For crocodiles especially.

I do truly believe that both of you, and all of us here, want the current US slide towards destruction to stop. Bickering about it will not solve anything.

Brad, you are right to prepare, but sadly no one is ever prepared for a disaster because no one knows what that disaster will look like. The concept of accumulating gold (which I hear alot nowadays) is very impractical. In a life-or-death situation, you won’t grab your bullion. You will grab your wife and kids, your firearm, and seek safety. You probably will only grab enough food that you can carry in one bag, so stockpiling is kind of useless. Secondly, you can’t own any gold nowadays without the government knowing exactly what you have. If you have alot, they will sieze it in a crisis before you know what happened. In fact, I think it only puts your family in more danger by bringing more attention to yourself. Just my opinion.

I am of Serbian background and I remember learning stories from my grandfather and his friends about their first encounters in WWII with evil. They lived in a village and periodically there were calls for day laborers in the surrounding towns. This happened all the time. On one particular day, however, my friend’s grandfather went to work on the railway line nearby and as he came up to the place where they normally registered he was passing by a railway cart and heard some odd noises. He hopped up and peered in the window and what he saw was something that cannot be prepared for. He saw a few dozen Serbian peasants, blindfolded, on their knees, with their hands behind their heads. There we several armed Croatian Ustase soldiers with sledgehammers one by one splitting the heads open of the kneeling Serbs. He tried to escape the area and was caught by some soldiers in Ustase uniform. A Croatian friend of his was also in this group. There was that indescribable moment of complete confusion and horror as he looked into his friend’s eyes, thinking he was going to be murdered next by someone who just a week ago shared a shot of brandy with him. Instead, his friend calmly assured the other soldiers that he was a Croatian assistant and asked him to go and get something for him from his house. My friend’s grandfather said ok and made his escape. The first thing he did was try and warn the other Serbs in the area. Nobody believed him. They said “That sort of stuff doesn’t happen anymore!” You can imagine what happend to them. The second thing he did was find a pitchfork and at night returned to the town, found the first Ustase soldier he recognized from the previous day and drove the pitchfork through his head. He took his German made rifle and handgun and it never left his side for the rest of the war. He used it to fight the Ustase fascists and the communist partisans for the remainder of the war. He was eventually driven from his homeland but most of his family survived. I won’t even go into what my actual grandfather witnessed.

The one thing he said to me was…”Don’t look for evil, but always be prepared to defend yourself, your family, and your community.”

Eugene, I believe that this is what Brad is doing and I don’t think he is wrong for doing it. The fact that he frequents this site, he is also aware of the current issues and is probably educating friends and family as well. He is doing his part. Ron Paul did, and is doing his part to the best of his abilities. I know you are pissed off about Ron Paul not pushing for impeachment, and frankly, so am I, but pondering on this will not do anything. He is raising of awareness on the internet, as with Raimondo and co., and his contribution has been invaluable. But don’t knock the idea of making basic preparations. It does make sense.

You don’t have to scare people into taking action, but sadly, it might take a sledgehammer for most people to realize just how bad it can get. Apparently, seeing what happened at Abu Ghraib is not enough for most Americans.

Peace to everyone posting here. May you never have to experience what my grandfather and his friends had to experience in their lifetime.

That’s a step forward.

Consider it aporetic.

Were there peasants in the US things should likely never have got this far.

There’s also dance marathons to be considered.

I’ve put together an “escape pod”…one-man tent, rucksack, sleeping bag, some food, and all the survival gear I’ll need to hoof-it over to the national forest preserve where I’ll begin my new life as a forest hermit! :D

That, Brad, is naive in the extreme.

If there is a further squeeze on agriculture, as is happening in some areas of the country, whatever the rural equivalent is, it will appear soon enough. Indeed, in many areas it is already there, though extremely well covered up.

Also, the idea that these same areas are not dependent on Federal largesse is covered nicely by the fact that the denizens, like Palin, are seldom honest enough to call what they cadge from the state “welfare”.

In fact, the names under which “welfare” travels in the countryside is a tale unto itself.

Theocritean idyll aside, along with the implicit judgment that others are not so virtuous, the fact is that war, taxes, corrupt politicians and courts, financial thieves and confidence men, as well as blatant currency manipulation, have become systematic and make such a style of life catch as catch can at best.

Another group X, with all the same virtues and foresight, goes bust every day.

Small community banks with good paper, for example, became targets immediately after the collapse of subprime exactly because they had good paper.

I will not name names, but I recently talked to a former employee of one of the best small banks in the country–in fact a model of community service–whose clientele has all the virtues mentioned. It was sold recently and the buyer is now running it into the ground faster than you can say Jumping Jack Flash.

As for making friends with your neighbors I coudn’t agree with you more. It’s one of the best things about living in a small tight knit community. We rely on each other and always have. I suppose it could also work for a large but also tight knit community. Around here we have always worked with each other, keeping taxes low by doing the work ourselves or voluteering in groups when it’s needed. We may be poor when it comes to per capita earnings ratio, but we all seem to own our own homes (not the bank) and stay well fed and clothed.

Living within your means seems to be a lost art in much of the US but we still seem to be on top of it. It may be that because Northern Michigan has missed out on the massive economic expansion that we will survive the coming depression. Helping each other is not exactly expected but is fairly routine. I help out in many ways in my community, it never seemes to be work, it’s just a part of life that I enjoy.

Having lived in a few large cities I was always amazed at the amount of vandalism: spray painting, broken windows etc. Why doesn’t this happen here? I think it’s fairly simple. What’s the point of spray painting something on Friday night if you know that Saturday morning you will need to get up early to help fix the problem?

I know that much of the US may seem like a lost cause. But trust me there are still many areas where you can still be proud to be an American. Northern Michigan is one of them!

Peace!

As for Ron Paul all you need to do is look at how things have turned out. Should I say, I TOLD YOU SO! Good God man idialism is fine but at least temper it with a dose of reality.

For anyone else reading this, I’m not usually such an Ass, but oh well, when in Rome.

I’ll say it yet again, stock up, be prepared, do it for your family, your friends Hell even do it for Eugene when he comes knocking at your door. Sometimes it’s hard turning away the village idiot.

Peace!

The mainland Chinese seem to be working on a new variation: never eat anything prepared by anybody.

Not that that accounts for much or even most of the apathy.

On the other hand, the way things are going, if you don’t get arrested in an antiwar demonstration, you will also not get a good job in corporate America.

One is tempted to include what will seem a complete non-sequitur about the Persians beating allied troops into battle against the Greeks.

Have you ever read the ingredients section on the label for Cool Whip?

That’s scary.