Last night, Geo McCalip presented his “Report from the Front” progress report at the Konkin-Rothbard Supper Club as scheduled. You can listen to the audio of the talk right here: http://resfree.org/kr2010aug30a.mp3

Geo was introduced by moderator Howard Hinman, who also gave a moving tribute to Loy Lefevre before the talk. Howard held up a copy of the Lefevre New Libertarian issue and described Loy’s years with Robert Lefevre and her memorial service that Howard attended.

The California Legal Rights Fund (CalRights.org) became a 501c3 with some financial resources courtesy of a grant from the estate of the late Charles M. “Chuck” Hammill.

Geo gave some background info and then outlined three cases he’s working on now. During the Q&A, other cases and tactics were described, and he reaffirmed his ambitious goal of completely eliminating “tickets for revenue” (as well as “snitch letters” and other irritants) in California.

Perhaps the approach he describes will force the state, in the big settlement he expects someday, to allow “fully informed” juries. Members of such a jury would be told that they are to decide the justice of the law as well as the facts of the case.

Arthur Bradley, PhD
Arthur Bradley, of DisasterPreparer.com web fame, has a new book available, Handbook to Practical Disaster Preparedness for the Family.

Preparedness legend James Talmage Stevens, who is most famous for his perennial best-selling book, Making the Best of Basics, and also a popular web personality at DoctorPrepper.com, endorsed Bradley’s Handbook:

“A great introduction to disaster preparedness in a single volume, both scholarly and easy to read! Provides practical information for families seeking to organize their preparedness efforts.”

I LOL’d at the droll first line of the description of the new work at Amazon, “Ninety-nine percent of the time the world spins like a top, the skies are clear, and your refrigerator is full of milk and cheese.”

But alas, as any comics fan can tell you, Milk and Cheese have gone bad.

If you think things are going well, maybe you should read “10 Signs the U.S. is Becoming a Third World Country” and get prepped.

The description at Amazon describes other risks and lists the contents of Bradley’s book.

“But know with certainty that the world is a dangerous place. Storms rage, fires burn, and diseases spread. No one is ever completely safe. Not you. Not your children. We all live as part of a very complex ecosystem that is unpredictable and willing to kill us without remorse or pause.

This book will help you to establish a practical disaster preparedness plan for your entire family, covering all 14 basic human needs.

Additional information is also presented for those with special needs, including the elderly, children, people with disabilities, pregnant women, and pets.

Every topic is well researched, with over 240 references cited, and is presented in a clear, easy to read format.”

So get Handbook to Practical Disaster Preparedness for the Family today, or get it today, but GET IT TODAY!!! When “the end of the world as we know it” arrives, the bookstore shelves may be empty. Then what’ll you do?

THE Konkin-Rothbard Limited
Orange County Special Event Supperclub

E C O N O M I C S   A N D   G E O – P O L I T I C S

A PROJECT OF THE KARL HESS CLUB

Fifth Monday of a Month except on a major Holiday

Geo. McCalip “Fomenting Revolution for Fun and Profit”

Date: Monday August 30, 2010

Location: Marie Callender’s 5960 Orangethorpe Ave., Buena Park, CA 90620 (at Valley View/91Fwy) 714-522-0170 | FAX 714-522-6829 [From 5 Fwy, take Valley View South to Orangethorpe, turn right]

Cost: $25.00 (CASH ONLY PLEASE) Includes choice of three entrees, salad, soft beverage and pie dessert

SCHEDULE

6:00 p.m. Cocktails (No Host, in the Lounge and Cash and Carry in the Dining Room)
7:00 p.m. Dinner (Three entrees*, salad, cornbread, soft beverage, pie dessert)
Special Call to Order by Master of Ceremonies to start the program business
Special Memorial Presentation Honoring Loy Lefevre
8:00 p.m. Announcements and Introductions by Master of Ceremonies Howard Hinman
8:15 p.m. Speaker Geo. McCalip
9:15 p.m. Q&A (First round questions to be submitted in writing; index cards will be provided)
9:45 p.m. Adjournment [Aftermeeting next door]
* This meeting: Callender’s Country-Fried Steak, Freshly Roasted Turkey, Braised and Slow-Roasted Pot Roast,+ [Vegetarian Option]

Our server will take your order at that time.

About The Speaker

Geo. McCalip is the founder of California Legal Rights Fund, an educational nonprofit with a mission of educating the people of California as to their rights. Since March 4, 2001 he has run a pro bono site on fighting traffic tickets in California, HelpIGotATicket.com; the information on that site has helped tens if not hundreds of thousands of people beat their tickets. In 1995 Mr. McCalip fought a speeding case that led to the end of the Municipal Court system in California.

Geo. was professionally involved with microcomputers/PC’s for over three decades, and has managed projects for companies including IBM, HP, Intel, AST Sharp, Xerox and Minolta. His experience with multimedia predates the World Wide Web; he produced a highly successful multimedia catalog in 1992.

He designed an inventory and distribution system for Proficient Foods (Denny’s), and assisted in analysis leading to leveraged buy out of Denny’s. He did the analysis and programming on management systems for TRW and Western Digital. He programmed the daily cash flow system for the City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

He managed the initial feasibility study of the Super Shuttle. Geo. formed the ad-hoc committee which staged the successful campaign to get Cal State Dominguez Hill selected as the site for the 1984 Olympic Velodrome.

About the Program [Précis Provided by Mr. McCalip]

Since March 2001 Geo. McCalip has run a web site on fighting traffic tickets. Over the last few years, working with a group of very bright legal minds, he has put together a plan to bring a series of lawsuits designed to put an end to the “tickets for revenue scam” in California. Please join us as we find out that this is not really about traffic tickets, it’s about the next American revolution.

Scheduled Meeting Remaining in 2010:

November 29 Jay Snelson (tentative)

About THE Konkin-Rothbard Limited Club

The name for this club was chosen to honor the memories of Samuel Edward Konkin III, a prominent political theorist and Murray Rothbard, a noted free market economist. Howard Hinman, of Orange County, is your Master of Ceremonies and Chief Operating Officer (COO).

For more information and to RSVP for reservations, contact Michael Everling at mikeeverling@karlhessclub.org

Please put RESERVATION in the eMail header and indicate how many persons you wish to reserve.

Thank you!
====================

  Coming Soon. . .
I was updating the http://seedball.com page and decided to follow the Heavy Petal (a.k.a. Andrea Bellamy) website link to see what’s new.

Turns out there is something of interest to anyone interested in off-grid or self-reliant living, her new book! “World, please meet Sugar Snaps and Strawberries.”

Timber Press is publishing Andrea Bellamy’s book about small-scale edible gardens, Sugar Snaps and Strawberries. The subtitle is Simple Solutions for Creating Your Own Small-Space Edible Garden.

Jackie Connelly did the photography for the book and wrote about it on her blog, “Sugar Snaps and Strawberries has arrived!.”

If you want to read something before the release date, perhaps you’d enjoy the popular book, The Backyard Homestead: Produce all the food you need on just a quarter acre! or one that’s not so well known, Food Not Lawns: How to Turn Your Yard into a Garden And Your Neighborhood into a Community.

The photographer has videos at her YouTube channel, jackieconnellyphoto. Here’s one about sustainable food art.

BBC online reports that UK government agencies are facing deep reductions, “Departments told to draw up plans for 40% spending cuts,” although 40% is the “illustrative” worst case scenario. We’ll see.

In the U.S., a recent TIME issue had the cover headline, “The Broken States of America.”

“At least 28 states have ordered across-the-board budget cuts, with many of them adding deeper cuts in targeted agencies. And massive shortfalls in public pension plans loom as well.”

The Dow has been under 10,000 all week. The “Recovery” is apparently being met with investor skepticism.

But one honest green shoot of good news is that there are some like Marcin Jakubowski, Ph.D. of Open Source Ecology who are hard at work engineering post-scarcity “Economy In A Box” tools.

Here’s some of that “In the Box” thinking by Marcin Jakubowski, who spoke at the Noise Bridge Conference on June 15, 2010 presented by Bay Area Community Exchange. Notice Marcin’s use of the phrase “Resilient Community,” which we like very much here at ResFree.org.

Marcin Jakubowski – part 1 from East Bay Pictures on Vimeo.

  Travel Preparedness
The author of Build The Perfect Survival Kit was interviewed on The Survival Podcast episode, “An Interview With John McCann.”

Among many other topics, McCann described a very simple fishing setup and other handy items that could fit in a belt and get past security checkpoints.

I caught the following UCTV show on cable. Great ideas for preparing for water, power and/or gas interruptions are also shown in the video, which happens to be about prepping a house for earthquakes, “Home Preparedness in Earthquake Country.”

“First Aired: 4/26/2010
59 minutes”

“California is earthquake country. Dr. Matt Springer of UCSF shares valuable insights into how we can prepare now for our next big shake. Dr. Springer illustrates precautionary measures we can take at home to protect ourselves and our families from the effects of a major earthquake. (#18193)”

I personally experienced all the recent big quakes mentioned in the video: the 1971 Sylmar earthquake as a kid in Orange, CA, the 1989 “World Series” Loma Prieta (Santa Cruz) while I was working in San Francisco, and also the 1994 Northridge quake which collapsed part of the 10 freeway near the apartment I rented in Culver City.

Recently, TSP host Jack Spirko created a four-part video series on YouTube, “Survival Fishing With Flowers,” on how to catch small lake fish with found tree branches as a pole, only a little flower as bait, and how to catch catfish unattended with a floating empty water bottle and some paracord, typical monofilament fishing line and a snelled hook.

  Fuel Film DVD
I turned on the radio this morning while visiting L.A. for relatives’ birthdays and heard an inspiring interview with Josh Tickell. He is screening his Sundance awarded Fuel movie to benefit KPFK Saturday, June 26, 2010. (Tomorrow as I post this.)

I was struck by the number of different solutions that were offered by the filmmaker. He reminded me that electricity costs a penny per mile instead of a dime or more for gasoline and that green sources can be selected by electricity consumers in one way or another.

He also made a point that concentrated energy providers lead to concentrated points of political power and suggested that energy created by individuals and community groups would empower them politically as well. At the least they would be more self-reliant and not dependent on the gas pump.

About the film, the Los Angeles Times said this in a review:

“Fuel is a vital, superbly assembled documentary…doesn’t dwell on muckraking, however; it’s more focused on broadly inspiring viewers than preaching to the converted….Smartly animated interstitials, memorable archival material and a lively soundtrack round out the fast-paced proceedings.”

Amazon said this about the DVD:

“Eleven years in the making, FUEL is the in-depth personal journey of filmmaker and eco-evangelist Josh Tickell, who takes us on a hip, fast-paced road trip into America’s dependence on foreign oil. Combining a history lesson of the US auto and petroleum industries and interviews with a wide range of policy makers, educators, and activists such as Woody Harrelson, Sheryl Crow, Neil Young and Willie Nelson. Animated by powerful graphics, FUEL looks into our future offering hope via a wide-range of renewable energy and bio-fuels. Winner of the Sundance Audience Award.”

The theatrical trailer at YouTube.

ABC News just ran a story, “Clean Energy: Why Is China Ahead of the U.S.?” It describes how NatSolar’s new solar panel technology was rebuffed in the U.S., but CEO Chuck Provini was flown in and welcomed by China and given a deal to create green jobs over there.

It seems energy production from any source has to overcome enormous legal barriers in this country. Here’s just one hurdle mentioned in the long article.

“. . .he [Provini] also worked with a major Washington, D.C., law firm and was told that a $750,000 application fee was necessary just to apply for a specific federal program.”

With big oil, coal, nuclear, solar and windpower facing legal hassles, we may have a low powered future in which we depend on whatever solar panels and turbines we can install in our private backyards for reliable energy.

The April, 2010 issue of ARRL’s QST magazine featured the vital role ham radio played during Haiti’s earthquake. An online article, “Amateur Radio Operators Provide Communications Support in Haiti” describes the ham support of doctors in Project Medishare.

Seismic scientists agree that California is in for a big quake perhaps sooner than later. The Haiti experience is instructive to anyone preparing for interruptions of utilities such as water, power and telephone service.

If landline phone service is knocked out, cell phone systems will likely be overloaded or knocked out because of landline network connections.

Ham radio doesn’t require learning Morse Code anymore. Passing a test on basic electronics, radio theory, and operating rules and regulations may be a small price to pay for uninterrupted communications (and no phone bill).

  Underground Houses
From Slashdot’s “Idle” category comes this article, “Solar-Powered Shrub Car,” which quotes an Inhabitat story, “Solar-Powered Shrub Car Is Not Your Garden Variety EV.”

Justin Shull’s Terrestrial Shrub Rover is a vehicle based on a common cartoon sight gag. It looks like a great example of suburban camouflage.

(See this HowStuffWorks article about “How Military Camouflage Works” or the Wikipedia entry about “Camouflage”)

It’s possible to cloak an antenna for your hidden transmitter. It can be disguised as a hummingbird feeder, basketball hoop, flagpole and there are even some that work underground for certain frequencies.

  Solar Handbook
A recent Greentech Media headline dated May 26, 2010 asks, “Will California Put Its Wind Farms In Mexico?.”

“Thanks to complex state regulations and lower costs, California could start getting its power from south of the border.”

The same article takes on excessive solar regulation.

“. . .the state faces an even bigger problem: bureaucracy. Solar developers like BrightSource Energy have been squeezed because of regulations. Some developers already plan to build California power plants in Arizona to avoid dealing with the state’s Fish and Game Department.”

That point about building California power plants in Arizona is linked to a previous Greentech Media story from March, 2010, with the headline, “Is Bureaucracy Killing Solar?” The article describes a widely reported news item:

“A proposal from U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein to protect one million acres of the Mojave Desert last year caused wind and solar developers to roll up plans to build in the region.”

I wonder how up to date the following passage is given the boycott by some California cities protesting Arizona’s recent immigration law.

“Solar thermal developer Tessera Solar North America has already contracted to build plants in California but will likely shift to building future power plants for California in Arizona because of the time and expense involved in building in the Golden State. In other words, California will get green power but not as many green jobs as it might otherwise.”

So, big renewable energy projects are being outsourced to Mexico and Arizona (or maybe just Mexico).

California must have quite a budget surplus to be turning away all those filthy money paying green jobs.

  “Ecologic Collapse”
Wild caught ocean fish are getting scarce. From the Snapperfarm website:

“In 1980 just 9 percent of the fish consumed by humans was farm raised. Today that figure has grown to a staggering 43 percent. That is 45.5 million tons of farmed fish consumed each year. (FAO 2006) The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations predicts that an additional 40 million tons of seafood will be required by 2030 just to maintain current levels of consumption. This will only be possible through aquaculture.”

Brian O’Hanlon‘s Open Blue Sea Farm, using Steve Page’s Aquapod net pens, makes offshore farming in strong currents feasible.

As you will hear in the YouTube video clip from National Geographic‘s Strange Days On Planet Earth, more water flowing from offshore strong currents in Aquapods puts less stress on the fish, is less polluting to the immediate surroundings, and because the pods are far from crowded coastal waters, they are much less susceptible to disease-bearing parasites such as sea lice.

I heard Jack Spirko talk about O’Hanlon’s entrepreneurial beginnings on The Survival Podcast, with some emotional reaction to how approvals O’Hanlon needed from head-scratching bureaucrats were not forthcoming.

Jack Spirko spent most of his military service in Panama (if memory serves). He says Panama is a nice country, but it’s not his country. Spirko also expressed the opinion (paraphrasing here) that in a hungry world with a growing demand for seafood, a U.S. citizen who innovates a cleaner, more productive way to raise fish shouldn’t be forced to build his growing company in some other country.

According to the Mainebiz article, “Fishing for a future: A Searsmont entrepreneur’s aquaculture innovation is welcomed in foreign waters while the U.S. plays catch up,” aquaculture is not new:

“While the tools may be new, the idea of farming the oceans is not. That prescient explorer of the deep blue, Jacques Cousteau, promoted farming the oceans in the early 1970s. “With Earth’s burgeoning human populations to feed, we must turn to the sea with new understanding and new technology,” Cousteau said in his 1973 television show “The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau.” “We need to farm it as we farm the land.” “

The author of the same Mainebiz piece shares Spirko’s frustration with government permission. Thankfully, there are foreign investors and customers who can get a new industry started.

“Since 2008, Ocean Farm Technologies has shipped AquaPods to companies in Puerto Rico, Panama, Mexico and South Korea. Interest has come from all over the world. Turkish businessmen paid Page a visit during a snowy day last winter to check out the AquaPod. And within the last couple of months, the governments of Ecuador and Indonesia have inquired about using the smaller cages, dubbed MicroPods, to help struggling fishermen become farmers. . .”

I guess opportunities with the jobs and money they bring are not wanted in the U.S.A. anymore.

  Bee CCD background
From Slashdot, “Study Claims Cellphones Implicated In Bee Loss.” If you need a laugh, check out the reader comments on the story, such as “The queen should stop texting and get back to work.”

But seriously, this is an important issue for off-grid living since homesteaders are likely to depend on radio links of some kind and are also more likely than other people to have beehives pollinate their edible forest gardens.

Being a ham operator, I would add other variables besides transmitter power to a bigger study. Frequency (cell phones operate in or near microwave bands) and modes such as analog AM, FM, or SSB, also if there’s digitized content, check if the type (voice, music, or text) makes any difference.

The legal response to this new published study will not be swift because it’s not very authoritative. Only two hives were tested. Quoting an excerpt:

“. . .one fitted with two mobile telephones which were powered on for two 15-minute sessions per day for three months. The other had dummy models installed. After three months the researchers recorded a dramatic decline in the size of the hive fitted with the mobile phone, a significant reduction in the number of eggs laid by the queen bee. The bees also stopped producing honey.”

One of the readers noted in a comment that because of the inverse square law, the field strength of the transmitter inside a hive is many orders of magnitude greater than would be experienced from usage in real life.

Other theories for honeybee colony collapse disorder involve pesticide and herbicide chemicals, genetically modified plants, and transporting of hives from around the world to pollinate big cash crops like almonds.

Michael Pollan referred to this pool of unrelated hives mingling on distant farms as the annual “honeybee brothel” spreading diseases.

  How to Live. . .
I found a link to Nick Rosen’s “offgridnick” YouTube channel on the http://off-grid.net website.

One particular video, dated May 4, 2010, brings the Resilient Freedom mission of clearing legal paths to self reliance to mind, “Planning permission for off the grid living.”

From Nick’s description at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HfHMUK6bR4:

“Nigel [Lowthrop] got planning permission to live in his 36 acre wood by turning part of it into a local free resource. This story is told in more detail in my book HOW TO LIVE OFF GRID.”