Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.

Anyone remember the scene in the Star Trek movie where Spock goes to talk to Kirk about bringing hostilities with the Klingons to an end?
Spock: They are dying.
Kirk: Let. Them. Die.

That’s pretty much the attitude I’d like to have about places like North Korea. You have the last bastion of Stalinist Communism shutting itself off from the world and occasionally lobbing missles over Japan and into the ocean to extort other nations to feed them. Now part of me says ‘let them starve’. Unfortunately the simple truth is that while that may be satisfying, it’s a problem. If the world really did turn its back on the North Koreans they’d truly have no reason to not do something dramatic. So….we feed them and demand token concessions and make a big deal about it when they do agree to those concessions.

North Korea really is a fascinating case in terms of threat. They are, far and away, the best example of the ‘cult of personality’ and probably the number one candidate for the title of ‘most megalomanical world leader’ now that Saddam is out of the running and into the ground. Their leader , according to the DPRK press, is perfect…he can read several novels a night, has photographic memory, got 18 holes-in-one on his first golf outing, writes besteselling books, and can fly around the earth really fast to make time run backwards. (Okay, I made that last part up.)

On one hand, its not really our problem. When the DPRK gets hungry enough, and can psyche themselves into a frenzy, they’ll go into China. Even the Chinese don’t trust them. On the other hand, if they ever do perfect nuclear weapons technology they can always find a market for their product and that product can easily wind up in a Portland cargo facility with a timer.

There was an article years ago in some Pacific Asian newswire about how the remains of a DPRK missle were found in Alaska. The suggestion was that the North Koreans were finally capable of making a missle that could reach the US…even if somewhat tangentially.

How does this relate to me? Or, to put it in a better context, how is this on-topic? Well, I suppose its on-topic in the sense that theres still the chance, no matter how remote, of an actual Cold War style nuclear attack. More likely, they’ll continue to bluster about their awesome military capacity and how it’ll rule the world…unless we deliver a couple hundred thousand tons of rice or grain to them. And, what with rice prices and availability being what they are, that  particular  bribing mechanism may not work in the future.

I suppose that if the DPRK ever does decide they have nothing left to lose you’d see some sort of attack on Japan or China, maybe even some ‘finishing of business’ with South Korea, a disruption of Pacific trade, the possible Chinese takeover of Taiwan (since we’ll have our hands tied up with other stuff), or a ‘brush war’ between China and North Korea. Who knows. For now, the news reports hint that there may be another famine going on in North Korea and as we all know hungry people are dangerous people.

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Went to the LDS cannery last night. Its really quite a facility to have available for ones family to use. The shelves were much better stocked than last time I was there and there were quite a few more people there as well. I was there just to show my face and try to become a bit less of a stranger. Musta worked…one gal commented that she remembered me from the last time I was there and the guy running the place seemed to remember me as well. This is good. Although I normally would prefer to be forgettable in matters like this, I would like these folks to be familiar enough with me that if I ever go up there on my own they’ll be perfectly cool with that. We’ll see. I didn’t pick up anything for myself fexcept a few cans of dehydrated onions. Theres an old Jewish saying about how the first thing you do when you cook is that you fry an onion. Why? “It makes the house smell nice!” I think theres some truth to that. I went to bed last night mentally going through the long term food inventory and trying to imagine what I could make using stored foods exclusively. The onions give me a little more flexibility. I’ve noticed that the only form of preserved onions available in the supermarket are small ‘cocktail’-type onions. None of my canning references mention canning anything other than small whole pearl onions. Im guessing that when an onion is cut open it reduces its suitability for canning…hence, the only onions I find in markets being small whole onions. So having the dehydrated onions opens up a nice new avenue for cooking. Whats really nice about the LDS stuff is that its cheap enough that I can crack open a can of this stuff and try it out without feeling that Im wasting money.

The prices up at the LDS cannery are quite good (it is, after all, pretty much a non-profit enterprise) and someday when Im a little more secure with how Im viewed there I’m going to do the Big Trip and come away with a large quantity of goodies. The nice thing is that I get to see how all this stuff is processed and assist in that process. I know exactly what goes in those cans and where it came from. I gotta say, those Mormons seriously have their act together in regards to this sort of thing. If it weren’t for that whole believing in god thing I’d join up today. (I know, you’re asking “Why not just fake it, tell them you believe and sign up?”. Well, on some weird level I think that would be just too dishonest to these folks. And while Im not above lying to people to get what I want [esp. if what I want will give me an advantage in the uncertain future] I just like the Mormons too much to do that. Odd, but that’s how I feel. Perhaps I simply haven’t dealt with enough of them to develop the necessary cynicism, but so far with very few exceptions I’ve pretty much liked every Mormon I ever met. And, thus far, they’ve been pretty nice to me so that buys a bit of loyalty.)

Speaking of food storage, you know how the biggest thing you’ll hear over and over again is “Store what you eat, and eat what you store”? We’ve actually been doing pretty well at that. For example, theres a couple cases of soup in the bunker. Three cans get pulled out and moved to the kitchen for use, the clipboard is marked –3 in the soup column and next trip to the store gets 3 more cans to replace the used ones. In this manner things are rotated. Although everything is date coded by the factory I still take a Sharpie and write the date of purchase on the lids…makes it easier to grab old stock for use.