Wednesday, February 24, 2016

9th NC PATCON June 1 – June 6th 2016

 



Southern Manners Are Expected From all.  As my mother would say, if you can't say anything nice about someone, don't say anything at all.  Thank you. :)

 

 

Southern Manners Are Expected From all.  As my mother would say, if you can't say anything nice about someone, don't say anything at all.  Thank you. :)


 Under 7, free

7-12, $14

13 and up, $25

Includes world famous East Carolina *Pig Pickin' on Saturday!   

*Pulled pork, Southern fried chicken, black eyed peas, string beans, potato salad, hush puppies, tea, water and banana pudding.

If you are planning to attend the June PATCON,  please remit your fees ASAP, but NLT 20 May.  Please send check to Cape Carteret address below.  I do not deposit checks until the week before and I would appreciate all remit funds now.  Thank you.


Brock Townsend
319 Holly Lane
Cape Carteret, NC 28584



The funds will be used for seating, tables, porta potties, Eastern North Carolina Barbecue with all the trimmings, equipment and tent. We would like to encourage company sponsors to donate money for this event. Any company donating $50 or more will be listed as a sponsor on the website and at the PATCON.

 Camping available Wednesday - Sunday.

No animals, please, as my Peacock is more than sufficient to annoy all but us.:)

 

   

 

  More details/info @ Free North Carolina
 

Cooking for Large Groups/Feeding Your Tribe Class Signup Extended

 


The deadline to sign up for the class has been extended from March 1st,to March 7th.
I will accept deposits on class until Monday,March 7th-this will give those who are undecided about the class another week to consider it,and anyone who has not had the info will still have the chance to attend.
Those already signed up for the class have let me know they would prefer a full class.
Anyone who still would like to take the class,get your deposit to me by Mon. March 7th.
Those who are having financial issues-I will barter-just make an offer and we will most likely be able to work something out.
E-mail me @ gamegetterII@yahoo.com
or starvinlarry@gmail.com

Read.
Learn.
Train.
Do More PT!

Saturday, February 20, 2016

There is Now an App that Sends a Push Notification to Your Phone Every Time Police Kill Someone


In 2014, Only 224 of 18,000 U.S law enforcement agencies reported a fatal shooting by their officers. The overwhelming majority of police departments are not required, nor seem to even care about reporting on the number of people they kill.
“It is unacceptable that The Washington Post and the Guardian newspaper from the U.K. are becoming the lead source of information about violent encounters between police and civilians. That is not good for anybody,” FBI Director James Comey lamented, last year, noting that the media is doing a better job than they are.
There is no real system in place to count the number of people killed by police, beyond the good work of independent media and advocacy groups. The FBI relies on a voluntary system where local police departments report data on deadly use of force — if they so choose.
Naturally, most departments refuse to submit data.
Thanks to the vigilance of concerned media and advocacy groups, however, cops are finding it quite hard to hide their violence.
In January 2016, police killed 113 people — at least one person was fatally gunned down by a cop every day that month. One particularly deadly day, January 27, saw ten people meet their fate, thanks to the police. On average, that is almost 4 people a day.
And there is no indication this tragic epidemic will end soon.
We know that American cops killed 113 people in January, not because the police told us about them, but because there are hard working people out there who care about this vital information.
Sites like  Fatal Encounters, or Cop Crisis, with its beautifully coded graphical interface, count police killings as a public service. Killed By Police also ran one of the most comprehensive databases on police killings as they listed 1,205 total killings by law enforcement for 2015, but hasn’t yet listed any statistics for 2016.
Last year, police killings reached such a level of media coverage, that even the Guardian got in on the tally with their project The Counted.
Until recently, Americans relied solely on the state to report their own killings — a truly futile cause.

Read more here

A Day In The Life Of A Talk Radio Blogger - Online Magazine: Combat vet in need of help

A Day In The Life Of A Talk Radio Blogger - Online Magazine: Combat vet in need of help: Sgt. William Hamlett was wounded in Afghanistan and suffers from a Traumatic Brain Injury, PTSD, severed Achilled Tendon, Damaged L1 nerve, ...

Friday, February 19, 2016

Due to the Astounding Lack of Interest The Feeding Your Tribe Cooking Class Will Likely be Canceled

   The lack of interest in this class is simply astounding-go check out the cost of professional cooking courses-and remember,I am more than qualified to teach professional cooking classes my price is less than the deposit for most classes-and I'm providing a 3 day course that's condensed because a lot of the material was going to be sent via e-mails prior to the class.
  After many weeks of promoting the feeding your tribe cooking classes,the number of people who have committed to taking the class is so small,it's simply not worth my time and effort to hold the class.
Should more people sign up for the class,it will still be held.
This is the last attempt I'm going to make to get people to attend the class.
I've already spent a considerable amount of time and effort to set up the class,and would really like to hold the class and pass on my knowledge of properly,safely cooking for large groups of people.
I'll wait until March first,if there's no one else who has sent in their deposit,the class will be canceled.

Thursday, February 18, 2016

John McAfee Offers to Decrypt San Bernardino iPhone for Free — for the Sake of All Our Privacy

Cyber security expert and Libertarian presidential candidate John McAfee is alarmed at the potential implications from Apple being forced to create a virtual backdoor to their encrypted system. In an enlightening op-ed, McAfee blasts the FBI for its ineptitude, while exposing the archaic hiring practices of the Feds that create a technology gap between FBI and private sector capabilities. McAfee makes clear that if the government gains access, privacy, as we know it, will fail to exist.+

“No matter how you slice this pie, if the government succeeds in getting this back door, it will eventually get a back door into all encryption, and our world, as we know it, is over,” McAfee writes.

The tech guru offers his teams hacking services to the FBI free of charge, as a means of allowing the phone in question to be accessed – without allowing the government to have a backdoor into all iPhones. McAfee would provide the FBI with the information they claim to seek, while at the same time allowing for secure encryption to continue to exist – of course there is a distinct possibility that the actual intention of forcing Apple to create a backdoor isn’t to access this particular phone, but as a means of breaking encryption on a global basis.
Read McAfee’s op-ed to the FBI below:

Using an obscure law, written in 1789 — the All Writs Act — the US government has ordered Apple to place a back door into its iOS software so the FBI can decrypt information on an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters.
It has finally come to this. After years of arguments by virtually every industry specialist that back doors will be a bigger boon to hackers and to our nation’s enemies than publishing our nuclear codes and giving the keys to all of our military weapons to the Russians and the Chinese, our government has chosen, once again, not to listen to the minds that have created the glue that holds this world together.
This is a black day and the beginning of the end of the US as a world power. The government has ordered a disarmament of our already ancient cybersecurity and cyberdefense systems, and it is asking us to take a walk into that near horizon where cyberwar is unquestionably waiting, with nothing more than harsh words as a weapon and the hope that our enemies will take pity at our unarmed condition and treat us fairly.
Any student of world history will tell you that this is a dream. Would Hitler have stopped invading Poland if the Polish people had sweetly asked him not to do so? Those who think yes should stand strongly by Hillary Clinton’s side, whose cybersecurity platform includes negotiating with the Chinese so they will no longer launch cyberattacks against us.
The FBI, in a laughable and bizarre twist of logic, said the back door would be used only once and only in the San Bernardino case.
Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, replied:
The government suggests this tool could only be used once, on one phone. But that’s simply not true. Once created, the technique could be used over and over again, on any number of devices. In the physical world, it would be the equivalent of a master key, capable of opening hundreds of millions of locks — from restaurants and banks to stores and homes. No reasonable person would find that acceptable.
The government is asking Apple to hack our own users and undermine decades of security advancements that protect our customers — including tens of millions of American citizens — from sophisticated hackers and cybercriminals. The same engineers who built strong encryption into the iPhone to protect our users would, ironically, be ordered to weaken those protections and make our users less safe.
No matter how you slice this pie, if the government succeeds in getting this back door, it will eventually get a back door into all encryption, and our world, as we know it, is over. In spite of the FBI’s claim that it would protect the back door, we all know that’s impossible. There are bad apples everywhere, and there only needs to be in the US government. Then a few million dollars, some beautiful women (or men), and a yacht trip to the Caribbean might be all it takes for our enemies to have full access to our secrets.

Cook said:
The FBI may use different words to describe this tool, but make no mistake: Building a version of iOS that bypasses security in this way would undeniably create a backdoor. And while the government may argue that its use would be limited to this case, there is no way to guarantee such control.
The fundamental question is this: Why can’t the FBI crack the encryption on its own? It has the full resources of the best the US government can provide.
With all due respect to Tim Cook and Apple, I work with a team of the best hackers on the planet. These hackers attend Defcon in Las Vegas, and they are legends in their local hacking groups, such as HackMiami. They are all prodigies, with talents that defy normal human comprehension. About 75% are social engineers. The remainder are hardcore coders. I would eat my shoe on the Neil Cavuto show if we could not break the encryption on the San Bernardino phone. This is a pure and simple fact.
And why do the best hackers on the planet not work for the FBI? Because the FBI will not hire anyone with a 24-inch purple mohawk, 10-gauge ear piercings, and a tattooed face who demands to smoke weed while working and won’t work for less than a half-million dollars a year. But you bet your ass that the Chinese and Russians are hiring similar people with similar demands and have been for many years. It’s why we are decades behind in the cyber race.
Cyberscience is not just something you can learn. It is an innate talent. The Juilliard school of music cannot create a Mozart. A Mozart or a Bach, much like our modern hacking community, is genetically created. A room full of Stanford computer science graduates cannot compete with a true hacker without even a high-school education.
So here is my offer to the FBI. I will, free of charge, decrypt the information on the San Bernardino phone, with my team. We will primarily use social engineering, and it will take us three weeks. If you accept my offer, then you will not need to ask Apple to place a back door in its product, which will be the beginning of the end of America.

If you doubt my credentials, Google “cybersecurity legend” and see whose name is the only name that appears in the first 10 results out of more than a quarter of a million.
 
Make no mistake that this is one of the most epic battles in the history of privacy, as the decisions that are reached in this case will reverberate throughout the world and have far reaching consequences. There is a fundamental battle taking place as to whether an individual has a right to privacy or, if as the U.S. government is asserting; privacy is a privilege bestowed upon individuals at the behest of the government.+
Ironically, privacy is considered a fundamental human right as recognized in the UN Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and in many other international and regional treaties. Privacy is the lynchpin of human dignity and many other key values such as freedom of association and freedom of speech have their roots in privacy.
When the U.S. government works to undermine what is considered a fundamental human right by most of the world, perhaps it’s time to seriously question why those elected to represent the people are actively working to undermine the rights of those that put them in office.


source

The Cache - Prologue - Here There Be Dragons

 h/t The Vulgar Curmudgeon @ http://bustednuckles.blogspot.com/

 Selous Scout over at Something Wicked Comes has been working on a book for a few years-
 The prologue to "The Cache"  "Here There Be Dragons" is linked below,the rest of the story,in individual chapters, can be found on the left sidebar of the site.
Read it here...
 There Be Dragons

Tuesday, February 16, 2016

Bombshell: Co-creator of Civil Asset Forfeiture Wants to Abolish It, No More Policing for Profit

The sole function of the state is self-preservation -- carried out and sustained through acts of extortion

 Co-creator-of-Civil-Asset-Forfeiture-Wants-to-Abolish-It,-No-More-Policing-for-Profit

One of the most insidious abuses of state power lies in the practice of civil asset forfeiture (CAF), where government agents can seize cash and property from citizens who are not charged with a crime. Law enforcement needs only the suspicion (often concocted) of a crime to immediately steal a person’s belongings, and the person must then prove his or her innocence with costly attorney’s fees to get their property back.
The case of Joseph Rivers, 22, provides a shocking example of how bad it can get. While on his way to Hollywood to start a music career, the DEA stole Rivers’ life savings of $16,000 on the made-up suspicion that he must be involved in drugs, even though there was no evidence whatsoever. He has yet to get this money back.

Since CAF was created by the federal government in the 1980s to fight organized crime, law enforcement has seized upon it to develop, like a drug addiction, something known as “policing for profit.” Billions of dollars are stolen every year to feed a lust for more equipment, training, and personnel to further entrench the police state.

However, the tide is turning. New Mexico has become the first state to make serious reform, as it has abolished civil asset forfeiture by requiring a criminal conviction to seize assets. The law puts the funds derived from criminal convictions into the state treasury, rather than state and local law enforcement.
The city of Albuquerque, which used to rake in $1 million a year from CAF, is incensed over the loss of its cash cow and is refusing to follow the law. It continues to seize vehicles without a conviction and has even built a new parking lot for all the cars it intends to steal.
More states, such as Virginia, Oklahoma, and New Hampshire, are considering reform as the abuses of CAF come to light. Noble law enforcement officers are speaking out as well. Last September, we interviewed Stephen Mills, chief of police of the Apache, OK police department, who is a vocal critic of CAF.
And now, a bombshell has been dropped which will surely accelerate moves across the country to end this injustice.
One of the creators of civil asset forfeiture has just called for it to be abolished. Brad Cates, former director of the U.S. Justice Department’s Asset Forfeiture Office (1985-89), wrote an opinion in the Wall Street Journal acknowledging that CAF has turned into policing for profit.

Read more  here

Wednesday, February 10, 2016

NC Wildlife Commission Conducts Prescribed Burns to Benefit Wildlife and Habitat

The exact same kind of "damage" the Hammonds caused...


RALEIGH, N.C. — Where there's smoke, there's fire. And where there's fire, at least on a N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission game land, there's usually a prescribed burn — one of the best and most cost-effective methods of managing habitat for wildlife.

A prescribed burn, or an intentional burning of vegetation under strict and specific circumstances, helps restore and maintain wildlife habitat. It is a cost-effective tool that the Commission uses to create and maintain suitable and ample wildlife habitat on game lands throughout the state.

The most common prescribed burns conducted by the Commission are restoration burns and maintenance burns. Restoration burns are done on fire-dependent habitats that haven't been burned in years. Maintenance burns are repeated burns that restore and maintain fire-adapted habitats.

Commission staff typically conducts maintenance burns in multi-year cycles to open groundcover for quail, grassland birds, deer and turkeys. Many of North Carolina's declining or rare wildlife species are adapted to and found only in fire-dependent habitat.

Many prescribed burns, also called controlled burns, are conducted between January and March when trees are less active metabolically. Some burns are conducted into spring and summer as warm season burning provides for better control of young hardwoods.

"Burning encourages production of native grasses and herbaceous vegetation, which provides valuable food and cover for a wide variety of wildlife species," said Isaac Harrold, the Commission's lands program manager. "Animals like deer browse on groundcover. Quail and songbirds utilize seed produced by native plants. Quail and other species, such as turkeys and rabbits, use the groundcover for nesting."

Many times during a burn, the Commission gets calls from people who are concerned about animals not being able to escape the fire, particularly during turkey hunting season in the spring.

"We use burning techniques that ensure animals have time and room to escape," said Harrold. After we burn an area, we typically see regeneration of vegetation within a few weeks and animals returning to the burn site shortly after."

Prescribed burns are also used to help reduce high levels of forest fuels that can cause deadly wildfires and to control disease and insects, such as brownspot disease in long leaf pine seedlings and cone beetles in white pines.

For more information on prescribed burns, read "Using Fire to Improve Wildlife Habitat," by the N.C. Cooperative Extension Service. For more information on the Wildlife Resources Commission, including an interactive game land map, visit www.ncwildlife.org.

Ohio deer hunters increase take over last season

 The increase came even as the state lowered bag limits

 

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) – Ohio wildlife officials say good weather and other factors led to an increase in the number of deer killed by hunters this past season.
The Ohio Department of Natural Resources says hunters checked 188,335 white-tailed deer dating back to the opening of archery season in the fall. That’s up from the 175,745 deer checked during the 2014-2015 season.
The increase came even as the state lowered bag limits and eliminated antlerless permit use in most counties. Coshocton and Licking counties produced the most tagged deer.
The state says that until recently deer populations in nearly all of Ohio’s counties were well above the wildlife agency’s goal. In the last few years, the population in most counties has been brought down to near the goals.



Tuesday, February 9, 2016

How to Build a Self-Feeding Campfire

 selfFire_5

You may have seen pictures on social media or videos on Facebook showing various ways of building a self-feeding campfire. Some people say to build a reverse fire (wood piled largest to smallest), others swear by a horizontal log fire (where you split a long log in half and then build your tinder fire inside the spaced-apart halves of the log). Off all of the schemes I’ve seen, this one, described by former biology teacher turned outdoor enthusiast and YouTuber Bob Hansler, seems the most efficient.

There’s obviously a lot of set-up involved. In the video, Bob stresses that the angle of the feed rails needs to be just right, the logs need to be very straight, spaced properly, and it’s important how you light the tinder fire. While you can tell he certainly has created the ideal conditions, he gets an over 14 hour burn out of his fire, including weathering a downpour of an 1-1/4″, six hours in.
selfFire_2
It may seem like a lot of work (and a lot of wood), but anyone who’s ever been camping in cold weather and tending a night fire, knows you don’t get a lot of sleep, and it’s a lot of work throughout the night. I guess a self-feeding fire is just front-loading that work.
selfFire_3
One of the YouTube commenters offered a great improvement to the set-up:
Try taking out one side. In it’s place, put large heavy rocks that will keep the logs from rolling towards you. Make sure those rocks aren’t found near water, as they may explode when the heat expands their moisture. That side you took out is where your body will go, perpendicular to the fire. The log side will also act as a wind protector and reflector.
selfFire_4
I’m not sure how many people are actually going to build this type of fire under a normal outdoor/camping situation, but the demonstration is interesting and it’s nice to know that you could construct such a fire if a situation were to call for one.

Monday, February 8, 2016

Another Cook County attack on gun rights

 Via Chicago Sun-Times

A letter to the editor...

  The Cook County Board has a proposed ordinance before it which will attempt to restrict the 2nd Amendment rights of all law-abiding citizens in Cook County. The ordinance calls for the “prohibitions on the sale of firearm to, and purchase of firearm by, a person not covered by appropriate liability insurance.”

This means Cook County residents would not be able to purchase and own a firearm without first acquiring firearm liability insurance.

The sponsor and others would like to compare firearm liability insurance to having car insurance, which is like comparing apples to oranges. A right granted by the 2nd Amendment allows United States citizens to possess and own a firearm. Driving a motor vehicle is a privilege granted by state law, not a right covered under the United States Constitution.
The intention of the ordinance’s sponsor is to have a major impact on gun violence. An admirable thought, however you must ask how will this ordinance have any impact on gun-wielding criminals? The truthful answer is it won’t. It’s a false notion to think that violent criminals who are already breaking the law will stop and contemplate the purchase of firearm liability insurance before committing their next crime. Moreover, nearly all insurance policy coverage excludes criminal acts from their coverage obligation.
If this ordinance were passed, litigation would certainly follow in opposition to its constitutionality, which would mean a long and costly legal defense for Cook County taxpayers. There is a reason why this type of legislation has failed nearly everywhere it has been introduced across the country.
This ordinance would not address violent criminal behavior, but would instead restrict the constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens. I believe this is an unconstitutional overreach by government which I strongly oppose.
We need to focus our efforts on preventative measures that are truly substantive in nature and that will deter individuals away from crime. We can do so by beginning to promote strong family structure, by supporting the concept of community members turning in known criminals and through increasing educational and employment opportunities. Preventing criminal behavior must be the driving force to addressing violent crime, rather than ineffective legislation placed upon the citizen taxpayer without regard to consequence.
Sean M. Morrison
Cook County Commissioner
17th District

 

 

 

 

 

 


Friday, February 5, 2016

Safely Feeding Your Tribe Now,and During A SHTF Event

Learn the procedures and techniques to safely feed your tribe under any conditions-and provide proper nutrition needed,as people will be under stress and healthy,great tasting food not only boosts morale,it helps your tribe fight off diseases,and keeps everyone in top physical and mental shape.
You can send one member of your tribe to take the course,and they can relay the information to the rest of your group.Your team,tribe,group,clan whatever you call them can’t survive for long eating MRE’s,beans and rice-learn how to keep everyone well fed, good food keeps everyone mentally and physically healthy,fewer people will succumb to colds,flu and other diseases that will run rampant in any long term grid down scenario.
Course description ,class info,location and how to sign up for class...here

Thursday, February 4, 2016

WHO DECIDES whether Someone is qualified for the Office of President of the United States?

By Publius Huldah
According to the original intent of our Constitution, Ted Cruz & Marco Rubio are not eligible to be President because their fathers weren’t US citizens at the times they were born. So they are not “natural born citizens”.
So! How is this handled? Who decides? Do we “file a lawsuit” and let federal judges decide? “Slap your hands!”, our Framers would say. They would say, “READ THE CONSTITUTION AND SEE WHAT IS SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN!”
[Our lives would be so much simpler – and our Country so much better off – if we read & supported our Constitution.]
Read the 12th Amendment. That sets forth the procedures for election of President and VP. Note that ELECTORS are supposed to be the ones making the selection – not The People. [There is a reason for that.]  For an illustration of how this works, go HERE and read…
View original post 367 more words

Wednesday, February 3, 2016

What’s The Beef, Part Two: How Lawsuits Shape Land Management Policies

Range management is more a result of lawsuit than science…Special interest groups sue the land management agencies and they agree to settle on terms that do not benefit the general public and are almost never disclosed…
Victor Iverson in Deseret News, January 22, 2016

Sue and Settle
Back in the heyday of clear-cutting, over-grazing, strip-mining, etc, when a generation of passionate environmentalists were inspired by Hayduke and his Monkey Wrench Gang, it seemed that the only way to bring attention to the problems of over-use and degradation of lands was with aggressive, sometimes dangerous, protest actions.  From removing survey stakes and tree spiking to bombings and arson labeled as eco-terrorism, considered one of the greatest threats of terrorism in the United States, environmentalists wanted to be heard.  In desperation to save what they loved, they demanded change in the only ways they felt were left to them.  But then another way was found to effect change in land use policies.
We decided, let’s just sue instead.  It got settled with the Service agreeing to do a wolf study, which led to reintroduction.
That was the moment when we looked at it and said, ‘Wow.’  The environmental movement spent a decade going to meetings and demanding action and getting nothing done.  They were asking powerful people for something from a position of no power.  We realized that we can bypass the officials and sue, and that we can get things done in court.
Kieran Suckling of the Center For Biological Diversity in an interview with High Country News
The use of lawsuits to force the agency overseeing the land or wildlife in question to act has proven to be effective.  And it has been steadily increasing.  When the agency agrees to reach a settlement in these lawsuits, the terms are negotiated behind closed doors, outside of the public’s view, away from the public’s input.  It is referred to as ‘sue and settle.’  Here is a short definition from a report from the US Chamber of Commerce:

 Read the whole thing,including embedded links here

What’s The Beef? Part One: The Anger Over Federal Land Management

 IMG_20160125_150217

The land out here is vast, in some places stretching as far as the eye can see in between homes, towns, any signs of humanity.  It is rugged and dry, and holds a sense of emptiness, of loneliness.  But to the observant wanderer, it is in fact a place full of life, from the twisted juniper trees to the strange-colored lichens spreading over the ground.  One can find traces of the animals that have passed through, coyote scat, rabbit tracks, the remnants of a cougar kill up in a tree, huge bird nests up in the craggy cliff bands.  And, of course, the evidence of people, shotgun shells, broken glass, old appliances, and cows.
People seem to have a habit of taking what they have for granted until threatened with its loss.  It is certainly true when it comes to land use.  We have a long history of over-use, it is evident in any industry that involves using or extracting natural resources.  It begins with discovery, then fortunes are made, and more and more people jump on board, and then, the resource begins to run out.  That is the point at which people either destroy the resource altogether, or take steps to protect and manage it.
It is undeniable that humans impact the environment, our proliferation around the world has clearly changed the land.  It is also undeniable that natural resources are required for our survival.  We need food, water, shelter, just like every species.  And this need, and all the times we’ve allowed it to devolve into excessive over-use of resources, along with the desire to protect what we don’t want to lose, has left us with a decades-old, emotional, sometimes violent debate.
Once again, this debate has exploded out of its usual confines of rural America and into the national spotlight with the occupation of the Malheur Wildlife refuge in Harney County.  Ignoring the very basic fact that nature seeks balance, the media is frantically fueling the polarizing rhetoric.  Either you are an angry, spoiled white guy with lots of guns attempting to grab all of the public land, or you are against the occupation and want the spoiled white guys arrested, maybe even bombed with drones.  Few seem willing to pause long enough in the argument to really listen to each other.  Just what is the beef with Federal land management?
The situation in Harney County presents a good starting place to look at this question because there is a long history of problems there.  Anyone who has paid any attention to the story of the refuge occupation knows that it began with a protest rally in support of Dwight and Steven Hammond, who were sentenced for arson under the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act for starting two fires on their land that spread to BLM land, burning a total of 140 acres.  The group occupying the refuge want the Hammonds freed from prison, among other things.  The Hammonds’ battle with the BLM has been going on for decades, long before they lit the two fires that got them branded as terrorist arsons.  And they aren’t alone.

Read the whole thing,including embedded links  here

Tuesday, February 2, 2016

How to Cure Your Own Bacon and Pancetta


An excellent job of describing the processes involved,only slightly different than my version of these two classic cured meats.
The process is something anyone concerned with long-term survival in the event of a societal collapse should be familiar with.
Now is the time to practice making salt cured meats,smoked meats and fish,and salt and smoke cured meats like hams and bacon.
There’s also a seemingly endless variety of smoked sausages,there’s salt and air cured meats-such as proscuitto ham.
Beef,venison,and other wild game can be preserved by salt curing,smoking,or a combination of the two-think beef jerky,beef sticks-(Slim-Jim’s),dried chipped beef-the stuff SOS is made of.
In the “old days” salt and smoke curing was the only way to preserve meats and seafoods,the methods have worked for thousands of years,but sadly,not many people know how to preserve meats using these methods.

Praise the pork belly — two of the world’s best cured meats are easy to make at home.


By 

Sean Timberlake


 Everything’s better with bacon, and it’s a pretty simple matter to make your own. Bacon and its Italian counterpart pancetta are fundamental members of the expansive world of cured meats. At their most basic, they require just three ingredients — meat, salt, and time — plus a little woodsmoke for bacon. But there’s plenty of room to get fancy.




Make Pancetta

Pancetta is the simplest to make. Think of it as the gateway drug to making bacon. It’s a meat that is lightly cured, but brings big, porky flavor to classic Italian dishes like pasta carbonara or all’ amatriciana.
Head to your preferred butcher, and purchase a slab of quality pork belly. (Pro tip: If you can find hog jowls instead of belly, you will make guanciale, which is even better.) How much is entirely up to you; personally, I go in for about 3 pounds per batch.

Weigh

Get an accurate weight on the slab, because you want a 3% ratio of salt to meat to get a good cure. For this reason, I usually weigh in metric; for 1kg of belly I would weigh out 30g of salt. If you’re unwaveringly American, that’s ½ ounce of salt per pound of meat.
pancetta-1

Trim and Salt

Trim the belly so it’s a nice, even shape. You can remove the skin or leave it on. Lay the meat on a sheet of cling wrap on a sheet pan. Mix the salt and spices, and rub it all over the belly. Wrap tightly in a few layers of cling wrap, making sure the cure is in contact with all the meat.
 *I prefer to remove the skin,seems to cure better  that way*
pancetta-2

Cure

Keep in the refrigerator on the sheet pan for 5 days, turning daily. The belly will release some liquid; this is normal.

Rinse and Dry

On the fifth day, unwrap, rinse, and pat dry. Your pancetta can now be cut and cooked.

Hang (dry cure)

You can intensify the flavor by hanging the pancetta, and even turn it into a cured meat that can be eaten uncooked.
pancetta7
Wrap the pancetta in 3 layers of cheese-cloth. Truss the pancetta with butcher’s twine, creating loops on about 1″ intervals. Hang the pancetta in a cool, dark place for 3 weeks or more. The ideal curing temperature is around 55°F, with humidity at 70–75%, but you can get perfectly satisfactory results by hanging it in a basement or any other cool place in the house.
Remember when you got that initial weight? Continue to weigh your pancetta as it cures. In order to be consumed as an uncooked cured meat, it must lose at least 30% of its weight (another reason I weigh in metric). When it’s ready, the flesh should feel evenly firm, not squishy in the center.
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Unwrap and enjoy

When you unwrap the pancetta, you may see mold. Fuzzy, white mold is in fact a good thing; it’s harmless, and you can wash it off with vinegar. Ditto green mold. If you see red or black mold, however, you’re in the danger zone, and the pancetta must be tossed. (This is unlikely unless you had it in an exceedingly humid environment.)
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Your cured pancetta can be refrigerated, wrapped in paper, for up to 1 week, or frozen for up to 3 months.

Make bacon

America’s favorite pig product differs from pancetta in a few key ways. First, the cure typically has sodium nitrite, which, aside from deterring Clostridium botulinum spores, gives bacon its signature pink color and faintly tangy flavor. It’s also often sweet rather than savory. Finally, bacon is smoked.
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Sodium nitrite is sold as Prague Powder or Instacure #1, and is often referred to as “pink salt.” (Don’t confuse it with Himalayan pink salt or similar naturally occurring salts.)
TIP: If you’re concerned about nitrate consumption, you could omit the pink salt. The resulting product will still be good, but will lack the signature flavor of classic American bacon. In my opinion it’s better to simply enjoy bacon in moderation.

Trim and salt

Make a cure by mixing the salt, pink salt (nitrite), and sugar. This is enough for more than one slab, and can be stored in a sealed container in a cool, dry place indefinitely.
Again, trim the pork belly to an even shape. Lay ¼ cup of the cure on a sheet pan, and dredge the belly on all sides.
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Place the belly in a large zip-top bag and add the remaining cure from the sheet pan. You can also add flavors such as ¼ cup of maple syrup, and a shot or two of bourbon. Remove air and seal tightly.
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Cure

Place the bag in a container, and keep it in the refrigerator, turning daily to redistribute the juices and infuse the bacon with flavor.
On the fifth day, give the belly a poke. If it’s still a little squishy, keep curing it. If it’s firm at the thickest parts, it’s ready to smoke.

Rinse and dry

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Rinse the belly and pat dry with paper towels. Lay it on a rack, on a sheet pan lined with paper towels, and set a fan on low to blow air over the meat for a few hours. Or, you can just leave it on the rack in the refrigerator for 1–3 days.
The goal here is to create what’s called the pellicule. This is a tacky layer of proteins on the surface that will bond with smoke, creating deliciousness.

Smoke

Preheat a smoker to 200°F. When the meat is just lightly sticky to the touch, place it in the smoker, on a rack over a drippings pan.
The bacon is ready when it reaches an internal temperature of 150°F. Remove and let cool. If you left the skin on, wait until it’s just cool enough to touch, then carefully trim it away with a sharp knife.
 ***I use old school meat thermometers-the digital ones always seem to either malfunction,or you find that the batteries are dead just when you need to use the damn thing***
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Enjoy

Like pancetta, bacon will keep a week in the fridge and 3 months in the freezer. But, realistically, it will get used much faster than that.
 ***Properly packaged,bacon and other salt cured meats will keep for a full year in the freezer***
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The Lonely Libertarian: Sadly, it's going to be more than that

The Lonely Libertarian: Sadly, it's going to be more than that