SHTFriday: Steganography

I forgot to link to this on Monday, so if you haven't read my Blue Collar Prepping post on stegonography, now would be a great time.

Actually, It's About Ethics in Electoral Integrity

I feel very, very confused right now.

I grew up during the tail end of the Cold War and, being in a military family, moved around a lot. The escalating tensions between the US and its allies against the Soviet Union and its allies wasn't easy to understand by us kids living on-base, but I could tell something was wrong from the stress in people's faces as they watched the news. This tension only increased when we moved to West Germany -- which shared a border with East Germany, a an ally of the Soviets. 

Despite this, I went through a rebellious phase where I identified as Communist, Marxist, etc. After studying history, I eventually realized that those systems would never work in reality because human nature would not allow it. After all, someone had to make sure production went out from each according to their abilities and came back to each according to their needs, and in that accountable person's mind, their need is always going to be greater than that of the people in the bread line.

On a totally unrelated note, Fidel Castro is dead. Many people call him a 'divisive' figure, which I'm choosing to translate as "We're just to the right of Stalin, so we dare not criticize Castro too heavily lest we be cast out." Seeing as how I've cast myself out of progressive circles, I'm not going to worry too much about it and just call it like I see it: Castro was a brutal dictator who overthrew another brutal dictator who overthrew another brutal dictator. I also feel sympathy for people living in Cuba, and totally understand someone wanting to leave. I especially feel for those who were shot at as they fled the country. This entire situation reminds me of a particularly powerful scene that I can't quite put my finger on...

Oh, wait, that's it.

What bothers me here isn't the Ctrl-Left pseudo-marxists who are mourning Castro
s death -- like them, I would have expressed a similar sentiment at a different point in my life. No, I'm bothered by the sitting Prime Minister who referred to Castro as a 'revolutionary and great orator.' That worries me a little. But what worries me more is Dr Jill Stein.

Dr. Jill Stein, who ran on the Green Party platform and has a folk band. Dr. Jill Stein, who is calling for a recount in several states and has a crowd-funding campaign to back it. One that has apparently missed the deadline for Pennsylvania, so there's that gone.

Fidel Castro was a symbol of the struggle for justice in the shadow of empire. Presente!

— Dr. Jill Stein (@DrJillStein) November 27, 2016

Dr. Jill Stein is demanding recounts in favour of Hillary Clinton while praising someone who was 'President' in one form or another for 47 years. She's demanding Electoral Integrity while praising someone who, as far as I can tell, never had to face re-election because there were no elections for his position. Correct me if I'm wrong on this

Jill. what are you doing? Why are you collecting money from people who are tapped out from supporting you and Bernie and Hillary, then missing deadlines for the one state that mattered, and then praising someone with a reputation for firing squads, reducing rations, and cutting electricity to his people for 16 hours a day while having a net worth (estimated by Forbes about 10 years ago) of $900 million? It reeks of a scam to me, and I honestly don't blame the people who are asking you for refunds right now.

Fidel Castro is the exemplar of what I said previously regarding why Communism never works in the real world: Because one person always gets to decide what resources are taken from these people and given to those people based on their need, and that one person's own need is always going to be greater than the people starving in bread lines and using oxen to plow their fields because there's no fuel for the tractor. 

I'm frankly sickened by Dr. Jill Stein's sentiment towards Castro. He was just another cruel person who overthrew another cruel person, so he could be cruel to more people. The only good revolutionary is one that steps aside when the job is done, and Castro did not step aside when that job was done. Instead, he planted himself firmly in a position of power and soaked it up. 

Green Party, is this who you want representing you? If so, then I'm glad she's yet another candidate I didn't vote for. 

Because when it comes to Dr. Jill Stein, I guess it's actually about ethics in electoral integrity.

December is Upon Us

It's Dec 1st and I'm already sick of Christmas.

I realize no one wants to hear my complaining, so I'll keep this short by saying that this is the time of year that's hardest on me, due to a combination of stress and Thou shalt have Christmas Spirit or Else from my family and generally not having enough time to myself or quiet in which to think. So of my readers I ask the following:

1. Please be understanding as I try to get through what is, for me, an overstimulated high-pressure hell. 
2. Please be patient with me when I vent or otherwise write things you don't want to read.
3. Please don't think I've given up on the blog if I just disappear for days at a time. Next February is Lurking Rhythmically's 10-year anniversary, and I'm not going to miss that for anything. 

Thank you all for your continued readership. I'm going to try like mad to bring you quality nerdy content, but some days that may not be possible. 

Erin on Gun Freedom Radio (again)

Once again I was the guest of the lovely Cheryl Todd and her husband Dan over at Gun Freedom Radio.  My segment went out this weekend, and I come in at the 30 minute mark in the second hour and talk about I don't think a Trump presidency is the doom and gloom that so many LGBTQ people think that it is.

Give it a listen!

Gun Blog Variety Podcast #119 - Thankfulness 2016

We forgot to add that we're thankful Fidel Castro is dead.

• Beth brings her whole family to give thanks. 
• A road rage shooting? Sean takes a look to see who is involved in this "Blood in the Streets!" affair.
• Barron is back, and this time he brings his family with him. It's been a rough year, but they have things for which to be thankful.
• In the Main Topic, Sean and Erin also tell you the things for which they're thankful. Sensing a pattern?
• There's a pizza shop in Philadelphia that's thankful for a concealed carrier, and Tiffany tells us all about it.
• Did you eat too much during the holidays? Your stomach will be thankful that you listened to Erin tell you how to prepare for gastrointestinal distress.
• The only anti-gun podcast is back (sort of) and Weer'd is thankful for that. Check out his latest Audio Fisk!
• Our plug of the week is for Hero Lab.

Thank you for downloading, listening, and subscribing. You are subscribed, right? We are available on iTunes, Stitcher Radio, and now on Google Play Music!

Listen to the podcast here.

Read the show notes here. 

Thanks also to Firearms Policy Coalition for their support. And a special thanks to our sponsors for this episode, Remington Ammunition and Lucky Gunner.com!

Blue Collar Prepping Transcript:

Thankful for Blessed Relief

I’ve been asked by Sean to keep this short, so in the spirit of post-Thanksgiving food hangovers I’m going to mention some medications that every prepper needs in their first aid kits: over the counter solutions for digestive maladies.

For typical indigestion, heartburn and general “I feel yucky in my tummy,” you want an antacid like Pepto Bismol.

If you still feel bloated, you want an anti-gas medication like Gas-X.

Now if you’ve eaten so much turkey that you’re having painful “carnivore poops”, you’ll want a stool softener like Ex-Lax or MiraLax. By the way, if NOTHING is moving down there, a great cure for constipation is Magnesium Citrate. (It comes in a bottle so it’s not easily carried in bags, but keep it in your medicine closet at home. It works really, really well; just trust me on this.) 

Finally, if things are moving too quickly and you have diarrhea -- which can be life-threatening in a disaster situation, because it can dehydrate you quickly -- take an anti-diarrheal like Immodium.

Now take those four -- Pepto, Gas-X, Ex-Lax and Immodium -- and put them in your first aid kit alongside activated carbon (which I talked about in episode 55) and your painkiller of choice, and you ought to be set to fix any gastrointestinal distress.

PonyCast & Herd Immunity Cyber Sale!

Starting now and lasting through Monday, all GunBlog PonyCast and Herd Immunity merchandise from my Teespring store is 15% off if you go through the links above.

(An explanation about the "X days left" notation on the items: Teespring is weird in that it requires campaigns of fixed length in order to sell things. I have set up the storefront so that when a campaign ends, it automatically re-launches with the shortest duration possible: 1 day. This allows you to get your merch shipped quickly rather than having to wait several days for the campaign to end.

In other words, don't worry about it: the t-shirts etc. can still be bought even if the timer "runs out".)

Also, if you intend to shop on Amazon this weekend, please consider using my referral link. It costs you nothing and helps me afford more ammo and range trips!

What You've Lost, and What You're Leaving Behind

When I wrote my last week's missive on my car and first-world problems, I didn't think any more of it. I didn't have even a spark of an idea of what I was writing about this week until a few separate ideas culminated in a topic I'd very much like to discuss.

It's a symptom of a disease that's been eating away at my side of the political spectrum for a while now. It sticks in my craw that my idea of the Left has been the compassionate one, the one that just wants to look out for the little guy even if we have a nasty habit of overreaching in doing so, but since the election with the, my side's more vocal proponents have been showing they care very little indeed for the little guy.

I used to be proud of this.

Over the last few weeks, I've seen one of a few reactions. There are the articles that are clearly sitting down and going "Okay, this is why we lost. Our party is corrupt, and we spent so much time calling everyone sexist and racist and transphobic and misogynist that we alienated a vast majority of voters, and while they may be problematic, we'll never win them over to our side that way."

That's an OK way to think. It acknowledges that there's a problem, and starts a conversation (a genuine conversation, with more than one point of view that goes more than one way -- that's the way conversations work, in case you had other ideas) about how to fix it.

Then there's the crowd that's basically REEEEEEEE END OF THE WORLD RACIST MISOGYNIST WHITE SUPREMACY EVERYWHERE IF YOU POINT OUT SOMETHING POSITIVE YOU'RE SUPPORTING LITERALLY HITLER LOOK AT THIS SWASTIKA AND THESE PEOPLE KILLING THEMSELVES NO IGNORE SNOPES THEY'RE LYING EVEN THOUGH THEY HAVE A BIAS TOWARDS OUR WAY OF THINKING.

That bothers me, but nowhere near as much as this.

Every single one of those is more than a month's rent for me.

It all started the other day, when I posted to a social media feed the ticket prices to Hamilton, and how privileged you must be to be able to afford to see the show. I obviously ruffled a few feathers, as I received a few unkind words in response.

Mere days later, I was greeted with these tweets (I still do not condone the use of Twitter) that perfectly illustrate another topic I have written about. I only know who one of these people are, and that's Francesca Ramsey from MTV's Decoded, who has appeared in my writings before. She's the drill sergeant in the Social Justice Boot Camp.

That's right, Ms. Ramsey and Mr. Kalidi. Some of the people who are boycotting Hamilton (and those of you who are, knock it off. When Mike Pence said people booing him was the sound of freedom, that was possibly the most mature statement I've heard a politician say all year) can't afford tickets. That's because when they go on sale, they're a "reasonable" $200, but then they're gone immediately. Faster than sports games or music concerts. If you want to see Hamilton, the only reliable way to do so is to spend what is, to a lot of people, an entire paycheck for one ticket.

I have no idea if it's any good. I'm sure it's a fantastic musical; my progressive friends won't shut up about it. What I do know is this: I'm a liberal that didn't want Trump for president and I can't afford tickets to Hamilton. To me, seeing Hamilton isn't worth the price of admission, so while I'm not boycotting it, I certainly won't be seeing it, either.

Which brings me to the term "Coastal Elite." If you're not already in one of those major cities in the US that would decide the election alone if we scrapped the Electoral College, you can't see Hamilton, because a) you probably don't make enough money, b) the ticket prices, and c) you have to add the cost of travel and lodging to the price of the tickets. Redundant? I don't care. If you're mocking people for not being able to afford a seven hundred dollar theater ticket, I want you to drink in every redundant word I'm typing here.

The bottom line here is that I'm completely fed up with the natural evolution of the Champagne Socialist and Limousine Liberal, which I dub the Perrier Progressive: the ones with their moralistic heads so far up their own moralistic asses that they can't empathize with the fact that not everyone makes enough money to spend their entire month's rent on seeing a goddamn play.

Until you can realize that, we're not the good guys anymore; we're the ones fiddling while Rome is burning around us, blaming the poor proletariat for all the world's problems. Maybe the fire is the good guy now.

Kiss my broke ass.