Okay, that might be exaggerating a little, but the inland water here in Natchitoches, Louisiana (at least Sibley Lake on the city's west side), is a very convincing scene, and it all looks like everything we've seen on those postcards. The alligators here were both fun to look around at and delicious. Yes, really. If etouffee and gumbo don't clear your sinuses, then you've either got dead taste buds or you just didn't eat.

It's been humid on this entire...

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What's more important? To be able to plow a field? To be able to build a house? To be able to live in a shed grinding grain.

BALDERDASH!

Unless people have adequate financial resources under their own control with no employer to fire them or pension manager to lose their money or, in the latter case, to simply stop paying they're no better off than the lowest wage slave with a negative net worth. The individual who wishes to be self-sufficient needes to take responsibility,...

I'd prefer to be living in the America of 1950 or perhaps the America of 1900 would be better. I'm old. I have pets, one of whom is a dog who was apparently born in April, 1999. He needs Rimadyl every day so that he can get around.

I'm looking forward to social upheaval about as much as I was looking forward to having both hips replaced a couple of weeks after this thread began. I could have died. But I didn't die; I'm out of pain and just about normal.

TEOTWAWKI...

A couple of points given the trends of the past ten years.

Urban riots would likely see the deaths of primarily outlaws. People hidden in their basements, at least in the short term, are far less likely to become involved in armed confrontations than the predators who are out with plans of looting and mayhem. The looters won't be the only armed people and those shooting from cover are far more likely to win.

If there were martial law and if the military brought squad...