Is it a fluke or possibly do we still have hope as individual citizens in America. In the attached youtube video you’ll see the kind of heroics that I believe used to be much more of a rule in America, as opposed to the distinct exception we find now.

  I hope you all took a few minutes to watch the news clip about the sheriff in Nevada. Importantly we need to note that when challenged the FEDS decided to back down or at least back down for the time being. I was directed to this video by another website that I follow and I fully support what the sheriff is doing. I personally feel a sense of hope that I haven’t in along time. An authority figure that is actually standing on the constitution of the United States as well as his own State constitution -- refreshing.

   As I watched the interview or clips of the interview the sheriff gave and heard the description of how the FEDS attempted to use threat of force to gain the compliance of what they apparently misjudged as the “little guy”, I was reminded of a description of America I began hearing several years ago. That of a “Paper Tiger”, I can’t recall which countries leader used that description to illustrate the current state of America on the global scene? It doesn’t really matter, as it isn’t true in the most literal sense, we (America) could enforce our will around the globe if we really chose to. Unfortunately, we all to often are seeing the Presidents (Sitting and past) abusing our military men and women by using their presence as nothing more than a political mind game at best and quite possibly for their own financial gain at worst.

   Oh yeah, I was building up to a point… The point that when this courageous sheriff stood his righteous ground, the FEDS had to back down, at least for the time being. While I imagine that he hasn’t seen the last of the federal goon squad or maybe he’ll get off easy? Easy being to only have the IRS perform a full rectal audit next spring. I pledge that if I’m made aware of his coming under any persecution, I’ll help financially as best I can and work to spread the word of the injustice… Alright, back to the point I was going after -- I wonder if this lack of Federal spine we see in the governments inability to commit to winning against it’s military rivals or following through on it’s “threats” against Podunk county sheriffs is the beginning of a turning of the tide. I guess what I’m thinking is that now may be the opportunity to push back that line in the sand. I know of many people that have continued to try to accommodate the constant pushing of the government agenda and continued to say that one day they’d have to push back against the heavy handed politicians with their alphabet soup agency enforcers… Is now the time to start pushing? If your adversary shows their hand, even in a small way, wouldn’t it be prudent to use that information to further your own agenda?

   I suppose I could be reading more into this than is actually there but is it possible I’m not? You decide for yourself but I challenge each of you to at the very least think about it. We all have things in our life that we feel compelled to do because we feel that the threat of government persecution would be worse than just complying with the stooges. What if there are no stooges? What if the stooges have lost their will to fight any determined enemy? All around us we see an American laziness or decadence that could easily be compared to other once great nations throughout history. What if our government enforcers have grown just as lazy as their subjects? This is no more than just another thought exercise and of course I am not now and will not ever advocate the breaking of any laws. That said I know all of you are smarter than the average… What if? What if we as a small cross section of what remains of our once great, proud nation -- pushed back, when and where we next find something distasteful. Wait, it couldn’t just be something distasteful -- if we pushed back every time we saw something distasteful on the streets of America we’d succeed only in wearing ourselves out…? It would need to be illegal or immoral  and most importantly outside of the confines of the constitution…

   It would be hard for me to say exactly where these small battles might be found and what the ground to be retaken might be -- I just encourage you to start looking, I doubt it would take long to discover an injustice happening to someone at the hands of any number of the ever growing government infringers!

   Personally I would like to admit that I have tried to turn a blind eye to the disgrace that I used to be able to spot under just about any rock I chose to kick. I found that I was far less angry and stressed out when I just gave in and fell into line like a good little tax slave. Maybe I’m to far gone to find a line in the sand and dare it be crossed. A relatively small group of men did change history a couple of hundred years ago, they pledged their time, treasure and sacred honor… Eventually they also were victorious! Could something like that happen again? Will this fledgling movement by small time county sheriffs be the tip of the GREAT PATRIOTIC AMERICAN ICEBERG, tearing into the side of an unsinkable ship of modern American politics as usual? I hope it is, how about you? Many of us have been waiting for something to happen for more than few years now and this or something similar might just be it?

Keep your eyes open and find your line in the sand, hopefully the enemy isn’t already on the near side of it!

Prepper

The real estate situation doesn’t seem to be improving? Now Fannie Mae is gearing up to threaten those in default or foreclosure but only where they can legally do so…

This article over on Lew Rockwell exposes the bill being pushed forward that would allow the President to “turn off” the internet at his disgretion during a time of emergency… DANGER – DANGER!!

Congressman Ron Paul addresses a group in Des Moines, IA. – He explaines that our Republic is in danger of being lost… “We don’t do anything anymore the way the constitution originally intended…”

Massad Ayoob writes for Backwoods Home magazine, as many of you already know, a recent article he wrote was in support of the revolver… Out classed by modern semi’s, no chance!

Investor Jim Rogers says gold WILL hit $2000 at some point in the next decade but silver, platinum and palladium are still the better buy as they haven’t moved nearly as much as gold recently.

This article in the US Chronicle, outlines the abuses that are being leveled against the longer term unemployed… Interesting stuff! With more and more folks going on unemployment and some beginning to run out of benefits altogether, this should prove to be an interesting time to be sure!

The UK Telegraph is talking about the same thing I’ve been pointing out… The recovery (what recovery) is losing steam and the FED is out of options other than those darn printing presses once again… Hmm, what do you thing they will end up doing?

This article shows what I’ve been witnessing myself over the last number of months… New and more widely enforced fees being levied by cash strapped municipalities.

Apparently there is an ever growing number of economists that are turning feral by joining the ranks in the DOOMER crowd. Several dozen are introduced in this article, many are already know to people in our circles!

This Wall Street Journal article shows how the long resistant State workers are now beginning to go along with cuts to their precious pention plans… This trend appears to have started in Californina but it’s gaining speed across the nation!

Another day, another dollar… Well, I should be back on track next week after my incredibly busy last few weeks. I hope! I appreciate the patience that everyone has shown during my time of sporadic blog participation.

Now that we’re getting back into better weather, the projects at the BOL will begin again in earnest and I should have some interesting updates before to long.

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   Gary North says there’s a political earthquake on the way. So we have economics to be concerned about and maybe we can add some political unrest to list too…

http://www.lewrockwell.com/north/north835.html

   There’s a growing trend of ex-patriotism, the numbers are still relatively small but increasing. This article explores the dangers that America faces if more of our richest citizens were to join their ranks. he biggest question is why wouldn’t rich American leave our country for more friendly shores?

http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/04/12/what_do_we_do_if_the_rich_start_to_leave_98414.html

   With the unemployment ranks in America swelling to new records almost every month, president Obama has issued over a million new green cards to foreign workers to enter the states and compete for the same few jobs that American workers are looking for???

http://www.examiner.com/x-35821-Immigration-Reform-Examiner~y2010m4d11-With-1-in-5-Americans-out-of-work-Obama-issues-over-a-million-green-cards

   The Sacramento Bee ran this article on the trend of California workers that are eligible for retirement – doing so. In years past these same workers would have stuck around and soaked up additional pay increases and other perks before making their exit into the retirement ranks. With little for them to look forward to as far as additional pay and benefits they are choosing to get the retirement dollars ASAP… My question is – if California is already or just about to go bankrupt, could the additional retirement checks be the straw that breaks the Californian Camels back?

http://www.sacbee.com/2010/04/14/2676818/california-state-worker-retirements.html

   So now the postal service is moving to a 5 day delivery schedule and apparently there is a very real chance that we, the tax payer’s, will also have to provide a financial bailout too?

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63B5X920100412

   Strip Mall vacancies are at all time highs? The article states the case well and I can say that I see a huge amount of commercial space available in my area of Washington State. However, I still see FULL parking lots at the shopping malls… Like I’ve said before, I don’t often venture into those gang ridden, perfume drenched, wallet sucking retail centers but I am curious if there is a large degree of “hanging out” and or “window shopping” going on?

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/article.pl?articleId=33252

   Property tax rebellion is also being predicted in this ABC News article… Mainstream media advertising rebellion? Somethings up but they are speaking the truth about local tax assessments lagging behind the current real estate values…

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/Tax/property-tax-rebellion-states-real-estate-crash/story?id=10287763

   Small business confidence is continuing to go down… March saw another decrease and apparently the small business owners are the first to see a turn around in a recession?

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=anLmjO4Dpguk

   NPR ran this article on the new “Kinder, gentler Militia movement” – we’ll see!

 http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125862933&ft=1&f=1001

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   Another article over at the silver bear cafe, we’e not in a recovery yet… More evidence that we have reached a point of no return!

http://www.silverbearcafe.com/private/03.10/theend.html

   The last cars made in California, Toyota Tacoma and Corolla, have been completed. Now the auto plant is shuting its doors… More jobs down the drain. These workers will probably be able to flip burgers and keep up on their mortgage payments , right?

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9EQEAHG0&show_article=1

   This ABC News article tries to make the claim that the US Economy has turned the corner and in about 5 YEARS the jobs lost will be back. WHAT? We’ve turned a corner and only 5 short years will see us back where we were? If anyone believes this – please hold your breath!

http://abcnews.go.com/WN/Business/economist-mark-zandi-economy-turned-corner/story?id=10272810

   MSNBC brings us an article talking about the trend of States holding on to their citizens state tax return checks. Tick,tick, tick – time is running out and I believe that people’s patience is too!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36122550/ns/business-personal_finance/

   More bubbles in the housing market… Lot’s to look forward to!

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25124.htm

   What will the next shoe to drop be… emerging markets? Maybe – yahoo finance thinks so…

http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/next-meltdown-will-be-driven-by-%22big-collapses-in-emerging-markets%22-johnson-says-459869.html?tickers=^dji,^gspc,dia,spy,euo,fxi,uup&sec=topStories&pos=8&asset=&ccode=

   NY Times says not to expect housing prices to rise anytime soon!

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Why-Your-Houses-Value-nytimes-2302299535.html?x=0

   Ge ready for the real threat of excessive tax increases. If you still have the ability to earn a dollar, better get ready to share it with your unemployed neighbors!

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/inevitable-surge-tax-rates

   How to survive the 3 most imminent threats from 2010-2012…

http://www.howestreet.com/articles/index.php?article_id=12751

This is no suprise, instead of keeping up with the Jones we’re in a race against them to the bottom… This is one race I am hoping to lose!

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/7-Stressors-Sapping-the-usnews-2236123833.html?x=0

Double the trouble! Multiple foreclosures and more coming right around the bend. Everyone and their brother-in-law became a real estate investor overnight and now all those investment houses are going back to the banks. I have seen investors that I personally worked with lose as many as 12 homes, their entire portfolio. These were home that they had put 20% down payments on, not just zero down loans or creative financing… They have actually lost hard cash on these, very sad but life goes on!

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-cover-foreclose21-2010mar21,0,7144708.story?source=patrick.net

Do your bug out plans include spending some time “camping” in the forests? Might want to do some early recon of the area and see who might be waiting for you. I don’t get out in the woods nearly enough and the deep larder of standing firewood that surrounds my BOL is all privately held. Private land isn’t necessarily always safe but I feel a little better!

http://www.islandpacket.com/2010/03/15/1173660/us-forest-service-admits-putting.html

Doomsday, INFOWORLD style… Interesting were the doom is coming from these days, wider and wider circles are drawing many of the same conclusions!

http://www.infoworld.com/d/adventures-in-it/tech-apocalypse-five-doomsday-scenarios-it-441

Who would have guessed that it wasn’t a good time to be buying a vacation property? I think that workable farmland as a vacation destination might fall into a different catergory though…

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/think-twice-buying-vacation-home

Don’t try to flee the country… Your money will have to stay behind! I had always wondered about the expatriot movement, it appears that that strategy isn’t going to work much longer?

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/its-official-america-now-enforces-capital-controls

This article in the NY Times talks about the lowering of corporate workers expectations in the work place. Over qualified workers are now happy to have a job, even if it is below their previous expectations!

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/29/us/29overqualified.html?src=me&ref=general

I just don’t know where to start on this article. It’s almost as though I had written it myself! Federally sponsored debt slavery and “Everyone should have a college degree…”. Infuriating!

http://whiskeyandgunpowder.com/back-to-school-for-debt-slavery/

Article about the views of Ron Paul… Not the party line…

http://www.idahostatesman.com/2010/03/28/1133215/paul-wants-health-opt-out.html

Another interesting article from lewrockwell.com, take a look at the ideas of rebllion and revolution across the ages!

http://www.lewrockwell.com/maloney/maloney20.1.html