Saturday, February 21, 2009

Returning the favor...

A little while back Mayberry posted an interesting idea on his blog. Send teabags to all of our elected representatives as a reference to the Boston Tea Party of 1773. Seems that the criminals in the House and Senate need to be reminded who they work for. We got taxation, but we're a little light on the representation.

I just read an even more interesting idea on Michelle Malkin's column posted on Townhall.com. Send your representative and senators a bag of pork rinds if they voted on the Porkulus (or SwindleUs, another good name) bill. Don't even need to make a big investment. I'm going to the dollar store to find the most outdated, stale bags of pork rinds they have. Those idiotic Obama ass-kissers Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray are each getting a bag. Patty Murray has been a disaster for so long that I might just throw in a can of Spam.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

So who is going to pay my mortgage...

I love Glenn Beck's columns. Speaks the truth in plain English. Today he explained just how wrong continued bailouts for mortgagees and mortgagors are. Take a look...

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,496905,00.html

No more money for banks who made bad loans!!! Just go bankrupt and go away!

No money for people who couldn't afford their overpriced homes and took out ridiculous ARM loans or interest only loans or other such financial nonsense. Might be time for some of these idiots to find an apartment.

I don't live beyond my means and I refuse to support those who do. I, and you, may no longer have a choice. The government is now forcing us into supporting the idiots who do not have the sense to live within their means, and to bailout the financial fatheads who loaned them the money. A revolt is surely coming.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Dollar Store Food...

The local dollar store turns out to be good for something besides watered-down dish soap, throwaway tools, and crappy toys.

I try to save money everywhere I can, and this applies to my survival prepping as well. I have been storing away beans, rice, and other foodstuffs for a while now, but I am always on a budget. I had been buying rice at WallyWorld because it was $3.48 for a five pound bag. Then I found two pound bags of rice at the local dollar store for, you guessed it, $1.00 a bag. Significantly cheaper than WallyWorld. It is from Thailand and has some discolored grains in it, but otherwise appears OK. I doubt my stomach will know the difference between Thai rice and any other if I am starving enough to have to break into my stash someday.

Also, I have found their cans of soup to be pretty good for $1.00. I eat lunch in the office a lot, which is often a can of soup. I wouldn't say that dollar store soup is as good as Chunky $2.69 a can soup, but it ain't that far off. The brands I have bought there were Nalley's, Riviera, and Thank You brands, all made by Birdseye Foods. I keep some in my SHTF stash. As long as I have a can opener and a propane torch, I can have a hot meal.

Another sign of these times....

Ran into my neighbor this morning. Don't usually see him a lot because I am not home very much these days. I had noticed that his truck was around a lot more in the morning. He grimaced a bit and let me know that he had been laid off from his job at a company that manufactures doors for commercial and residential contractors. He had been working there for over twenty years and his plant, one of three, had never laid off anyone during his time there. The other two company plants have all but shut down. From what he told me, demand for their products had dropped by about 90%. Residential products had fallen to nearly no demand last year, and the commercial side, which services retail stores, commercial buildings, and hotels/resorts in the area is now down to near nothing as well.

This is consistent with my own take on the building trades in Eastern Washington. In my business I run into people from all walks of life. Of the people I know in the building trades, none are working right now, except for side jobs. Many are on unemployment because of the season, but the lack of orders in my neighbor's employer's manufacturing plant suggests that the jobs will not be there when the building season starts up again in a month or so. It appears that the state government may be aware of this, our twit for a governor just approved extension of unemployment benefits for another 20 weeks.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Obummer for the stock market

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Looks like the folks with the money aren't buying into the Porkulus package! The stock market has not closed as I write this, but it is down about 250 points, on this, the day that Obummer is signing the Porkulus monster into existence. Maybe they have figured out that its time to start hiding assets, because Uncle Sugar is bound to come knocking.

Monday, February 16, 2009

Why I'm doing this....

I just made the first post to this, my brand-new blog. Although I don't expect that anyone will be reading this, I thought that I should explain why I am doing what I am doing. One day, I may need to remind myself why I started writing.

I am just sick and tired of watching this country waste away. I have had it with wienies telling me that my rights are subservient to the special interest group of the day. Likewise with the idea that I should have to give up rights to make other people feel comfortable and included. I have the right to speak my mind, and I intend to do it here.


Like some other bloggers I read every day, I believe conditions in this country are such that some kind of societal upheaval is on its way. I don't know if it will be the current economic depression, some other internal strife, or outside forces. Whatever it may be, I started prepping a few years ago so that my family and I can be somewhat self-sufficient on that fateful day when the power is off, the water stops running, and the stores are closed.


To me, all of the above boils down to writing about guns, politics, survival, and the decline of civilization which is the modern era. These are the topics with which I perpetually annoy those around me. Now they can have some time off.....

My very first rant....

Jeez, I just can't believe what I read sometimes. I firmly believe that government is the root of most of our current problems. Granted, this is not to say that we would be problem-free without government, but it seems that government intervention multiplies a problem to the point that the cure is ten times worse than the original malady.

Now, I just read today on a prepper site the proposition that less government intervention and lower taxes bear some responsibility for today's economic mess. Where do I even start on this?

Off the top of my head, government does little more than suck up resources and limit choices. Regulation by Uncle Sugar costs money, and that means taxes. When you pay more taxes, you have less money to spend, and therfore fewer choices. The regulation itself limits what is available in the marketplace, whether it be beans, bullets, or even that home loan.


If people want to make risky investments, I believe that they have that right and should eat their losses when things don't work out. If you get a mortgage for a home you have no hope of being able to afford and you end up in foreclosure and living in a van down by the river, so be it. If you loaned the money for the mortgage to the guy who could not afford the home and ended up living in a van down by the river, maybe your bank should go under. Where are the Darwinists when we need them? Instead, we get stupid people who think government should rush in to rescue people from their own stupidity.


Now, if people are too stupid to be able to manage their own lives and want government to tax away the majority of their income and then dictate what can be purchased with the remainder, I suppose that is their right. Get your hand out for the handout, the Obama Express has a payout for everyone. Don't worry about how it's going to be paid for. Just get your hunk-o-pork. Hope that salty, greasy, unfulfilling gob of government goo is worth trading away your freedom.

I, for one, am not a sheeple and do not want Uncle Sugar taking my money and calling the shots. I refuse to submit to the idea of the collective good trumping my personal rights. I will not trade my personal freedoms for a hunk of government cheese and a side of government pork. I am also not willing to pay for anyone else's cheese and pork, and I am not willing to foist the bill upon my children. I am one of the sixty percent of Americans who actually pays taxes. So please, give me more deregulation and lower my taxes!