Last week there was a report that Costco and Sam's club have limited rice sales in their stores and it got me thinking about ways that I could take advantage of this situation in the stock market.  After screening several dozen stocks, I found Soylent Corporation (symbol SYLT) .  Soylent creates processed food rations in three varieties:  Red, Yellow and Green.  Green is the newest food wafer and it is reported to be the most nutritious and palatable.  The stock has seen an increase of over 117% in the last quarter alone and looks to move even higher as government regulators approve the latest Soylent Green.  These food rations are the most efficient use of agricultural resources and could alleviate pressures on the world wide food supply.

This weekend was a MUTA 6 (that is a three day drill in military speak) and I needed the extra time to tie up some lose ends before I leave for Chaplain School.  The last 4 months have been focused on helping the Family Readiness Groups pull together ahead of the deployment.  I am also organizing a marriage retreat that is being provided by the National Guard Bureau and trying to squeeze in some last minute couples.  The NGB is committing a a serious amount of resources to improve soldier care and I want to make sure that we get the most from that outlay of resources. 

One of my companies had an FRG meeting on Friday night and there was close to 100 family members there to organize themselves in a support group.   I was overwhelmed by the turnout and I was proud to hear that my hometown of Mattoon, Illinois is incredibly supportive of their National Guard unit.  I am not talking about just putting a yellow ribbon on their car and waving a flag, but substantial support that comes in the form of finances and services for the families of soldiers.  Most importantly,  I have seen a high level of interest in families trying to be self-sufficient during the deployment.  Everyone needs help now and again, but if we can minimize that help that is needed by preparation and foresight, then we will be better positioned to handle unforeseen crisis.

One funny thing happened this weekend.  The state had a family readiness conference in Springfield that I attended and they had a semi-swanky reception at the Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum (one of the best museums that I have ever seen!).  I had not originally planned on attending the reception, but I stayed in town overnight to meet with one of my units so I walked down there from the Hotel.  I had no change of clothes with me so I was the only person in uniform (there were lots of soldiers there but I could only tell who they were by the haircuts).  As I mingled and ate my tiny little sandwich, one of the event organizers came up and said. "Put down that sandwich and follow me."   "Yes, sir" I replied and followed the man over to some of the wax statues that they have in the main area of the Museum.  A photographer stood me in front of the statues and them placed some important looking people with me in the photo and I was involved in my first "photo-op."  I have no idea who these people were and I was apparently a prop for the photo much in the same way as the wax dummies! 

My last post reminded me of one of my favorite emergency preparedness websites: ZOMBIE SQUAD!

As you peck around on the Internet looking for emergency preparedness information it is easy to stumble upon groups that have whacked out conspiracy theory driven agendas and individuals that are of the "off the grid in a Montana Cabin" mentality.  I want to learn about protecting my family in case of emergency but I really don't want to wade through the morass of secret Illuminati moon bases to find what food keeps the best for long periods of time.  

Zombie Squad is a group that has taken the popular culture phenomenon of zombies (who doesn't like a good zombie movie?)  and uses it as a platform to not only educate people about every day preparedness, but they also sponsor blood drives and other charitable work to raise awareness.  Their logic is that if you prepare yourself for zombie attack, then you will be prepared for just about anything.  Who can argue with that?

Last year I blogged about emergency preparedness and this morning was a reminder that we in Illinois (well, I guess I am in Kentucky now, but it is close) are not immune to wide spread natural disasters.  Tornados are certainly common, but Tornado damage is fairly localized.  What would happen to our area if the New Madrid fault let loose?  In 1812, New Madrid was the epicenter of one of the largest recorded earthquakes in the contiguous United States.  Due to our geological flatness, the earthquake was felt strongly over 500,000 square miles. The area was not heavily populated in 1812, but what will happen when this fault strikes again?

Illinois is not exactly earthquake aware like California and I suspect that the damage and ensuing panic would be debilitating.  I am not sure about the earthquake building codes but they are certainly not as stringent as places like areas that are more prone to frequent quakes.   In the aftermath of a major New Madrid quake,  people should not depend on being sustained by the local, state or federal government. A New Madrid fault would be a disaster on the scale of Katrina or even worse and we saw how the government responded in that circumstance.  A family should be able to sustain itself for at least 3 days with food, water, and even shelter.  In the case of a major epidemic, social sequestering would require even longer periods of time.

Since I wrote that original blog, I have had another wrinkle added to my situation.  Now that I am part of the Illinois National Guard, I would certainly be activated in a major Illinois disaster.  In fact, our chaplain corps went through specific training about how we are going to respond to a major event in the Midwest.  I need to think through some scenarios and decided how we will respond to these kind of events.  Considering that I have to cross a bridge to get into Illinois, I might not even be able to get back in case of emergency.  I also live in a major Metropolitan area, which complicates the situation considerably.  Everyone knows that the big city is much more prone to Zombie attacks!

"And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."

What should we make of this statement?  I think we should take a look at the implications of what Obama said about those of us in small communities around the United States.  The longer that this nomination process continues, the more that we get to know about the candidates.  This is the reason that I fully supported Huckabee when he decided to stay in the campaign until after the Texas primary.  In fact, I wish that he was still running!  If the Democratic primary would have ended on Super Tuesday we would have never been able to get a full understanding of Barack Obama.   What about Hillary Clinton?  I think that for ill or good, everyone knows what Hillary is all about. 

Many would say that the comments are not important or substantive, but in fact they are a window into Barack Obama's underlying presuppositions.  The presuppositions that a person holds concerning human nature and the nature of God inform all of their decisions.  Every person is essentially rational,  baring some mental illness, and the differences in our views come instead from differing presuppositions. Barack Obama works from the presupposition that religion is an expression of human nature instead of a reaction to an objective and external God.  Religion certainly can be a human creation and the Bible's teaching about the creation of idols is reflective of this, but according to the scriptures, faith is "...the gift of God." 

To add insult to injury,  Barack Obama also makes the inference that there is a connection between religion, guns, antipathy, racism and a general narrow mindedness.  Should we take this as an extension of Barack Obama's intellectual construct he calls a "typical white person?" A few more months of campaigning should fully reveal the nature of Barack's "typical white person."  Even more troubling is that, according to Obama, we typical small town,  gun owning, God fearing people (I'm not antipathetic or against immigration) are apparently like we are because of the failures of the last two administrations.  Does Barack Obama believe the President of the United States holds that much sway on the essential beliefs of Americans?  Both Hillary Clinton (see this link) and Barack Obama have clearly revealed how they view the role of government in the lives of Americans and what they believe to be true about we rank and file Americans. 

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Obama on how to get out of Iraq

Barack Obama told Chris Matthews this afternoon how he plans to end the war in Iraq.  Here is the plan:

1.  "Getting our combat troops out"

2.  "No permanent bases"

3.  "We should protect our embassy"

4.  "Protect humanitarian forces"

5.  "Up our commitment to humanitarian aid"

6.  "Initiate...political settlement that includes all the factions inside of Iraq"

7.  Then Barack can give scholarships to all the kids at West Chester University  (OK,  this is probably not part of the plan, just ole fashion' pandering) 

The essence of Barack Obama's strategic vision for Iraq is too remove the military force that is providing any sense of security and stability and THEN when things have spiraled out of control and a full blown civil war has broken out, we send in more humanitarian aid and initiate political settlements.  All the while, any troops that are left in Iraq are holed up in our embassy.  Maybe,  we will even get to replay the events of April 1975 and witness an evacuation from the embassy.  I think trusting the good will of Islamic extremist in the middle east is an absolutely fantastic idea.  I don't know why we have not tried this before.  Islamic extremist are nothing if not magnanimous and reasonable.  Maybe the Shiites, angry from years of oppression under Saddam Hussein, will get the same tingle up their leg that Chris Matthews gets when Obama speaks.  "Ok suicide bombers, lets here ya.. YES WE CAN!"