Doomsday Preppers Week 12: Rocks and Holes for Valentine’s Day
In southeastern Tennessee, Doug is known as the “Rockman.” No, it has nothing to do with his passing resemblance to retired WWE wrestler Shawn Michaels, who was part of a tag-team called “The Rockers” in the 1980s, when Doug last cut his hair. Instead, Doug is called the Rockman for a far more direct reason: he finds, excavates, and sells rocks. Boulders, to be specific, of the visually appealing kind that find their way into carefully designed landscaping projects for commercials and residential clients. It takes a discerning eye, and not a small amount of brute force.
Like tens of thousands (if not millions) of Americans, Doug is worried about an economy he sees faltering and on the cusp of failing. This has become the most common recurring theme pushing people into prepping nationwide, both on and off the show.
In order to have something as a trade good after the expected collapse of paper dollars, Doug has come up with an interesting way to “prospect” for silver, at his local bank. Doug exchanges his paper money for roll after roll of half-dollar coins, and takes them home to crack them open. Once opened, he looks only at the edges of the coins, quickly discarding those that show copper, to single out older coins that might be made of silver. In the 2,000 half dollars he picked up during this bank run, 12 of them were older coins made with varying amounts of silver. The $6 of coins are actually worth more than $100 in silver. Doug will keep these for barter, while rolling the rest and shipping them back to the bank for their face value. One day soon, he’ll repeat the process again.
Tragic that we once feared nuclear war, but now we fear our economy collapsing. We’ve really messed up our country. Sad.
Doug strikes me as one of those nice guys whose remains you find as you grab the last can of peaches in his looted bunker. I always assume the lack of manpower mixed with pre-apocalypse levels of kindness will mean his extinction. I wish him well though.
And silver coins. Can we talk precious metals for a minute? If I’m wandering the wastelands post collapse I’m not interested in silver coins. I’ll barter for his food, his booze, and his women. If you think there’s going to be a big run on your gold you’re fooling yourself. Gold is only king in a bad economy. When there’s no economy hot lead sets the terms. I wouldn’t barter ammunition to strangers but liquor, medical supplies, food, toilet paper and so forth will be easy to trade for just about anything. All that time spent collecting coins is a waste.
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He’s here my Mystery date! Mystery date… are you ready for your Mystery date…
These creepy guys blindsiding women with prepper stuff always makes me uncomfortable. Especially when they have dungeons. I feel so sorry for these women, but Stephanie felt comfortable because of the camera crew. She wanted face time. Bet she’s trying to wrangle an agent as we speak. And how often do you get to see a missile silo?
My favorite part with Jeff was when he filtered the silo water then put it right back in the bottle he was carrying it in pre-filter. Mmmmm… the sweet taste of benzene.
I could go on for hours but lets just settle for this. Jeff is not serious and about prepping and being clueless will get you killed post-collapse.
I’m not a prepper, but I do have a couple weeks of supplies in case of natural disasters or whatever. That said, most of the people on the show are retarded (yes, I said retarded. Call the police). No one who is serious talks about what they have planned or stored except to other preppers in their circle. The show’s goal is to make fun of the preppers who come on; pretty standard tactic used against people the libs don’t like. (Honey Boo Boo, for instance, is not a show about a sweet little girl with a colorful momma. Its a show making fun of stupid people who live in a trailer park.) Makes the liberals feel like they’re better than everyone else.
I would tend to agree with Cole about the silver and gold stuff. While precious metals have use as currency, they only become useful when you have an economy that needs them. Otherwise, you’re back to barter. I just don’t see the guy down the street sellling me a loaf of bread for a silver half-dollar if the economy fails; he’ll much rather want toilet paper or something instead.
“Jeff’s bug-out location is 800 miles away from his Wisconsin home, far away from everything in the middle of nowhere, Kansas.”
Thanks, missed that part. I was wondering why he was shown in a seedy motel.
First of all, flamethrowers are illegal. Mythbusters made one last season, and they made a point of it that they had to go through many hoops to make one, and with the LEO on hand for the finale, I bet it was seized as soon as filming was over. So by making one, did Jeff just film himself committing a felony?
As painful as that segment was, I watched it instead of Dear Liar’s wish list. And I have no regrets.
The show’s producers have to get new stories & people for each week’s episode. They approved putting Jeff on. Were they hoping for a trainwreck episode, or are they getting that desperate for preppers?
I take anything the Mythbusters say about the law with a very large grain of salt. They film the show in Kalifornia, where its apparently illegal to do many many things.
I also suspect they say its against the law as a secondary “don’t try this at home” dodge.
A quick google check indicates that in Kalifornia flamethrowers are illegal, but they are not federally regulated. So the guy in Kansas could probably have made one. Not that its a particularly effective weapon.
On second thought, it might be one used in controlled brush burnings, I’ll have to watch the rerun. Still not a good idea. Use frangible bullets instead.
Mythbusters do use law enforcement for explosives, and for some of their gun episodes they’ve mentioned going to Nevada.
The Rock Man can always use his silver to make bullets. It worked for the Lone Ranger.
Edible City: Grow the Revolution by grtv
Edible City is a fun, fast-paced journey through the Local Good Food movement that’s taking root in the San Francisco Bay Area, across the nation and around the world. Introducing a diverse cast of extraordinary and eccentric characters who are challenging the paradigm of our broken food system, Edible City digs into their unique perspectives and transformative work, finding hopeful solutions to monumental problems.
Inspirational, down-to-earth and a little bit quirky, Edible City captures the spirit of a movement that’s making real change and doing something truly revolutionary: growing the model for a healthy, sustainable local food system.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIVqGtgDHBo&feature=player_embedded
You know, I’m not sure which party I find more disgusting in this PJM “prepper” series: National Geographic, or Bob Owens. I don’t like seeing these people being ridiculed for their fears and apprehensions. It rubs me the wrong way. National Geographic is clearly intent upon using these people to advance their own “progressive” (or whatever the hell we call it nowadays) world view.
The way this production is set up and edited gives me the creeps. These all seem like pretty good people to me. They are certainly doing no harm to anyone around them — and I especially relate to those who express a desire to help their neighbors in the event of some horrible disaster. I would never presume to judge their beliefs or their actions. But then, I’m a “purist” who trusts workaday individuals far more than I do my “betters” in the commentariat. I tend to be a fatalist myself, and just don’t have the interest in going to all the lengths that these people do to survive a disaster of Biblical proportions. But it kind of comforts me to know that there tenacious people out there who will do everything they can to keep themselves, and the human species, alive (long after I’m dead and gone).
But all that faith stuff aside, it really disgusts me to see the manipulators on the Left (National Geographic) being supported by smart-ass opportunists on the Right (Bob Owens) USING these people for ideological and personal profit. It’s too bad. This could be a good and educational series.
Missouri Dems: Let’s Just Force Gun Owners to Surrender, Destroy Their Weapons Leah Barkoukis, Feb 18, 2013
http://townhall.com/tipsheet/leahbarkoukis/2013/02/18/missouri-dems-lets-just-force-gun-owners-to-surrender-destroy-their-weapons-n1514789
Hmmm … not much going on here. I was thinking about it and wanted to expand upon my last thought re how this could have been a useful series. I look at all these folks as good decent people — people whom I would enjoy having dinner with — even the kid who you likened to a Jeffrey-Dahmer knock off. Oh, and BTW, I’ve decided to stop watching this series after episode one of season two. I can’t take the obvious intent to ridicule here. It’s just too cheap.
You know, these people have very serious (albeit to differing degrees of probability) and legitimate existential concerns — especially re the likelihood of civil societal breakdown following an unimaginable event. People WILL fight to survive — some will do so as Golden-Rule-consistent Christians (adhering to the moral duty of helping one’s fellow), and others will do so as amoral animals (and everything in between). We all know that. But what I find fascinating here is the mindset and cognitive structures of these preppers. WHAT drives them? This is an area that COULD be the basis of a fascinating exploration. But instead of that, what we have from National Geographic, on the Left, and Bob Owens, on the right, is a lazy opportunity to USE the so-called “Prepper” movement, rather than to understand it and, perhaps, take something useful from it.
So I’m done here. I’m done with the series, and I’m done with the PJM-contracted lampoon of the lampoon.
But P.S., in the meantime, I am seriously considering putting together a one-month bug-out satchel. I’m thinking maybe fifty pounds? With plenty of fire-power. For me and my loved ones … Just in case, ya know? Ta.