"Happy New Year" from Kathy Griffin

Watch this video. Every once in a while, something funny and not frightening is newsworthy.

Also read this 1941 speech from Texas Democrat, Wright Patman. It's probably nothing new to you, but motivational and inspirational, nonetheless.

The EPA has decided not to force coal plants to use pollution-abetting technology. Why? I think it's ridiculous that the EPA won't recognize that these people's business is to profit from destroying and polluting the communities surrounding their mining and generation projects. Among the intentional destructive behaviors such as mountaintop removal coal mining and the amounts of air pollution that are always produced by coal combustion, unanticipated consequences are also faced when something likea billion gallons of a byproduct of coal combustion are dumped into a city in TN's water supply when an earthen retaining wall gives way)
It's astounding that practices like this are used to produce 50% of the electricity that we consume in the US. Please remember who you are supporting when you use electricity, because the fact that you don't typically see or hear and therefore think about the consequences is the reason this is allowed to continue. Consider contributing to NC GreenPower for as little as $4 a month to support the producers of renewable energy. Anyway...

Here's a cool page with PDF downloads of MANY military field manuals, etc. Take a gander at those, especially the well done survival manuals, but be mindful that viewing some of the material on that site could be construed from outside in, well, interesting ways.

Also since many of you expressed interest, Xcolony is an informative if cheesily designed forum catering to the survivalist mindset.
SurvivalTopics.com is also a great place for information.
Both of those have sections dealing with food, water, shelter, health, morale/psychology, fire, first aid, and other important survival skills. Learn what you can, pick up supplies, and let's get out and use that.
I'll be doing a fair bit of camping, hiking, backpacking over the next few months to prepare for the trip I'm planning to hike the John Muir Trail in California this summer. So, if you're ever interested in doing something outside, let me know cuz I want to get out there.

Damn, I lost a link to a sweet article. Hopefully I'll find that soon

Peace

Anyone reading anything lately?

Here are a couple collections of videos on survivalist topics that I'd think y'all would be interested in.

These guys are perfect models of disaster preparedness, and I think that regardless of your financial situation, everyone should follow these guidelines to some degree or another, because I think we all fear that the proverbial excrement is headed quickly towards the fan. Man, that's a weird statement, when has anyone ever seen someone throw poop at a fan? I doubt that it has ever happened, and definitely don't want to be around when/if it does. I'd probably prefer total economic collapse to someone throwing poop at my fan, honestly.

YouChooseASide's collection of videos, who is a bit of a ranter and tries to get people to understand the situation we're presented with, but also locks down a few important topics.
Ryan has exhaustive videos on many different survival/camping topics (fire starting, knots, bug out bags) and does reviews on several products, including the Glock handgun and M15 gas mask. I haven't seen the majority of the videos yet, but I'll probably watch them all.

I'm serious, fellas, get on the ball with this stuff. The "I don't have enough money" argument is the one I hear the most, but let's be honest, would you rather drink beer (or other intoxicating hobbies, ahem), go to concerts, buy video games and cable tv, or would you rather be able to eat and survive when times get tough? Just whittle away some of that truly unproductive spending or earn some more money in a creative way (please stay legal, you don't want to be in prison when things get bad, you'll be screwed, and we need you intelligent folks out here!). I'm not saying don't enjoy your life, just don't be wasteful in a trying time.
You can buy these long-lasting, easy to prepare (low energy & resource inputs) foods little by little every time you go to the grocery store. Honestly, what is $25 a week? You can achieve this, and absolutely can't rely on anyone else to help you, your friends will be more interested in self preservation than helping you. They will feel bad for you, but they will turn you away, possibly at gun point.

Learn about caching, both food and other items, and do it!
The food is on the shelves now, but it won't always be, you can bet on that. Comfort and availability of goods has lulled people into believing that life is easy and will be forever, but our economy and government are incredibly unstable and heading towards massive decline. Martin of the videos above believes christmas-time or the period immediately following it will be when we really see it all go down. Who knows, but it is undoubtedly a responsible decision right now to prepare yourself mentally and physically for what is likely to come.

I've felt redundant a lot here, but what I'm saying is important. More to come

Wake Up! Educate Yourself! Take Action!,

Some alarmist guy