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Friday, October 26, 2012

Imma start a riot.... Imma start a riot

I'm not a big social networking kinda guy.  I've got a business Facebook account that I use a bit, and a personal Twitter account that I haven't used for a couple of years.

Until today.

I heard about a thread (showing my age here? ) called #IfObamaDontWin.  Quite the eye-opener.  Here are a number of Tweets that give the general feel for what's being posted -
There Is Going To Be A Great Depression In The Hood."  

Imma start a riot.... Imma start a riot

We All Getting Deported."  

Black people will never be the same. It's going to be harder to get jobs, no food stamps, weave . They tryna break us down

No Food Stamps. The hoods gonna have their own Hunger Games.

Im gonna grab my shotgun and wait for a black person to crawl through the window.  

There Is Going To Be A Great Depression In The Hood... 

imma be the next D.C. sniper

Say Good Bye To Y'all Government Check & Food Stamps , Yall Hoes Will Be Homeless & Hungry.  

A WHOLE BUNCH OF WHITE PPL GETTING THEY ASS WHOPPED

We'll be singing " My president is white, that shit aint cool and i'll be got damn if he take my food stamps too."  

hell yeah America should riot and kill Romney!!! 
 To the best of my knowledge, each of the folks making these posts was black.  I make this assumption based upon the picture chosen by each of the Tweeters was that of a black person.  The only exception was the guy waiting by the window with the shotgun.  He was white.

I've read opinions to this affect - that if the election is "stolen" from Obama - blacks will riot en masse.  This is the first set of posts I've seen with my own eyes.

They absolutely REEK with self-pity.  Boo hoo hoo!  No more Obamabucks, they're out to ruin us, we're going to crash and burn.  Screw that, LET'S RIOT!!!

THIS is what happens when you design, build and fund a Dependent Class, and they can no longer depend on your continued funding.  They have no skills other than being dependent.

And rioting.
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Big shock here:  If Barry loses on Election Day, there will be rioting in virtually all predominantly-black cities, and then bubble over to secondary cities.  We won't have the Flash Mobs/Robs, it will be full-on rioting, burning, etc.

It will supposedly be directed towards the whites who stole the election, but they'll target "Uncle Tom's" who turned against Barry, as well.
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Oh, there wasn't a thread called #IfRomneyDontWin.  The closest I could find was, #IfRomneyLoses.  It had 4 posts from the same person -
my president is still black [I'm sure MLK is proud of that sentiment and statement.  That whole, "Content of your character..." stuff really struck a cord, huh?]

I'm gonna laugh in all the Obama haters faces [Nice.  Do you think you'll stay away from the riots by all of the whites because of the stolen election?  WHAT?  No Riots?]

party at my house [Uh, want me to bring a dish - or just the EBT card?]

food stamp is back on  [Whew!  Almost had to go get a job.  Dodged one there!]
So, we have the very clearly spoken words that if Barry loses, blacks will lose all control and trash the place, but no such violence will be visited upon society by whites if Mitt loses.  And history has show us that IT IS likely to happen when blacks feel they've been screwed, even when they haven't.


Accept The Challenge

The following applies to everyone, regardless of color or age:

On Election Day, if you must go out, I strongly urge you to be armed with some sort of self-defense weapon.  Whatever you feel you can manage.  Anything is better than nothing.

"I'd Rather Be Tried By Twelve Than Buried By Six"

It will be the evening of Election Day, and Wednesday morning that will show which direction things will take.  If there is any rioting in major cities, obviously you wouldn't willingly go there.  Be very wary of any travel anywhere Election Night/Weds Morn.

If you must:

DO NOT take public transportation.  Period.  You're an idiot and are willingly putting yourself into a high-risk situation if you do so.  You are 100% at the mercy of large numbers of people that may want you hurt or dead REGARDLESS OF YOUR RACE OR AGE.

If driving, never, ever exit your car in the event you're attacked.  NEVER!  I don't care if you're down to driving on nothing but rims.  You're moving, and you have a metal cage around you.  Use this to your advantage.  Run over anyone coming at you with ill intent.  Do not stop, do not wait, do not hesitate.  They're not coming up to be your friend, they're there to hurt you.  Don't let them.

If you have a gun, fire at threats until they stop.  You do this for two reasons.  First, it's generally the law - you must disengage once the threat has ceased.  Second, you don't want to waste ammo, especially in a situation with multiple attackers.  Firing extra shots into dead or incapacitated attackers is just plain dumb.

Focus, and look for avenues of escape.  If attacked, you'll be scared out of your mind.  Freaking out is not going to get you anything good.  Go through avenues of escape before arriving at your destination.  Forethought can save your life.

At home, lights out, guns hot.  Hopefully you've got sufficient resources (human beings with guns and ammo) to watch all four sides of your home.  A handful of "rovers" in the home that will help if a certain side of the home is attacked - without drawing watchers from the other sides of the home.  If not, you've got a little over a week to figure out how you're going to do that.

Anyone with a barrel pointed towards the house, or a lit flaming device (Molotov cocktail, flare gun, flare) in hand, is shot dead.  If you have difficulty with that concept, get good with it now.  For motivation, consider the warning shot given to your attacker with the lit flaming device.  He now has the ability to throw it to the house, it burn down, and your spouse/child/dog/parent dies in the flames.  Close your eyes and picture the charred remains of your closest relative, in your home, dead, because you chose to be "compassionate".

Feel better?

A barrel pointed at you/your house or a lit flaming device is a direct threat to your life.  You must treat it as such.

Now, get to work.  Not much time left...


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Copyright 2012 Bison Risk Management Associates. All rights reserved. Please note that in addition to owning Bison Risk Management, Chief Instructor is also a partner in a precious metals business. You are encouraged to repost this information so long as it is credited to Bison Risk Management Associates. www.BisonRMA.com

Monday, October 22, 2012

Big Fat Stinkin' Government Ruminations

I can't breath.

I've been doing a lot of ruminating over the past couple of weeks - really since my last post.  I see our supposed Best And Brightest running for president, The House, The Senate, and for our state government, and it depresses me.  The lying, the spin, the outright deceit has just got me wanting to become a hermit and separate myself from society.

The continual grab, grab, grab for our money and property and liberty is weighted like an elephant on the chest.

Some ruminations for ya....

Here in California, we have a full load of tax increase proposals on the ballot.  One of them has the proponents running ads saying, "Every dollar will go towards educating our (not your) children".  I told my wife that I guarantee that it would end up like the Lottery.  They told us the lottery would provide over $1 billion a year to schools, and it couldn't go anywhere else.

It got my vote, and a lot of other votes.

The problem was, once this extra billion bucks started flowing, the state legislature lowered the school budget by a billion bucks.  Net/net, the school system didn't see an extra dime as a result of the lottery.  The bastards in Sacramento got a windfall to spread around to their cronies, or give themselves huge stipends for travel expense, food and meal expense, living expense, etc.  It was a sweet deal for the incumbents.

Well, imagine my surprise (not) that one of the acceptable uses of the school bill funds for "educating our children" includes funding the shortfall in the retirement packages of the Teacher's Union members.

BAM!  Another sweet deal for someone else, funded by my pocketbook.
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Just last night, I was watching the show, Drugs, Inc.  It's a show that digs into the business side that is a part of illegal drugs.  This episode was in Las Vegas.

About half way through the show, they showed the LVPD putting together a plan to bust some guy that provides out-of-towners with drugs.  His base of operation was a nice hotel room in one of the higher-end properties in Vegas.

They start with the hut-hut-hut squad - the SWAT Team.  About a half dozen of these guys go hut-hut-hut into the hotel and make sure the "bad guy" was secured.  The SWAT Team leaves, and another half dozen detectives show up to see what kind of haul they have.

The two guys had a couple dozen MDMA pills, a small amount of cocaine, and a little bit of cash.

For those of you who haven't been here before, let me repeat my stand on "illegal" drugs.  I believe that you, as an individual, should STILL be able to put anything you wish into your body.  Booze, pills, coke, meth, "bath salts", E, pot, cigarettes - whatever.  It's your body, do as you wish.  The only time the police should be involved is if you infringe on the rights of another - whether you are high or straight.

And if you become addicted or dead, tough shit.  Actions have consequences.  Deal with it.

Perhaps most importantly, as soon as drugs were re-legalized, the crime and death associated with "illegal" drugs would go away.  There would be no need for illegal enforcement of selling territories.  If I used drugs, and could get them from a 7-11, the illegal traffickers would be out of business.  Just like what happened when Prohibition was repealed.  Al Capone - no mas!

At the federal level, there is absolutely, positively NO CONSTITUTIONAL JUSTIFICATION for our drug laws.  The big tipping point was the 1914 Harrison Narcotics Tax Act [link].  It was taken to the SCOTUS, and the bastards let it stay because of "the public good" or some other unconstitutional crap like that.

Now, that being said, the Tenth Amendment WOULD allow a state to write any drug law it wished.  You could have California be an open-air market for drugs, and Nevada have zero tolerance for any drugs whatsoever.

So, back to Vegas.  As I'm watching the hut-hut-hut squad doing their thing, I'm shaking my head, thinking, "What a GD waste of time, money and resources".  But it's Nevada money, I don't live there, so go at it.  It doesn't affect me one little bit.

Ten minutes later, a similar raid is shown.  Only this time, it had a dozen hut-hut-hut squad members, and they were DEA agents.

Now, that DOES affect me and my pocketbook.

They went into this rental house that was changed into a pot growing house.  They cut down some 400+ plants and made zero arrests.  Thank God for that, as their trial and subsequent incarceration would have just extended the waste of money even further.

I know many of you who stop by here support our drug laws.  Let me ask you a question:  If every drug was re-legalized tomorrow, would you start using, say, meth?  Or coke?  Or pot?

No?  Me neither.  If I wanted any of them, or heroin, MDMA, "Bath Salts", magic mushrooms or any illegal drug in this country, I could get them right now.  The drug laws are not only useless, they are a horrific waste of tax dollars.  Drugs are more readily available now than they've ever been.

Who is for drug laws?  Government, of course.  It's damned near a Full Employment Act for cops at every level of society.  County jails, state and federal prisons are full - FULL - of people who wanted to conduct a business transaction which would not infringe upon the rights of anyone else.

And of course, the drug cartels LOVE the drug laws as well.  If you had Ron Popeil selling the Home Crack Maker on late-night TV, the cartels would be out of business.  They need our laws to sustain their drug distribution business.

Good on us to be so proactive in helping foreign businesses grow and prosper.  Makes ya proud to be an American, no?
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I was thinking of doing some financial diversification.  I'm heavily invested in physical precious metals.  Back in 2007, I dumped all of my paper stocks, bonds and mutual funds, and bought gold and silver.

My primary target for diversification continues to be real estate.  I just need to find the right property in the right state for the right price.  Not as easy as it sounds!

So, in the mean time, I was considering buying some stock.  Not just any stock, but I was focusing in on those companies that have paid a dividend for at least the last 5 years - longer if possible.

Looks like I won't have to do much research.

I had started a little bit of digging, when I heard the news that Barry & Company - our federal government - have a tax proposal that will increase the tax on - you guessed it - dividend payments.  What I've read indicates that the tax rate on dividends will be as high as 44%!  Damned near half of your earnings taken by an entity with a long track record of incompetence.

But wait, there's more!  Barry has told us, ad nauseum, that he only wants to raise taxes on that top 1 percent.  All of those rich bastards that don't pay, "their fair share".

Hey Barry!  Sixty-fiive percent of the folks that get dividend payments - and would be penalized by this new law - earn $100k or less per year.

Oops.

I guess he wasn't lying.  It was just a misinterpretation of the numbers.  He meant to say he only wanted to tax the top 100% of wage earners.

Whew.  Glad we got that cleared up.

Accept The Challenge

Hmm.  I'm a doer and not a whiner, but I'm coming to the end of my patience.  The government seems intent on controling and regulating and taxing every little piece of our lives.  For goodness sake, NYC actually regulates the size of the soda you can buy.  How can that be in America?

The presumption of our handlers is that we are unable to make decisions by ourselves.  They are all-knowing, and are just looking out for our best interests.

The price for this regulation is two-fold:  Increased taxes to pay for the bureaucracy and loss of freedom.  I'd submit that taxes are another form of loss of freedom, as you are being forced to give the results of your labors to another entity.

No, I'm not suggesting anarchy, just that we play by our rule book, the Constitution.  That's all, just play by the rules.

But that's not going to happen.  It will never happen.  As long as one arm of government gets to bless the clearly illegal actions of another arm of government as legal, we're screwed.

As noted earlier, I've got a good bit of PMs.  I know with absolute certainty that at some point in the future, I will not be able to anonymously convert those holdings into fiat cash that I may need to buy real property, for instance.  The government will paint holders of PMs as unpatriotic or greedy bastards or terrorists.  Or all of the above - just like they did in 1933.

They are already well on their way to controlling all markets, setting prices for virtually all commodity foodstuffs (via the farm bills), energy production and distribution, banking, communications and water rights. 

They are well on their way to controlling all of your transportaiton options - flight, rail, busses; your ability to defend yourself against enemies of all stripes by controlling what guns you may own and when yoiu may possess them, which knives, pepper spray or stunguns you may own;  which of our inalienable rights they will grant themselves the ability to alienate.

Economically, you can't fight this beast head-on, and win.  Every form of government has way too many tendrils.  And lots more guns than you do to enforce their will.  If you haven't read Atlas Shrugged, you've got to do it.  You read the book and you will be amazed at how much of Ayn Rand's (a former Soviet citizen) "crazy talk" has happened or is happening.  Especially the whole concept of "economic justice".

When you take away the financial incentive to produce, you stop producing.  Read this snippet from 1990 about the old Soviet Union -
While the Soviet Union's legislators and theorists ponder the vistas of a revolutionary economic-reform program, the people of this country live like hunter-gatherers in a real-world economy that is half desert, half medieval bazaar.

The official structures of the Bolshevik experiment are collapsing with such finality, the state-run shops are so barren, that nearly everyone now must participate in the immense ``shadow economy'' of speculation and petty bribery, barter deals and black-marketeers.

The demands of the ``shadow economy'' trace a Soviet lifetime. A child comes into the world with the mother paying a 200-ruble bribe to the maternity nurse for a sterile needle and an anesthetic. When a Soviet citizen dies, relatives are overcome not only with grief but with the knowledge that they must pay thousands of rubles in bribes to the mortician, the coffin maker and the gravedigger.

What comes in between is an unending hustle. To buy a car means entering a world of markups in the thousands of rubles. A place in a good kindergarten requires 100 rubles - or better, $10 - slipped to the local school inspector. To find a pair of jeans or even the cheapest Western luxury inevitably means a trip to places such as Moscow's Vidnoye Market or Odessa's City Market, vast parking lots of primitive commerce that seem like market scenes in the paintings of Brueghel or Bosch. Crowds form around old women who sell shampoo, hairpins and lipsticks out of tattered plastic bags.
I believe the two most important skills we're going to need in the coming economic collapse are the ability to barter/trade, and the ability to keep your head down - don't draw attention to yourself.  If you're doing considerably better by outwards appearances than your neighbor, you can bet your bottom dollar that your neighbor will turn your ass in for a state-sponsored Enemy Of The State bounty.

With regards to the other inalienable rights that have been stomped, I think our national outrage will peak when/if significant numbers of people start "disappearing" with no explanation.  The TSA is brushing up against this with their No Fly List - you can't find out why you've been banned from commercial air flight.

If this happens - and I believe it will - THEN the shooting will start. Farmers, bankers, beauticians, grocers, all stripes of small business owners and just regular people, will start sending a message to our handlers that they've crossed the line.

I think any organized resistance will be generally crushed.  I think it will be regular folks - individuals - picking a spot and time, and firing off a couple rounds at some form of government symbol.  They'll fire a couple of rounds, then beat feet.  Wait a couple of weeks, then repeat as necessary.

Or they'll burn a government car.  Or cut the power to a government building.  Or any other such act of rebellion.  Anything to cause grief, pain and suffering on whomever you consider an oppressor.

We'll all then be considered Enemies Of The State.


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Copyright 2012 Bison Risk Management Associates. All rights reserved. Please note that in addition to owning Bison Risk Management, Chief Instructor is also a partner in a precious metals business. You are encouraged to repost this information so long as it is credited to Bison Risk Management Associates. www.BisonRMA.com

Friday, October 5, 2012

Buncha Rubbish

Some thoughts on stuff going on around the country - gas, regulation, corporate food, unintended consequences (probably) and trout.

Have ya heard what's going on here in The (formerly) Golden State with gasoline?  We've got a bit of a Perfect Storm going on here:  Last month, a refinery in Northern California had a big fire, and is down for a while.  Now, a refinery in Southern California is having some problems.  On top of all of that, because we actually have two different kinds of gas here - a Summer Blend and a Winter Blend - and they were already in the process of dropping production as they switch over to the Winter Blend, we're getting hammered on prices and availability.

I saw gas jump on Wednesday by $0.10 in an 8 hour period.  It's up another $0.30 since then.  In some city down south, the price for regular is at $5.70 a gallon!

[sarcasm]Shockingly [/sarcasm] all of these problems can be laid on the doorstep of the pols in Sacramento.  Since gasoline is evil - only toxic lead-laden battery-powered cars are welcome here - the state EPA hasn't allowed a new refinery to be built in this state in over 30 years.  Yeah, 30 years.  And since we have got to have this idiotic Summer or Winter Blend crap, if one of our ancient refineries goes down, we can't import gasoline from another state.
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Since I still have the putrid taste of California Idiocy on my lips, I might as well make all of you non-Californians feel good about yourself and your state.

Many folks have heard about Berkey filters.  These things rock.  You can put polluted water (not just dirty, but polluted with insecticides, etc.) through these things and you get clean water out the other end.

Well, in California's quest to protect its fair citizens, they passed a drinking water law a few years back.  Supposed to protect us against ingesting lead.  Great.

So, the law says that anything that comes into contact with drinking water has got to be certified and approved by the state.  Berkey contacts the state and tells them that not only don't any of their products contain lead, they don't contain ANY metal, so they'd like an exemption from the law.

Surely you jest, said Da State!

The state wanted something like $2500 per product for a testing fee, plus ongoing fees and all kinds of crap.

Berkey, to their credit, told the state to shove it where the sun ain't golden.  They stopped selling these top-of-the-line, literally life-saving products in our state because of the red tape involved.

I don't blame them one bit (BTW, I just pick up new filters whenever I'm in Nevada or Oregon.  They appreciate my business).

Fast forward to the past couple of weeks.  I was going to buy one of my brothers a fancy air filter.  It's actually not a filter, it uses ions to attach to the stink in the air, and it goes away.  Quickly.

I called up to order, and they told me ...... can't sell in California because of some state EPA regulation they're not going to try and fight.

Literally 10 minutes later, I was on a website looking at sleeping bags.  Great coldness rating for a great price.  There was a little note at the bottom of the page:  Can't sell in California because of their specific BEDDING laws.

Lord, give me strength.

Then today, I got an email from a surplus site.  They were having a sale on military gas cans.  I almost couldn't bring myself to look, but there it was.  "Not available for sale in California".  Wow, what a shock.

Are the pinheads in Sacramento REALLY surprised that native Californians are fleeing in droves?  Businesses, too.  Comcast Cable just announced 1,000 jobs leaving the state.  Campbell soup just announced the cutting of another 700 jobs, and the closing of their plant that's been around since 1947.
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Salmonella scare.  We've had a couple of back-to-back outbreaks.

Tainted Peanut Butter in 19 states.

and

Tainted melons in 26 states that resulted in 3 deaths.

These are Government Inspected facilities, right?  OK, just checkin'.  Must be government approved salmonella then...

It all gets back to Regulation vs. Operation.  A food regulator would require labeling, for instance.  "You are buying raw milk.  Some believe that unpasteurized milk has a higher incidence of making you sick."  You don't tell people what they can buy or sell, but you can require a business to disclose what's in their product.  Grass fed beef vs. corn fed.  Genetically modified fruits, veggies and meat vs. non-GMO.

When you have government approve a product or service - as it is doing when it certifies that it has inspected a food plant - the consumer always loses.  You've taken the responsibility from the owner for the quality and safety of the food being produced and transferred it to the government.

I can hear it now, "So, you libertarian piece of crap, you don't want the government inspecting your meat, dairy and vegetables?  You want to go back to the Stone Age of food safety?"

Nope.  I want private industry to perform these quality tests.

Back in the day when I was in banking, every year we had an external audit.  A CPA firm would come in, look at our books, and certify that everything we were stating to our shareholders was true.

If after certifying us, it later became evident that we were cooking the books, and the value of our stock was actually lower, the CPA firm was financially on the line.  THEY would have to come up with money to compensate our shareholders for their sloppy audit.

Since they had a potential financial liability, they checked and double-checked our financials, procedures, policies and practices to ensure our audit reflected our true financial condition,.

When the USDA or FDA lets salmonella-tainted food enter the marketplace, who in government is held accountable?

No one.  So why do we need them?  To maintain the facade of having a safe food production process?

The regulators should simply produce law that states that any third-party certification companies may not have any financial ties to any company they certify.  Just like CPA firms.

Food producers would then have to make the business decision as to whether or not they wished to be certified, e.g. being UL Listed.  Consumers would then be able to determine from which certified and uncertified companies they wished to make purchases.
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Have you seen the movie, Food, Inc.?  If not, see it as soon as possible.  It makes the whole, "getting back to nature, grow your own, be one with your local community" prepper lifestyle make a whole lot more sense.

Seriously, if you have family members that scoff at your self-sufficient lifestyle, invite them over for a screening of the movie.  If they're not full of questions and at least a bit interested, move on.  They're hopeless.
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The Dodd-Frank Bank Protection and Government Enrichment Act may REALLY be rearing its ugly head in the next couple of months.

Part of the Act was a provision that companies holding derivatives will be required to hold high-quality assets as collateral in case the derivatives go sideways.

On the surface, it sounds like a good idea.  But whenever you have the government operating business instead of regulating, you get snapped in the ass.



It seems things may go off track for two reasons.  First, the derivative market is in the $650 TRILLION range.  Big, ugly number.  One of the authorized assets to be held are US Treasuries.  Oops.  There are only $11 trillion worth of them.

Obviously, everyone wanting to buy Treasuries on the secondary market won't be able to get them.  BUT, those that are sold, will sell for a premium.  That means that the yield on the Treasury will decrease (you're paying more for a fixed return).  This phenomena  in turn, will be reflected in the market when the Treasury sells new bonds.  Everyone's gotta get 'em, so Uncle Sam doesn't need to pay as much to the buyers.

Nice scam if you can get it.  You get to set the market regulation, and it just coincidentally funnels lots o' bucks your way.  Sweet deal.

The second snap o' the buttocks is with banks.  They hold a ton of this stuff (somewheres north of $140 trillion).  One of the other acceptable assets is cash.  So the banks will have a decision to make:  Use your cash reserves as collateral for your derivatives (OMG!  Fiat currency securing gambling tokens), or lend the money to your customers and buy the limited amounts of Treasuries by borrowing more money from the Fed.

The banks have already shown they're in no mood to lend money to anyone even in this boisterous, over-heated economy, so my guess is they'll continue along that path.  No one is believing the pablum coming out of DC about how great things are, so lending will remain tight for the foreseeable future.

In one fell swoop, a government regulation simultaneously lowers the return people will make when buying Treasuries, and also constricting the amount of money available to the few banks that want to lend.

And you didn't think you'd be affected by the derivatives market.  Silly you!
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Oh.  No, I'm not pissed that the cost of borrowing for the government will go down.  Less money coming out of my pocket and going to Nanny is always a good thing.  What I'm pissed about is that this BS regulation - white washed as a way to protect every-day Americans - is nothing but a way to require companies to pay Uncle Sam.
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On a personal note, I'll be gone for a week or so.  A buddy and one brother are headed up to Eagle Lake in Lassen County.

This lake is only open 6 months out of the year, and contains the coveted Eagle Lake Trout.


I am NOT one of those catch-and-release fisherman.  I'm a catch-and-eat fisherman, and I hope to have a belly full of this special trout all of next week!

I'm going to try and pre-load some posts, but no promises.

Cheers!


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Copyright 2012 Bison Risk Management Associates. All rights reserved. Please note that in addition to owning Bison Risk Management, Chief Instructor is also a partner in a precious metals business. You are encouraged to repost this information so long as it is credited to Bison Risk Management Associates. www.BisonRMA.com