Time For Some Serious Talk...

I, for one, believe we are in for an upcoming nightmare the likes we haven't seen for many, many years.

Not a military strike from abroad brought on by the dictates of whatever madman is in charge this week, not one caused by the striking of some mega comet or meteor hurling through space that suddenly decides to make Earth a target, not even one caused by Mother Nature after deciding that she has had enough of the wanton rape and destruction mankind has managed to put together over the course of several decades!

Now don't get me wrong...in my opinion, these nightmares are coming, but are not the most immediate threats we face. The most immediate problems that we are going to have to work on and survive are the ones we brought upon ourselves by unbridled greed and corruption in high places, and the willingness of most onlookers to turn a blind eye while at the same time holding out our hands for a small slice of the pie. It's time for a change of attitude, like it or not!

To put it bluntly, times are bad. Even more importantly, they are going to get a lot worse before they get better for a lot of people. If you don't agree, just look at the national news and some of the dire predictions made by folks that study these things. let me give you some examples here...

The nation's unemployment rate surged to a 14-year high of 6.5 percent in October. Friday October 7Th, the Labor Department said the unemployment rate jumped sharply from 6.1 percent in September to a rate that exceeds the 6.3 percent peak of June 2003 after the downturn that followed the 9/11 attacks and the dot-com bust. 10 straight months of payroll job cuts have left more than 10 million Americans unemployed.

And on Friday, two more banks were closed. The 46-branch Franklin Bank was closed in Texas, and the 4-branch Security Pacific Bank was closed in California.

If that isn't enough proof of what's going on, look at the rise in cost at your local food store. Look at the number of large companies closing so many stores just before Christmas, like Best Buy that is set to close 220 stores before the holidays. Folks, this is the second largest electronics retailer in the United States!

I know that a lot of people think that the recent drop in gas prices (.48 a gallon nation wide in the last two weeks) is a positive sign. If you go back and look at the price of gasoline over the years, you wonder why the price always seems to become more reasonable just before a major election. For the same reason that local and county roads and improvement projects always seem to coincide with local and county elections.

There are some spots where business is booming. Gun and ammunition sales are reaching record highs, interest in rural land for sale has reached astounding proportions, survival and disaster supply companies are running low on some stocked items, with many items being completely sold out. Do you think that this is all the doings of a bunch of crazy, doom-spouting, militia joining, anti-social types? Or maybe it's just that many more people are starting to get the message that living in a big city that is totally dependent on the safety of the transportation infrastructure and the timely reactions of an often unseeing and uninterested government in times of disaster and need is NOT the best place to be!

You know what my plans are. I'm moving to my own little patch of nothing in the desert. There is nothing there...no water, no electricity, no stores, no neighbors and the only improvements will be the ones I add myself. Not for everyone, but just what I'm looking for, ya know?

Now, let's have another cup of coffee...and I'll draw you a map of how to get there, just in case!