Great post from Preparing For Tyranny:

Shortly after class, an economics student approaches his economics professor and says, “I don’t understand this stimulus bill. Can you explain it to me?”

The professor replied, “I don’t have any time to explain it at my office, but if you come over to my house on Saturday and help me with my weekend project, I’ll be glad to explain it to you.” The student agreed.

At the agreed-upon time, the student showed up at the professor’s house. The professor stated that the weekend project involved his backyard pool.

They both went out back to the pool, and the professor handed the student a bucket. Demonstrating with his own bucket, the professor said, “First, go over to the deep end, and fill your bucket with as much water as you can.” The student did as he was instructed.

The professor then continued, “Follow me over to the shallow end, and then dump all the water from your bucket into it.” The student was naturally confused, but did as he was told.

The professor then explained they were going to do this many more times, and began walking back to the deep end of the pool.

The confused student asked, “Excuse me, but why are we doing this?”

The professor matter-of-factly stated that he was trying to make the shallow end much deeper.

The student didn’t think the economics professor was serious, but figured that he would find out the real story soon enough.

However, after the 6th trip between the shallow end and the deep end, the student began to become worried that his economics professor had gone mad. The student finally replied, “All we’re doing is wasting time and effort. Even worse, when this process is all over, everything will be at the same level it was before, so all you’ll really have accomplished is the loss of what could have been truly productive action!”

The professor put down his bucket and replied with a smile, “Congratulations. You now understand the stimulus bill.”

http://pft2009.blogspot.com/2009/02/o-mans-speech-explained.html

Indystar.com featured an article Sunday that highlights a serious violation of gun owner’s rights in the city:  in cases where gun owners have their guns stolen, they must be fingerprinted by police to get them back.  Here’s an excerpt:

The rule, adopted decades ago, requires gun owners cleared of a crime to provide fingerprints before they can recover a gun from the police property room. Indianapolis’ rule is more stringent than those of similar-size cities in the Midwest and could lead to the destruction of legally owned guns.

Read the entire story here

Between the Obama election and the downturn of the economy, the news on ammunition shortages isn’t getting any better.

Excerpt from The Orlando Sentinel :

Most in demand is handgun ammunition, including 9 mm and .45-caliber for semiautomatic pistols and .38-caliber for revolvers. Clerks at local Walmart stores, including Apopka and Kissimmee, say those sizes, along with .22-caliber, are on back order at the chain’s warehouses.

You read the whole story here.

All of with food stores know to keep checking and rotating old stock to keep things fresh.  But what about those cans and boxes with the unreadable codes?  Here’s a good link to help decipher:

Cheat Sheet from Consumerist

While we’re on the subject, here’s a great link for shelf lifes of dehydrated foods and some rotation tips:

Shelf Live of Dehydrated Foods

It’s always kinda weird when the Government actually gives you something that’s both useful and free… but today I present to you just that!  The U.S. Forest Service offers a wonderful book called An Ax To Grind: A Practical Ax Manual that covers all the basics of sharpening, caring for, and using an Ax.  In fact, they have a number of useful publications and guides here, covering all sorts of information.  Click around and see what they have to offer.  In just a few minutes of surfing I found:

Alternative Roofing Materials: A Guide for Historic Structures

Personal Water Treatment Devices

Crosscut Saw Manual

With the election of Obama, gun owners are potentially facing some of the most stringent gun laws this country has ever seen from a Federal level.  Add that to the dizzying array of state laws and you practically need a slide rule to figure out what’s legal and illegal.

The NRA has a wealth of information on each state’s gun laws here.  Print out a couple of copies and keep one at home and one in your car so you are ALWAYS informed of what your rights are.  If you are travelling from one state to another, make sure to print out the destination state’s laws as well.

http://www.nraila.org/GunLaws/

Do you know how to properly keep your knives and tools sharpened?  Leonard Lee’s The Complete Guide To Sharpening has been on my bookshelves for several years and is considered one of the best texts on the subject.  From properly using water and oil stones, diamond honers, bench grinders and sandpaper on a number of various instruments, Leonard’s classic should be in your library.

Michael at Tiny Pallet House has a pretty cool concept for those frugal survivalist types: Build a house for free out of pallets and other reclaimed materials!  This is a great idea for those lucky enough to own some retreat land but don’t have the funds to build a cabin or retreat for now.  It might not survive a tornado, but would definitely be better than trying to live out in the elements in case of TEOTWAWKI.

Michael isn’t the only person building tiny houses either.  Check out:

http://www.tinyhousedesign.com/

http://www.ninetinyfeet.com/

http://tinyhouseblog.com/

Excerpt from a Times Online article.  Read the full article here.

Icelanders all but stormed their Parliament last night. It was the first session of the chamber after what might appear to be an unusually long Christmas break.

Ordinary islanders were determined to vent their fury at the way that the political class had allowed the country to slip towards bankruptcy. The building was splattered with paint and yoghurt, the crowd yelled and banged pans, fired rockets at the windows and lit a bonfire in front of the main door. Riot police moved in.

Now in the grand sweep of the current crisis, a riot on a piece of volcanic rock in the north Atlantic may not seem to add up to much. But it is a sign of things to come: a new age of rebellion.

The financial meltdown has become part of the real economy and is now beginning to shape real politics. More and more citizens on the edge of the global crisis are taking to the streets. Bulgaria has been gripped this month by its worst riots since 1997 when street power helped to topple a Socialist government. Now Socialists are at the helm again and are having to fend off popular protests about government incompetence and corruption.

Reposted from Survivalblog.com:

If the next few years go the way some are expecting, and the country moves in the direction of an authoritarian socialist state, the gray man will do some things his friends may not expect nor initially agree with:

The gray man will put a pro-government bumper sticker on his vehicle, in contrast with the beliefs in his heart.

The gray man will smile when the police come to his door to collect his firearms. He’ll happily hand over his registered weapons at the door and thank the officers for their work, while his cache of unregistered weapons is safely hidden away.

He’ll be first in line to receive his sub-dermal ID chip, and will smile as it is implanted. He’ll then return home and remove it himself, treat and stitch the wound himself, wear long-sleeve shirts until the wound heals, and rub the scar with oil until it disappears. He’ll carry the chip under his sleeve or inside his watch so as to blend in with society, until such time as he wishes not to be seen or tracked.

He’ll gladly take his government issued credit card, and will use it for regular purchases like groceries and gasoline. However, on the weekends he’ll leave it on his coffee table next to his ID chip, and he’ll take his silver coins and ammunition to the illegal farmer’s market for barter and open discussion.

He’ll go to the library and check out the books on the government’s suggested reading list and use them as examples to quietly teach his children what not to believe.

If one day he and his family should disappear, the authorities will check their databases. They’ll see that his car has not passed through any turnpike billing checkpoints. They’ll see that his credit card has not been used anywhere unusual. They’ll see via their satellite RFID map that all members of his family are still located in their home, and they are currently viewing government programs on their internet-television.

Days will pass, and they’ll go to his home and see that his vehicle is gone. They’ll enter and find a small pile of ID chips sitting next to a government credit card and a RFID turnpike billing pass. Next to this will be a note, thanking the officers for their good work. - E.