In The Shadow of the Founding Fathers

I live in Central Virginia - a land rich with history going back to the very beginnings of America as a nation and back nearly to the beginnings of English colonialism in America.

This idyllic area used to be the Frontier, nestled against the Blue Ridge Mountains beyond which was Terra Incognita. Two of this nation's greatest explorers came from within spitting distance of where I am typing now - Lewis & Clark.

We also had our own Paul Revere type character - his name was Jack Jouett. He rode ahead of Colonel Tarelton and his English cavalry to warn Jefferson (Governor of Virginia at the time) and the Legislature that the Brits were coming for them. You should really read the wiki on him... an interesting fellow.

Also, three of the Founding Fathers came from this immediate area - Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe. They were the 3rd, 4th, and 5th Presidents respectively. Jefferson was arguably one of the most notable intellectuals of his age with a list of amazing achievements far too long to detail here.

No, this isn't intended to be a history lesson. All of the people listed above come from within 20 miles of where I am right now. Without many of these people America may not exist. It certainly would be a very different place and it's unlikely that the difference would be good. In many ways, America and the promise of America were born here.

It is in the shadow of this greatness that an anger in me wells. I feel treasonous and small when I see what is happening to this country. I feel this way because with all of the shameful outrages being committed against our liberties and the promise of America, I do relatively little about it.

People from around here risked being hung to secure the liberties we are too lazy to defend these days. After 9/11 the authoritarians in this country saw an opportunity to consolidate power and they took it. Like sheep the Congress passed the USA Patriot Act despite the fact that only a handful of legislators even read the act.

We are being spied on, lied to, and arrested with no charges, no trial, and no counsel in some cases. What are we doing? Ha. We're blogging. I obviously consider myself among these less-than-revolutionary revolutionaries.

I hold myself in nearly as much contempt as I hold most of the sheep out there. The one difference is that I am a sheep who has opened his eyes. I inform myself, at least. I don't know - maybe it's worse to know what's going on and to do nothing than it is to be willfully ignorant. No, I have to believe that informing myself and at least voting from an informed standpoint makes me just a bit better than those who vote against their own self-interest out of sheer ignorance.

I do a little more than nothing. I volunteer for candidates in whom I believe. I am somewhat active in local politics. I teach my children to think and not to follow. I teach them to hold ignorance in contempt.

And yes - the book I am reading is fanning these flames in me. If you knew me, however, you'd know that I have long had these issues on my mind. I'm the conspiracy nut in my group of friends. The saying, "Just because you're paranoid don't mean they're not after you" has never been more true to Americans at large.

What do I mean by that? They know who you've been calling. Oh, yes, friend. The Administration has been pushing for a retroactive law to immunize the phone companies for assisting the NSA in their warrantless wiretapping program. Can you say data-mining? I knew you could.

They also know what your spending habits are. That means the government knows whether or not you like to visit websites about bondage and sado-masochism. They know if you visited a gay dating site. They know if you rented a hotel room last week in Richmond and not Alexandria like you told your spouse. Think of everything that goes on any plastic you own... debit or credit.

Not only do they know what you charged on your plastic, they know where you go on the internet regardless of whether or not you bought anything there. ISPs have been issued orders under the USA Patriot Act to turn over their records. Gag orders come as part of these requests for data. Not only can they not refuse the request from the government, but they cannot appeal to judicial review. Been to WebMD, lately? Got a condition you don't want anyone to know about for whatever reason? The fact that you looked up information on Erectile Dysfunction is now no longer a secret, no longer anonymous.

The one thing that protects us in the mountains and mountains of data they have to sift through. But if your name pops up on some list somewhere, blowing your "cover", they can immediately look up all sorts of information on you. Big Brother sees all. In today's world of technology it is actually possible, unlike in Orwell's time when it was merely a dark fantasy.

In today's world of multi-terabyte databases it only takes a handful of people feeling pressure from the government to cave in and turn over gobs and gobs of data to the feds. It would take entire forests' worth of paper to print the data that could be rapidly and quietly turned over to the government without a single sheet of paper. An innocuous flow of ones and zeroes streaming over a secured pipeline through the internet.

The Information SuperHighway runs through your living room, beyotch.

This spying, this mining of dirty little secrets, is made even easier if a warrantless wiretap or two are placed on a key set of influential people. Maybe they have a dirty secret or two. Add to that the notion that these federal agents are "fighting terrorism" with this information and these executives may turn over the information without requiring a warrant and with no need for blackmail.

If the FBI or the NSA needs this information, it must be important. Right?

With the War on Terror being called the Long War, we are stepping onto an Orwellian stage from which no good can come. A stage that Orwell could only dream of but which is now lit with the harsh glare of technology. A war with no end in sight is a tyrant's wet dream.

• Crisis is the rallying cry of the tyrant.
• If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.
• It is a universal truth that the loss of liberty at home is to be charged to the provisions against danger, real or pretended, from abroad.
• No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.

- James Madison

From Technical to PoliScientific

I just finished the Renewable Energy Handbook by William Kemp. Great book, by the way. Lots of techie-talk and equations while at the same time written in an accessible voice. I loves me some equations.

The next book? Well, I'm glad you asked...

It's The End of America - Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot by Naomi Wolf. Basically the book outlines the ten basic steps dictators or would-be dictators take when they are trying to close down an open society. According to Ms.Wolf, each of these ten steps is underway today.

We'll see. I saw her on The Colbert Report and she sounded very convincing.

Torn - or - Attack of the Wiki Links

I'm very torn between two tacks, if you will. The first tack I could take is:

Get the hell out!!

The ship is going down. Society is irretrievably broken and there's nothing one person can do about it. Humanity is blindly charging headlong towards a cliff it made by strip-mining. You keep screaming that there's a cliff ahead, but no one listens. Worse still, they act like you're a bit cooky.

You become part of the office rounds that managers take the newbies on... "And on your left is the office survival nut. Shhh! Don't disturb him! He may engage you in a talk about green energy or universal healthcare!"

In the Get the hell out!! scenario, you pity the blinded fools but you don't lose any sleep over their fate. The best you can do is try not to share their fate.

The second tack?

Hey man! Hope springs eternal, brah!!

Like some hackey-sack kicking, dreadlock-sporting, hippykin child of the suburbs you try to get involved and help fix the problem. Get involved with local politics, support candidates that will promote a green agenda. Ride a bike to work or organize a carpool or - gasp! - take public transportation.

Work on making your house as green as possible - CF bulbs, low-flow showerheads, low-flow toilets, insulate the hot water heater, the whole nine yards. Use canvas shopping bags, buy local and organic food whenever possible. Farmer's Market? Yes, please. Community Supported Agriculture? Sign me up. Buy a hybrid car if you must have a car at all.

The Good News?

The good news is that no matter what tack we take the actions needed are much the same. The only difference really is that with the Get the hell out!! tack you are moving to the country and getting off the grid. With the Hey man! Hope springs eternal, brah!! tack you aren't going anywhere.

We could always strike a tack somewhere in between - Get the hell out of the eternal spring of hope, brah!!! - or something like that. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst. Get off the grid but stay involved.

I think that's the way I'd like to go.

Survival of the Bloggiest

Hey there, kids! Another Mad Max post today.

I am of the opinion that things are going to change pretty drastically here in America pretty soon. How or why this change will occur is anyone's guess. There are so many Swords of Damocles hanging over our collective head that you can pretty much take your pick.

When it all stops working, what will you do?

It's all right there in the title, right? There are two ways that this shift could possibly take place:

• the Apocalypse - This is when it all stops working overnight. Something drastic happens to break the machinery of society. Maybe a stock market crash, maybe a series of devastating storms or a prolonged drought effecting crops over large areas of the country. Maybe the oil wells dry up and the highways grind to a halt. Maybe a major terrorist attack coupled with one or more of the above causes an irreparable tear in the fabric of this nation. In the Apocalypse, there is an immediate moment of emergency to which you must react. This is followed by a long period of chaos, failure of civic services (police, fire and rescue), and failure of utilities (power, water).
• the Slow Spiraling Decline - This is when society gradually breaks down. The standard of living doesn't drop all at once but slowly declines. Energy prices slowly rise, the value of the dollar declines to peso-like levels, the frequency of natural disasters rises slowly (Katrina II, III, & IV), food prices rise as droughts effect crops and expensive gas makes it more expensive to put on the shelves. There is no knock-out punch in this scenario. Civil unrest increases and harsher laws are enacted. Maybe there's another 9/11 and martial law is declared. Things get may reach a tipping point where the final bit of decline happens rapidly. This is the scenario that I think is most likely to occur.

Either scenario will require what I call the Egress. Survival in cities or suburbs will be brutal at best. The lack of access to food or means of food production coupled with the failure of the sanitation system and denser populations will mean rampant starvation and disease. You will want to get out. Only in a rural setting will you have access to the means to produce food.

Ironically enough, it will also be in a rural setting that you will most likely be able to maintain something similar to what we would associate with a modern urban lifestyle. In the country you will have access to not only solar power, but possibly hydro and/or wind power. It would be difficult to harness the wind in the city and hydro power would also be problematic assuming there even is a river that flows through your city. Others may vandalize your power station or attempt to tap into it to rob you of some juice.

In the Apocalypse scenario...

... the Egress will be a rapid, emergency evolution. You may need to gather family from all over the city - the wife at work, one kid at one school, the other at another school. You will certainly want to grab some supplies. How long will you have to live out of your car? Are the roads clear!? OMFG!! What do I do!?!

Calm down - take a deep breath. Here are some rules:

1. Panic is your number one enemy. Calm down. Take a deep breath. Think as dispassionately as possible. Having an emergency plan is a good antidote for panic.
2. Take nothing for granted. Don't assume that the roads will be clear or that you can stop for gas or food or anything. Don't assume the lights will be on when you get home, etc. At least mentally prepare for these possibilities.
3. Get thee to the country! Do you have a relative that lives out in the country? Do you have a summer cabin? Maybe even a favorite camping spot will do for a while. Try to at least ride out the initial chaos in a place that will better guarantee your family and loved ones' safety. Fresh water will also be more available in the country in all likelihood, especially if power has failed.
4. Initial Supplies. A tender balance has to be struck here. You may get caught with your pants down, so to speak, and be forced to gather necessities from all over the house. This is less than ideal. Here's a quick list that may help - it'll be a good starting point, at least:
1. Camping Supplies - tent(s), canteens, shovels, compass, matches, camp cook kits, knives, hatchets, fishing gear, etc.
2. Dried foods - rice, beans, oatmeal, etc.
3. Canned goods - any fruits and veggies will be welcomed (if you have a can opener!)
4. Water - bottled, in canteens, whatever is clever. Hopefully you have a source wherever you are going, but carrying some with you can never hurt.
5. Weapons - guns, knives, baseball bats, whatever. Not that you will be looking for trouble (quite the opposite!) but you will want to be equipped to deal with any trouble that finds you. Besides, it may become necessary to hunt for food at some point. A nice rifle will make this much easier.
6. Radio - assuming there isn't a complete collapse a radio may come in handy to gain important information ("The bridge over New River is blocked with wreckage."). Hand cranked or solar powered is preferable.
5. Water before food. The average human will die of thirst in 3-4 days, depending on a number of factors. Five days is about the outside limit of how long you can possibly go, but at this point you will be in no condition to help yourself. A person can last many weeks without food, depending on the person's metabolism and how much fat stores they have. Secure a source of water before worrying about food.
6. Shelter! Is also keenly impoortant. Depending on the season and your location shelter may be even more important than water. One night in freezing temperatures may kill you before thirst or starvation even enter the picture. Tom Brown has an excellent section in his book about temporary and even semi-permanent shelter construction techniques using no tools other than your own two hands. You can get it here.
7. Think Long Term. Once your immediate needs are taken care of think long term. Make goals that will take a while to achieve. These goals should focus on not only survival but comfort. After a week in a tent, you'll be surprised how motivated the notion of setting up a shower could make people. After a week of eating canned beans the idea of fresh tomatoes (even fresh tomatoes a month from now) will get people moving. Getting people in motion and setting goals for them means they aren't as focused on the nagging inconveniences of today. Attitiude can work wonders.
8. Longer Term Supplies - depending on your situation and opportunities it may be necessary to loot some items for the survival of your family. I only advocate this in life or death situations where civil order has collapsed. There could be an entire entry on just this topic. In fact at some point there will be.

Thats' enough for now. This should give you some food for thought, at least.

In the Slow Spiral Decline scenario...

... we have some better options, actually. In this scenario, if enough people take the actions I will advocate we may even reverse the decline if not soften the landing.

Here are some of the high level points to consider in this scenario:

1. Foresight is power. If you see this coming and you are sitting on a nice slice of land with a house that is completely off-grid with crops, a greenhouse, a biodiesel refinery, a solar array or two, a wind turbine, and a hydro plant you will be sitting very pretty. You can watch energy prices skyrocket and not care. You can watch the prices in supermarkets rise and pity those who are dependant on stores to give them everything they need.
2. Off-Grid is the Ultimate Goal. In an ideal situation you want to ween yourself from fossil fuels as much as possible. This will be good for the environment, reducing energy dependence on unstable regions, and your pocketbook. No matter what you think of anything I say here on this blog, you have to be a fool or blind to deny the fact that energy prices are going to do nothing but rise in the very near future. We are already seeing this. Crude oil prices seem to hit new highs every month. There's no reason to think this trend will reverse itself.
3. Farming is Pretty Darned Cool. Hey! Where do I get food now that the grocery store is closed? I have to grow it? I can do that? Yeah - you sure can. Crops and growing seasons will vary widely depending on your area. My ultimate goal is to get my family situated on about 10 acres of land with a greenhouse to extend our growing season. Throw into this mix some variety of animals. I'd like to have chickens for certain, maybe some goats, and even a pony or mule; maybe a horse. Regardless of the situation, apocalypse or no, it is always good to grow food. If you grow the food, you know exactly what pesticides, chemicals, and contaminants you are being exposed to. Hopefully none! In many situations, farming can even provide a source of income.
4. Knowledge is Power, Too. Read as much about your goals as possible in advance. Do this with books. Yes, books. Those funny things with pages... that's right! In the event of declining services and power outages the Internet may no longer be a reliable source of information (good or bad). Having manuals and instructive books on hand will be of incalculable value. Need to repair your PV (photovoltaic - i.e. solar power) array yourself? Well, unless you're an electrician you may need a reference source to even have a hope of doing this work yourself.
5. Have Extras. If a tool is worth having, it's worth having two of them. Also keep extra light bulbs (CF, of course!), PV panels, and other parts on hand. Keep a few boxes of nails, screws, etc in reserve. Imagine what a pain it would be to build a barn with no nails! Obviously it can be done, but it will be much easier to do if you have the supplies right there. Try to keep a reserve supply of biodiesel handy if your home uses a generator or if you have vehicles that run on it. This will not only serve well in crisis situations but in less dire straights (like helping a neighbor out of a jam).
6. Arm thyself. Think of a rifle not so much as a weapon but more like a tool. In all likelihood, this rifle will shoot nothing more sentient than a fox raiding your henhouse or a deer to put food on your table. In the unfortunate event that you find yourself in a situation where you have to defend yourself or your loved ones it will be good not to be caught empty handed.

Again - enough for now. Some food for thought. The key thing to remember about the Slow Spiral Decline is that if you can see it coming, you can get yourself set up well in advance of that tipping point.

How's about that Road Warrior?

I thought we could go a little Mad Max this time. If any of you younger readers haven't seen it, you should Netflix The Road Warrior. At least this way you'll get the references.

If you're a bit more on the "screw society, I'm getting a cabin in some remote area" side of things, then here are a few tips should the poop hit the proverbial fan:

• When selecting armaments, you should favor anything that fires a 9mm round, shotgun shells, 7.62x39, or .22 calliber ammunition. These are the most common ammunition types and will be the easiest to scrounge.
• Bows and crossbows are also good to have. Should you need to, you could probably fashion new arrows yourself.
• Consider who your neighbors are. Unless you want to be a total hermit and live wearing animal skins you will need to interact with people. Make sure to build a rapport with your neighbors. You'll at the minimum need to trade with them at some point.
• Don't have any tools that run on fossil fuels. Chainsaws, lawn mowers, tractors, etc. If you must have fossil fuel try to choose diesel whenever possible. That way you might be able to rig up some sort of biodiesel "refinery" after the petrol distribution systems fail.
• Get as much of your survival gear and tools as possible in advance. Things like knives, shovels, tents, rope and other gear will be at a premium in a Mad Max scenario.
• Unless you plan to survive on trade, you will need to be able to farm for yourself. Get your farming equipment in advance (i.e. before the doo-doo hits the fan). Like the tools mentioned above, they will be at a premium when the super markets close down. These tools should be manual whenever possible.
• Be prepared to defend you and yours. How many magazines do you have for your rifle? One clip for your rifle may be fine when you're goofing around on the range, but you may want more onhand for emergencies.
• For purposes of trade and providing for the common defense, it may be advantageous to form "coops" or "cooperatives" with your neighbors. More than likely you won't be able to grow all the foods you need, mill grain, bake bread, plant and harvest cotton (or wool), make clothing, build and/or repair a home, etc all by yourself. Coops will help you and your neighbors coordinate your efforts so the community can provide for everyone's needs.
• If you live in a city and the sh!t hits the fan, you will need to get out, more than likely. Have a plan for this. How to get out and where you will go at a minimum.
• Don't panic, whatever you do. Having a plan for various emergency situations will help you beat panic.
• If you live in a city and need to get out, wouldn't it be nice if you had, say, a 3 day cushion of supplies you could pickup and take with you as you dash out the door? You can get them here.

Who peed in his Wheaties?

For the first post here on Survive the Apocalypse I guess I should lay down the basic premise for this blog and maybe tell you a bit about myself and my lovely wife, with whom I will be writing this blog.

I am currently a city-dwelling young professional. Some may even call me a yuppie. They'd be wrong, but I can see where they'd get the impression. I am fairly young, I do live in a city (urban), and I work in IT (professional).

I used to blog many, many moons ago back when it was called "keeping an online journal." I would write in my journal every day back in 1999, 2000, and 2001. I was separated from my first wife and I had all of the time and angst in the world to fuel my rantings.

My lovely wife, apocalypsegal, was also an early "blogger" back before it was called blogging. We actually met through our journals.

Shortly after meeting my current (and last!) wife things were just too groovy. The list of things I was pissed off about got smaller and smaller. My need to vent and to vent every damned day diminished and then went away. I stopped posting and eventually my domain name registration lapsed.

I don't think I even have backups of my old entries anymore.

Then came the explosion of blogs and I thought, "Well, I'll never do that again. I mean - how passe can you be?"

But here I am. Here we are, my wife and I.

"Why?", you ask.

Well, I'm putting on this little dog and pony show for you for a few reasons:

1. It's free now! Thanks to blogspot I even get a decent URL for nothing!
2. I need to vent again. More on that later...
3. It's a great way to store my thoughts.
4. I can't lose this data because I misplaced a CD or a hard drive burned out.
5. This allows me to share with you, the general public, information and concerns I feel very strongly about.

So now you know why I started this blog. Now what's it about?

Simply put: Everything is going to Hell. You know it and I do, too.

The dollar isn't worth the paper it's printed on. Just this week the Canadian dollar surpassed the dollar in value. No offense to Canada, but if their currency is worth more than America's, then America has been managed very poorly.

The dollar's lack of value is indicative of many other problems. As a nation we are in debt. Mainly so we could fight a war that has nothing to do with anything but oil. Here's a little factoid that literally turns my stomach:

"Based on the work of Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph E. Stiglitz and Harvard public finance lecturer Linda J. Bilmes, the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) recently determined that the Iraq war costs $720 million per day, $500,000 per minute – enough to provide homes for nearly 6,500 families, or health care for 423,529 children in just one day."

I got the above quote from one of the RSS feeds to which I subscribe. I'll credit it if I can remember where I got it.

So instead of investing in our nation we invest in bullets and bombs that can only be used once. Meanwhile bridges collapse, children go without health care, our nation's streets serve as the only home many Americans know.

Instead of enriching the entire nation we enrich a few defense contractor CEOs. We enrich Exxon and Chevron while our education system is in decline and our health care system is a nightmare.

We have money to kill, but not to grow. We have money for bombs but not for books or housing. We have money for destruction but not for dignity.

Our priorities are all wrong.

Global warming, impending oil shortages, and possible global shortages in water supplies are just some of the environmental issues that confront humanity as a whole.

As Americans the rise of China's industrial might is something that should have us much more concerned than we are. The rapid rise of America's industrial capacity precipitated our rise as a major global power. Of course it will do the same for China.

With an entire Damocles Armory hanging over the head of society, it isn't too far-fetched a notion that our way of life may change very soon. Whose life will change? I fear every one's life will take a turn for the worse. Nowhere will this be more true than in America.

By any objective measure, Americans live a gluttonous lifestyle. We are five percent of the world's population and we consume 20-25% of the world's energy. We get everything prepackaged and ready to eat from a store.

We in America are, per capita, the most polluting nation on Earth as well. How many sparkling clean SUVs with a single occupant do you see driving down any stretch of the road at any given time? I bet the answer is "a lot."

How many of us live right next door to people we don't know? I don't know most of my neighbors. Our increasing isolation is very, very bad for us as a social species. It is much easier to stand idly by as a complete stranger is mistreated. It's much easier to not be outraged when someone you don't know is laid off or has medical bills that ruin them. It's much easier to stand idly by as the authorities abuse their power when you aren't the one being abused ("First they came for them, but I was not one of them, so I said nothing...")

So I am writing this blog in order to prepare. I am preparing for a change. The good news is that what we will learn together on this journey will be beneficial for not only you, but your environment, your local economy, and yes, young patriots - probably even your nation (whichever nation that is).

There doesn't have to be an Apocalypse in order for you to reap these benefits. The purpose of this blog is to document my family's transition from gluttonous American waster-consumers into a family that lives in more harmony with their environment and their neighbors.

If none of the worst case scenarios come to pass (global climate change, world economic depression brought about by a collapse of the oil-economy, etc) it will be because people took actions like the ones we will discuss. Actions that fall into these two basic categories:

1. Reducing environmental impact
2. Increasing local involvement

Topics for future posts will range from Mad Max to Einstein (not really) to Julia Child. We will discuss preparation for emergencies, cooking healthy, renewable energy and energy efficiency (two topics that cannot be discussed separately).

As I read more books I will include them in the Required Reading section on the right hand side of the page. At this stage I have read Wilderness Survival by Tom Brown and I am just starting The Renewable Energy Handbook by William H. Kemp.