The Angry Jew

The rantings of an Angry Jew in The Pacific Northwest

My most recent piece was reposted by long time reader Brent on his own Facebook page and garnered two very interesting comments from some folks who have a diametrically opposed viewpoint.

I asked for their permission to repost their comments here and to continue the conversation in this forum but as yet I have received no response so my own ethical standards prevent me from posting their arguments in favor of a complete ban on semi automatic weapons.  They were good arguments and I want to address a few general points before I proceed.

I am willing and desire to have a conversation on this issue.  Yes, I am pro private ownership of assault weapons, however I do believe we need to rethink who may own these weapons.  In much the same way that the 1st amendment does not exist to protect “popular” speech, the second amendment does not exist to protect my right to only own hunting or sporting arms.  The 2nd Amendment exists to insure that we, as a people, can never be enslaved by a totalitarian Government.

I believe that this is something that has and will be debated in homes and courthouses across our nation for many years to come.

Yes, as I stated, I was trotting out the “same old tired arguments”, including the knife analogy because no matter how many times they have been used, I still feel they are valid points.  I also believe that the arguments in favor of weapons bans and restrictions  “old and tired” as they may be, are equally valid.  This debate has raged on for years, and as we become more and more polarized as a society I fear we will draw ourselves farther and farther away from any kind of meaningful progress in arresting our societal decline.

We must take action now, but, we must take the right action and to do that we need to set aside the strong emotions of the moment and deal with the practical reality of the situation we now face.

We, as a nation, have historically not done well with prohibition.  Its just not in our nature.  The idea of banning the private ownership of all semi automatic weapons is never going to happen.  If you were to ban the private ownership of semi automatic assault weapons, millions of Americans who already legally own these weapons would have to be compensated for their property.  We are talking billions of dollars here.  My two assault rifles retailed for $600 and $800 respectively and that does not include the cost of legal modifications I have made.  They have been appraised for insurance purposes at around $2500.

Folks, we can barely pay for school lunches and we are about to reduce our armed forces to three guys with BB guns because our elected officials cant figure out a way to balance our national check book.

Add to this the impact on manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers.  We are talking thousands of jobs and billions of dollars that will be lost.  We would see  a huge impact on our already fragile economy.  Now before you get yourself all worked up into a snit, I am not saying that dollars are more important then lives.  We are talking about the practical reality of a ban on all semi automatic weapons.

It pains me to say this but politicians, like all parasites, are primarily interested in their own survival.  While they may publicly shed crocodile tears over the innocent lives lost, they will ultimately do whatever is in their own best interests.

I may be wrong, I was, once, long ago, but I just don’t see the government as being able to muster enough support to enact a total ban.

So where does that leave us?

The best we can hope for is the reintroduction of the Assault Weapons Ban of 1994.  But what did that really accomplish?

It prevented the sale of weapons with certain characteristics.  For rifles such as the AR15, our current villain,  It meant you could only have one of the following features;

• A pistol grip
• A folding or collapsible stock
• A bayonet lug
• A threaded barrel that would allow the installation of a suppressor or flash hider.  That did not mean it could not have a flash hider, it just had to be permanently attached
• A grenade launcher

Most people on both sides of the ban agreed that these changes were mostly cosmetic in nature and did nothing to effect the lethality of the weapons.  The ban also imposed a 10 round limit on detachable box magazines.

Is bringing back this law going to make us any safer?

The short answer is no.

The law had no effect on weapons or magazines that were already in private hands.  Weapons were still being manufactured and sold with the cosmetic changes I mentioned above.

In short my friends, it is my opinion that assault weapons, in one form or another, are going to be with us for many years to come.  It may not be right, it may not be just and it may not be fair, but, it is a practical reality that we may have to life with.

So now we need to talk about just how we can do this.  In the near future I will put forth some ideas to that end.  Until then I urge all of you to engage your friends and neighbors, no matter what side of the issue you stand on, and lets work together to find some solutions before more innocent lives are wasted.

I will probably take some heat for this one, but frankly, I am beyond caring.

The two recent gun related tragedies, here in Oregon and the senseless slaughter in Connecticut are on their way to becoming political issues which will have a major impact on all Americans.  In the “Fast Food” instant gratification society we have become, the majority of sheeple are going to demand something be done NOW, in the heat of the moment instead after somber and quiet contemplation and a national discussion of the root causes of these tragic events.

First and foremost, while it may not be as sexy as flashing images of assault rifles and tossing around military buzz words like “highcap”, where is the media focus on the systematic dismantling of the mental health care system in this country?  Why are there not more resources allocated to identifying and getting treatment to these disturbed individuals?  By there very nature, anyone contemplating taking up arms and going out in a “blaze of glory” is at best mentally disturbed and at worst psychotic.  As we have learned from prior incidents and as I am sure will be proven out in the weeks and months to follow, the perpetrators of these atrocities were ostracized and bullied.

In the early days of The Angry Jew, I had occasion to become involved with an Oregon teacher by the name of Jenny Brown, who lost her job after writing and producing a play, Higher Ground, to be performed by her students, that realistically  portrayed bullying and methods for dealing with it.  The local school board felt it was too graphic for middle school aged children.  I can’t help but wonder if only we as adults accepted that the modern school yard is not the one we grew up in, that the instant gratification society we have created has filtered down to the children we raise and that in the violence filled world we have created, would we be dealing with these types of incidents.

And where is the medias responsibility in all this?  Has not the time come to stop turning these killers into media stars.  How many disenfranchised youths are right now watching the media blitz surrounding these events and and saying “Fuck Yeah, thats how I am going out.”  Kinkle, Kiebold, Harris, McVeigh.  I dont have to tell you who they are or how they pertain to this story.  You know because there names were burned into your brains by the media, but answer me this, can you name a single one of their victims.  No fair using Google here to salve your soul.  The fact is that bloodshed sells advertising and it’s the money that is important.

But that is all OK.  None of that matters, because we have the solution to all the ills of society before us.  Its as plain as the nose on our faces, and we will do it.  We will do it because it is fast, it is sexy and it will sell advertising.

It will also accomplish nothing.

We are going to ban high capacity magazines.  As I heard a politician, a pro gun Republican I might add, say tonight on ABC News, “You don’t need a thirty round magazine to hunt deer.”  You know something, he’s right.  I own and shoot assault rifles.  I have magazines ranging from five rounds to thirty and you know something, the only difference between them is how often I have to change them.  It takes right around two seconds to change a magazine.  All a high cap ban would cause me to do is carry more of them and change them more frequently.  How is that any safer?  How does that save lives?

Ahh, but if we ban the assault rifles then the problem is solved.

Is it?

While it is a tired and sad argument, just about anything can be used as a weapon by a determined person.  Just ask the guy in China who used a knife and injured 22 children.  Its going to be kind of hard to cut your steak with a spoon, so I suppose we could ban steak as well, high cholesterol and all that.

Of course a civilian like me has no business owning a military style weapon.  Lets look at that.  A civilian assault rifle is a semi automatic weapon.  For those out there who are not knowledgeable about such things,  it means that each time the trigger is pulled, a single round is fired.  Military versions of these weapons are capable of firing three round bursts with each trigger pull and in the case of the AK47, they will continue to fire for as long as the trigger is pulled.  It is an operating system that has been around since the introduction of the M1 Garand rifle during World War 2.  Unfortunately, military style assault weapons are not the only weapons to use a semi automatic operating system.  Many hunting and sporting arms also operate as semi automatic.  Do we ban them as well?

Is it the military style of the weapon that is the problem.  Is it really just that simple?  Does the appearance of a weapon make it more deadly?  Are we really going to solve a national crisis with cosmetics.

Perhaps it is the cartridge ?  Is that it.  The military round that it fires.  To be honest, and don’t take my word for it, ask any soldier who has come back from the parties we have thrown in the desert, the 5.56 cartridge, or .223 to us civilians, is a pretty piss poor man stopper.  There are plenty of hunting cartridges that deliver a far more devastating wound.  The 223 was adopting in the 1960s as a political move rather then for it’s ability to put down an enemy.  Most of the combat vets I know would much rather have a weapon firing the heavier 7.62 round, hence it still be used by Special Operations forces in the venerable M14.

Maybe we should ban everything larger then a pistol caliber.  Right?  That will fix it.  Oh wait, opps, bad news.  It seems that handguns are the weapon of choice for criminals with the 9mm coming in first, followed closely by the 22 and 38.  Interestingly enough, the 25 caliber “Saturday Night Special” was the weapon of choice, until the government stepped in and banned them, forcing those intent on doing wrong to move to higher caliber, and deadlier weapons.

All of this is moot, since, criminals and those intent on doing evil, are by there very nature, going to ignore any bans we put in place.

I know you have heard it before but all a ban is going to to do is make criminals of law abiding gun owners.

So what are the solutions?

Some of the things I would be in favor of  would be a increased criminal databases that would include mental health information to preclude those who have been found to be mentally unstable from obtaining weapons.  Stiffer penalties for the improper storage or illegal sales of weapons and certification for gun owners.  These are things that could have a meaningful impacts on the epidemic of gun violence in our country.

Of course, it would mean having to sit down and talk about it BEFORE we take any action.

 

OK Sherman, set The Way Back Machine for 2009.

Everyone and his uncle was terrified of another swine flu epidemic.

Enter a drug company named Roche and their wonder drug Tamiflu.

It was reported that Tamiflu would reduce the severity and duration of flu symptoms as well as slow the transmission of the virus.  The world rejoices and governments and individuals begin to stockpile the drug. Our own Government spent 1.5 Billion of your tax dollars making sure that we would have enough to go around if a pandemic broke out.

Everyone breaths easier, the world is saved, life goes on.

Except for one minor little detail.

A recent review by a British medical journal says there is no data to support the drug makers assertion about the drugs two most important claims, that it can reduce severe symptoms such as pneumonia and that it reduces transmission of the virus.  About all the researchers can confirm is that it will reduce the length of symptoms, by about 21 hours.

What makes me believe that the claims of these researchers is where I found the story.

Hidden away in a two inch column in today’s bushiness section.  A little bit of research led me to this New York Times Article.

Friends, I don’t pretend to understand the methods used for testing new drugs, about how they are reviewed and about how the decisions are made to use them, but I have to think that if the Government is going to spend over billion of MY dollars to buy something, then it had better be the best thing available.

I don’t know if this is a case of a drug company pulling a fast one by not doing their due diligence, like that never happens, or yet another government boondoggle, but I know it underscores a point I have made time and time again.

It is the responsibility of each and every one of us to be aware of what is going on.  Take twenty minutes a day, read the newspaper, search online, question the actions of your government, be vocal in your opposition to waste, fraud and abuses of power.

If the recent elections have taught us anything it is that as long as we refuse to take responsibility for our own governance, as long as we sit mute and allow the ruling class we have established in Washington and State Houses across the nation to serve their own interests instead of ours, as long as we allow apathy and conceit to rule our actions, we will never again see the day when we are truly a democracy for and by the people.

Sorry for being away for so long.  Between work, vacation and all of other life’s little interruptions there has just been enough time to get all my brain droppings out.

Lots of stuff to talk about here in Angry Jew land.

Most importantly, Miz Mona and I tied the knot a week ago and so far, married life is pretty darned good.  Now that things have settled down, I am sure we will have many adventures to share.  We have been going out and trying new places.  I have been doing a bit of writing on Yelp, feel free to follow me there.

Hurricane Sandy, while tragic, has proved the importance of being prepared and I hope it will inspire you to look closely at your own situation and use the tips I have provided in The Angry Jew Survival Guide to  insure you and yours have the means to fend for yourselves should the worst happen.  I have two articles underway currently “Do I Need A Weapon” a multi part series on weapons and survival and “Emergency Heating”, which I am currently researching.  Please post any comments, suggestions or tips you might have.

Be on the lookout for a bunch of changes to the site after the first of the year.  A lot of stuff is badly out of date and I need to get on the stick and get this site back up to speed.

I thank you all for your continued support of The Angry Jew and I hope that if you enjoy what I have been writing, you will continue to spread the word.

Miz Mona and I just finished our annual three day trip to Pacific City on the beautiful Oregon coast today.  The weather was fantastic, we met lots of interesting people, saw some great views and enjoyed some incredible meals.  So, it stands to reason, given my relaxed demeanor and overall pleasant exhaustion, that something as simple as a trip to the grocery store would lead to a classic Angry Jew moment.

We had gotten home around two this afternoon, unpacked, started some laundry and generally caught up with all those little details that need to be caught up on when you have been away from home for a few days.  Our original plan had been to head out tonight to see some friends perform at a local watering hole, but the week had caught up with us and we were beat and just wanted to be slugs.

Miz Mona offered to make her Super Salad, her version of a chefs salad on steroids, if I would make the grocery run.  I was a little grumpy, but I agreed.  We both needed to get some “good” food into us.

So I headed out to the local grocery store and gathered our supplies.

I lucked into an open check out line, usually at this time of day this store is jammed, and began to unload my cart onto the belt.  I exchanged banal pleasantries with the guy at the register as he started to ring up my order.

My cart was just about empty when a woman shoved past me and walked up to my checker.

She was a well dressed, well preserved fiftysomething with one of those bullet proof hairstyles.  Her Dolce Gabana purse probably cost more then our hotel at the beach and you just knew there had to be a black Escalade in the parking lot with her name on it.

You know the type.

Anyway, she walks up to the checker with three items in her hand and asks the checker, and I am not making this up, if he can interrupt MY order as she is very late and there are lines at all the Uscans and express lanes.

Really?  Really???

Her tone when making this request was one of a superior to an underling, haughty and rude.

The young man, to his credit, took it in stride and quietly explained that he would be done with my order in just a minute and he would be happy to get her on her way just as fast as possible.

By this time I had moved to the payment terminal and had a little bit of a grin on my face.

Kudos to you young man, I thought.  Well handled with that extra dollop of syrupy faux courtesy that is the retail employees only way of saying “Fuck You” to a customer that is being a real asshole.

Alas, the bitch was not so easily placated.

She proceeded to lay into the guy, as if the high volume of the store was planned, by him, to interfere with her poorly executed plans.  She ranted about the poor staffing, the high prices, low quality and the rudeness of the staff.

The last one sent me from grinning to growling in exactly .032 seconds.

Maybe it was Miz Mona telling me this almost exact same story on a weekly, if not daily, basis as she too works for a large grocery chain.

Maybe it was the fact that she was invading my quiet, post vacation calm.

Maybe it was the fact she was a haughty bitch who needed to be taken down one very large peg.

Maybe it was all three.

All I know is that I erupted.

“Listen lady, it is not this mans fault that you are late, it’s yours.  Perhaps you should leave yourself some extra time if you plan on stopping into a grocery store at 5 o’clock on a Friday.  Did someone forget to teach you courtesy when you were little?  Why don’t you do us both a favor, take a few steps back, attempt to do an impression of a reasonable human being and let this guy finish MY order so he can get both me and your rude ass out of the store.”

To her credit, she actually tried to respond.

She got one word out when I raised a single finger to my lips, shushed her, and then took three steps towards her making move along motions with my other hand.

She retreated and the checker, doing his best not to grin and failing horribly, finished my order in record time.  A quick glance around my immediate vicinity revealed more then a few grins.

A young lady checking in the next lane gave me a subdued thumbs up.

My work her was done.

“Thank you Mr Jew” he said, reading my name off the receipt.  “It was a PLEASURE having you shop with us today.

I looked at the fuming woman behind me, gave her a wink and then replied,

“The pleasure was all mine.”

I was wrong about one thing though.  It was a BMW Z4 that flew out of the parking lot, not an Escalade.

I never claimed to be perfect.

 

I’m done, finished, used up, hitting empty.

I don’t know if I am going to share this post, it’s more for me then for you.  If you are reading this then you might want to click off to another page, because there may even be some whining.

I have been working 6 days weeks since Labor Day.  My shortest day is nine hours, my longest 12 and a half.  I did get to leave early one night.

I am not eating as well as I should, drinking too much, I have become socially isolated with little time for friends and family.  Mona and I pass like the proverbial ships in the night, our schedules allowing us and hour or two of overlap.

My weekends consist of getting what sleep I can on Saturday morning, spend most of my available awake time doing all the things I didn’t have time to do during the week and staying up all night so I can sleep most of the day Sunday and do it all over again.

My work performance is suffering, I am not doing the self care I need to do to keep The Black Dog Days (Winston Churchill’s term for his own chronic depression) at bay.  Slights seem magnified, small problems grow into huge frustrations.  I fight every day to keep my rage in check, my mouth under control.  It has been almost a year since I have to had to see my therapist or take3 any kind of medical leave for mental health issues

Last week we had a pretty serious fire at work.  I wont bore you with the details, suffice to say that it involved some pretty flammable stuff and I was able to get it extinguished using the equipment we had on hand and my Navy training as a firefighter.  It could have been a lot worse, I know because all of the possible scenarios have been played out in my nightmares over the last week.

The only thing keeping me going is Mona’s love and understanding, she really has put up with a LOT of CRAP, and that I am five or six days away from a week off.

I hope I can keep it together that long.

I’m sorry for not keeping in touch with you all.  I am sure it will be better after I get some down time to decompress and put everything in perspective.

 

I dream a lot.

I always have, even as a kid, and unlike most people, I tend to remember them.  My dreams are in wide screen, technicolor and often feature a cast of thousands.

Sometimes, when I wake up, I will share a particularly interesting dream with Miz Mona.  My descriptions usually leave her shaking her head and muttering to herself that there is way too much going on in my head.

This is the dream I had today.

I am walking down a city street.  I am here in Portland.  I have to catch a bus to get home.  I am walking with a friend.  I don’t recognize him, but he is a very pleasant fellow.

We pass a bar and look through the large plate glass window.  It looks like the bar from those pictures where Marilyn and Elvis are having a drink and James Dean is tending bar.  You know the one.

I smell freshly baked bread and can see the man behind the counter taking fresh loaves from the oven.

We walk in and the man behind the bar begins slicing them open and making huge sandwiches.

“Would you like one?”

“Sure”

He slides me a sandwich and a PBR.

It is incredible.

My friend is gone and I am surrounded by hipsters.

They are talking about an idea for a bar of their own.  They call it The Booty Bar.  They want all the women in town with the biggest booties to hang out there.  I congratulate them on wanting to have a place where larger women can feel comfortable.  They scowl at me and tell me I don’t get it.  They want to gather them all together and make fun of them. 

They tell me I have to leave.

I have a bus to catch.  I can see it coming down the street, so I run to the bus stop.

There is a van parked next to the bus stop.  It is surrounded by people in purple choir robes singing gospel hymns.  There is a preacher telling them how we must all love the children, they are our only hope.

The bus stops.

I climb the stairs.  It is more like a Greyhound then a city bus.

There are couches and chairs upholstered in worn velvet, it looks like the club car of an old fashioned train.  I take a seat next to an elderly black man who looks a lot like Sammy Davis Jr..  He starts to choke and cough.  I realize the cigarette I have cupped in my hand is smoldering.  He scowls and slides me an ashtray.

I am embarrassed and try to make amends.  I pull a half filled bottle of rum from my backpack and offer him a drink.  He pulls out a bottle of Coke and starts to mix us each a drink, still scowling.

The Bus Driver comes back and says he thought he smelled something.

I don’t know if he means the cigarette or the rum, but I realize that I never paid my fare. 

He tells me I have to get off the bus and go down the stairs and talk to the man dressed in red on red.

I walk down a long flight of stairs and see two men dressed in red and black flannel shirts with the sleeves cut off and black leather kilts.  One of them is Tig from Sons of Anarchy.  I tell them the bus driver sent me.

They back me into a corner and tell me I fucked up, that I should have paid my fare and now I am going to pay for it.  I tell them I have money, I just forgot.  They say tough shit and march me over to a counter. 

“We have another one for the SHU” says Tig.

Why are they sending me to The Secure Housing Unit?  All I did was forget to pay my bus fare.

The woman behind the counter reads off the address of an old apartment of mine, I hand her my ID and tell her that my current address is on there.

Tig slams me against the counter and says that not having my current address on file is going to cost me more time in the SHU.

Events are spinning out of control.

Two cops show up to take me away.

I scream at a portly man, I know he is the manager, that I have the money to pay the fare, I pull a wad of bills from my pocket and toss them on the counter.  The portly man laughs and sets a small child, a little girl, on the counter as he counts the money.

I wave at the little girl and she waves back.

I make a funny face and she smiles.

Her smile makes it all OK.  We all smile.  The room is brighter.  The manager tells Tig to let me go.  That I paid my fare, I made the little girl smile.

I wake up at that moment.  I look at the clock and realize I have only gotten 5 1/2 hours of sleep with a 12 hour shift at work ahead of me.

I don’t care.

I feel great.

I made a child smile and sometimes, that is all you need.

FOX News reported today that a group of 6 Senators, 5 Republicans and independent Joe Lieberman, released letters from 13 defense contractors bemoaning the detrimental effect the upcoming mandatory budget cuts to defense will have if they are allowed to kick in.

The move was an effort to pressure the White House to come up with a deficit reduction plan that will keep the cuts from happening.

Scarily enough, I agree.

But,, not for the same reasons as the Republicans.

You see, the cuts are being made in all the wrong places.

If you really want to save money, the first thing you have to do is fire the fucking Admirals and Generals who have allowed the procurement process to become a money gobbling welfare program for the defense industry.

I am all for a strong defense.  My motto is “Walk softly and carry a compact Glock 45.”

There was a time when Admirals and Generals looked out for the best interests of their war fighters, making sure they had the best weapons systems on the planet.  It seems that lately they have been to busy thinking about which companies board of directors is going to offer them the fattest check instead of what is going to keep the boys and girls at the sharp end of the stick alive.

So how do we reduce defense spending and still field the mightiest fighting force the world has ever known?

How about we get back to basics.

First, we fire all the freaking contractors.  I mean is it really cost effective to farm out work traditionally done by PFC’s and Airmen  to companies like Halburton.  I worked in the chow hall on Temporary Assigned duty during my service.  It was a right of passage.  How is it cheaper to have civilians do the same job for three times what a PFC makes?

Why are we paying companies like Blackwater or whatever they are calling themselves these days to protect generals and diplomats.  For what we are spending to protect one person, we could train ten special operators.   That is what I call more bang for the buck.

Next thing we have to do is to streamline the procurement process for weapons systems.

The Joint Strike Fighter (F35) has been in development since 2001 and to date we have spent nearly 400 billion dollars.  For that we have received 30 aircraft of which 16 are actually operational, the rest are for testing.  A report issued in November 2011 identified 13 critical flaws with the aircraft;

• The helmet-mounted display system does not work properly.
• The fuel dump subsystem poses a fire hazard.
• The Integrated Power Package is unreliable and difficult to service.
• The F-35C’s arresting hook does not work.
• Classified “survivability issues”, which have been speculated to be about stealth.
• The wing buffet is worse than previously reported.
• The airframe is unlikely to last through the required lifespan.
• The flight test program has yet to explore the most challenging areas.
• The software development is behind schedule.
• The aircraft is in danger of going overweight or, for the F-35B, not properly balanced for VTOL operations.
• There are multiple thermal management problems. The air conditioner fails to keep the pilot and controls cool enough, the roll posts on the F-35B overheat, and using the afterburner damages the aircraft.
• The automated logistics information system is partially developed.
• The lightning protection on the F-35 is uncertified, with areas of concern.

This is how we do things?

Of course if we drop the program we flush all the money that has already been spent, so we will just forge ahead.

Seriously?

This is like walking into a Mercedes dealership, asking to buy their top model, paying twice list price and as you are driving out the door having the salesman warn you not to turn on the windshield wipers as it will make the gas tank explode, but,  if you are willing to spend three times the list price, you can bring it in for a warranty repair.

And who are we supposed to fight with this thing, provided we can get it to work.

Last I heard we are reorienting our forces to conduct what are being called Low Intensity Conflict’s much like the war in in Afghanistan. Do we really need a whiz bang stealth fighter attack plane to support our troops on the ground.

Want a kick ass ground support aircraft?  Go out to the desert and dust off all those A6E Intruders and run them through the cancelled A6F upgrade program.  We would have 100 aircraft with a larger bomb load and a proven track record for about the same price we are going to pay in cost overruns on the F35.

What about trimming some of the fat in the Pentagon?  How much money could we save there I wonder.  Thin out the REMF’s and get that money to the war fighters.

But most importantly, lets get rid of the outright incompetence in the way the peoples money is being handled.

6.6 Billion dollars IN CASH earmarked for Iraqi reconstruction has simply disappeared.  POOF.  And it’s GONE.  A total of 21 military cargo flights, each carrying 2.4 Billion went to Iraq.  Half of the money that was sent is unaccounted for.

According to the GAO, another 1.1 Billion in fuel for the Afghan Army is unaccounted for.

A recent story in The Huffington Post reports;

The Associated Press reported earlier this month that U.S. military authorities in Kabul have estimated that $360 million in U.S. tax dollars has ended up in the hands of people the American-led coalition has spent nearly a decade battling: the Taliban, criminals and power brokers with ties to both. The military said that only a small percentage of the $360 million has been garnered by the Taliban and insurgent groups. Most of the money was lost to profiteering, bribery and extortion by criminals and power brokers.

Well isn’t that comforting.

The list goes on…and on…and on.

We don’t need to cut military spending to save money.  We just need to empty out the Pentagon, fumigate the place, and get some first year accountants and real live warriors to get our people the tools they need to protect our nation.

 

 

 

A human being can only live for 3 to 5 days without water.

Two quarts of water per day are required to survive.  Double that if you are in a hot environment.

If you are following the 7 day survival planning guide I have shared with you, by the time you are through, you will have one gallon per person per day of potable water.  That is enough for normal drinking and sanitation.

We have been purchasing our water in the two and half gallon dispenser packs.  We count each one as two gallons so we are ahead of our storage goals and the dispensers make rotation through our fridge a snap.  In addition we have a PUR water filter pitcher.  The PUR filters remove both chemical and biological contaminates so we keep an extra two pack of filters (around 15 dollars on average) with our supplies.

If you apartment is like ours, you have an additional 50 gallons of easy to access emergency water right at your fingertips.

Your Water Heater.

To use your water heater as an emergency water supply, first turn off the electricity to the unit and secure the input line to prevent contaminated water from entering the tank.  Then connect a length of garden hose to the drain and open a hot water tap this will allow the drain to flow freely.  I would advise treating this water as possibly contaminated and would recommend boiling and treating it before use.

Disaster need not strike for you to need access to a supply of clean, safe drinking water.

In the last 2 months, the city of Portland has issued two Boil Water warnings for various parts of the city due to e coli contamination.  Miz Mona and I happened to be out and about doing our shopping when the first warning was issued and we witnessed the drinking water aisle at our local grocery store empty in a matter of minutes.

Two items in your seven day kit might at first seem unusual.  At one point you are required to by unscented household bleach and an eye dropper.  These items will allow you to treat and store possibly contaminated water.

If there is any question as to the safety of your drinking water supply, you should boil the water for 3 to 5 minutes.  Once it has cooled, transfer the water to clean seal able container and add 5 to 7 drops of bleach per gallon.  Shaking the container for several minutes will aerate the boiled water, removing the flat taste.

A good source of information for the treatment and storage of water can be found at the National Terror Alert Center website.

There are numerous filtration systems available for emergency use.  I will not make any recommendations as Miz Mona and I have not chosen to include them in our disaster planning, although we each have a water filtration bottle in our individual Bail Out Bags.

What is your plan for emergency drinking water in the event of a disaster?  Do you have any tips to share?

Miz Mona and I took a trip to Cannon Beach to enjoy some rest and relaxation.

We had a lovely day of reading, resting and people watching.

We had decided to head home and I had grabbed some trash out of the car and headed over to the dumpster at the end of the parking lot.

My tshirt choice for the day had been my JEWBACA shirt, a  drawing of Chewbaca wearing a yamulke, and as I approached, I noticed it was giving a young man a chuckle.  I smiled at him and he nudged his girlfriend and pointed it out to her.  As I deposited the refuse of the days outing, he said to me “Thats a great shirt man, reminds me of a website I used to read.  You ever hear of a guy called The Angry Jew?”

Now, back in the beginning days of The Angry Jew my picture graced the masthead of the page and two or three times I was recognized while out and about in Beaverton, but this is the first time someone had actually  mentioned me to me in passing,

I was stunned, perhaps, even flabbergasted, especially when he started to tell his girlfriend how ‘funny, but relevant” the website was.

I couldn’t resist.

I extended my hand and introduced myself.

I have never wanted to be famous, I never expected to be noticed, but it is moments like this that I write for.

I thank each and every one of for taking the time to let me share my thoughts.  If I have made you laugh, made you smile or made you think, then I have accomplished my goal.