Since 98% of pop are dgi's, if a sudden panic hits, the shelves'll be bare in hours, leaving 95% of the population materially unprepared. Thus, political action will be demanded, leading inevitably to confiscation. After confiscation of stored stuff (food, arms, tools, the works), what have each of us got left ?

Just 4 things cannot be confiscated, acronym BASK (n.b. if any of THESEare confiscated, then, sorry, you've lost your token in the game of life).

Body - how fit, how healthy ?

Attitude - courage, determination, concentration, compassion

Skills - can you manipulate every type of small arms, find edible plants in your area, catch a fish, suture a wound, drive a stick shift, deliver a baby, etc, etc.

Knowledge - know the poisonous mushrooms from non-poisonous, understand weather and tides, diagnose infectious diseases, understand gardening, soils, seeds, etc.

We've all got some of the above. For every time unit invested in preparation that involves material things that can (will) be confiscated, we should invest a time unit in one of the BASK categories.

For example, if your firearms are confiscated, well then, a knowledge of ambush, knives, and a few other things should allow you to do "field procurement". Or, on the more pacifistic side, a knowledge of field medicine could make you a valuable person anywhere you go. Maybe even higher order skills such as negotiation, peace-making and organizing a field kitchen could be practiced.

-RC

-- Runway Cat (runway_cat@hotmail.com), December 26, 1998

Answers

Who's going to take it?

Who's going to give it to them?

Will "they" bust down every door, raid your pantry, search your home, pull the bottle out of your child mouth?

Too many X-files? Stock up on the things that count water, food, wood and ammo.

-- Bill (bill@microsoft.com), December 26, 1998.

Hi Cat. 98%? I don't think that even 2% of the 270 million folks in this country Get it yet, but be that as it may. Remember that there are also many, many people that are Forget its and Don't wanna get its and some of these are making preparations at least on a small level, but will go into a higher gear once they have a triggering event (FIs) or get past the emotional Y2K wall (DWGIs).

The vast majority will not be prepared (and won't even be able to if they wanted to) and there will be a call for political solutions, which we have discussed before. I'm not sure I buy the confiscation argument, even in light of the E.O.s (yes I have read many of them), but perhaps you are right in the assertion that this (at least in some form) is inevitable. What would predeed this, rationing? Depends on the circumstances it seems.

I have posted before that knowledge and skills are the most valuable things that we have, now and especially later, not only for the reasons you cite, but also because they will enable everything from survival to barter. So, I would agree with you and suggest that time spent learning new skills and acquiring knowledge now will pay back big time later, assuming that the skills and knowledge you spend time with now are those that are in demand in a post Y2K world.

-- Rob Michaels (sonofdust@net.com), December 26, 1998.

Why would they bother to confiscate your pantry? Just go to any grain elevator, hand the owner a chit, and get all they wanted as legal as income tax. And the Army has all the tools they want - you paid for em at very inflated prices. I don't know what a citizen would have other than special knowledge of how to fix something that the govt. would want - ever hear of the draft? That one is legal too. And if you protest - why you are an unpatriotic SOB and will be told so by the conservatives on this board and elsewhere. So you are fixed RC - food and fuel you can have - freedom to stay with your family may be something else again. Funny - the older men with special skills are the ones in danger from this draft - perhaps it will make them think whenever the draft is brought up for young men again.

-- Paul Davis (davisp1953@yahoo.com), December 27, 1998.

RC,

IF a panic wave hits lets say, this spring, as long as the electricity is on, the grocery shelves can get restocked. Could actually be an economic boom time coming up in certain sectors of the economy. I suspect, with a well-orchestrated newsmedia campaign that teaches What to prepare for, we can avoid that mass panic, and instead move to orderly concern and focused shopping.

Its when the power browns out, blacks out or causes havoc, come 2000, THEN whoever is not prepared, will be in a panic. Government included. I question whether they would have the person power to go door-to-door and confiscate. I see a scenario where local organizations like the Red Cross are far more likely to organize and ask for local donations.

In times of crisis, it is most often the intangible skills, Attitude, Ability, Knowledge, and Spirit, that rise to fit the occasion.

Diane

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), December 27, 1998.

I don't see the govt going door to door. Too messy, risky, time consuming, and highly unacceptable to the public. If confiscation is coming it will be at supermarkets (closed due to lack of power) and food banks.

-- Rich Blumenthal (richaerotech@home.com), December 27, 1998.

RC, the BASK is very important, and succinct, am going to pass that one on. However, re confiscation. Perhaps my view is colored by my very remote rural situation, but it is difficult to get police response up here now, and if it is anything above a medical emergency usually they show up in groups if they show up at all, because they are afraid.

My confiscation worry is focused more upon the DGI's who are scattered around the ridge and forest. My neighbors, who are for the most part good people. If they don't make their way down to the local town probably to die in the gymnasium, they just might band together and try to get things from the few of us who have prep'd.

My policy, tho just forming is quite simple. If someone wants some food or help, but cannot/will not offer anything in return, they get one meal, if possible or whatever help I can render or suggest, then they must leave. If they offer labor, skills, barter, or want to join my group - they will get a meal and then a group decision is made as to whether or not we have materiel to support another person. If they come with guns drawn and won't behave they will become part of the compost, or they will have to peel my fingers from my protection - and if they do that.....

they are real stupid indeed because over half of my prep is stored elsewhere.

There are some very good Army Manuals on field medicine, and other more esoteric skills. Very inexpensive and available. Should be in everyone's library, read, and understood and practiced ahead of time.

-- Mitchell Barnes (spanda@inreach.com), December 27, 1998.

They won't go door to door "because it's too much trouble?" Dream on.

Remember, the Nazis came a'knocking for the Jews. Where the Amerikan or Nazi Gestapo has the will; they'll find a way.

Rememeber, the Gestape had Lists (as in "Schindler's List"). And so do the Amerikan bureaurats.

BTW, keep in mind, the only purpose of gun registration is so that the Gestapo (or Amerikan FTB) knows where to go to CONFISCATE weapons in case of "National Emergency" or in the event the liberal pussies, miscellaneous wusses and bleeding hearts continue to be be successful in chipping away at our right of self-defense -- against both free-lance ("private sector") thugs and those in government employ -- and they get a total ban.

-- a (a@a.a), December 27, 1998.