I'm not ignoring you all...

... for some reason, I can no longer comment on my own blog. I do read and appreciate what few comments you folks make; I just can't respond to them in the comments section.

GunMart the cad

I don't involve myself in meaningless pissing matches, but if you happen to mistreat a lady, it deeply irritates the tiny part of me that is a gentleman. A gentleman would, of course, never lower himself to snark. However, since the gentleman in me is overwhelmingly overpowered by the snarky curmudgeon in me, I'm reposting this photo from the Drawn Cutlass:

I promise: this will be the only post on this blog related to Anthony Weiner (D - Loserville).

Lisberger... a prophet?

I watch the 1982 movie Tron with my kids last night. They'd never seen it, and I hadn't seen it for probably 20+ years. It wasn't nearly as good as I remembered thinking it was when I was a kid, but it also wasn't nearly as bad as I expected it to be. There was, in fact, one exchange of dialogue that was rather prophetic:

Dr. Walter Gibbs: ...computers are just machines; they can't think.
Alan Bradley: Some programs will be thinking soon.
Dr. Walter Gibbs: Won't that be grand? Computers and the programs will start thinking and the people will stop.
(from IMDB)

AP Lets Loose With Both Barrels

Arctic Patriot has a pair of posts from yesterday and today that I must pass along.

Yesterday, he posted and commented upon a link to an exposé of the murder by the police of Jose Guerena. AP's comments echo my own convictions regarding the liberty that our Founding Fathers clearly claimed were granted by the Creator:

I do not intend to dishonor and insult The Giver by throwing away His gifts.

Then, yesterday, he posted an excellent piece on the wholesale slaughter of innocents perpetrated by this nation over the past 40 years or so. Excerpt:

If America was utterly destroyed and erased as a nation solely for this genocide / holocaust / extermination, I would consider it nothing more than pure justice.

I'm beginning to think AP and I were separated at birth.

My Thoughts Exactly

I've long held that the love affair that conservatives have with Sarah Palin is based on two things: she's cute, and she says what they want to hear. In some ways, she's the conservative version of Obama; he made all sorts of vague promises on the campaign trail that fell by the wayside once he was elected. I have no reason to believe that she'd be any different once in office. After all, she acted all starry-eyed for Juan McAmnesty in 2008.

When it comes to substance, I'm not sure anyone can make the case that she's a good candidate, which presents a challenge to those that argue we can't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. I'll admit, she's more attractive (as a person, not necessarily a candidate) than Herman Cain; and it would be sort of cool to say I've bought guns at the same store as the President of the USA. But please don't tell me she's for a return to Constitutional government. She is demonstrably not.

Karl Denninger has a post on the subject that hits the nail on the head.

Alaska DNR Land Sale

Undeveloped parcels are available all over Alaska. DNR just released the Spring 2011 Alaska State Land Offering. Here's your chance to snag some real estate, and some of it (like the parcels over by Glenallen) aren't taxed. I am of the opinion that real estate, particularly that which is not subject to property tax, is a good way to store your wealth. In any case, it's a far better vehicle than any bank account.

The view from Parcel #1208, and 8.5 acre lot with lake frontage.

Herman Cain: more of the same

I've been keeping this to myself until now, but given all the hoopla about Cain, I think it's important for some uncomfortable reality to be injected into the discussion. There's a good reason I refuse to jump on the bandwagon for Herman Cain. A lot of drones have already done so, without giving any consideration to the evidence that he's a Company Man. Even though Cain talks a good game, some of his stated positions are far removed from what conservatives and libertarians claim to support, and his past actions and statements are diametrically opposed to the Tea Party folks' demands. My prediction? They'll still vote for him because he's a decent orator. Sound familiar?

Here are some uncomfortable facts that must be faced when supporting Cain:

Following in Rome's Footsteps

I've mentioned before the similarities between our political situation and that of the Roman Republic just prior to its conversion to an Empire under Julius and Octavian. I ran across a very interesting piece today on the economic similarities; it's a fascinating read and underscores Solomon's assertion that "there is no new thing under the sun." We're following the same patterns as those who have gone before us, and the result will inevitably be the same, assuming we continue down this road.

What Destroyed Rome was its Unfunded Government Employee Pensions

H/T Patriot Trading Group

Regarding my manliness and virility

I mentioned in my last post that I have six children. Please mentally add one to that number. Thank you. That is all.

The foundational priniciple of self-reliance

A lot of talk floats around the blogosphere about preparation for the looming economic and (God forbid) political collapse. Most of that talk focuses on trading your worthless paper dollars for something of value, particularly gold and/or silver. A lot of it is geared toward resistance to tyranny in various forms. A lot of people are talking about going "off-grid." My wife and I started working ten years ago on the path to self-reliance.

I should be clear in my definition of self-reliance: nobody can be completely self-reliant, unless they're willing to live an extremely bare-bones existence. As much as I hate to sound like the Abominable Pantsuit, it does "take a village" to live any kind of life higher in quality than that of a caveman's existence. Some specialization is a good thing: I'm good at making wine, and my neighbor is a gifted mechanic... that's just begging for future barter.

With that realization in mind, we still sought to minimize our reliance on other people as much as possible; furthermore, we are determined to limit our reliance on the System in favor of relying on trusted friends and neighbors. This requires the long-term development of a trusted network of like-minded people, folks you are reasonably certain will be there for you when it hits the fan. This is not something you can come up with overnight; trust must be earned. This, however, is another topic, perhaps for another time.

The subject of this post is self-reliance. I don't have a lot of deep thoughts on the subject, but I've spent ten years working on it, and I want to share what we believe is the foundational principle of self-reliance: you cannot be self-reliant if you are a slave. This has many practical corollaries, and here are a few: