"This is a very important lesson. You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end—which you can never afford to lose—with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.” – VADM James Stockdale, USN
Two For Contemplation
9 thoughts on “Two For Contemplation”
I live out in the sticks, can’t afford to not have a fire extinguisher in every vehicle, 2 is better. And close at hand.
2 months ago I watched an old pickup truck in front of me burst into flames and roll to the curb, one of my friends came flying out of the coffee shop and was on it in about 1 minute.
A fire extinguisher is a must. Just like a firearm, stored food etc.
I have a big one in my home and a smaller DOT approved unit in my personal wheels.
“Think the cities are too crowded NOW? You’re going to just LOVE living in what the U.N. and Goolag have planned for you …”
Even the lazy-fair pure free-market profit-driven capitalist system envisioned by the disciples of Ayn Rand results in over-crowded cities.
“the freedom he craves leads inevitably to the modern world he, and I, detest. The problem is the fundamental difference between a farmer’s filling in a swamp on his land and a remote corporation’s buying of the entire country for purposes of its own and not the nation’s benefit. Both are exercises in economic freedom.”
Developers want increased density, because it means more profit for them. It’s why, for example, condominiums were legalized in the 1960s, even though it’s a fictional form of real estate ownership because the unit owners don’t actually own land.
Cities grew in large part because that’s where the Job Creatorz ™ were. And since peole exist to serve the market instead of the other way around, they are expected to be a mobile workforce and move to where the jobs are.
I’m not saying that the U.N. and Goolagle have good intentions for us. Far from it. But if Goolagle had a “conservative” bias instead of their “liberal” bias, our narrative would be praising them for being an engine of innovation and job creation. Just look at how many pundits on “our” side gladly lick the boots of the internet service providers.
I know that somebody is inevitably going to chime in with the “All the good stuff is from capitalism, and all the bad stuff is the result of government. If we would only get the government out of the way of the real estate developers, everything would be fine” argument. And probably call me a socialist or other insult for good measure, while ignoring the lessons they should have learned from playing Monopoly as children.
Sometimes I think that the Left doesn’t need to take away our guns, because the Right has already disarmed our minds. Socialists to the left of me, Oligarchs to the right, here I am stuck in the middle …
I worked for a charter outfit that actually trained it’s operations staff once a year on how to put out a live jet fuel fire using a large, dry chemical extinguisher. They’d have the airport FD fill a2 foot square steel oil catch pan with fuel and ignite it. The resulting fire was scary as heck. You had a very hot, roaring fire, with very active flames several feet high. The secret to putting out a flammable liquids fire is to come in low, and use a sweeping motion hitting only the base of the fire. If you shoot the dry chemical into or above the fire, the violent updraft simply carries the agent aloft and away.
Also, you must get flammable liquid fires out quickly. The longer you delay
the hotter fuel becomes, and you’ll run out of dry agent and the hot fuel source will reignite itself. Get the largest dry chemical extinguishers you
can afford. And don’t spray water on a burning fuel fire ! You’ll simply spread the fire into a larger area.
Reactive tools, own many, boats trailers, cars, home.
Listen don’t shit,yourself IF you live in a stick built house, your fucked, if you have neighbors on each side, your fucked. Their fire could be your fire.
We had a water bib plumbed into the garage, with a 100 ft hose close. Maybe it’s 75 ft, while the extinguishers are a good stop gap, it’s going to take lots of water, the ability to reach every room in the house.
We plumbed one in because, it’s below freezing here often, the spickets outside may/may not work.
Other option is your water heater, they generally have a hose bib, for draining sediment, make sure you power down, ” flip the switch” before you use the 50 or 100 gallons of water. House related. The tank will replenish at about two to one, for every gallon you use, will fill by 1/2 at least here.
Got several vehicles, hate to loose one to fire, but I could live/ funtion without one of em. My homes an entirely different matter.
Dirt
re:
water-heater
Journeyman plumber here.
Drain your water-heaters a couple-three times a year.
Most water contains dissolved solids.
In suspension, they move with the flow.
In a tank, dissolved solids tend to settle.
A forty-gallon tank may have a foot of mud surrounding the drain bib.
To drain, shut off the gas or electricity to the heater.
Attach a garden hose to the bib.
Put the outlet of the hose outside the dwelling, down the driveway for example.
Open the bib.
The accumulated muck may take a few moments to flow.
Best wishes on your wooden structure.
I believe wooden structures need a warning label:
“!!! Using this structure as intended may result in disfigurement and death !!!”
Dirt, excellent points concerning the flammable aspects of stick built homes. One of several logical reasons to consider a concrete walled, ICF house, with a galvanized, steel roof. Of course, if enough “protestors” mean to inflict bodily harm, then it may well be WAG-D* T-shirts for all hands.
* We All ‘Gone Die
(best said slowly, with a deep Southern accent.)
I have a 50′ garden hose in the water heater closet to fight a house fire from the inside. Same thing here, my one outside faucet is turned off in -35’F winters. But my hose still works 24/7/365.
Having the proper tools (extinguishers, etc) and techniques is essential.
But has anyone here considered the flip side of the issue?…
Do you and yours have a WORKING Flammenwerfer?…
and know how to employ such WITHOUT becoming a
Johnsonville Braut in the process?
Sometimes it’s necessary to ‘fight fire WITH fire’.
I live out in the sticks, can’t afford to not have a fire extinguisher in every vehicle, 2 is better. And close at hand.
2 months ago I watched an old pickup truck in front of me burst into flames and roll to the curb, one of my friends came flying out of the coffee shop and was on it in about 1 minute.
A fire extinguisher is a must. Just like a firearm, stored food etc.
I have a big one in my home and a smaller DOT approved unit in my personal wheels.
“Think the cities are too crowded NOW? You’re going to just LOVE living in what the U.N. and Goolag have planned for you …”
Even the lazy-fair pure free-market profit-driven capitalist system envisioned by the disciples of Ayn Rand results in over-crowded cities.
“the freedom he craves leads inevitably to the modern world he, and I, detest. The problem is the fundamental difference between a farmer’s filling in a swamp on his land and a remote corporation’s buying of the entire country for purposes of its own and not the nation’s benefit. Both are exercises in economic freedom.”
– Fred Reed, “Little Boxes Made of Ticky-Tacky”, 01/27/2003
– – https://www.unz.com/freed/little-boxes-made-of-ticky-tacky/
Developers want increased density, because it means more profit for them. It’s why, for example, condominiums were legalized in the 1960s, even though it’s a fictional form of real estate ownership because the unit owners don’t actually own land.
Cities grew in large part because that’s where the Job Creatorz ™ were. And since peole exist to serve the market instead of the other way around, they are expected to be a mobile workforce and move to where the jobs are.
I’m not saying that the U.N. and Goolagle have good intentions for us. Far from it. But if Goolagle had a “conservative” bias instead of their “liberal” bias, our narrative would be praising them for being an engine of innovation and job creation. Just look at how many pundits on “our” side gladly lick the boots of the internet service providers.
I know that somebody is inevitably going to chime in with the “All the good stuff is from capitalism, and all the bad stuff is the result of government. If we would only get the government out of the way of the real estate developers, everything would be fine” argument. And probably call me a socialist or other insult for good measure, while ignoring the lessons they should have learned from playing Monopoly as children.
Sometimes I think that the Left doesn’t need to take away our guns, because the Right has already disarmed our minds. Socialists to the left of me, Oligarchs to the right, here I am stuck in the middle …
I worked for a charter outfit that actually trained it’s operations staff once a year on how to put out a live jet fuel fire using a large, dry chemical extinguisher. They’d have the airport FD fill a2 foot square steel oil catch pan with fuel and ignite it. The resulting fire was scary as heck. You had a very hot, roaring fire, with very active flames several feet high. The secret to putting out a flammable liquids fire is to come in low, and use a sweeping motion hitting only the base of the fire. If you shoot the dry chemical into or above the fire, the violent updraft simply carries the agent aloft and away.
Also, you must get flammable liquid fires out quickly. The longer you delay
the hotter fuel becomes, and you’ll run out of dry agent and the hot fuel source will reignite itself. Get the largest dry chemical extinguishers you
can afford. And don’t spray water on a burning fuel fire ! You’ll simply spread the fire into a larger area.
Reactive tools, own many, boats trailers, cars, home.
Listen don’t shit,yourself IF you live in a stick built house, your fucked, if you have neighbors on each side, your fucked. Their fire could be your fire.
We had a water bib plumbed into the garage, with a 100 ft hose close. Maybe it’s 75 ft, while the extinguishers are a good stop gap, it’s going to take lots of water, the ability to reach every room in the house.
We plumbed one in because, it’s below freezing here often, the spickets outside may/may not work.
Other option is your water heater, they generally have a hose bib, for draining sediment, make sure you power down, ” flip the switch” before you use the 50 or 100 gallons of water. House related. The tank will replenish at about two to one, for every gallon you use, will fill by 1/2 at least here.
Got several vehicles, hate to loose one to fire, but I could live/ funtion without one of em. My homes an entirely different matter.
Dirt
re:
water-heater
Journeyman plumber here.
Drain your water-heaters a couple-three times a year.
Most water contains dissolved solids.
In suspension, they move with the flow.
In a tank, dissolved solids tend to settle.
A forty-gallon tank may have a foot of mud surrounding the drain bib.
To drain, shut off the gas or electricity to the heater.
Attach a garden hose to the bib.
Put the outlet of the hose outside the dwelling, down the driveway for example.
Open the bib.
The accumulated muck may take a few moments to flow.
Best wishes on your wooden structure.
I believe wooden structures need a warning label:
“!!! Using this structure as intended may result in disfigurement and death !!!”
Dirt, excellent points concerning the flammable aspects of stick built homes. One of several logical reasons to consider a concrete walled, ICF house, with a galvanized, steel roof. Of course, if enough “protestors” mean to inflict bodily harm, then it may well be WAG-D* T-shirts for all hands.
* We All ‘Gone Die
(best said slowly, with a deep Southern accent.)
I have a 50′ garden hose in the water heater closet to fight a house fire from the inside. Same thing here, my one outside faucet is turned off in -35’F winters. But my hose still works 24/7/365.
Having the proper tools (extinguishers, etc) and techniques is essential.
But has anyone here considered the flip side of the issue?…
Do you and yours have a WORKING Flammenwerfer?…
and know how to employ such WITHOUT becoming a
Johnsonville Braut in the process?
Sometimes it’s necessary to ‘fight fire WITH fire’.