. But it is a nice opportunity for a ready-drill.

First let me address why I don’t think the end of the world will occur on May 21st.

  1. Harold Camping didn’t even predict that it would be May 21st. He predicted May 21st would be the first day in a five-month period of wars and natural disasters, with the world ending on October 21st. Leave it to the media to skim something and then report on it. I believe camping did however predict that a pretribulation rapture would occur on May 21st. Okay, Camping. Let’s go with that.
  2. Harold Camping’s bible math is like…playing monopoly with a kindergartener. He picks and chooses when a day is 1000 years, and when a day is just a day, or when 40=5. For example, he states that 7000 years after the flood will be the end of the world. This is because 1 day is equal to 1000 days in God’s eyes. Sure, I’ll bite. But then, the analogy must break down because the 40 days God flooded the Earth X 1000 would be 40000 years.
  3. This isn’t his first prediction of the end of the world.
  4. I’m pretty sure it is explicitly stated that no man knows the hour. I’m not even certain it says what we don’t know the hour of precisely. The only thing we can be certain of in the end times in uncertainty. Therefore anyone who puts a date on “it” is immediately discredited in my book.

A few thoughts:

A “pre-tribulation rapture” is, in my opinion, Christianity’s second Easter Bunny. The notion that God would spare a generation of his faithful from certain martyrdom in the last years of the Earth is so uncharacteristic. Anyone who is anyone in the bible seems to have lost his head to an angry mob or at the very least spent a significant of time wandering the desert. Read Foxe’s Book of Martyrs and then you tell me if it doesn’t sound a little silly that after a lifetime of religious freedom, high speed internet and affordable DVR service, God will just whisk away his own. While I don’t think accurate beliefs relating to the end times are any kind of salvation requirement, I do think this kind “rapture” dependence is a dangerous mindset to spread across the faith.  It creates a generation of sissy-Christians who think they can say the Prayer of Jabez, get rich, and then disapperate* at the first sign of conflict.  Embarrassing.

All these things aside, I love a good end of the world scare. It’s a good reminder to ask yourself if you are prepared. Do you have 6 weeks of water? Do you have 6 months of food? Are you comfortable with your views on God in light of the possibility that it may matter? And lastly, are you falling behind on your bucket-list? It should be noted that while we can’t know the day, we are to know the season, and the end of the world certainly does feel seasonal right now. I think that all these apocalypse predictions are an absurd vocalization of the growing sense of uncertainty in our world. Instead of answering that feeling with crazy, perhaps you should do some things to prepare yourself for the possibility that everything isn’t going to be okay.

*yeah.. I did.

Posted in Believer, Investor, Survivor | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments »

Ron Paul to save raw milk – but not other foods threatened by Food Safety and Modernization Act

May 16, 2011 by A

Ron Paul recently introduced an amendment to the recently passed bill which takes away a farmer or gardeners right to produce and sell raw goods without heavy monitoring and expensive paperwork. The bill, called the Food Safety and Modernization act was fomented to battle the relentless terror of “food born illness” which is responsible for a handful of cases of diarrhea a year. In exchange for the new protections against salmonella, planters of all types give up their right to simply grow something and eat or sell it without government regulation. Critics are skeptical of the vague and broad language used to describe a farm which essentially includes any place that grows crops or uses animals to make food. If left untouched, the Food Modernization Act makes illegal the backyard garden. While some amendments have been made to the original bill to reduce costs for regulation for small farms, not a lot has been done in defense of the at home garden. True, they may not enforce it right away, but that doesn’t mean they can’t. The recent raw milk attempted raid is evidence of the potential zeal behind this bill. It is important to note that while the bill has passed and been signed, it can still go unfunded. Talk to your representatives about why you don’t support a bill that can make home gardening illegal and organic farms impossible.

In case you are thinking, “they would never actually do that,” the video below shows how crazy the FDA has been about raw milk. Despite the fact that the FDA gives the appearance of not having anything better to do in this video, the FDA still has not done anything about the mercury in High Fructose Corn Syrup. Apparently heavy metal poisoning and its subsequent brain damage is less of a threat than the occasional irritable bowel episode caused by raw food consumption.

The text of Ron Paul’s Bill is below.

Statement Introducing Unpasteurized Milk Bill, HR 1830

Mr. Speaker, I rise to introduce legislation that allows the shipment and distribution of unpasteurized milk and milk products for human consumption across state lines. This legislation removes an unconstitutional restraint on farmers who wish to sell or otherwise distribute, and people who wish to consume, unpasteurized milk and milk products.

Hard as it is to believe, the federal government is actually spending time and money prosecuting small businesses for the “crime” of meeting their customers’ demand for unpasteurized milk! Recently the Food and Drug Administration conducted a year-long sting operation targeting Rainbow Acres Farms in Pennsylvania. As a result of this action, Rainbow Acres’ customers will no longer be able to purchase unpasteurized milk from this small Amish farm.

Mr. Speaker, many Americans who the government wishes to deny the ability to purchase unpasteurized milk have done their own research and come to the conclusion that unpasteurized milk is healthier than pasteurized milk. These Americans have the right to consume these products without having the federal government second-guess their judgment about what products best promote health. If there are legitimate concerns about the safety of unpasteurized milk, those concerns should be addressed at the state and local level.

I urge my colleagues to join me in promoting individual rights, the original intent of the Constitution, and federalism by cosponsoring my legislation to allow the interstate shipment of unpasteurized milk and milk products for human consumption.

Posted in Patriot | Tagged , , | 2 Comments »

Make your own Pedialyte

May 15, 2011 by A

Children, specifically infants become dehydrated more easily than adults, particularly when they are sick. Dehydration is potentially life threatening and can occur due to sickness. Pedialyte is a brand name rehydration fluid which is designed to replace fluids along with electrolytes. This is useful for children or adults with diarrhea or vomiting. Knowing how to make your own pedialyte provides increased preparedness for a societal breakdown, but also can be used to cut costs right now.

Pedialyte Recipe:

  • 4 cups of water
  • 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon of salt
  • 3 tablespoons of sugar
Water should be heated up in order to allow the other ingredients to dissolve. Honey, lemon juice or any other flavor your child likes can be added to improve taste. Store prices for Pedialyte range from 5-10 dollars a bottle, and the taste is not much better than the bare bones ingredients here.

Posted in Parent, Survivor | Tagged , , , , | Leave a Comment »

The College Conspiracy – a graduating senior’s view on the educational trap that lies ahead

May 15, 2011 by A

As an eighteen year old almost graduated from high school , I am taught to do things in a very specific order and time and on a schedule (highschool, college, job) where I am promised to be rewarded for hard work. My life is very routine and structured. I go day to day learning the same thing, and am never taught to ask questions about why or how things are the way they are. I am only to accept and trust that the specific plan laid out for me by culture, school, and the government is what is best for me. They would have me go to college, and take out thousands of dollars of student loans to pay for it. For what? A degree in something that as no practical or potential of getting me a job. With loans that I will not be able to pay off for the next twenty years of my life or longer, and become a slave to debt. I find myself looking on my future with uncertainty and fear. I find I may be breaking from social norms of college and education, and becoming a self-taught man. I fear this potential break as I was taught never to by society, and there is a part of me that seeks to not break from it. While on the other hand this country was built from the ground up by many whom did not have a college level education. It was built with common sense, hard work, and the entrepreneurial spirit of risk and reward. I smile at the thought that I will be joining them in this idea.

However, the culture that has sprung up around me is the valuation of having a degree for the degree’s sake. Jobs that do not require skills gained from a degree, with require a degree. This puts me in a difficult position. Do I proceed on this standard path to be a Bachelor of Science or Arts, with upwards of 120 thousand dollars in debt to my name in hopes of underemployment? Or do I try to scrape out a niche for myself and abandon the cookie cutter college approach? And in a situation of hyperinflation will the debt of my college degree even be significant? Though, will my college degree be worth anything in that situation anyway? These are all questions I am asking myself.

This is what I do know. My days of coasting through life are over. I cannot rely on the high school- college path to prepare me with knowledge to survive in this world. I will choose to use the free resources around me to develop a skill set beyond what I will learn in a college path. Though I may pursue that as well, I will not rely on my degree as an exhaustive source of knowledge required to succeed in this world. I will develop a diverse set of skills independent of that degree in order to differentiate myself in the job market and to protect myself in a societal collapse. Having lost faith in our economy, I will work hard whether I am in school or not, and use that money to buy inflation proof investments like silver and tools.

- T, High school Class of 2011

Note from AM: These sentiments remind me of the a documentary by NIA shown below.

Posted in Investor, Parent, Patriot, Survivor | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments »

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