Thoughts on Self-Sufficiency

Yeah, I'm one of those weird scholar/athlete types who played football all through high school and some college, yet I actually like to read and think about things like women, guns, wine, airplanes, economics and the future (aka science fiction). Nothing like hiking into the backwoods and enjoying a nice campfire and keeping an eye on the dope-growers... man, those guys are everywhere. I could go on and on about the "war on drugs," but suffice it to say, if the government would just get a clue and legalize them, the whole drug underworld would vanish overnight, and the feds could have a nice little taxation revenue-stream to boot...

Of course, this assumes the feds don't already have an even better revenue stream from illegal drug traffic already.

At the risk of providing more fuel to the crowd who believe goldbugs are raving lunatics, I'd like to add my own observations to the discussion of personal responsibility and self-sufficiency:

I'm going to grow a nice big healthy garden with lots of tomatoes, beans, corn, squash and other goodies, and learn to can things too.

Having a couple of 55-gal barrels of drinking water in a cool, dark place is not a bad idea.

A little spare gasoline and a Honda generator are nice-to-haves, and a motorcycle or two will provide cheap transportation when infrastructure breaks down.

I also like (and own) the Glock Model 22 semi-auto in .40 cal., mainly because it has nearly the same kinetic energy as the .45 cal, but will hold 15 rounds in the double-stacked magazine, vs 9 in the single-stacked .45. I have a Browning Buckmark semi-auto in .22 for cheap target practice. I like the Remington 700 series of bolt-action rifles, and mine is the short-action bull-barrel in .308 caliber, with a Leupold Vari-X III scope on top. It will put 10 shots through a quarter at 100 yards. The good old Remington Express 870 pump-action shotgun with Premier AccuTip Bonded Sabot Slugs alternated with double-ought shells is also good to have close by if bad people with bad intent come into your home.

As far as what to use for money when the "fecal matter whacks the rapidly-rotating air movement device" and all ATMs are boat-anchors, my first choice is a $1000 face-value sack of "junk silver," either 4000 quarters or 10,000 dimes. All the coins are pre-1965 with 90% pure silver content, and my guess is that when dollars are worth less than toilet paper, people will gladly accept silver dimes and/or quarters in exchange for food, water, medicine and good red wine or single-malt scotch.

That's my story and I'm stickin' to it!