GOD LOVES YUPPIES
As I’ve said on many occasions, too
many occasions, every imaginable occasion plus a few that have no connection
whatsoever and I established a fabled link just from sheer willpower and cussedness,
Rawles first novel was a great book and is included at the coveted Bison Top
Twenty Bestest Post-Apocalypse Books Of All Time ( which does NOT include Earth
Abides as it is a putrid “live off canned goods for decades drivel” type of
book which I loathe and despise and have turned my beady little sites on since
I can’t get up too much ire against the ex-wife anymore so I have to hate
something ). All his subsequent novels
are readable and little else. They have
each had parts you hated and parts you felt made the whole thing worth
reading. The latest one ( Liberators ) is
struggling to make the grade at all. I’m
half way through and I’m still going to finish it but I’m not going to be
surprised if this turd is retired to the list of free K-book novels where you
nearly tear out your hair for the hours of your life you’ll never get
back. Okay, the last novel Expatriates
had long nauseating passages about Christian dating rituals ( I have no problem
agitating for a return to less liberated female sexual practices, and
withholding sex before marriage was a custom not without its strong
suites. But the long grilling interviews
between the parties confirming the others correct religious obscure doctrinal views
might be mothers milk to the targeted book audience ( a minion calls this
Christian Militia Porn ) but to me
brought to mind a corporate interview for a job position. I’m not the world’s most romantic guy, but
even I’m wondering what the hell these couples are doing besides ensuring their
admittance into heaven and being more concerned that their breeding stock spawn
is properly indoctrinated than with the health or economic standing of a
potential partner. Not only is love
conditional on the accepted version of the Bible, its only fire seems to stem
from brimstone.
*
But I put up with this queer courtship
description and the book quickly got to more interesting subjects such as a
Lee-Enfield sniper/guerrilla. This
newest book has the same Old Testaments courtship crap, squared in volume it
seems, and then goes directly into unsound prepper procedure. I’ve never encountered such a ill thought out
bug out plan in fiction, and I’ve read some real crap. You are an idiot to start with living in the
DC metro area. Then, you are only about
one or two days ahead of the crash bugging out, despite your supposed brilliance
in prepping. Then, you are well armed
but barely provisioned with food, AND fail to take into account bugging out
with kids and what your back-up plan is if you lose your motor vehicle. Then, within 120 miles of your destination,
having gotten rid of the car, your plan is to winter over in place in a
Kentucky area government park. For lack
of two weeks travelling, you face starvation over the winter. You assume no one else will eat your game
animals and no one will find you. All
bad enough, right? Oh, it gets
worse. The book has the character
commenting that due to Gods providence, they survived the ordeal ( a good
Samaritan comes along and wills them his stockpile ). So, what I’m hearing, and correct me if I’m
wrong, is that it is okay to have an ill thought out, high failure probability
plan AS LONG AS GOD LOVES YOU. Because
he will rescue your dumb ass. This is
what passes for survival planning from the long reigning King Kahuna of
survivalism? I could be way off base here,
and I apologize if I’m wrong, but to me this did not come off as a cautionary
tale, at all. More like a loving chronicling
of one of Baby Jesus’ chosen ones. Jeez.
END
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If my Blogger page ever goes down, I will start to post at my regular web site:
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By the by, all my writing is copyrighted. For the obtuse out there.
Well, the Modoc land deal seems to have fallen through on me James?
ReplyDeleteFurther investigation revealed a rather oppressive HOA that demanded permission to build anything at all on your property, even structures that would normally be exempt from building codes by the county due to size.
Also, it was a $1500.00 piece of land, that had $85.00 a year HOA fees, and $350.00 a year property taxes! That may seem like small change to some here, but consider that ordinarily that the taxes on such a property would probably only be around $20.00 a year. Modoc county took it upon themselves to defy proposition 13, and jack the taxes way up in that development. Illegal, but they did it, and no one called them on it. and since the owners are scattered to the four winds, and are not organized, there was no coalition to take on the counties illegal tax hike. Further HOA restrictions included a mandatory $20K engineered septic (Never planned on this, but still) despite the fact that the county does not demand this type of system.
I guess the moral of the story is, NO HOA's!!!!!
And always be aware of the CC&R's for the county in which you plan to buy. Oh well, I guess next stop, the Arkansas or Missouri Ozarks?
Arkansas has almost no areas without onerous restrictions. Beware. I think Missouri is just as bad. A 1200 sq ft minimum stick built house? Kiss my ass!
DeleteHuh? Good to know. I was under the impression that you had a lot of building freedom in the Arkansas Ozarks? Definitely worth looking into before buying though, as I would not have guessed this?
Delete"A 1200 sq ft minimum stick built house? Kiss my ass!"
DeleteOh yeah, that was another restriction. A 900 or 1000 sq ft (Can't recall which) minimum size house.
Anywhere in Western Nevada that you can recommend, where land is still cheap, and not so restrictive? I'm in northern CA, so the western side of Nevada is easier to scout out on my days off.
Montana, Nevada, supposedly Wyoming, are best for minimal building codes and affordable land. Note- all are variants of DRY and Cold for the affordable land.
DeleteBut it truly is affordable, if you can find the land. @$12k for 40 acres of 'junk' land is considered a little steep.
From what little I've read from E-Bay Wyoming land ads, it seems those have a lot of restrictions also. And in Nevada, any built up area has a lot of them.
Delete1:27- I haven't run across anything in washoe county, but I've also never paid much attention due to lack of water there. You'd think there would be oodles of land there, but I don't know of any.
DeleteThanks for the input gentleman.
DeleteWyoming and Montana, and even the Dakota's, have always seemed like appealing places to me Grey. But as a single guy, the thought of moving to such areas seems daunting? (If you went there single, you would in all likelihood remain so). That's why I was thinking in terms of the Ozarks, but I certainly want to avoid excessive red tape.
It seems like it's getting harder and harder to find that ideal locale? The mass migration out of the yuppie states, and into the desirable ones, has pretty much ruined it for the rest of us.
Hey, I was free to move anywhere within my few criteria ( affordable, near work ) and I had so few choices Elko looked good. I feel for ya.
DeleteTrue, your pool of local mates is more limited when you get more rural. BUT the internet makes communicating with people with common interests (the only decent way to find a mate IMHO) easier than ever, and as a final bonding process moving is very useful - obviously you shouldn't marry someone under the pretense you will remain urban if you are looking for rural living, but you don't have to limit your self to the existing rural pool either. Lots of ladies are willing to consider 'homesteading' (little house on the prairie with internet style) - at least if they are the sorts of ladies who you should even be considering.
DeleteIn my limited experience, Internet mate searching hinges on the size of your wallet.
DeleteRawles is a sharp dude, no doubt about it. But unfortunately, he's blinded by the fog of political correctness, which would be the first thing that would get him killed in a real life SHTF scenario (i.e. probably couldn't pull the trigger on a band of marauding minorities, for fear of being seen as racist afterwards, etc and so on.)
ReplyDeleteI don't think he is PC, more unwilling to sacrifice ad sales due to offending anyone. Nothing personal, that is how ALL the yuppie survivalist guru's did/do it.
DeleteI agree that he isn't pc. But he takes the, not uncommon, Christian view that we are all equal in Gods eyes, and that not all the good folks are Caucasian. This is the starting point for his problems with some of the militia crowd. My problem with it, and where he gets the pc wrap, is that he force feeds it, making all the Christian types, particularly the minorities, overly saintly. However, for me it isn't much of a problem because people act so bizarrely and unrealistically in the novels that I have read, that I don't see that it makes much difference.
DeleteAlthough, as per the courtship grilling, some are more saintly than others, Rawles Animal Farm.
DeleteRawles's first book is the best of the bunch. It's actually so packed with useful information that it hurts its readability as a novel. That I can forgive. Anything else from him I'll only pick up from the mega discount bin.
ReplyDeleteI've gotten a lot more out of The Pulse series by Scott B Williams. Of course, there's not a lot of small boat survival porn out there and that's something I love. Always enjoyed disappearing on small boat adventures.
The big guns and Christian thing gets old really really fast for me now. Common beliefs are essential for keeping groups together, but sometimes the magical thinking can get in the way of practical survival.
I think what really hacks me off is the quick return to normalcy. I HATE that in post apoc movies and now that is in his books.
DeleteSo you're telling us that you've been doing it the hard way all these years. Between admiring your hair, you should have been praying really hard for Rawles or some other survivalmeister to die and leave you all his stuff. Crap, and I've been sitting here admiring your hair with you. Crap!
ReplyDeleteInstead, you've just been admiring your hair and pedaling to work. Get some Christ in you, bro... get some Christ in you.
I try to admire my hair on the way to work, otherwise unproductive time besides exercise, but it is dark and I have no rearview mirror.
DeleteThat was a brilliant post! I'd like your sister for Christmas, but not if she is a fatty. Chunky is ok. NOT pear person. I can feed her an unlimited amount of wheat, so vegetarianism is preferred.
ReplyDeleteGenesis 24 : 67
ReplyDeleteAnd Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah's tent, and took Rebekah, and she became his wife; and he loved her: and Isaac was comforted after his mother's death.
Old Testament dating rituals? I don't think so. Read the Bible if you want to know the truth.
God doesn't force anybody to love Him. We have free will. He created us because He wants a family, someone to love.
I've read the Bible and have come to the conclusion that Heaven is not the destiny of believers. Jesus Christ will return after the Tribulation (no pre-trib rapture) and set up His Heavenly Kingdom on the Earth.
Matthew 6 : 10
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. (notice the "in earth part?" earth doesn't mean planet "Earth" bad translation, it means "land". The land between the Euphrates and the Nile. The land that God promised to Abraham.)
Who wants to be a ghost floating around on a cloud playing a harp? Ain't in the Bible.
Go to Hell? Nope, no Hell. Gehenna, the Valley of Hinnom, wasn't translated correctly. The wicked will be punished and killed, then their bodies will be burned up in Gehenna or if you prefer the Lake of Fire. Punishment is for an age, not forever and ever. Funny, how long is forever compared to forever and ever, bad translation.
I believe in conditional immortality. We do not have immortal souls. The word "soul" or "nephesh" in Hebrew means living flesh.
Genesis 2 : 7
And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
Dust of the ground plus breath of life equals soul. We are souls, I'm not a ghost in a flesh-suit. Animals are souls ( living flesh).
I could go on and on and on. I won't. This is the last time I'll mention religion in a comment. People that call themselves "Christians" need to read the Bible and do some research instead of just repeating what some preacher says on Sunday.
Search : Gehenna, Soul, Spirit, Sheol, Hades, Hell. Look at the original Greek and Hebrew texts. The Catholic Church really messed up everything.
Anyway, you're OK James. You love the truth, there's hope for you. I urge you to read the Bible, look and an interlinear greek version. It will change your life. I am praying for you.
I'm not a JW or a SDA type. Just a believer that reads the Bible and does research.
Oh, nice hair.
If they messed up "murder" and "kill", and all the examples you've cited, it sounds like everything is the exact opposite of church teaching. Alas, as I've said, it took me 20 years to go from atheist to agnostic, so I won't be around long enough to actually come around to believing in a deity.
DeleteRawles' first book... very, very good.
ReplyDeleteEvery single thing since then has been a piece of offal. Truly awful offal at that.
They jump all over the place, barely managing to seem like they belong between the same book covers. And most of them contain almost verbatim cut & paste from the previous book(s) - whole chapters sometimes. Essentially if you've read one of them, you've read them all.
The dude wrote one decent book (or likely had somebody else write it) and has been ripping off the flock ever since.
I stopped at Founders when I realized what he was doing, which didn't take very long.
And the sickening preachy tone of his writing... makes me want to blow chunks. You were too kind to him in your article today.
He's a really slick businessman who's found the perfect vehicle for making money and in my opinion he milks it to the max. More power to him for that I suppose. The sheep are always looking for a shepherd. And he's right there to play the part.
Bah. Or rather.... baaaaa, baaaa.
The sad part is, until this latest one, the books were STILL better than most of the K-book survivalist pulp fiction available. I'd say, seriously, that romance novel readers are better catered to, have better taste, and get better pot boilers than we survivalists.
DeleteLike a big jerk, I waited anxiously for this to come out and bought it on my kindle the first day it became available. Sadly, the Christian morality was spread so thick on this clunker that I almost took a #10 can of freeze dried AR-15 magazines and left it on Anton Lavey's grave in order to cleanse myself.
ReplyDeleteI've said it before, and I'll say it again; Rawles has forgotten more about survivalism than many "preppers". But this novel is best left forgotten. His details about intelligence gathering in his latest book were almost as thorough as his description of radio waves in the first book (which is fantastic, btw)...so that was a semi-decent spot. But yeah, the Christian courting scenes were like staring into an exhaust pipe. I don't begrudge him his faith, and it is a free country, and it his book to write...but I prefer less faith in my survivalist porn. Just my opinion.
See my above comment on crappy survivalist books.
DeleteWitty comment on the cleansing- I had to look up the name.
Delete