What caliber have you found most effective for battling the zombie hordes?
Have you had to saw off your own leg or remove your own appendix because no doctors were available?
After your neighbors starved to death did you find anything really cool and useful in their house?
Which were the first items to disappear off your local grocery shelves and how bad were the riots when people discovered that they couldn’t get Fruity-Choco-SugarLoops?
Now that Internet and phone service have both collapsed, what are you using for alternative communications?
If you had to travel, how did you manage, what with the Interstate completely clogged with wrecked or fuel-less vehicles?
How many of your children do you believe you’ll have to cannibalize before the government returns to save us?
What’s actually in that #10 can labeled “Fruit Galaxy”? And does it go well with the tender flesh of infants?
In short … How is the government shutdown affecting you and yours?
—–
(Since I’m scheduling this for posting a day in advance, it’s possible the shutdown may be over by the time you read this. If so, what was your “favorite” part of it? Mine was Obama actually spending extra money (you know, the money they supposedly “can’t” spend because the law forbids it, which is supposed to be the whole reason for the shutdown in the first place?) to close parks and attractions that normally require no federal personnel present at all. Well, that and having a bunch of 80-something WWII vets break in anyhow.)
-yawn- Shut down? Does that mean the NSA isn’t trolling the Internet today?
Still alive, here.
I think I’m going to prorate my fed tax this year, removing the “no gov’t” days from my payment.
We’ll see how that works…
We are holding our own, but just barely. All law and order has broken down and my town looks like a wasteland. There are emaciated children wandering the streets trying to eat equally emaciated rats they are lucky enough to find. A large western section of town burned down yesterday due to no fire service and I heard one of the local highway bridges collapsed due to no government workers maintaining it.
I wanted to get to the bridge to see it for myself, but it is too dangerous with because of the outlaw zombie biker gang ruling the streets now. We are losing the last hope we have, I pray this shut down ends quickly before the last of humanity is snuffed out forever.
P.S. I hear on the MSM that is actually MUCH worse in other areas so if you have an equally terrible situation I would love to hear it that way I will we aren’t the only ones out here desperately trying to survive.
After my neighbors starved, I found a machete and a small dog. You would think they would have eaten the dog. Anyway, I have food for a few days.
Gee, Claire — true confession time:
I had to read all the way down to the END before I got the joke – that you were talking about the Government-Shutdown[sic]-That-Ain’t!
At first, I assumed this had to be a list of things relating to the Economic Meltdown-That-Really-Will-Be, once that same government can no longer kick the can down the road on the Depression-That-Is.
All quiet here – except the cops hard at work giving out speeding tickets.
I read that Obama has cancelled his Asia trip because of the gov stoppage. I guess the pilot has been called off.
Way out in Hardyville no one even noticed. It’s hardly a conversation piece other than a few jokes at the goverments expense.
I still see plenty of “government”.
I’d rather see local “government” shut down than the feds, since I never (OK, very rarely) run into any feds, but I watch the local cop robbing travelers almost every day. Yesterday I watched as a state trooper ran the stop sign that Larry the local badge-thug stakes out every morning so he can rob people coming to drop their kids off at the government indoctrination camp (more gov that is apparently not shut down). But, of course, the local cop had just left the area moments before. I wanted to see him watch the violation and ignore it. Of course, local cop runs that stop sign almost every time he goes through the stop sign, too.
Still way too much “government” being committed for my tastes.
Snowing hard here. That’s about it. Anybody out there speeding today has bigger things to worry about than a ticket. 🙂 Wet dirt roads are snot slippery until it freezes good.
Wouldn’t mind at all if Obummer went to Asia… long as he (and as many of his minions as possible) stayed there.
“It’s hardly a conversation piece other than a few jokes at the goverments expense.”
Round here, those have been quiet too. Aint nobody willen to extend them the credit, ‘n we know they can’t pay.
There was a shut down? Didn’t even notice. The only thing I really see the government do around here are the cops handing out ticket like they couldn’t get rid of them fast enough.
And the cops wonder why people hate them.
Me? Not at all other than contemplating whether I hide or remove the people on FB that are going into full-on meltdown mode over it.
You know, the ones who’re rich enough to have internet access and/or a smart phone, but poor enough to be on WIC or getting aid for their mental problems and inability to hold a job?
Kinda makes me sound like an asshole. I guess I’m still getting over the “we need to fund this so we can prove it doesn’t work, and move to single-payer with death panels” comment.
On the east side of town, retired yuppies and housewives are devastated that they cannot do their daily run/walk and gossip time on the national park trails. They drive their giant SUV’s to Starbucks and weep into their vente lattes. It’s a sight to behold – all those skinny minnies clad in designer running gear with tears running down their impossibly smooth faces. They decide to move their weekly botox and wine party up a day to comfort themselves.
On the south side of town, hugely obese women with six or seven children in tow are wandering the aisles of Walmart like deer in the headlights, muttering about WIC and what they will have to do without in order to buy their baby milk. Should they skip the frozen pizzas, the pork rinds, or the giant bottles of diet soda? Beer? Then one of them exclaims loudly, “If the govmint won’t give our babies milk, then my baby ain’t gettin’ any milk! It’s their fault!” She proceeds to fill her cart with frozen dinners and cookies, and the other women do the same.
On the home front, we’ve hunkered down with bacon, chocolate, and coffee, and plan to watch Lord of the Rings and Firefly while the universe collapses all around us. 🙂
No zombie hordes. No alien invasion. No asteroid strike. Stores aren’t looted. Toilet isn’t stopped up. My cat seems to be taking it all very well. Seems pretty quiet to me. Think I’ll skip the news tonight and watch a movie I have called “Star Wreck” instead.
Since I’m in Cody Wyoming at the moment, there actually is some discomfort with the shutdown. The Yellowstone gates were closed a month early so folks were standing around wondering what to do with their now-ruined vacations.
It was strange though. If the shutdown was real, there would be no one at those park gates and vacationers could drive through to see Old Faithful anyway, except they wouldn’t have to pay to enter. But there are still government employees at the gates, now preventing entry. I guess “shutdown” does not mean they lose their jobs, but that their jobs are now converted to “punishing the peons”.
I know, wasn’t the Vets part the best thing (so far)?
Ever since the shutdown it’s been ridiculously cold. Hasn’t bothered me one bit but obviously Mother Nature’s pissed at something.
They shut down the Grand Canyon!!!! How do you shut down a hole in the ground?
Rocky Mountain national Park is also closed, but you can’t get there any way. The highways leading up to Estes Park and RMNP have been washed away by the floods.
My skin is itching and my hand is a shakin’ feels like a spat of civil disobedience is wanting to rear it’s freedom loving head.
Perhaps Americans every where ought to take a lesson from the WWII Vets and take our country back. We don’t need no stinking government to enjoy our land.
Makes me want to dust off my best Woodie Guthrie voice and break out in a chorus of This Land Is Your Land
This land is your land This land is my land
From California to the New York island;
From the red wood forest to the Gulf Stream waters
This land was made for you and Me.
Nobody living can ever stop me,
As I go walking that freedom highway;
Nobody living can ever make me turn back
This land was made for you and me.
Saturday. High Noon. The good people of Hatteras Island and fishermen and surfers and property & business owners… are “Taking back their Beach”. A non violent walk down the supposedly “closed” national seashore. The 11 NPS employees are feeling so threatened that they’re importing additional law enforcement to stop them from trespassing on Fed property.
Never mind that the public beach and the Federal Preserve for earth without humans (except park service personnel) are all THE SAME BEACH…
@MamaLiberty: So the gov’t “shutdown” also shut down Global Warming in your area? How lucky for you!
All’s quiet here. The roads, railroad tracks, and bridges all fell to pieces at 12:01 am on Oct 1st; since then we haven’t been bothered by traffic or train noise.
Had some zombies shamble through. They looked like they were truck drivers, train operators, and public sector union members in life; I’m sure it’s a coincidence. We laid low (“Sheltered In Place”) until they went past. The savage cannibalistic hordes two blocks over should make short work of them, but I hope they think twice about eating undead meat.
Water cut out; it’s run by the city so there’s nobody and no resources to run the pumps. Electricity is still working, but there’s no telling for how much longer.
The biggest problem we’ve had is communications. Public TV stations are mostly not broadcasting, and the ones that are are running a homonecro-nuptial awareness campaign, to promote gay zombies’ marriage rights, and making a fair amount in “voluntary” tax-deductible contributions. Time will tell if there will be any taxes to deduct from in the future.
Internet’s completely out, however. I had to train butterflies to flap their wings at *just* the right times to shift air currents and cause X-rays to hit or not hit a power line 1,000 miles away to post this message (note to self: butterflies are notoriously difficult to train).
Hold on, there’s a knock at the door. It could be Jehovah’s Witnesses, or it could be the undead. Better grab my boomstick, in case of the former.
See you on the other side!
I was getting down to the last can of Dinky-Dee, when one of the perimeter claymores went off. Glad I saved some Stubb’s barbecue sauce, ’cause it’s long pig for a while.
For comms, I just turn the colander the other way, and the signals come in loud and clear.
Since we live in the NATIONAL forest, I was kind of wondering if they’d send out guards to block off the roads(if you can call them that) in. Guess we just don’t rate out here. I should go out and poach a bunch more firewood if the forest rangers are furloughed. Make the most of this time. Pollyanna bright side here.
I live on base and from what I heard, they closed the commissary and all the other stores are on the chopping block along with a whole bunch of other stuff I really don’t care about. (not as many field ops? oh I’m crushed…)
That’s about it on my end though, just inconveniences like not being able to buy good food cheap.
What caliber have you found most effective for battling the zombie hordes? — Suppressed .22LR.
Have you had to saw off your own leg or remove your own appendix because no doctors were available? — It’s not gangrene, it’s just a really bad skin condition!
After your neighbors starved to death did you find anything really cool and useful in their house? — Too early to say – I think they’re still cannibalizing each other. Had one stop by to ask to borrow a cup of BBQ sauce and a recipe for long pig.
Which were the first items to disappear off your local grocery shelves and how bad were the riots when people discovered that they couldn’t get Fruity-Choco-SugarLoops? — Hey, if the Fruity-Choco-SugarLoops disappear off the shelves, I will be LEADING the riots!
Now that Internet and phone service have both collapsed, what are you using for alternative communications? — As someone who’s prepared, I simply fired up the well-trained carrier pigeon and sent it off to Gold Beach to bang this response out on Dave’s server.
If you had to travel, how did you manage, what with the Interstate completely clogged with wrecked or fuel-less vehicles? — We were debating today how to get from Here to Portland if the interstate was closed (with guards posted to keep people from using it). We have not reached a good conclusion yet.
How many of your children do you believe you’ll have to cannibalize before the government returns to save us? — NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO…..I will not eat the corgi!!!!
What’s actually in that #10 can labeled “Fruit Galaxy”? — “Fruity-Choco-SugarLoops.” Duh.
And does it go well with the tender flesh of infants? — That’s in a different #10 can, and, rehydrated, is not all THAT tender.
In short … How is the government shutdown affecting you and yours? — My subsidized Fruity-Choco-SugarLoops have not yet arrived and it’s making me kinda surly. Otherwise … not so much. More threads on various gun boards that have to be read, though.
Well the FAA cashed my $5 check for the airplane registration on Oct 1, but who knows how long till I get the paperwork back….I’ll just keep workin’ on the plane and when the registration gets here it’ll get here. Went flying with a buddy on Tuesday evening, Air Traffic Control working, towers manned, no mayhem in the air….shutdown not affecting me much.
My son works for the USDA / NRCS.
Soils Technologist. Does quite a bit of work on stream bank stabilization, soils reclamation, fertilizer / manure runoff abatement.
Not that we need any of that.
It’s definitly affecting him and his.
And no, I don’t want anything to do with the ACA, welfare, medicare or SS for that matter.
And politicians especially!!!!!!!
YMMV
Mike
The taxman and the oppressors are still on duty. Unfortunately some of us schlubs are laid off for the duration. Being the only current paycheck for four adults and two infants, it sucks. It is also why I prep. We won’t go hungry, but if the shutdown goes past the end of the month, we’ll be off grid the hard way.
Whatever other opinions I may have about Gov Walker, when the feds tried to close Wisconsin’s parks he told them where to shove it!
I have one cousin who’s rather upset about being off work. She’s a dam engineer (no that’s not a typo), and she’s mad that she can’t go to her dam job. She’s the sort of person who has to keep very busy or she’ll go stir-crazy, the first day she reported having taken up, and discarded, 4 different hobbies, cleaned the house, bathed 3 dogs, spent 3 hours working out, and was paging through 5 cookbooks looking for something to try.
One girl I work with had the funniest reaction. Someone cracked a joke about the shutdown, and she went “What? Shutdown? What do you mean the government shut down? The government, like as in, ‘The Government’? What?!? How do they…..? Ya know what, never mind, I don’t get it! I ain’t gonna get it!”
For comms, aluminum wrap is my first choice.
Schools have closed; the urchins are forming wave after wave of zombie attacks looking for junk food. Older people are being forced to hand over their Oreos…
Got some notebook paper and pens out… just in case, you know, and had fun for a while listing all the things I could do, be, see, experience, enjoy if the whole government actually, completely and permanently shut down and never came back.
Excuse me… I have to go open another pack of paper and find a fresh pen or four. 🙂
🙂 Good replies, guys.
Apparently people who work for the weather service are also being so affected that they’ve been driven to send secret messages in code:
http://www.businessinsider.com/national-weather-service-secret-message-2013-10
I think it’s absurd. Who do they think they’re kidding? They’re supposed to be adult men and women capable of running a country, and all they want to do is play Politics – which is another word for “Who will blink first?”
I don’t care about the federal employees – if they’re stupid enough to work for the fedgov, they deserve whatever they get. But this show is for us – who already know better – and they’re putting it on for the whole world to see.
It detracts from the emphasis on what is really important – such as actions of the NSA; keeps other countries at bay (e.g. Obama not making contact with China – and personally, I don’t think he wanted to go anyway, I don’t think he likes traveling to or making contact with other countries); and offers multiple opportunities for each group or party member to (officially) take swipes at each other while trying to sustain their own cause “in the best interest of the country” – no matter the cost to the country.
Give me a break! The only good thing to come out of it is – again! – it allows the people to see what Washington is really made of: blubber, bluster, and blight.
1.Got a letter from the government saying I won’t be fined for not signing up for Obamacare because I’m a veteran and the VA will provide all the health care the government thinks I need, which so far has been “none because you’re rich and not disabled.”
2. Did notice this:
[The Dallas County Sheriff’s Office traveled to Fort Hood this month to acquire its own bona fide military vehicle – the International MaxxPro MRAP tactical vehicle — courtesy of a Department of Defense surplus program.
…
The specific vehicle obtained by the Dallas sheriff’s office was never used overseas and claims only about 10,000 miles of use…
…
The vehicle costs about $600,000, but the county obtained it solely for the cost of transporting it from Fort Hood.
…
Murfreesboro, Tenn., reports the city police department acquired its own MRAP in August, prompting City Councilman Toby Gilley to reassure concerned citizens at a council meeting that it will be used to confront, “threats from armed gunmen.”
…
And don’t look now, but Ohio State University also counts an MRAP among its service fleet.]
(http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/09/30/us-police-obtaining-military-vehicles-to-aid-hunt-for-criminals/)
I think I can survive that $1.8 million part of government being shut down.
Someone asked if the NSA is still working during the shutdown. The answer is: yes, we are still working. You should feel safe.
We are monitoring this website because “possible terrorists” seem to enjoy reading Claire Wolf. We are still trying to determine if these are A) foreign-born possible terrorists or B) US citizens that are possible terrorists.
We can spy on (A) but not (B) unless of course (C) we receive a secret FISA warrant from a secret court using secret evidence that not even a military defense lawyer with a classified clearance is allowed to see in a discovery hearing.
Just to be safe (and so we can connect the dots after the *bang*) we will record everyone’s phone calls, text messages, emails, Facebook social connection information, and Internet browsing and keep it in our Utah data center for safe-keeping.
If you have any further questions, please submit a FOIA request via our website. We prefer that you submit it via the website, that way we can log your IP address and personal information for safety in our Utah data center. It will take 8-10 weeks for you to receive our refusal in the mail. Possibly longer due to the shutdown, as the computer that sends out the denials has been turned off in order to conserve money.
Thanks,
Agent Sum Ting Wong
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-nZSPGzmVv3o/T4eHH7Ed0VI/AAAAAAAAFTY/Q2lrvV6G64A/s1600/homeland%2Bsecurity%2Barmored%2Bcar.jpg
Anybody know what the SD stands for in “SAC/SD”? The first thing that came to mind was Sicherheitsdienst …
https://www.ice.gov/contact/inv/
Special Agent in Charge/San Diego? Hm. Prolly not.
Judging by the terrain, SD looks more like South Dakota. I was thinking SAC might be “Strategic Arms (Air?) Command,” but I’m not sure that exists anymore. Um … I don’t know what I’m talking about.
(I like your answer better, in any case …)
Dear Agent Wong,
To help you keep America safe, I’d like to report a terrorist. His address is 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and he posts from a whitehouse.gov address. He’s allied with a network known as Al-Dem, which is further affiliated with a network known as Al-Rep. And I assure you that all those agents are entirely foreign (to American values). I know you NSA people are smart, so you will not be fooled by the public pretense that Al-Dem and Al-Rep are sworn enemies. They are part of a vast international conspiracy!
I can’t believe you are all taking this so lightly, let me tell you anarchy has taken hold on the other side of the pond. Without the brave and knowledgeable guiding hand of the US government Europe has fallen apart. We may have to blow the channel tunnel to keep the zombie hordes, now pouring out of the EU parliament in Brussels, from entering blighty! France has already surrendered. No news from spain but its siesta time so they won’t notice for a while anyhow! The British government has moved its alert status to mildly irritated, this is serious, the last time this happened was during the blitz in WW2! Emergency tea rations are being distributed and our soldiers are being issued with real ammunition. Normally they would just shout bang bang then swiftly bayonet the Hun who are busy turning beemers into battleships!
So please ask your wise and illustrious leaders to further penury your great grandchildren by borrowing more money, the free world demands !!
Meanwhile in the clump of stone and cob buildings that locally is referred to as a town here in mid Wales, the talk in the local cafe focused on this universe shattering event. Being Wednesday(shops close half day on Wednesday as in at 12 midday) the local shopkeepers were enjoying a lunchtime cuppa. When the mayor, who is also the postmaster, remarked that the US government had shut down. Mafanwy, the owner of the cafe, remarked drily, ” didn’t know they had half day closing there too!”……..
“Being Wednesday (shops close half day on Wednesday as in at 12 midday) the local shopkeepers were enjoying a lunchtime cuppa. When the mayor, who is also the postmaster, remarked that the US government had shut down. Mafanwy, the owner of the cafe, remarked drily, ‘didn’t know they had half day closing there too!’……..”
Close the government! Open the pub!
Well-done, Roger.
Well … well-done in general. I’m getting a huge kick out of this thread. Hope you guys are, too.
Addendum to what I posted above:
I am being personally affected now…I had my Wrangler in the shop while I was gone to the field this week, and they furloughed the Auto Shop at some point, closed it and locked the gate…with my vehicle and registration still sitting in the parking lot, snapped axle and all. (along with a lot of other peoples, I could see) So I’m expecting a turd sandwich of bureaucracy and dealing with a bunch of moron higher ups to get that taken care of.
Kinda funny, being on an op while the commissary closings and everything happened it was funny to hear the Lance Corporal rumor mill turn it from “they closed the commissary” to “they closed everything on base and the barracks no longer has running water or electricity. In fact we’ll be living in tents now and working in sweat shops to pay off the unit’s debt problems.”
@ Winston: Any truth to a rumor I read that mess halls that use contract labor are closed?
Commissary closings? Dark mess halls? M-kay… now maybe we know why the gummint bought so many of those MRE units.
Oh, the soldiers will probably eat them, even with lots of gripes, but I don’t know of any toddler who could be pursuaded to consume them. Not to mention teen agers, and probably a lot of the wives. Most of these soldiers have families, don’t they?
Something about this just doesn’t track. (Need sarcasm icon here…)
It was eating at me (for no good reason) as to what SAC/SD meant. After some inquiry, it seems it really most likely is Special Agent in Charge/San Diego.
I don’t think we need to be concerned that overall monitoring efforts will suffer excessively during the shutdown; two million Chinese can take up a good deal of slack. http://www.france24.com/en/20131005-china-pays-2-million-monitor-internet
@Hanza:
Haven’t heard much about that…most mess halls use a mix of contractors and enlisted cooks. And all the places I’ve been where it’s totally run by a private company were places that really couldn’t do without a mess hall…i.e. boot camp, infantry school, overseas, etc.
I don’t see them making us eat MREs instead. For starters, they’re way more expensive than regular food. That and it just wouldn’t go over. If anything I could see them trying to serve old UGRE meals leftover from the war in the chow hall. (Which is basically just boxes of food that require some minimal cooking and preparation but don’t go bad)