Bruce’s Poor Man Survival Bulletin
A Digest of Urban
Survival Resources
ISSN 2161-5543
In This Issue:
1. Free password encryption services
2. Using grey water systems
3. Basic Self Defense Moves anyone can
do
4. The attack on lemonade stands
5. What’s happened to the American
Dream?
“An
individual will soon be an economic slave pulling an oar in the galley of the
state.”
--Congressman
James Byrne, 1949
Do we live under a mirage of freedom?
The recent deaths of SEAL team members in
Afghanistan made me angry. We’ve been at
war there for 10 years and little progress has been made. This country is always in some kind of war,
wasting precious lives and resources to ‘defend’ us against drugs, guns,
poverty, terrorists, etc.
Modern politicians expect
us to be grateful for their form of salvation and they expect us to pay for
their grandiose schemes. In return,
they’ve maximized control over the population…the number of lives which can be
destroyed by political edicts, the number of people which can be locked away
for possessing substances they don’t like, the number of homes and bank
accounts which can be stolen without proof of wrongdoing, whose children can be
removed from parents, who can be barred from using their own land in a way they
see fit, and whom the government has pretexts to forcibly disarm.
Yet, the bill of good we
are sold is these soldiers are fighting for our ‘freedom.’
Paternalism has squelched
real freedom in this country. Where I
live, some business owners have taken to flying the US flag upside down as a
means of protest against the erosion of our rights and the bankrupting of our
nation.
The turmoil from Washington to Wall Street has some people going to extremes to make a point. A plane flew over Lower Manhattan yesterday with a banner that read, "Thanks for the downgrade, you should all be fired.”
There were mass
demonstrations in Chicago after the S&P downgraded our nation’s finances,
protesting the stupidity of our elected leaders…something you probably didn’t
see on the nightly news.
The government has no
right, except through force, to impose many of the rules and regulations it
thrusts on an unwilling citizenry; it is not morally superior or entitled but
its arrogance and use of force will violate the will of the people. Given free reign over the country, the
government will screw the citizen every time with its con games. It acts without moral compass.
Deficits don’t matter – Dick Cheney
Many might agree we’ve
allowed politicians too much power and the electorate have become mere serfs to
their dictates. As we watch the value of
our dollar and investments fall at the very least, most of us are fed up with
Congress. It’s still a free
country…sort of!
Rub ordinary car wax into your
ceramic bathroom tiling to clean and refinish. Let it stand 10 minutes and buff
or polish.
PM’s Betty Shocker Compendium of useful resources
Encrypting
your passwords - more internet privacy security resources
1. Truecrypt.org and Wuala.com: Truecrypt is a
free, open-source solution you can download and use to encrypt any and all
local files on your computer. Here's what you do:
>First, you create
a password file. It could be a simple document with a list that contains the
account name, user name, and password. For instance, Facebook: username,
password; Gmail: username, password; and so on.
>When you need to
login to an account, open your encrypted password list and retrieve the
appropriate login and password credentials.
>You can keep a
back up of your password list on your jump drive or upload the encrypted list
to a cloud storage account such as Wuala.com.
Wuala adds a bit more
convenience because it allows you to automatically sync your stored data onto
different devices. And it lets you access your password file from virtually any
Internet connection in the world.
In addition, Wuala
enables you to encrypt, back up, and store any file (not just your password
list) to the cloud and access it via the Internet.
2. LastPass.com was founded specifically to address secure password
management concerns. Their free option is extremely robust. All the steps
mentioned above – using Truecrypt to encrypt your password list and storing it
on local hardware (such as a USB jump drive) or in the cloud – are rolled into
one seamless package with LastPass, with a few extras included.
NOTES: More free online storage - get 5 GB for documents,
music, photos and more at:
Amazon.com/clouddrive
>>Use
the TOR Network to keep your internet browsing private, a free service which
obscures your internet route. www.torproject.org
>>Reach tech support faster by using DialAHuman.com or GetHuman.com both of which list phone numbers that get you to
a real human.
Working under a crawlspace is no picnic
and often difficult to see. String a set
of Christmas lights as a cheap and effective solution.
Basic Self-Defense Moves Anyone Can Do (and Everyone Should Know)
Would you be able to
defend yourself and your loved ones if someone were to physically attack you?
It's a question most of us don't want to consider, but violence is,
unfortunately, a fact of life. Thankfully, regardless of strength, size, or
previous training, anyone can learn several effective self-defense techniques.
Here's how to prepare for and stay safe in common real-world violent
situations. Read this how-to here:
Wash mildewed shower curtains in hot soapy water, rub
with lemon juice, and let them dry in the sun.
From Laundry to Landscape: Tap Into Greywater
Recycling your
household water is smart and often surprisingly simple. Find out how you can
embrace this “new”technology…
Tap Into
Greywater
From Mother Earth News, by Laura Allen and Cleo Woelfle-Erskine
From Mother Earth News, by Laura Allen and Cleo Woelfle-Erskine
In the United States,
the average person uses about 40 gallons of water per day to bathe, wash dishes
and clean clothes. Unfortunately, this water almost always goes straight down
the drain. But this “greywater” could be put to good use to irrigate fruit
trees and other plants. Greywater refers to all used household water except
water from toilets, which is called “blackwater.”
Greywater use lowers
your water bill, and diverting greywater from overloaded or failing septic
systems can extend their life. Reusing water saves energy: Greywater irrigation
replaces water that would otherwise be treated to drinking water quality, and
it isn’t treated at the sewage treatment plant, saving even more energy.
Perhaps most
importantly, more efficient water use reduces pressure on scarce water
resources — especially in the drier parts of the country, where farmers,
individual households and wildlife all face the problem of limited water
supplies.
The simplest type of
greywater use is to collect water in a dishpan as you handwash dishes, and then
toss it over your flowerbeds or fruit trees. This is a wonderfully simple,
inexpensive way to tap into greywater, but with just a little more effort and
expense, you can capture much more water.
One of the easiest and
most popular greywater systems is a landscape-direct system that diverts
greywater from your washing machine and routes it to mulch basins around trees
or bushes. This “laundry-to-landscape” system captures greywater from the drain
hose of the washing machine and sends it out to your plants through 1-inch
tubing, without the need to alter existing plumbing. You can expect to harvest
10 to 25 gallons of water per load for a horizontal-axis machine, or about 40
gallons per load for a vertical axis machine.
According to Art
Ludwig, author of Create an Oasis With Greywater, the laundry-to-landscape system
is the “simplest, least expensive, lowest effort way to get the most greywater
out onto the landscape.” The washing machine’s internal pump pushes the water
outside through the tubing, so these systems can work without any additional
pumps on flat or downward-sloping sites. These greywater systems typically cost
$75 to $200 if you do the work yourself, or up to $2,000 if you hire a
professional. They work best for irrigating trees, bushes, and large annuals or
perennials.
Before using greywater
in your yard, there are a few precautions to be aware of. One is that when you
use greywater, you’ll want to choose natural soaps that break down in the
environment and won’t harm plants. Stay away from any cleaners with bleach or
other toxic ingredients. Avoid sodium and boron, which are fine for us, but bad
for plants and soil.
It’s also a good idea
to avoid direct contact with greywater — wash water often contains small
amounts of bacteria that come from your clothes or body. Always follow these
rules when using greywater at home:
• You can use
greywater on edible plants, but only fruit trees or crops such as corn or
raspberries, where the edible part is off the ground. Don’t use it to water
root vegetables.
• Never store greywater for longer than 24 hours.
• If you reroute your plumbing, install a diverter valve so you can choose when to send water to the greywater system and when it should go into the sewer or septic system.
• Don’t allow greywater to pool up or run off — make sure it can soak into the ground.
• Never store greywater for longer than 24 hours.
• If you reroute your plumbing, install a diverter valve so you can choose when to send water to the greywater system and when it should go into the sewer or septic system.
• Don’t allow greywater to pool up or run off — make sure it can soak into the ground.
Finally, bear in mind
that even simple systems will require some engagement from you, your family and
your guests. Label pipes and valves so others know how to operate the system,
and be sure others know what kinds of soaps can be used.
For more information
about greywater, visit oasisdesign.net, www.greywateraction.org, or look for the book Create an Oasis With Greywater
by Art Ludwig.
Excerpted from Mother Earth News, the Original Guide to Living Wisely. To read more articles from Mother Earth News, please visit www.MotherEarthNews.com or call (800) 234-3368 to subscribe. Copyright 2011 by Ogden Publications Inc.
Rub glass shower doors with a white vinegar dampened
sponge to remove soap residue.
The Nanny
State Updates…
The Freedom
Center of Missouri shows the Government War on Kid-Run Concession Stands. In it red and yellow cities are highlighted that
impose restrictions on kids who want to set up a front-yard stand to sell
lemonade, cookies, or fresh produce
August 1, 2011 –
Police officers in Coralville, Iowa, ordered at least three different sets of
children to quit selling lemonade during the Register’s Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa unless they
first got a vendor’s permit and a health inspection. This is the first known
example of a coordinated set of shutdowns at a single time.
July 19, 2011 –
McAllen, Texas shuts down girls’ lemonade stand for failure to obtain food permit, may assess
grandmother $50 fine.
July 17, 2011 – Police
in Appleton, Wisconsin inform children that despite legally selling lemonade and cookies in
their front yard during an
annual city festival for the past six or seven years, a new city ordinance bans
these sales in order to protect licensed vendors from competition.
July 15, 2011 – Cops
in Midway, Georgia shut down a lemonade stand some kids were running in their own front yard,
saying the kids had to obtain a peddler’s license, a food license, and pay $50
per day for a temporary business permit.
How
To Make A Pioneer Weather Indicator…a little humor
Carefully tie a rope around a rock and hang it perpendicular from the
branch of a tree so that it rests about two feet from the ground. If the rock
hangs still, there's no wind; if it sways to and fro, there's a moderate wind
blowing; if it hangs level with the branch, there's a hurricane; if it's wet,
it's raining; if it has snow on it, it's snowing; if it's missing, somebody
stole it.
Americans are tapped out and the economy suffers – the
Parting Thought
The crumbling U.S.
economy is putting an extraordinary amount of financial stress on American
families. For many Americans, "flat broke" has become a permanent
condition. Today, over half of all American families live paycheck to paycheck.
Unemployment is rampant and those that do actually have jobs are finding that
their wages are rising much more slowly than prices are.
The financial condition of average American
families continues to decline and this is showing up in all of the recent
surveys. For example, according to a new Gallup poll, "lack of money/low wages" is the number
one financial concern for American families. To make ends meet, many American
families are going into even more debt and more American families than ever are
turning to government assistance. Right now, more Americans than at any other
point since World War II are flat broke and have lost hope. Until this changes,
the frustration level in this country is going to continue to grow.
The following are 5
facts about the financial condition of American families that will surprise you...
#5 Only the top 5 percent of U.S. households have earned enough additional
income to match the rise in housing costs since 1975.
Source: The Economic
Collapse
Yours for ‘what ever happened to the
American Dream’ – the Poor Man
Follow us on
Facebook
Twitter
Keep our
services free, visit our sites…
Check our
Resources
New self
sufficiency books added weekly
A Shallow Planet Production
No comments:
Post a Comment