Rich Dad on Silver

As he says, give up Starbucks for a few days and buy some silver! It is an industrial metal (like copper) and many more things. Plus, with the Fed pushing more paper on the market, it is easy to buy. If you want long term investments, invest in Gold with your 401K. Just be sure to diversify somewhat. Look at Gold Company stocks as well (hint from a friend who is a commercial investor.)

Toyota’s are excellent vehicles overall. The founder of Toyota took to heart Dr Demmings (yes, an Amercian) discussion on qulaity and production. As a matter of fact, the highest award in manufacturing in Japan is called the Deming Award. Dr. Deming was charged with assisting the Japanese manufacturers in reestablishing their manufacturing ability after World War 2!

The reason why the vehicles are so well built is due to a lack of variation. What that means is that the parts used no only fall within spec, but the size of the window of the variation is much smaller than that accepted in the US. Why do you think we have so many issues with leaking seals on engines and transmissions?

Without a labored explaination, if your family/friends or even you own a newer Toyota, please head on over to : www.toyota.com/recall to see which vehicles are affected. They even have a short video on the recommended stopping procedure.

or just cut to here: http://www.toyota.com/recall/videos/stoppingprocedure.html

Lets start with the Bureaucracy’s.  111 or 112 new agencies will be formed to handle the slew of paperwork and develop the new regulations.  HOLY CRUD!  Did you know that the 3rd largest employer in the world is Great Britain’s Health Agency.  Mind you Great Brittain has less than 25% of the population of the US.  Wow, I guess our government is not large enough already!  I guess the Democrats think that you and I are too stupid to manage our money, so they will handle it for you – welcome to the Super Welfare State!

Next – cost:  We are looking at $1.5 Trillion and quickly moving to $2 trillion.  Where is the money coming from – you and me via taxes direct and indirect.

Medicare will have $400 billion cut from it to help cover the costs.  Sorry Grandma, the country needs the money.

To pass the bill, each state is not treated equally, so some states are more equal than others, while the less equal states will be paying more on average!  You can thank the spineless Harry Ried for that one!

And it goes on.

What can you do?  go to www.house.gov and www.senate.gov and find your reps.  Tell them in no uncertain terms that should they vote for this piece of crap, you will vote them out of office.  You can tell them that the bill is way too onerous and way too large to be effective.  Sorry, 2000 pages is too much.

The big problem was that the folks toughing it out was that they would share it with others.  Thus you get airborne illness propagation.  Or Contact Propagation for the poor soul who sat in the chair of the sickie.

Fortunately,  companies are now being aggressive about illness (notice I did not say progressive – a bad word unless it is an insurance company).  They are seeing the value of staying home.  They are finally understanding that having sick folks at work causes more people to get sick – what a concept!

In my case, I will be working a few hours a day from home to get myself through.  Besides, there is only so much reading one can do.  I am too tired to get up and organize my sullpies for more than 30 minutes at a whack.  With the laptop and a voice recorder, I am setting up lists and mentally organizing my stuff however.

Here is the thought for the day:  You have 1 hours notice to evacuate.  What do you take with you?  Lets put a little challenge into it – you also have the flu, so your physical capacity is 50% of normal.  Are you organized enough to grab your legal papers and survival kits.  Do you know what the emergency is?  Could the escape cause more problems than sheltering in place.

Where I live, if you had to rely on the highway system, you would be screwed.  I have several back roads out, which could get me to New Mexico, California, Utah or Colorado.  What about your escape situation?  You can contact your Local Emergency Planning Commission and ask to speak with the Executive Director.  They will have information on evacuation planning and estimated times to get folks out of the communities.

Best of luck!

With fall a falling, the leaves are changing and so will the blog.  I am not sure if I will change the theme or not.  But what will become obvious is that I will allow some advertising to occur.  I will be experimenting with the placement of the ads.  I do ask that if you see something, go ahead and click on the ad.  Ya never know what easter egg you may get!  This of course is at no cost to you, ad will help offset some of the cost to the site.

On another note, last week at costco in the Phoenix area, there was a home food storage road show.  Scarry thing was they were selling 6 packs of #10 cans for about $140!  Although the quality is good, this is a rather steep price.  I do know that there are sources of long term storage foods made by the big guys which are alot less expensive.  Lets face facts – you do not want to waste money.

Best of the weekend!

Believe it or not, the Times got the information from the EPA – Oh Boy!  Let me quote you from the Times Article

“An estimated 1 in 10 Americans have been exposed to drinking water that contains dangerous chemicals or fails to meet a federal health benchmark in other ways, an investigation by The New York Times has found. A report of the investigation was published in the September 13 edition of the newspaper.

“Those exposures include carcinogens in the tap water of major American cities and unsafe chemicals in drinking-water wells. Wells, which are not typically regulated by the Safe Drinking Water Act, are more likely to contain contaminants than municipal water systems,” the report said. It notes that many who consume dangerous chemicals through their drinking water do not realize it because “most of today’s water pollution has no scent or taste.”

Needless to say, if you are not taking care of yourself, do not expect the government to do so for you.  Hell, if the local government and the EPA cannot protect you from bad water, what makes you think that Obamacare is going to do you much better?  Scary!  Here Johnny, drink this….

As I have been warning and espousing, get yourself a filtration system.  Reverse Osmosis is of course the best.  Others would be a three stage filter followed by a distiller.

Today was a great day for me and I hope it was for you as well.  Have you ever noticed how your outlook changes when a really positive attitude is happening?

Barring the Health Care Fiasco that the Liberals are pushing (Special Interest CRAP in my mind) I felt that things were really good today and fall is finally in the air.  So, be an ant and get to your food storage.

One thing to think about is this – where to get supplies for your basic storage for good prices.  You can get into a coop or other buying group – that is if the others are diligent.   You can go it alone, then do all the packaging, etc.  Another tact is to use a secret source which is right in front of most of you. No, it is not the government – Yeach!

The source I am talking about is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormon’s).  Please, lets not get into a philosophical discussion on religion.  Our country is based on the freedom of religion, plain and simple.

So, how do you use this source?  You probably know a Mormon or two, so it is really easy.  Ask them about food storage.  Interesting thing is that they are most likely able to discuss it or knows someone who can discuss it at length.  Then you can ask about getting supplies.  Most congregations (wards or branches) have orders which come from the cannery.  You can purchase items like dehydrated apples, potato pearls, and other grains in #10 cans or Mylar sacks.  Typically, there is an oxygen absorber pack in it as well.

Heck, if there is a LDS cannery near by, you can even voulenteer to assist in a packaging job and buy supplies.

The person to check with is the Relief Society President (get her number from the Bishop or the Branch President).  Then ask her about the food storage program – she will get you in touch with a specialist who can assist in planning your storage needs if needed.

Don’t worry, they will not require you to get baptized or go through some secret ritual just to purchase food!  They will stay in touch with you if you ask on upcoming orders though and actually treat you nicely!

• Basic Storage – has long term storage items like grains, water, toiletries
• Emergency Storage – has your items for your 72 hour kit
• Expanded Storage – these are items likes spices and herbs, baking soda and similar things with a shelf life.

We’ll further explore things for you storage in future issues.  Until then.  Remember to work on your debt!

An idoit reporter from the Huffington Post took credit for an article run by the New York Times (slimes).

Regardless of the shameless plagiarism from one liberal piece of crap to another, the article is what was important.

You see, the EPA found out that a commercial herbicide was found in the drinking water in four mid-western states.  And get this, the EPA said in effect – So What!  Isn’t that peachy.  The EPA doesn’t give a crap about the population they are supposed to protect.  I guess they cannot kill off enough people with the end of life pamphlet being published by the VA!  I smell a rat – do you?

So, what can you do?  Give a call to your (more than likely puppet) congressman/senator and tell them to do something.  You see, this is not the first time that crap has been found in the water.  Last week a study was published about the active ingredient of anti-bacterial soap passing through the wastewater treatment plant (well duh – most wastewater plant treat sewage using bacteria!)  And last year another study was published where pharmaceuticals were found in the drinking water in low doses.

Now do you see a pattern!  Our drinking water is not safe for long term consumption.  All you need to ask the brainiacs at the EPA is – “What are the long term toxicological effects of the low doses of the pharmaceuticals in our drinking water?”  If they say nothing or that there is no effect, they are LYING!  These guys have not done any studies about it.  They do not know the cumulative effects of multiple drugs getting introduced to the population.  They do not have a clue!

Let me explain – I am a Chemical Engineer who does environmental work.  Most of the toxicologists I know would say that they do not know what is the long term effects.

What they would recommend is to drink water that is properly treated.  If yo think that distillation is the proper treatment, you are wrong.  The drugs will volatilize with the water and get carried over.  UV alone will not do it either.  Sediment filtration will not do enough either.

At a minimum, you should have a carbon filter and optimally a reverse osmosis.  An RO will reduce the contaminants by at least 95%, if not more.  If you want to really have a good treatment system, change your filters more frequently.  As someone who is paranoid, I change filters much more frequently than what is recommended by the “pros” who treat water ( the big names)  Why?  because I did my research project in the treatment of water for the semiconductor industry while in college.  Their water requirements are much more stringent than that of the medical insutry or cities.  I know what works and UV is only good for bacterial destruction (another story!)

My filter change outs are every three months (half of the proper maintenance I mentioned earlier)  But that is me.  If you have a filter unit, change the filters more often that what the high school educated folks running the water companies.  Ask them their credentials!  Ask them hard questions.

Remember, replacement filters can be got for cheap – go to www.newROfilters.com and they will go out quick.  If you need a RO unit or three stage water filter, drop a line and I can get you one ordered for a great price and it is NSF certified.

I will post links to the various articles in the next few days!

CW

Is city water truely safe?  Are the chemicals used to treat it safe to get into your gut?

Most municipal water suppliers use sodium hypochloride (bleach) to treat the water.  Problem is that it forms a toxic compound called a TriHaloMethane.  Nasty stuff.

However, when in an emergency situation, better to have a small dose of the stuff to survive versus years of drinking the crap!

What do you do?  Distill it – sorry.  Any organic chemicals in the water will end up in the “cleaned” water.

Run it through a water softener?  Sorry.  Softeners only remove magnesium and calcium which is the water hardness.

Run it though a 1 micron filter.  Sorry again!  Most contaminants will go through the filter easily.  If you add a carbon filter, you will get most of the toxic organic chemicals and chlorines type chemicals.  Unfortunately, unless you have the proper carbon type,  the metals will just pass right on to your drinking glass.

WHAT ARE YOU TO DO?

Reverse osmosis!  Yes, they waste water (about 90 to 95 %) but the water quality is much better.  All of the nasties are reduced up to 99.9% depending upon the condition of the system.

What is the proper maintenance>  Change the sediment filter every 3 months (only use 5 micron filters) and the carbon blocks every 6 months.  Change the post filter every year and the reverse osmosis membrane every 2 to 3 years.

If you are interested in getting a great Reverse Osmosis unit at an excellent price, or need replacement filters, head on over to www.newROfilters.com -> this is my new website which is almost completed.  I am not the cheapest place on the web, but you will need to search pretty hard to find better prices!

If you would like treatment regimes for your stored water, I will be posting some in the near future.

Be sure to continue to prepare, plan and practice!

CW