11% of U.S. Houses are Empty

http://www.cnbc.com/id/41355854
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Egyptian Doctor: "Right now, I'd settle for a gun, but I can't even find one of those."

You know--I wasn't going to mention this, but here goes ... it was about 4 weeks ago now, I suddenly sensed that something was dramatically changing. Globally, there was a new dynamic springing up and spreading across the internet--it felt dangerous and ugly and more than anything else--powerfully threatening to the status quo. Now I'm not a sensing kind of person. I'm not even touchy-feely.

But this was a strong intuition that slapped me across the face about a week into the new year after the Pakistan governor's killing by his own bodyguard (who was then given a hero's welcome in court the next day) and then a Philippine councilman was shot and killed as he was inadvertently taking his assassin's photo (shown here).

I don't know why those crimes struck me, other than the fact that in this media-saturated world--everyone saw that Philippine image--it was shocking and it seemed to have the potential of creating a lot of copycat thinking to emerge--given the fact that there was already an obvious amount of frustration and anger out there due to the economy and a multitude of other stresses.

Of course then, the Tucson Congresswoman shooting happened a week or so later. Following that, the riots in Tunisia, Algeria, and Egypt have erupted ... which threaten to bring about an even greater potential for violent upheaval throughout the Middle East and elsewhere.

It seems I may indeed have detected an early disturbance in the force. Can YOU hear the sound of falling dominos rippling away in the distance?

Egypt: My Practice for a Gun

I was just scanning an article about the latest situation in Egypt. The excerpt pasted below, to me, captures perhaps a sentiment that speaks to many around the world today at a base level ...

Read the whole article on Egypt's current chaos right here: http://apnews.myway.com/article/20110130/D9L2SEEO0.html

Excerpt:

A growing number of governments - including China, France, Germany, Belgium, Sweden, Finland, Russia and Poland - warned against travel to most parts, if not all of Egypt. Arab nations, including Iraq, either sent in jets to take their citizens home, or offered to do so.

"If I had a visa to anywhere, I'd join them. But that's not going to happen," said Mohammed Khaled, a 28-year-old Egyptian doctor. "Right now, I'd settle for a gun, but I can't even find one of those."

Second amendment anyone?
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Only 47% of Working Age Americans Have Full-Time Jobs

Well isn't this a kick in the pants? ...

http://www.businessinsider.com/real-employment-rate-47-percent-2011-1
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NIA: "Death of the Dollar Menu"

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"When Trucks Stop, America Stops"

How fragile our intricate, modern weave of social and economic interdependence!

A document prepared by the American Trucking Associations a few years ago is an excellent reference for what WILL happen when one of any number of proverbial monkey wrenches gets tossed into the gears of our smooth-running existence today. Read the whole doc here.

Below, I've captured the last page summarizing what we can expect when America's trucks stop running (think such causes as pandemic, war, social upheaval, fuel disruption, border crossing delays, material or parts importation halts, security clampdowns, earthquakes, etc.) ...

"When Trucks Stop, America Stops"
A Timeline Showing the Deterioration of Major Industries Following a Truck Stoppage

The first 24 hours
• Delivery of medical supplies to the affected area will cease.
• Hospitals will run out of basic supplies such as syringes and catheters
within hours. Radiopharmaceuticals will deteriorate and become
unusable.
• Service stations will begin to run out of fuel.
• Manufacturers using just-in-time manufacturing will develop component
shortages.
• U.S. mail and other package delivery will cease.

Within one day
• Food shortages will begin to develop.
• Automobile fuel availability and delivery will dwindle, leading to skyrocketing
prices and long lines at the gas pumps.
• Without manufacturing components and trucks for product delivery,
assembly lines will shut down, putting thousands out of work.

Within two to three days
• Food shortages will escalate, especially in the face of hoarding and
consumer panic.
• Supplies of essentials—such as bottled water, powdered milk, and
canned meat—at major retailers will disappear.
• ATMs will run out of cash and banks will be unable to process
transactions.
• Service stations will completely run out of fuel for autos and trucks.
• Garbage will start piling up in urban and suburban areas.
• Container ships will sit idle in ports and rail transport will be disrupted,
eventually coming to a standstill.

Within a week
• Automobile travel will cease due to the lack of fuel. Without autos and
busses, many people will not be able to get to work, shop for groceries,
or access medical care.
• Hospitals will begin to exhaust oxygen supplies.

Within two weeks
• The nation’s clean water supply will begin to run dry.

Within four weeks
• The nation will exhaust its clean water supply and water will be safe for
drinking only after boiling. As a result gastrointestinal illnesses will
increase, further taxing an already weakened health care system.

This timeline presents only the primary effects of a freeze on truck travel. Secondary effects must be considered as well, such as inability to maintain telecommunications service, reduced law enforcement, increased crime, increased illness and injury, higher death rates, and likely, civil unrest.
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Nuclear Explosion

Came across this video posted by a Russian in Zimbabwe, near as I can tell. It has to be an animation, no? ...


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The Fourth American Revolution

Strauss and Howe, in "The Fourth Turning," were very accurate in their mid-'90s assessments of where we would be at this point in time. And Jim Quinn of The Burning Platform does a great job of syncing us up to the minute ...

The next Fourth Turning is due to begin shortly after the new millennium, midway through the Oh-Oh decade. Around the year 2005, a sudden spark will catalyze a Crisis mood. Remnants of the old social order will disintegrate. Political and economic trust will implode. Real hardship will beset the land, with severe distress that could involve questions of class, race, nation and empire. The very survival of the nation will feel at stake. Sometime before the year 2025, America will pass through a great gate in history, commensurate with the American Revolution, Civil War, and twin emergencies of the Great Depression and World War II. - The Fourth Turning - Strauss & Howe -1997

Be sure to read in its entirety this column and recalibrate to where we are in this grand swing of the pendulum.
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Socialism? - "The Soviet Story"

Warning--portions of this video are extremely disturbing. I post this here because of the necessity for thinking adults to realize the scope of the very real evil in this world so evident in our recent history, yet not widely recognized.


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MUST WATCH - "The American Dream"

Please watch this entire video by "The Provacateur Network." Note that it keeps getting more eye-opening and alarming as it goes. By the end, if you have not found your proper bearings, you are free to return to your naively hopeless existence.


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The Progressive Climate of Hate

After the shooting of the Congresswoman from Arizona this weekend, I was contacted out of the blue by someone who thought I should be punished for advertising my business on Alex Jones' "hateful" sites and radio programs. It took me a while of back and forth dialog to get to a more substantive explanation for why this woman thought I should pull my Safecastle ads from the Jones sites.

The challenge was that she would not provide me even a single example of the "hatred" she claimed takes place there at InfoWars and PrisonPlanet. Finally, she offered this much that displayed the political bent behind her complaint:

"... I'm sure when you hear from more people about the same problem they have with Alex Jones that I have, you will be able to ascertain an idea of what we hear from Mr. Jones and what our concerns are. The rant is not nice. It is in the same frame as the limbaughs, hannitys, becks and palins. AND in light of the recent tragedy in Arizona, I am scrutinizing who I patronize."

I give this woman credit at least for not going gonzo on me. We were able to keep our dialog civil enough. But when she disclosed her angle was pure politics, well ... I concluded our discussion with this:

"You're the first person who has ever contacted me about Alex Jones. And I still don't have an example from you about what it is you are complaining about. (It is your complaint--I am unqualified to read your mind or leap to the conclusion you seem to want me to come to without a solid reference point that would be the basis of a complaint like yours.)

"Near as I can tell, given this last comment--you are politically, diametrically opposed to the conservative viewpoint. Rhetoric and hyperbole in today's world is universal across the spectrum, in my experience.

"If you come across an example of what illustrates your dislike and fear of Alex Jones or the hatred you mention, please forward it on to me."

Anyway, my experience with Alex is that he is neither conservative nor liberal. I see him occupying a space largely to himself on the spectrum. I don't agree with everything Alex has to say, but I appreciate his untiring efforts to get at truth. He uses his right to free speech and I support him for that.

For the record--I am conservative in my politics. I keep it out of my business dealings. And I respect folks out there who conduct themselves in a reasonable and mutually respectful fashion no matter their views.

There are kooks in every corner and niche, obviously. My opinion--it's pretty much up to those groups they affiliate themselves with to police or at least disassociate from and condemn the violent wackos.

The kooks do show themselves early and often before generally either going overboard or just finally going away. If the organizations fail to manage their people, that's how the blame when things go tragically wrong can be more broadly brushed, to include those who wanted to ride the wave of emotion for political gain.

This got longer than I intended. I really wanted to simply introduce this excellent reminder of how perhaps one side of the political spectrum more vigorously agitates the waters, given real examples from the last 10 years:

The progressive "climate of hate:" An illustrated primer, 2000-2010, by Michelle Malkin

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Asteroid Discoveries from 1980-2010

Video Created by Scott Manley, this is a view of the solar system showing the locations of all the asteroids starting in 1980, as asteroids are discovered they are added to the map and highlighted white so you can pick out the new ones.

The final color of an asteroid indicates how closely it comes to the inner solar system.

Earth Crossers are Red
Earth Approachers (Perihelion less than 1.3AU) are Yellow
All Others are Green

Notice now the pattern of discovery follows the Earth around its orbit, most discoveries are made in the region directly opposite the Sun. You'll also notice some clusters of discoveries on the line between Earth and Jupiter, these are the result of surveys looking for Jovian moons. Similar clusters of discoveries can be tied to the other outer planets, but those are not visible in this video.

As the video moves into the mid 1990s we see much higher discovery rates as automated sky scanning systems come online. Most of the surveys are imaging the sky directly opposite the sun and you'll see a region of high discovery rates aligned in this manner.

At the beginning of 2010 a new discovery pattern becomes evident, with discovery zones in a line perpendicular to the Sun-Earth vector. These new observations are the result of the WISE (Widefield Infrared Survey Explorer) which is a space mission that's tasked with imaging the entire sky in infrared wavelengths.

The scale of the video at 1080P resolution is roughly 1million kilometers per pixel, and each second of video corresponds to 60 days.

Currently we have observed over half a million minor planets, and the discovery rates show no sign that we're running out of undiscovered objects, scientific estimates suggest that there are about a billion asteroids larger than 100metres (about the size of a football field).
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Drifting Into Deeper, More Insidious Social Crisis

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, of The Telegraph, is always an on-target, educational read.

Here is his latest expose' hitting very close to home, with a warning about rising violence in America arising out of the masses suffering the most through the lingering and even worsening economic doldrums:

Deepening Crisis Traps America's Have-Nots
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$40 Gift Certificate for Every 3 MH Cases Ordered!

Happy New Year, friends!

I'm pleased to announce that for 2011 we have some really cool offers coming your way. I had hoped to be able to announce all of them today, but am still awaiting some critical details on a couple of things.

But for right now, I can unveil our 2011 Mountain House Cans Royalty Rewards program, available exclusively to our buyers club members.

It's simple and easy ...

Until further notice, $40 in Safecastle gift certificates are provided to club members for every three cases of Mountain House cans in a transaction.

As for the ongoing demand deluge for Mountain House cans--December has seen the Oregon Freeze Dry factory able to mostly catch up. We still have weekly dealer order allocation limits, but chances are good that those will disappear in the next few weeks. Right now, your MH cans order will be submitted and processed the week of Jan. 10. That's as good as it gets these days. So if you're looking to stock up--make your move and reap your rewards.

Oh--and I will give you a hint as to one of the other new deals on the stove and which I expect to be able to announce in the next week or so ... Any and every 2011 Safecastle purchase made by buyers club members, starting today, Jan. 1, will be tallied and will qualify for an additional "Cache-Back" credit program good toward the best products in our store. Watch for this announcement coming very soon.

Have a safe and blessed new year!
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