I'm farked. Other men will approach and say, "Do you mind if we dance with your date?"

/not at all!

StoneColdAtheist:

LOL...mine is actually a reproduction Trans-Am/A-Sedan vintage race car. Or at least will be when I finish it. The vintage rules require period-correct technology, so no EFI, or 5-speeds. No smoothed carbon bodywork, etc. Just a carb, points and a 4-sp. They do allow 302s in place of 289s, though. Concession to reality.

We all make concessions. . . It should be a lot of fun when you're done with it. How much bodywork does it need?

Valarius: rohar: 8 inches: My Smith and Wesson - that's all I need to survive.

Good luck with that. I know how to cast metals and source the materials for the foundry on my property. There's a ball mill in the shop that could be used for grinding/milling propellants. (I built it to clean steel parts). shiat hits the fan and I'm 24 hours away from a 6" cannon.


Be a lot easier if you already had the cannon and balls built. Gunpowder, on the other hand...

Neighbor's ATF. Gotta behave :) He's a good friend and in the shop a lot.

Here's the thing. If you know how to think and have knowledge of the functions of modern technology, there's no need to prepare much. If it all falls, give me 3 weeks and I'll run through the entire industrial revolution all over again. There's enough agriculture in my area we'll be fine. Worse, almost all of my neighbors are prior military. We know how to stand watch and all of our houses are atop a ridgeline. Easily defended.

Wasn't by design, I hardly obsess over end of times theories, but here we are.

StoneColdAtheist: rohar: Except for the exciter diode in the alternator, sure.

Dude...first you want me to come up there and drive your Bimmer for you, and when I say no you start raining on my parade! ;^)

/will a '52 GMC generator (alternator?) with external regulator from a pickup work?

HAH! It rung a bell with me because about a decade ago I built a turbo VW on a bet. The bet was I couldn't do 20psi without solid state devices. farkin alternator gave me fits but I ended up modifying a bosch unit with an external GM regulator.

See those people in the picture? That's your mom and pops, that is.


/USA! USA!

Triptolemus: StoneColdAtheist: ...mine is actually a reproduction Trans-Am/A-Sedan vintage race car.

We all make concessions. . . It should be a lot of fun when you're done with it. How much bodywork does it need?

The only piece of bodywork I'm missing is a rear fascia for a V8 car. My donor car was a straight-six, which has a badly dented rear fascia (and has only one exhaust exit). The repop places make them, though.

rohar: Worse, almost all of my neighbors are prior military. We know how to stand watch and all of our houses are atop a ridgeline. Easily defended.

Sounds like you live out west of town near Fairchild. Retired USAF...been there many times.

TheyCallMeC0WB0Y: I'll bet this paranoid idiot even wears a seatbelt every time he drives his car. We should all mock people who hope for the best and prepare for the worst.

If you're really being prepared, you're not turning the least insulated and least secure part of your Scottsdale home into a bunker and/or having a backup plan that assumes you can drive out of the city.

This isn't like wearing a seatbelt. It's like wearing safety goggles and a helmet behind the wheel while repurposing your seatbelt to be a tie down, all while screaming DON'T JUDGE ME.

StoneColdAtheist:
rohar: Worse, almost all of my neighbors are prior military. We know how to stand watch and all of our houses are atop a ridgeline. Easily defended.

Sounds like you live out west of town near Fairchild. Retired USAF...been there many times.

Up north near Mt. Spokane. Every morning is like I'm on vacation. Kinda like home in Montana, except without so many whackos. I'm out near Fairchild quite often, 'cause that's where this (new window) is :)

Making reasonable preparations in case of disaster is perfectly rational. There are plenty of examples of natural disasters which make food/water and shelter problematical. Worse disasters are possible.

Some people carry it too far, making a lifestyle of it. Well, some people go overboard with cosplay or video games, or spend their lives following the Team, etc.

Just chill.

Aside note. That Doomsday Preppes show seems to find the most inept goobers.

I've been through a couple of week-long no power/no stores emergencies and what actually happens is that folks band together to support each other. Even that weird alcoholic guy down the street is suddenly helping out with things that need to be done. I can't speak to what would happen after a couple of months, but the Mad Max world these folks envision isn't as likely as they want to believe - they're just getting off on the fantasy of looking like a wise and prepared leader of their families.

/always have a month's supply worth of food around all the same; real life shiat does actually happen from time to time

James F. Campbell: Goddess of Atheism: In which case, did this guy stop to consider that unless he's had it specially shielded, his own car will be un-driveable after an EMP?

Maybe he has a second car parked in a Faraday cage. You have to admit, that would be pretty ingenious.

I hope he has a secret highway, too, just in case the ordinary highways are crowded with apocalypse refugees or blocked by computerized modern cars transformed into gigantic paperweights after their electronics all get fried.

Maybe I'm just a pessimist, for thinking "in case of apocalypse, the major roadways out of any city will be clogged and well-nigh impassable." All those real-world news stories I've read about, say, giganto traffic jams when coastal cities attempt to evacuate before a hurricane must've been flukes. It might happen with hurricanes but would never happen with the apocalypse, perish the thought.

angryjd: Don't do it yourself. Get the pros to do it. (new window)

If I had the money I think it would be so cool to own an underground missile silo/communication base.

/checking to see if I have room to build a bomb shelter behind the house
//just for the coolness factor
///not from any stupid end of the world fears

Marshall Banana: the Mad Max world these folks envision isn't as likely as they want to believe - they're just getting off on the fantasy of looking like a wise and prepared leader of their families.

There's also a percentage for whom this is a fantasy.

"Only I am smart enough to survive the EMPocalypse. My neighbors laugh at the fact that I don't have as nice a car as they do or take as many vacations, but who will be laughing when society collapses and they don't have any MREs? *fap*"

Triptolemus: StoneColdAtheist:

Sweet...that Redhawk Colt 45 is California approved!

/oh, wait...it's $900... *yikes!*

Yeah, they're worth every penny if you use them regularly. It's easy for me to say though, because I got mine for a screamin' deal ($450). It had the serial number filed off, for those kinds of prices I don't ask questions.

/just kidding about the number, I did get it for $450 though.

You should check out the new ITG. Sounds like it would be the perfect fit for your style and personality. Great ease of use, handles wear and tear very well and always to have a solution to life's problems.

As many people have said, I understand the need for emergency supplies, but planning for a major meltdown seems to be a little nutty.

In the entire history of this country, has it ever happened? We've had depressions, wars, diseases, massive crop failures, and more. In any of those times, did society completely collapse? Nope. Things were tight, and people had to struggle, but they made it through together with the help of neighbors and (gasp) the government.

If you really thought that a full collapse would happen, then better to learn skills that you can use for barter. How about learning to fix electrical equipment, or small motors? How about learning to make alchohol based fuels? Or having a large garden, or small numbers of livestock?

Thinking that you are going to be able to either hide or shoot your way out of a crisis doesnt jibe with the way a large society works. Short of a massive invasion, guns wont help. And who is going to invade this nuthouse? You're neighbors will still be around, sharing what they have and trying to ride out the bad times. And making fun of the survivalists.

Goddess of Atheism: but would never happen with the apocalypse

Well, where exactly are people going to drive to escape the apocalypse? Heaven?

/Hopefully, most people will just kill themselves.

PanicMan:
My question: why do people think gold will be of any use in an apocalypse? It's heavy, you can't eat it, and you can't wear it.

I don't know either...he talked about hearing about gold on "Rush" so I'm sure that's the motivation.

/I'd be more concerned with water
//Food
///And shelter

America is full of doomsday cults, and people who are easily whipped up into paranoic fear.

News at 11

Triptolemus: Invasions and wars are group efforts

Oooo...kay. So, I should post a long list of serial killers, sociopaths and psychos instead of cannibals?

I think what you meant to say is that humans tend to be tribal in nature and that rational people tend to find ways to work through problems without killing other people in the same tribe (Cain and Abel were surely exceptions). Tribes have warred since the dawn of time however. True cooperation is a fragile product of a civilized - or at least settled - society. There have been any number of economic and psych studies on cooperation and they all show ultimately people are out for themselves.

The problem is the US "melting pot" appears to be breaking down into tribalism. Those who "get it" on one side believe in government decision making and authority over all things. They believe that there is no true evil in the world, only misunderstood and ill-educated savages who would surely adopt the "right" position if they could be made to understand. They think that they have the right to confiscate whatever they want from their fellow citizens and use it to assuage their own sense of debt to the world.

Those who "see the light" on the other side see that government is a deeply flawed tool that has always failed, every time, throughout history. The barbarians always come. They think that the there is such a thing as a "one-worlder" and that their rights can be taken away by faceless bureaucrats in far away lands. They see the pro-government folks spending away on one boondoggle after another, taking the sweat of their brows and spending it on things which don't matter in the grand scheme of things. They want to be left to their own societies and neighbors and to stay far away from the "perfumed princes" who have been given the mad power to break the world.

There are other tribes, of course. Some care more about clothes than anything else, some about the arts, some about science, the list is infinite for all practical intents. There should be room for them all to co-exist, but everyone seems to want something for nothing. That's the core problem: something for nothing is not a sustainable course.

What will happen is the same thing that always happens. People will become more and more disenchanted and disassociated with government. They can't change it anymore so they will try to stay away from it and it will become more and more insistent on its' privileges and scope until it becomes authoritarian and there is a breakdown. This is nothing new. It's happened hundreds of times before and it will happen again.

ImaDoormat: planning for a major meltdown seems to be a little nutty

There are local emergencies that can be planned for. True global catastrophe is just that: a catastrophe. There's no planning for an asteroid plunging into the Atlantic. There is no planning for a supervolcano, big solar flare or the like.

ImaDoormat: You're neighbors will still be around, sharing what they have and trying to ride out the bad times. And making fun of the survivalists.

So... they have enough supplies to somehow outlast the survivalists?

Too much emphasis is put on being self reliant and stocking up on supplies, and not enough on joining up with the Lord Humongous and just pillaging those supplies from those nobodies.

By this logic (that a Govt should be planning to protect its citizens against all contingencies), then each county should be planning to form their own militias, stockpiling supplies for their taxpayers, etc.

And every HOA...

etc etc.

Idiots, and a waste of money. Either that or the people behind it are hoping that some of their buddies will get cushy jobs preparing this idiotic report.

oops, wrong survivalist doomsday thread.

Arizona, huh?

Ahhh Fark, where there are no happy mediums and you are either an idiot at one end of the spectrum or the other. I find it hilarious that because some people (Doomsday Preppers/ this article) take it to the extreme, the idea of being prepared for an emergency makes you an extremist. Which amuses me, because it wasn't so funny for people last winter when the power went out for 10-14 days straight in January.

Conversely, the other side thinks that if you don't have provisions to deal with a nuclear holocaust, you aren't prepared. Which is ridiculous in itself. And it's probably not healthy to be constantly preparing for the end of the world.

Now I know who's wife to kidnap.

lazymojo: swfan: LabGrrl: In case of apocalypse, raid the houses of the people who brag about their survival supplies.

Yes, because there's zero likelihood they'll also be armed, right?

/not a prepper, but I understand them.
//We really are overdue for an influenza pandemic. Now THAT does scare the hell out of me...

no, that's my plan. just to buy the guns. let the other guy buy guns AND thousands of dollars worth of supplies... then get unencumbered by goods, get the drop on him and take his stuff.

In your mind a "soft target" is a man defending his own home and family for survival, fully prepared and on his home turf? Have you considered a career in long-term strategy for the united states military?

The "prepper" is nothing more than a paranoid delusional selfish asshat. I saw one of those shows, the guy with his family surrounded by railroad cars. One RPG lobbed into the middle of his compound from 1000 yards away takes out his nice collection of canned goods. And I don't care how great a shot you are or how many guns you have stockpiled, if things truly go the way your delusional little mind thinks, with every man for himself in lawless chaos, then what do you think a nice compound filled with food is going to look like to most people? A good target.

Enjoy your alamo moment, you pathetic paranoid idiots.

Meanwhile normal people will stock some water, keep some canned goods on hand and realize that all society everywhere at once isn't goint to break unless an asteroid or comet hits, or the supervolcanoes go off. In that case, your stupid little cache isn't going to mean dick anyway.

Question: If I have beef jerky and reloading equipment in my mancave, does that mean it doubles as a survivalist shelter?



What neighbors breaking into my mancave/shelter might look like

Farker Soze: Too much emphasis is put on being self reliant and stocking up on supplies, and not enough on joining up with the Lord Humongous and just pillaging those supplies from those nobodies.

Precisely. Every effin "prepper" (translation: delusional paranoid right wing rural survivalist) will be useless at defending from the ravening horde of evil city dwellers they all think we'll become.

To all the "stealing other peoples' shiat" survivalists: what's keeping you from doing that now?

mccallcl: To all the "stealing other peoples' shiat" survivalists: what's keeping you from doing that now?

Three days without food, running water and power.

Generation_D: the ravening horde of evil city dwellers they all think we'll become

Never been that hungry, have you?

Having extra food and water to wait out a few weeks is not crazy. Look at how incompetent our government (in local, state and Federal) during Katrina. Having a steady supply of food and water would be great there.

If WW3 happens and you are not wiped out immediately by a nuclear blast, do you really want to survive the apocaplypse?

Eh, in certain parts of the country being prepared to go without power or grocery runs for a month wouldn't necessarily be a bad idea. Southern Louisiana comes to mind.

Hell, basically everyone along the gulf coast or up Tornado alley keeps a cabinet of nonperishables, a first aid kit, and a couple gallons of water or some iodine purifier on hand to cover a week or so if needed. Most of them are armed, too, but that's more it being the south and the great plains than intentional preparation.

//As for being prepared for "complete collapse of society", if you're not already in a cut off little self-sufficient community in Appalachia or something don't even bother, because it's not happening.

rohar: StoneColdAtheist: Goddess of Atheism: Is this the same guy who was on last night's episode of "Doomsday Preppers?" Because if he is, I detected a huge gaping hole in his survival plan: he and his kids have practiced so that they can drive from their home to their bug-out wilderness cabin in less than 40 minutes (assuming the roads are completely free of traffic in the apocalypse), but -- the guy's specific fear is an EMP frying the nation's electronics. In which case, did this guy stop to consider that unless he's had it specially shielded, his own car will be un-driveable after an EMP?

Ha! My '66 Mustang laughs at your lack of faith... ;)

Except for the exciter diode in the alternator, sure.

'64 1/2 Mustang with a generator FTW.

Eh. I don't expect the apocalypse- but I live close enough to the New Madrid fault line to know the fit COULD hit the shan in a really big way here. So I keep a good supply of canned goods and water, hand tools and first aid supplies, in the house. So far, this has meant we could weather several days without power following a bad storm, and be able to help the neighbors when their power took longer to come back on. It also means I don't have to partake in the annual clearing-of-the-grocery-shelves when a winter storm hits; if we can't buy bread and milk for 2 weeks, we're still golden.

A little preparedness is practical. Should things go really badly, we've also got a set of Foxfire books, a nice store of seeds and gardening supplies, and we're close to fresh water and decent woodland; we might get skinny but we won't starve to death.

I am a prepper and I don't mind admitting it.

When I toured Europe, I saw and learned the effects of Y-ONE-K, when the world turned over 999 c.e. to 1,000. Nothing got built for 50 years, craftsmen in 30+ trades grew old and died leaving no young men trained to take their places. Bankers refused to loan money, students woud not go to school, farmers would not plant crops---it was 50 years to repair the damage.

The lesson was not lost on me: Natural disasters are a maybe, but people acting like shirtheads is a foregone conclusion.

When Y2K loomed, everyone laughed at me, but in the long run I figured it was like insurance: Better to have it and not need it than the other way round, I pay for insurance too and I am not the slightest bit unhappy that I don't die!

In the end, my Y2K "losses" totalled $4.80 for 96 cans of tuna which I bought for $0.55 which went on sale for $0.50 the next week, and a $3 service charge from my bank when I drained my savings below the minimum level-----not exactly a sum to cry over!

By March 2000, I had burned the last of my $0.75/gal. gasoline I had bought in November of 1999 and had to pay $1.39, so I about broke even on the deal. People laughed at me but I don't care; I didn't know at the time it would be a false alarm, I had no way to know that.

In Corpus Christi we have not been smacked by a hurricane since 1980, or 1970 for a big killer storm; by the law of averages we are long overdue. When hurricanes loom, I have a 30--day food supply, a 20--day water supply, gasoline for my generator and motorcycle, solar panels for electricity---and I will lay in a week's supply of beer when the strorm comes; I got caught short the last three times, don't tell me about hardship!

In addition to that, I do not think the economic crisis is anywhere near over, and conditions are very ripe for some shirthead in the Middle East to precipitate a crisis; surprised they have not done so already. Figure Europe collapses in debt and can't talk the problem away, they will drag us down as well---and our own finances are nothing but a house of cards, everyone knows it. Dumping Obama is tempting, but will not solve anything; new jerk--old numbers.

They are already talking $5 gasoline---what if the ragheads cut off supplies completely?

Failing all that, I expect the Dollar to keep sliding down and prices to keep rising, that is about as predictable as sunrise. So if I buy $500 worth of groceries and prices go up 25%, that's the same thing as a small CD at 25% interest, which I cannot cash out. The disposable razors I use are usually 25 cents, but I saw them on sale at 8.33 cents, and grabbed a year's supply. If anything I need is on sale, I stockpile it; easy money. My favorite beer went on sale for 40% off during "Black Friday"---and like a fool, I failed to stockpile, I could have saved $1000+; ouch!

Survivalism is not paranoia, just common sense: The lord giveth and the lord taketh away---but Murphy will get you every time.

You people who think the government will take care of you are the fools; ask those who got caught in Katrina how well it worked out.

subby: "The one thing I never want to hear from my kids is dad I'm hungry or dad I'm scared"

That's two things.

LouDobbsAwaaaay: The one thing I never want to hear from my kids is dad I'm hungry or dad I'm scared"

Because nothing calms your children like converting your garage into a shrine to the possibility of imminent societal collapse and anarchy.

Came to say this /||\

FTA - Ralston said the top three things we would need if a disaster dropped would be water, food and a first aid kit.

I would have to list heavy armaments and lots and lots of ammo in the top three. Because with those 2 things you can pretty much get the top three things he is storing

liverleef: My brother stores food and supplies for when society completely collapses. I don't know everything going on with him but I know he is really into survivalist stuff. He hardly spends any money right now (except for on survivalist stuff) because he wants to see whether Owebummer wins the presidential election. That of course would signal the beginning of the Apocalypse. I guess he is smart in some ways, I don't think he's stupid but boy is he ever brain washed. He's a trucker so all day long he listens to a steady stream of right wing talk radio. His favorite is Glenn Beck. I only get to see him maybe once a year and frankly I don't know him extremely well. I can't imagine what is in his head after listening to Glenn Beck, Mark Levin, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Oreilly and their ilk for 8-10 hours a day every freaking day (he only takes a day or two off a month).

Also, this is a little off subject but yes he constantly rants big gubment, over spending, etc, etc. Some of the government programs he has used at one time or another (that I know about) include:

1)Food stamps
2)WIC
3)Medicaid
4)School lunches for his kids

Also before he got a job with benefits he had to file bankruptcy because he couldn't pay his hospital bills after his heart attack. But healthcare reform is socialism.

You have such interesting little stories. All perfectly suited to demonizing the kind of folks that frighten you.

/is he the guy with all the full-auto?
//or is that another guy?

So to summise the thread.

Prepper: "It never hurts to have a few extra cans of food, or enough to survive Armageddon for ten years."
Non-Prepper: "Haha, you so crazy! But if the S ever really did HTF, I'm going to skin my neighbors and eat them... Seriously".
Farker: "Why wait?"

/Not sure which is more disturbing.
/Like the TV Prepper who didn't want to keep guns, because they are icky.
/His plan was to guile his guests with hospitality and then poison them before slitting their throats.
/Moral of the story: Hippies cant be trusted. Shoot first.