Before You Decide That Preppers Are Crazy

[Deleted]

Nov 6, 2012 0:17:07 GMT -5 steev said:

Isolated islands, whatever; we live in the same world as the Birchers and Communists... We either get our shit together or we go with the flow, quite possibly over the falls.

I personally consider people, under the guise of class warfare, to be comparable to forces of nature, do not mean to embroil others in it.

I am not always the perfect gentleman I'd like to be, but there are some lows I will never resort to. I get the idea that people will use politics to justify these lows.

There is no happy medium between communism and fascism.

I was just reading of the Reichstag fire, in which an unemployed Communist, yes, with mental difficulties, was used as a patsy -- a pretext for the Nazi's to come into power.

(In case you can't tell, by now, I consider the fascists and communists to be comparable to our two parties.)

The avowed communists of today are becoming ever more comfortable, using menacing language in public.

Now, I am not one of his co-religionists. I do not esteem Albert Pike in the same respect as a Biblical prophet, but he gives me the idea that seeker-friendly churches will not address the tougher, social issues.

There would seem to be a conservative backlash, but without the Gospel of grace, as it is preached by mainline denominations.

This is perhaps comparable to Hitler's appeal to conservatism in the Christian churches, eventually destined to be destroyed.

I read the Martin Niemöller prose, "First They Came..."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niemoller
Every rendition of these verses starts at the lowest rung of the Social Darwinist foodchain, and works it's way up, through the classes. This may well turn out to be another witchhunt against Communism. It might consume everything except govt. It disrupts small conclaves from within, so is a legitimate security concern.

I favor traditionality, am businesslike. In person, I am a strong male presence, admired by what can fairly be called fascists.

What keeps ringing in my ears is the saying of a Messianic rabbi. He says let's pretend we're on an isolated island. Such and such happens. Who is responsible for it.

And, that's what makes me the last guy in the chain.

I'm probably the best friend you'd ever have in one of these situations, just giving a word to the wise to be watchful.

[12540dumont]

Yeah, we used up all the candles the last time the power was out, and it came to my attention when Steev was here, that most of the flashlights are out of batteries.

There is no water when the power goes out. A big worry. And the only warning we had before the last big earthquake was an owl eating a pigeon in the front year in broad daylight. Also, could not find the cats.

I know we are past due. And I know plenty of people without a week' supply of groceries in their cupboard, let alone 3 months.

I couldn't believe the folks who would not evacuate.

My guess is that is NOT a once in a lifetime superstorm...we'll see them again. At the last big quake here, it was also a full moon and high tide.

Oxbow, glad you are okay. You were the first person I thought about.

[steev]

I'm not so worried about the tectonic plates slipping, sending a huge tsunami against the West Coast. Being in California, I figure I'll be warned by droves of surfers heading out to catch it, the Wave of a Lifetime!

I just wish my ex hadn't taken my old copy of "Joy of Cooking"; it dealt with cooking whale meat; not that I advocate eating whales, but what if one lands on the porch? Waste not, eh?

[Deleted]

I looked up how to cook whale, out of curiosity. The first result has Asian letters. The second one, from Iceland, says the same recipes also work for horse meat.

[castanea]

There's some kind of Alaska based reality TV show that I saw a few minutes of last night. The folks were planning on netting salmon for the winter, and when they were walking on the beach they found a dead salmon with its head eaten away. They theorized that an eagle had grabbed it and eaten off the head, the best part. So they took the rest of it and cooked it up for dinner.

[Deleted]

It doesn't especially bother me, if the meat isn't ruined.

I once used a harmless snake, which some kids had killed for no particular reason, minutes earlier.

Similar in build to a very long fish.The mouth feel was very much cleaner than grocery store meat, tasted comparable to turkey.

I understand that the muscle meat of whale is pretty much dark red. Blubber was reported to taste rancid, but the natives who slaughtered it had no particular problems with rancidity, the blubber having traveled from Alaska to southern California, in an ice chest.

[davida]

Nov 8, 2012 0:05:08 GMT -5 castanea said:

There's some kind of Alaska based reality TV show that I saw a few minutes of last night. The folks were planning on netting salmon for the winter, and when they were walking on the beach they found a dead salmon with its head eaten away. They theorized that an eagle had grabbed it and eaten off the head, the best part. So they took the rest of it and cooked it up for dinner.

Castanea,

That is an interesting show. Especially in the winter months.

One of my favorite memories is camping and fishing Alaska when my son was 10 years old. We were 35 miles by water from the nearest town. We were fishing a trout stream and we were pulling enough trout for our dinner behind the jon boat. A beautiful eagle followed us for over an hour looking for the opportunity to get our fish. On the same stream, we rigged our lures to "flip" the trout off the hook without touching them and together caught 100 in 40 minutes. I know, sounds like a "fish story" but I have a witness.

David

[castanea]

I look forward to seeing some of the winter episodes, or even fall.....

[synergy]

In addtion to the thoughts on earthquakes, the pacific northwest last had a megaquake in 1700 and we actually have three interacting plates here in the Cascadia zone. And yes we are told we are overdue as the tension that forms the majestic Coastal and Rocky Mountains as the subduction action pushes them upas the pacific plate slips under the north american plate is some day going to meet a point where the force has a corrective movement to relieve the preasure. When the Himalayas hits that point that will be a doozy. Over millenia, you would think these massive megaquakes must have occured and created huge tsunami ?

Hmm, maybe I AM crazy ? There is something about my wiring that is obsessive about being careful and safeguarding against being in harms way. Obsessive about putting things in the right place to the point I am stymied with concern that I will put things in the wrong place . It took me about 15 years to really tackle organizing my workshop but now i recognize this issue so I rationalize and bargain with myself to designate where things go knowing I might be ' wrong' and have to make a change later. To me it is almost the same obsession as where to plant the right plant ( even though I really don't know ) and it extends to relationships , trust levels etc. I do obssess now over every kind of collapse I can rationalize coming along, concerned I need to do the right thing for my family and confused why other people act with such complete blase and disregard. I don't think everyone else is wired that way. I have to watch for borderline hoarding because I seem to rationalize in multiple ways why we need to repurpose things , why we need to have a little extra of this and that ... I am almost willing to conceed some preppers may in fact be crazy , including myself.

[steev]

Yes, some preppers may be crazy, and the problem is...?

Shit WILL happen; so?

It's like weeds: 80% is damned good!

If one does reasonable preparation, one needs to let it go.

To be blunt, Death hangs over each of us at every minute; it serves us not a bit to fixate on that. To the extent it seems sensible, we must deal with measures to evade it, but to deny it is not to the point, and may even diminish our spirit, denying that we may contribute to the fortitude of those who survive us. We are but the latest of millennia of our cultures. We are but the latest of hundreds of millennia of our kind. We are but the latest of millions of millennia of life. "We", in the larger sense, will survive.

[castanea]

Nov 8, 2012 23:42:10 GMT -5 synergy said:

In addtion to the thoughts on earthquakes, the pacific northwest last had a megaquake in 1700 and we actually have three interacting plates here in the Cascadia zone. And yes we are told we are overdue as the tension that forms the majestic Coastal and Rocky Mountains as the subduction action pushes them upas the pacific plate slips under the north american plate is some day going to meet a point where the force has a corrective movement to relieve the preasure. When the Himalayas hits that point that will be a doozy. Over millenia, you would think these massive megaquakes must have occured and created huge tsunami ?

Hmm, maybe I AM crazy ? There is something about my wiring that is obsessive about being careful and safeguarding against being in harms way. Obsessive about putting things in the right place to the point I am stymied with concern that I will put things in the wrong place . It took me about 15 years to really tackle organizing my workshop but now i recognize this issue so I rationalize and bargain with myself to designate where things go knowing I might be ' wrong' and have to make a change later. To me it is almost the same obsession as where to plant the right plant ( even though I really don't know ) and it extends to relationships , trust levels etc. I do obssess now over every kind of collapse I can rationalize coming along, concerned I need to do the right thing for my family and confused why other people act with such complete blase and disregard. I don't think everyone else is wired that way. I have to watch for borderline hoarding because I seem to rationalize in multiple ways why we need to repurpose things , why we need to have a little extra of this and that ... I am almost willing to conceed some preppers may in fact be crazy , including myself.

Sometimes that type of internal wiring is genetic. Sometimes it results from nutritional deficiencies. Taurine and magnesium supplements can allow some obsessive people to relax.

[oxbowfarm]

There may be some overlap between preppers and hoarders but not that much. There is a pretty big difference between keeping a years supply of food in your pantry and saving every margarine tub, newspaper, and piece of junk mail that crosses your threshold.

My grandmother lived through the depression and keeps stuff that I think is ridiculous, but I wouldn't call her a hoarder. There are stacks of empty margarine tubs in the garage and grocery bags full of rubber bands and string, but she never let any of that stuff clutter the house where a visitor might see them. Its all hidden away in the garage, basement, and the garden shed.

[coppice]

I don't think the preppers are crazy. I do have to wonder out loud if a blazing mysogenistic and racist rage is a survival tool.

Fact: every civilization we have any record of, becomes brille and collapses over time.

Fact: ours will be no exception.

Interuption of service is inevitable. Waiving a gun around during one, is the surest path to getting your ass shot off I can think of.

[steev]

I think the difference between hoarders and preppers is whether you can find what you know you have, when you need it.

[12540dumont]

Except for if you take into account the barn.

Walking through the barn, if you set down a tool, a cup, a package of seeds, you will not find it. At least, you won't find it today. The barn looks like hoarding, but really we emptied it to the last item 20 years ago. My mother never throws anything out. She brings it here and stuffs in the barn. And then I go to the dumps and pay to get rid of perfectly good stuff, like magazines from the last 40 years, a broken fridge, a cat clawed couch...

I do prep every year in the fall. Save seeds, fill the larder, refill the water jugs etc.

But sometimes I wonder what the point is. I mean, do I want to be here in a world that is crazier than it already is?

And do I want to be here with a bunch of gun waving loonies?

I think I'd rather go visit Ray or Joseph or Ferdzy. Somewhere there's someone who needs farm help. Course I haven't figured out how to get the airstream to Oz...