Article – ‘Captain Crunch:’ The DoD Gun Muncher That Has Destroyed 1M Firearms

Your tax dollars at work…destroying your tax dollars.

It’s the place where military weapons go to die.

Once a weapon is marked for destruction, it is sent to Anniston Army Depot, where it will more than likely spend its final moments being chomped apart by the military’s Grim Reaper for guns: “Captain Crunch.”

The massive metal shredder has been in operation since the early 1990s and has used a pair of intertwined blades to chop up more than a million weapons during that time.

You’d think they could at least pull off the ‘non threatening’ stuff like sights, handguards, sears, triggers, stocks, etc, and resell them to bidders for the private market.

You know where there are so many Mosin Nagants floating around? Because the Soviets, after getting caught waaaaaay undergunned during WW2, never destroyed anything. Captured Mausers, Arisakas, etc, etc, all got tucked away in Peoples Glorious Warehouse No. 388 and sat there awaiting the next war. And here we are destroying this stuff. You’d think they could at least resell it and recoup some money. Or just bundle it onto pallets and airdrop it to whoever our current ‘indigenous forces’ allies are.

But..more than likely, Hillary or some other madman will think these things are awesome and every state should have a couple for disposing of those nasty ‘ol guns that those ‘bitter clingers’ love so much.

CostCo ammo cans

I was wandering through CostCo the other day when, much to my surprise, I came across these:

20160213_155204Military ammo cans…or are they? Here was the first clue that these were military-style rather than military-issue or military-surplus: the “.30 can” is packed inside the “.50 can”. I’ve gone through, and continue to go through, a lot of ammo cans. By and large, your average .30 can does not fit in your average .50 can. Oh, maybe you can stuff one in the ‘tall .50′ ..maybe..but these are clearly not the real deal ammo cans.

I looked ’em over fully expecting to see the usual ‘Made In China’ markings but found nothing indicating where these things came from.

I suppose they might be better than some of the plastic ammoc cans but if you want real ammo cans you can still find them here and there. I’ll save my money and pass on the CostCo wannabe’s.

Walking Dead – How long has it been?

Some comments a few posts back made me wonder just how long a period of time has passed in The Walking Dead.

The Walking Dead is in season six. Does that mean six years have passed for the survivors? Of course not. But…how much time has passed?

Assuming that Ricks wife wasn’t carrying on with Shane before Rick went into the coma (although I think he was), you’d have her getting pregnant somewhere within a few weeks of Rick waking up. Since Rick was in a coma for about a month, that puts her getting knocked up somewhere around 2-3 months into things. Assuming a normal gestation period of nine months, youre into one year. The kid is about a year old at this point, but appears to be less than two. So..to my way of thinking, our intrepid band of survivors is living in the ruins somewhere definitely more than two years on , but less than three.

However…if it is indeed less than three years, then Coral has aged rather rapidly for a little kid.

Two-plus years into a collapse and gasoline still seems to be fresh enough to work most modern vehicles, no sign of melted-down nuclear plants, no sign of any remnants of the government, and no presence of foreign nations. Seems a little neat.

ETA: This just doesn’t get old….

The-walking-dead-episode-609-daryl-reedus-4-935

Steel/Hot Lips mag deals

Well this is just a plain darn good deal…

From the guys at MGE Wholesale

That’s a ridiculously awesome price on the Steel Lip mags. Contrast that with $12.99 elsewhere.

Four words to keep in mind: it’s an election year.

(Plus, you know if Obama or Hillary get their way,  Scalia’s replacement isn’t going to be nearly as friendly towards our cause as we’d like. … cough*Heller*cough)

Link – Bush Winch

As they say in the video, you’ll wonder why this was never available before. And it’s not exactly new technology, but I’ve never seen a commercial product like it before.

It’s called the Bush Winch, and it’s quite simple: A large spool attached to your wheel’s lug nuts (special lug nuts are included to permanently replace your factory lug nuts), which winds up a rope as you drive. With the other end of the rope attached to some sort of anchor, you can drive yourself right out of a tight spot.

As you drive, or as you sit in place with your wheels spinning, the rope winds around the spool. When all the slack is taken up, it begins to pull you towards whatever anchor you’re attached to. Pretty dang cool.

I read about using this technique in , I believe, one of Ragnar Benson’s older books. It looks like this company has taken the idea and ran with it.

Whats nice is that unlike many vehicle-mounted winches, this one does not require a bullbar or hitch to attach the winch to. Realistically, a product like this should be part of a larger self-extraction kit of things like Hi-Lift jack, tow ropes/strap, traction aids, etc, etc. But…when that day comes where getting your vehicle stuck may be a Very Bad Thing, this product would make a nice addition to your toolchest of options.

Article – Austrians Need Constitutional Right to Pay in Cash

Austrians should have the constitutional right to use cash to protect their privacy, Deputy Economy Minister Harald Mahrer said, as the European Union considers curbing the use of banknotes and coins.

“We don’t want someone to be able to track digitally what we buy, eat and drink, what books we read and what movies we watch,” Mahrer said on Austrian public radio station Oe1. “We will fight everywhere against rules” including caps on cash purchases, he said.

Signs of the times. It’s bloody convenient to just swipe a card or bump your cellphone to pay for something. And there is a degree of safety that comes from not risking carrying around large amounts of cash. But…safety and convenience aren’t compelling reasons to sacrifice privacy.

‘Cashless society’ is a society where people who you don’t even know have access to knowing what you bought, how much of it, when you bought it, where you bought it, and how much you spent on it. It isn’t hard to imagine that in the name of ‘fighting terrorism’ your several thousand dollar purchase from BobsAmmoEmporium.com will be flagged. Heck, the .gov already drops in onfolks who buy too many guns at once.

cashpaymentThe Austrians have the right idea. Although the right to privacy shouldn’t need to be enumerated somewhere, the encroachments upon it may make it necessary. And I’d rather have an enumeration of the obvious than not have it at all.

In the meantime, cash is always the best way to buy your survival goodies. If not cash, then those prepaid debit cards work well as long as you exercise good security measures and destroy them immediately after use.

Keep watching the news…you’ll see more and more folks in ties and pantsuits standing in front of microphones urging that ‘something’ be done to create ‘common sense’ legislation to restrict large cash purchases … all in the name of fighting terrorism. Ironic, since heavyhanded government intrusion like this is the sorta thing that makes rebels out of citizens to begin with.

Article – State of Jefferson secessionists

The fight to create Jefferson is the longest of long shots, a Hail Mary pass made by folks who are sick of being underrepresented in the state legislature and ignored by California’s urban centers. Cut off from the seats of power by geography, alienated by the state’s left-leaning politics and tendency toward regulation, enduring stubbornly high unemployment, facing the decimation of traditional industries such as logging, and harboring few prospects for economic growth, these disaffected citizens — overwhelmingly white and mostly conservative — share many of the concerns about central state overreach as the militia members who recently took control of a wildlife refuge in Oregon. They, however, are committed to a political solution rather than an armed rebellion.

Every so often, various states talk about seceding and forming their own independent little countries. Usually, it’s Texas or Alaska or a handful of other states. However, it isn’t often theres talk of seceding to form a new state and remain within the union. (A little history from wiki)

Each state in our glorious little union is, essentially, it’s own country. Each one agrees to operate under an agreed upon framework and cede some authority to that collective government, but still retain a degree of autonomy. This is why something that is illegal in California can be perfectly legal in Montana. Once in a while some folks agitate to leave this happy  little family and are forced at gunpoint to stay in the pot with the rest of us lobsters. (See the War Of Southern Overconfidence for an example of this). The practical upshot of this is that if you don’t like the rules/taxes/laws/politics of where you live, you have around 49 other places to try and see if you like better. (Of course, those federal laws and regs are a different matter.) [Tangentially, it seems to me that the Union should be like any other club..high standards to get in, and an open door policy if you want to leave

The notion of seceding from a state, though…that’s a path that hasn’t been trod nearly as much as the one of seceding from the union.

There is probably a huge degree of merit to the claims being made….California is a big state and it’s ludicrous to think that the guys living in the hills of northern California should have to bend knee to the polices coming outta Sacramento that are written for the mostly urban southern regions of the state. Kinda like how the folks up in Albany shouldnt subject the rest of the state to the laws meant for NYC.

As a ‘rugged individualist’-type, I like the idea of a bunch of like-minded folks staking out a piece of land and setting up their own system of rules. Of course, thats as long as those are rules that I like. But, as I said, there’s 49 other states I can try out if the .gov in this state gets too heavy handed for me. But…pulling up and heading for greener pastures is only an option after youve tried fixing the situation at home first.

Nothing will become of the state of Jefferson. It’ll be a nice little novelty show, but it would set a precedent for things like East and West Colorado, North and South New York, Upper Michigan and LowerMichigan, etc, etc. Ain’t gonna happen…not officially, anyway. There are plenty of ‘invisible borders’ and boundaries in various states..making them official is just not in the cards, methinks.

But…I salute the spirit of the Jeffersonians, in a very ‘Moon Is A Harsh Mistress’ kind of way.

The view, politics, Otterbox Defender

Living in Montana isn’t always sunshine n’ stun grenades. There’s seven months of winter, jobs are hard to come by, there’s some narrow-mindedness, and its damn expensive to fly anywhere from here. But….when you can drive ten minutes out of town and be knee-deep in things like this…well, then it’s almost worth it.

20160206_130910Nice, right?

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In other news, I haven’t mentioned that silver is heading towards $15/oz. so it might be time to give the Metals Pimp a holler and get while the getting is good. Speaking of the Pimp, I saw him today and he palmed a pair of silver rounds and told me they were a gift from one of you crazy paranoid survivalists who was a loyal reader. So..whomever that mysterious benefactor is, thank you…I will sing your praises as I use that silver to barter for food and skimpy clothing for the desperate-yet-still-hot college coeds that come to me seeking shelter as the Aryan blood gangs and rogue military units storm across the post-apocalyptic landscape scavenging for supplies.

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Watching the political news is an exercise in disbelief. Young, impressionable, college-age kids are drawn to a out-n-proud socialist, while the closet socialist is clamoring that you should vote for her because she’s a woman, rather than on her merits. On the other side of the fence, everyone’s loud uncle is leading the pack and the also-rans are all trying to catch up.

It seems like every year since 1988 we’ve been saying “This will be the most important election ever”…until the next one. Then that one becomes ‘the most important’.

Oy vey.

Well, at least I have beautiful scenery to bask in as Rome burns.

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Had a little ‘oops’ with my celphone a few weeks back. Specifically, several ‘oopsies’ as my phone was run over repeatedly by traffic. The screen was destroyed, but I was able to get it replaced for $125. The rest of the phone worked fine..in fact it started ringing even as I was examining the amazingly shattered screen. Why’d it survive? Otterbox Defender, baby. Yes, it will make your phone a bit bulkier….boo hoo. I routinely drop my phone and have it land on a hard surface on one of its corners. And it survives just fine. When i stand in line at the post office I see plenty of people with iPhones with cracked screens and they all have those little thin rubber sleeves on their phones that offer virtually no protection. Get the Otterbox Defender and, yeah, your phone will be a bit bulkier in your pocket, but it is going to survive next time you drop it, sit on it, or watch it bounce down a fligh of stairs. Zero recommends!

 

Article – U.S. eyes ways to toughen fight against domestic extremists

Here’s a civil liberties can-of-worms waiting to happen:

But federal prosecutors tackling domestic extremists still lack an important legal tool they have used extensively in dozens of prosecutions against Islamic State-inspired suspects: a law that prohibits supporting designated terrorist groups.

While foreign groups can be classified as ‘terrorist groups’ and any support given to them be considered criminal, it hasn’t applied to US groups.

So..who is to say what a domestic terrorist group is? The Klan? The Black Panthers? Greenpeace? Earth First? The JDL? The NRA?

This sort of thing will run smack into the wall of Amendment One, but by the time that makes it way to the Supreme Court there’ll be plenty of folks cooling their heels in a federal cell somewhere.

It’s a slippery slope to try and say whats a terrorist group and what isn’t. The easy definition would be any group that goes beyond theory and gets into practice. Or, put another way, when the talkers become doers. But…that ol’ bugaboo of ‘conspiracy’ comes into play. Get three guys sitting around a table who drink a few beers and talk about how they’d ‘straighten out those guys’ and -whammo- conspiracy. Nevermind that they couldn’t get past the warm-up levels in Call Of Duty.

Certainly, this sort of demonization fits into the current practice of marginalizing particular groups to make their persecution, usually through the legal system, more palatable to the rest of us.

This is definitely something to keep an eye on.