Episode-691- Listener Calls for 6-24-11
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Well it is Friday and our first listener call in show since I have returned from vacation. We have some awesome stuff today on ground nuts, constitutional law, pepper spray for defense, composting, coupons and more.
If you would like to be featured on a show such as this one call in your question, comment or commentary to 866-65-THINK and we will try to get you on the air. Currently our back log is about 3-4 weeks between calls coming in and being featured on the air. If you called in more than a month ago at this point you may want to call in again.
Join me today as I take your calls on…
- Is it getting easier to share prepping and if so why
- Troubleshooting problems with growing groundnut (Apios americana)
- If fuel prices skyrocket would the government subsidize OTR Truckers
- How would we know if the economy is declining to a point of no return
- Building a composting system with garbage cans
- Thoughts on consuming raw milk
- Couponing is it as good as some people claim
- Why are the 9th and 10th amendments so rarely discussed today
- How the GFCI outlet in your bathroom can ruin food in your chest freezer
- Thoughts on the Indiana court decision about unlawful entry
- When has our government gone “too far” and unconventional actions are required
Additional Resources for Today’s Show
- Members Support Brigade
- TSP Gear Shop
- Join Our Forum
- Emergency Essentials – (sponsor of the day)
- HarvestEating.com – (sponsor of the day)
- Sarah’s Deals
- The 9th Amendment
- The 10th Amendment
Remember to comment, chime in and tell us your thoughts, this podcast is one man’s opinion, not a lecture or sermon. Also please enter our listener appreciation contest and help spread the word about our show. Also remember you can call in your questions and comments to 866-65-THINK and you might hear yourself on the air.
I’d like to share my thoughts on GFCI outlets.
First, a bit about my background. I’m the son of an electrician and an electrical engineer myself, so I know a little about this subject.
As you correctly pointed out in the show, GFCI outlets are designed to protect the homeowner. They do this by attempting to measure a disturbance in the current load between the energized and neutral conductors. A common situation where this could occur is if a person or other object comes into contact with the energized line and contacts ground. In this case the GFCI will trip and no longer allow current to flow. These devices save many lives every year and are a beneficial and useful innovation in electrical wiring technology.
The NEC requires GFCI outlets in bathrooms, kitchens, garages, outdoor locations, and generally speaking most locations where there is a higher chance of having a wet environment and increasing the risk of completing a circuit to ground. It is also worth nothing that the breakers in your garage are generally designed to trip at 15 or 20 amps. In the wrong situation as little as 1 amp or less can kill you. Breakers are meant to protect your property by tripping before a fire can start and not to protect your life like a GFCI is.
To answer your real question, houses are usually wired in the way you describe for one reason only: money. Copper wire and GFCI outlets are expensive. Contractors who are putting up hundreds of houses in a subdivision can save significant resources by wiring as many outlets as allowed by the NEC on a single circuit and can save more money by putting a single GFCI in the circuit for protection. Running additional circuits incurs significant material and labor costs and will be avoided in these situations. There is no other reason to wire a home in this manner. Many homes have a more logical wiring configuration with individual circuits for each major location (i.e. bathroom, kitchen, garage, outdoor) with a gfci on each circuit, but these tend to be custom built homes or higher end homes. Cookie cutter subdivisions are where you see cost cutting measures like you described most frequently.
@Eden that makes sense. It is however maddening! to have a circuit with that many outlets subject to a single point of failure is really a pain in the ass.
Good stuff on the safety concepts though.
A simple fix for this problem is as follows: Turn off the breaker feeding the outlets, remove the outlet from the wall. From what you are describing, there should be a white wire and a colored wire (black, red, or blue) coming from each side of the outlet,along with a ground (green). Remove the wires from each side, use a wire but to connect white to white, black to black, etc along with an extra piece of wire of the same color (6-8 inches long.) run the spare pieces of wire into the appropriate holes/screws on the outlet. Replace outlet. This will allow the safety feature on the GFCI outlet to function as normal, but it will not affect outlets farther down the circuit.
My buddy, an electrician for over 20 years, resided my house.
He had to have each bathroom on it’s own circuit with a gfci. By code he had to add outdoor outlets, each on it’s own circuit and protected as well. Each major appliance had to have it’s own circuit. My kitchen has 6 circuits. Each side of the kitchen had to be on it’s own circuit for the outlets. So around here the code seems to be a heck of a lot different.
I actually prefer it this way. If one thing goes down, it’s isolated. The amount of wire that he pulled out was pretty amazing. But he probably put back 3 times as much. And I have more space in the panel. Just shows how codes differ and have changed over the years.
The danger of this solution is that all other outlets on this circuit are now unprotected unless they have a GFCI outlet in the box in question. In Jack’s example, taking the first GFCI out in the garage would leave the bathroom and outdoor outlets unprotected and significantly more dangerous. Please consider your safety and that of your family before making changes like this. I would still recommend that you call in a licensed electrician and find out what your options are. Both of these devices add real safety to the electrical distribution system at the homeowner level and shouldn’t be circumvented lightly.
Um actually NO it didn’t and I did have an electriction do the work. In example I gave we took the outlets in the garage off the GFCI circuit, we did’t leave the outlets in the kitchen or bath unprotected.
The outdoor outlets were also left on the GFCI circuit. I wanted to split them all up (leaving them protected individually) but it was too expensive. The ones in the garage were easy to fix though as we were able to pull power from another series that fed the home office room directly behind the garage.
Sorry Jack, I think my reply may have been confusing.
What I meant was that if one were to follow bob’s method above and had a wiring situation like yours, then they would be left with an unsafe situation.
I understood how you went about solving this and don’t see any major problems with it, although I am far from an expert.
Simple answer to the electricla questions is the cost of installation. Labor per plug alone would be over $15.00 added cost. When building tract housing time is money!
Licensed Electrician here. Arc Fault Circuit Interrupters are also now required in just about all locations in a residence. These are already causing nuisance tripping.
GFCI devices are required to trip between 3 to 5 milliamps, because the electrocution level for a child is generally considered to start at 5 milliamps. 6 to 9 milliamps is the let-go threshold for 99% of adults, meaning levels above that and you can’t let go. Lethal levels of current for adults starts at just 20 milliamps (not 1 amp.)
Just remember, you are much much more likely to be saved from a nasty or lethal shock by your GFCI than to have your freezer trip it and waste your food. My freezer has been on a GFCI protected circuit for 6 years without incident. Something for people to consider is that older GFCI’s are more prone to nuisance tripping, plus, TEST YOUR GFCI OUTLETS REGULARLY! They make devices for this. I have installed new GFCI outlets that fried right out of the box. Don’t assume that your plug is working properly. Testing and updating equipment should help cut down on nuisance tripping. Sorry for the rambling, but I’m passionate about electrical safety.
I couldn’t agree with this more! If you have trouble with a tripping CFCI or AFCI outlet, call in a licensed electrician and find out what your options are. Both of these devices add real safety to the electrical distribution system at the homeowner level and shouldn’t be circumvented lightly.
And how the hell did we ever survive with out them for over 80 years, how did we make it with out air bags, seat belt laws, center brake lights, 9000 “safety codes” passed in the last 25 years.
Don’t get me wrong GFCI makes sense for some applications but for the love of God to me most of it is just more government run amuck.
My dad lives in a home wired in the 40s, it has the old round screw in fuse box, I am sure the Feds would condemn the place there are no GFCIs in the bath room (not added until 1955 they used an out house until than).
Again I do get common sense safety and GFCIs have a place, wired to a single point of failure on ever outlet outside, in a kitchen, garage or bathroom though is not it.
I think the simple answer is that before we had GFCIs and AFCIs we had more electric shock and electric fire accidents and now we have fewer. Everyone who didn’t get seriously injured or die simply didn’t know there was greater danger. Just like airbags and seatbelts (when used properly) save lives, these tools save lives and protect property.
Also, strictly speaking the NEC is managed by a private industry association (NFPA) primarily composed of volunteers. The enforcement of the code is often handled by local government though.
I’m a fan of small government myself, but this seems like a good balance. Let industry define the standards and local government enforce them. If we didn’t have this in place, I believe our homes would be more dangerous simply because most people don’t understand electricity or electrical wiring and it is hidden in their walls. Lowest cost would probably prevail, and lowest cost when it comes to wiring has much fewer safety precautions built in.
I’m going to guess that milk residue would remain in the Berkey filters and eventually cause a stinky sour-milk mess.
I second what Jack says: we’ve been drinking raw milk for awhile, and we’ve had no problems. If you’re getting it from a quality source it shouldn’t have pathogenic issues.
Anyway, you already have E.coli in your colon. The only reason you’re not sick is because you’re body’s good bacteria are keeping it in check.
Maybe you would just get some pure, clean, awesome tasting drinking water?
Don’t those things remove food coloring from water?
I always tell my friends that I could pee into my Berkey and they could drink it but I would test that theory on someone else’s Berkey before I ever tried it with my own.
That would be one hell of an addition to their commercials “Removes pond scum, chlorine, food coloring, and changes raw milk into pure drinking water…”
UM NO! You can’t filter fuel with a Berkey, they are for water, not milk certainly not fuel.
Yes they will remove food coloring.
Yeah but what about urine? LOL… That’s the important question on people’s minds…
I didn’t get where you were coming from with the fuel part of the comment but that would be one hell of a funny way to remove the red dye from the cheaper diesel I guess!
Just a thought about Milk through a Berkey…my GUESS (and this is a guess) is that the fat content in there would present a problem for the filter. Raw milk also has solids in it, which I would expect are significantly larger than the filter size.
It would be an interesting experiment…but I’m not willing to risk my filters to try it. 🙂
My bet…you get out “skim” milk.
(And skim milk is traditionally pig food :))
In regards to the Indiana Unlawful Entry case, there are a few things to consider here.
First–in terms of punishing the Criminal Justices who blatantly violated the Indiana and US Constitution, the author of that opinion, I believe is up for a Retention vote next year. He MUST be ejected, and in my view, made sure he never sits in any position of power again.
Second, Legislators from the State have claimed they are going to address this in the next session. Also, the governor has chosen to not call a special session of the Legislature to address this now. The Attorney General (who was a party in that case) has stated he disagrees with this in terms of the breadth of the decision.
There was ABSOLUTELY no reason for the Indiana Supreme court to overreach in this manner. They could have ruled on this case alone, but they did not. This is a perfect (horrible) example of Judicial activism.
There’s another important point to consider. This ruling demands that a citizen who has done nothing wrong, comply and submit themselves to (by the rulings own definition) unlawful action. No rightful law can EVER compel an innocent party to submit himself or herself to unlawful action of anyone. Note my specific word–compel. However, that is exactly what this ruling demands.
Jack’s opinion may very well be your best option in many cases, but in reality, this really makes you into a criminal for NOT complying with unlawful action. What this has done is INSURE that you are guilty if you resist someone trampling your rights, even though you have the inherent right to do so.
Let me be clear–just because you do not ultimately get sent to prison, doesn’t mean that you’re rights have not been violated. The damage is already done if you are innocent.
Further, while most Police officers would have better sense than to CREATE a situation like this, the fact remains that there are a certain percentage of people in this world who ARE willing to do wrong, even if they know it is wrong, and police are not immune to that. This placed absolute power in the hands of the police (in regards to entering your home) and claims that the innocent person has no rights, whatsoever to resist (different from ultimately gaining vindication–if that is the case).
As far as what is or isn’t admissible. I sure wish we could say that this standard was universally upheld and wasn’t subject to some judges whim, but it is. So, while that provides SOME defense (after perhaps life-ruining trouble, and certainly great inconvenience and cost) it is hardly a sure thing.
No, this criminal ruling (and I mean that literally, in that is is a direct violation of Indiana and US Supreme law), INVITES problems. It makes an innocent person powerless under the law to resist UNLAWFUL action. That cannot be logically resolved.
This ruling is in contradiction to plainly written and understandable text of the Indiana and US Constitution. It was totally unnecessary, and it is inherently in conflict with the very concept of law itself.
This is about as bad as it gets. If an innocent person cannot expect to be secure in their own home from the authorities whim (except after a theoretical legal process, long after the violation has occurred), then can they have any expectation of security at all?
Security, which Jack identifies (rightfully) as a primary survival need, is not something that happens at some future time. You are or are not secure NOW–when something is happening. This ruling demands that innocent people abdicate their right to be secure–in their own homes, against UNLAWFUL action. I’m sorry if this is ranty, but there is no ground for compromise here in my view. You cannot compromise on a fundamental right, AND a primary element of survival.
@Jack,
Clarification: Mary Barnes (the wife of the guy arrested and convicted) was seen by the officers, when she came outside with some of his stuff. So, while this guy’s general behavior might have been questionable enough to warrant probable cause, the wife was seen and available to be questioned by the police at some point prior to the police entering the home. You can see the description of the situation on Page 2 of the ruling.
@KAM Well yes they did see her but only in the company of the husband. Any officer will tell you in a suspected domestic abuse situation it is critical to speak to both spouses separately. When one spouse tries to prevent that it is a REAL red flag.
The key here is I want to be DAMN SURE people understand…
1. I completely object to the decision I am not defending it.
2. What this decision does and does not mean. It first of all doesn’t mean shit to anyone that lives in any of the other 49 states. It doesn’t green light unlawful searches, it simply restricts the right of the individual to resist physically an illegal search. WE MUST get facts strait because the Alex Jones crowd and the Tinners are making this case look dramatically different from reality.
3. Regardless of this decision physically resisting the police is a LOOSING BATTLE and a STUPID ONE.
@Jack,
I understand your point about spousal abuse, but my point is that the police had access to her outside of the home. They had the opportunity to pull her aside if they wanted. However, none of this is really about this particular case. It is about the Indiana Supreme Court wildly overreaching.
1: Loud and Clear.
2: Correct, it does not grant the police the Legal right to enter your home–it bars you from resisting an illegal act–defining you as the criminal if you do resist an illegal act. However, exactly what is the difference at the time your home is being unlawfully entered and your rights are being trampled. The officer’s word is already by default taken at a higher level than the citizen.
I’ll say again–this ruling was COMPLETELY unnecessary. The bar is already extremely low for “probable cause” in a heated situation, and I can’t even imagine how many people were tried for “resisting arrest” when all other charges fell through. Full disclosure–I’ve never had any run-ins with the police or have any grudge against them.
Correct, It does not green light unlawful searches–it states that you have no right to resist illegal action. As I’ve said–this entire statement is incompatible with the concept of law. You have no right to resist a LEGAL action of police. Everyone has a right to resist any and all illegal actions being perpetrated against themselves. Every person must choose how they CHOOSE to handle themselves in that situation.
If you do not have the God-given (Natural born) right to resist ANYONE’s illegal action against you (in your own home especially), then exactly what rights do you have?
3) My argument has nothing to do with promoting physical resistance. What’s important to realize is what this says about law in our Country (even if only in my State). It is ludicrous and intolerable for a Supreme Court Justice to attempt to dismiss a fundamental right, yet that’s exactly what they’ve done.
I should clarify–I am not misunderstanding your point. I’m NOT saying that they’ve said the cops DO have the right to unlawfully enter. The right I’m referring to them dismissing is the right to refuse to comply with illegal actions taken against you.
I have no idea what any tin-foil hat folks say about this, but I’m not talking about a conspiracy. This is a direct violation of the US 4th Amendment and Indiana’s analog of that. This doesn’t require any stretches–it is very blatant, and very outrageous.
This is a fundamental question of of law, and rights in my view, and this ruling is wholly incompatible with those concepts. In reality, you pick your battles, and you do what you have to survive. What I’m saying isn’t about puffing up your chest and getting into an altercation with the police. It is about an out-of-control State Supreme Court, which now must be brought to understand that they have not been granted power to eliminate citizens’ fundamental rights.
The law CANNOT rightfully compel one to comply with illegal action.
Some thoughts on different elements of the show:
1. WRT economy hitting point of no return – agree with your thoughts, and I agree with some thoughts you’ve had on earlier shows which is when they start coming after 401Ks & IRAs, that is a huge red flag.
2. WRT groundnut – I am growing it for the first time. Got seeds/tubers from Sandhill as Jack suggested. They are coming up, but are very thin & ‘climby’ – are the supposed to be a vine? Do you grow them with supports? ie trellis, fence, etc?
3. WRT couponing – I watch Extreme Couponing as well, and have two problems with it. First, as you said, it doesn’t seem realistic – I don’t know how they get some of those deals. I guess if you spend 40-60 hrs/week on couponing, that’s how. To me, it ain’t worth that kind of time. Second, the food they get is generally shit. You’re never going to find those kind of deals on organic/healthy products that aren’t full of GMOs & HFCS. My wife & I were able to recently buy good quality food using club member discounts & sales, and save about 33%. A far cry from the 98% some of these extremies get, but I’m not poisoning myself either. Our goal is to continue to go for quality food and try to stretch the savings to 50% with the addition of some timely coupons, while putting maybe an hour or two in per week. I think that is a very good & reasonably attainable goal for a healthy eating prepper. Of course if you wanna eat shit food or spend 40hrs per week on couponing & dumpster diving, knock yerself out – not for me.
Jack, I noticed you said the first to ask for a hand out would be “…Califorina or Hawaii.” As a guy fighting constantly for liberty here in Hawaii I was surprised but not shocked to hear that.
I’d be really grateful to know where you drew that conclusion from, it’s hard for me to find much info, other than watching the buffoons mismanage this state.
I’d like to hear more about this from you! Thanks.
Dave
Simple math, when ever I read about states in trouble with their budgets, New York, Hawaii and California always top the list. It isn’t anything about the people and in fact I personally don’t understand why Hawaii is in financial trouble.
Thanks Jack,
Hawaii is in financial trouble always because the gov is run FOR the unions here, be that construction or state, city or county workers unions. There’s a lot of people here looking for a handout from the government. I’m not talking social programs only, I’m talking construction companies, teachers unions, on and on.
When the majority of people have something to gain by electing representatives that will give them handouts, well that’s how we end up in budget trouble.
When I look at the numbers though, it looks like there are other states more susceptible to budget shortfalls, hence why I was asking if there was something I was missing.
What I could find on this: http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=711
I certainly think as far as the state is run were are just about as silly as NY & CA, but the numbers I see don’t match that. However I could see the City & County of Honolulu putting a strain on the state suddenly, sometime in the future.
Hi, my comment is for Dave from upper Michigan. I am also composting with the manure from two horses, and have been composting for a few years, and have also done a week long course in composting.
I agree with Jack that his system will probably not be for you and I think you will be served best by the simpler (low or no hardware) types of composting. We use only a fork and a tarpaulin, and sometimes just a fork (we ran out of tarps pretty quick).
I’ll just give you one more recommendation, which is that you check out The Rodale Book of Composting. It is definitely the best book I have read, out of about 8 compost books. It has been reprinted repeatedly (and slightly updated) since 1979 and is an excellent resource for the beginner and the confident composter, and is probably at your local library. It details heaps and heaps of different techniques and structures and I have no doubt it would get you well on the path to the best compost for you.
Regarding couponing… there are several threads with links about how to get started couponing on the forum. I have had good luck with couponing, buying things that I would buy anyway (and trying out new products that I think I will like), but taking advantage of combining store sales with coupons to maximize savings. In order to do this effectively, you need to buy at least 6 weeks’ worth of any item you find on sale so that you have enough to last you until the next time it goes to rock-bottom prices. I typically save at least 60% on my grocery bill through this method… (including fresh veges/fruits/meats and dairy) and more than that at drug stores buying toiletries, OTC meds, vitamins and hygiene items (probably closer to 75%).
It does take time to figure it out, so you have to invest some time into it up front, but it definitely will allow you to increase your preps on a budget once you get it figured out.
Finding a blog or website maintained by a person who lives in your general geographic region will help you save time finding the best deals. In my area Southern Savers is my favorite.
Buying at least one Sunday paper with the coupon inserts (and probably two copies on weeks with several coupon booklets), subscribing to “All You” magazine (or buying it at Walmart) and printing some online coupons will help you maximize savings.
I am to the point that I donate a good bit of the free stuff I am able to pick up through couponing to charitable organizations. Have fun with this.
WRT Dyed Diesel,
Here in Maine, there are primarily three differentkinds of diesel fuels, or distillates. On-Road Diesel, that is ultra-low sulfur and undyed (w/ road tax). Off-Road Diesel, that is also ultra-low sulfur but dyed to signify that there’s no road tax. Last is #2 Home Heating Oil, that is not ultra-low sulfer and is dyed. You used to be able to sell #2 as Off-Road for use in construction equipment, fishing boats, skidders, etc. Recently there’s a new law stating that even “off-road” vehicles must use ultra-low sulfur fuel thereby creating a new fuel category, that being the dyed ultra-low sulfur off-road.
Older diesel vehicles will run, and run well, on #2. However, newer vehicles and equipment that has been engineered to run efficientely on the new ultra-low sulfer fuel will not run on #2 or K1 kerosene (more refined #2, essentially) and will ruin injectors and filters etc.
Hope this clears things up. Be Safe and Be Well.
I deal with diesel all the time, I’m a truck driver.
I believe that the gubmint might give a small break on fuel taxes through a rebate or tax credit but I wouldn’t count on it.
Chris is right about the different types of diesel and their uses, of course it can vary from state to state.
In NC and SC the DOT officers, have a stick that they use to check your fuel when they pull you over to “check you out”. They dip the stick in and check the fuel for dye.
When I filled up Friday, 110 gallons @ $3.88, I noticed that there was a sticker on the pump stating that it now contained up to 10% biomass fuel.
This combined with a requirement for some of the new trucks to use a diesel exhaust fluid(~$12 for 2.5 gallons) is only going to cause the cost of transporting goods to go up.
I drive a heating oil delivery truck in the winter time. I got pulled over two winters ago by the Maine Department of Revenue for no other reason than to dip my tank and make sure I wasn’t running red fuel. I guess this is common practice here with oil trucks, presumablely because we’re carrying up to 2800 gallons of non-taxed fuel. The guy had credentials and a state car, but he didn’t dip the tank, he just asked when was the last time I filled up then just looked in the hole. I work for a great company that always plays it straight, so I had nothing to worry about, but it did make me scratch my head about whether he needed probable cause to stop me in the first place.
I’ve been paying around $3.95/G for On-Road for my pick-up here lately. When I bought my ’97 F-250 in 2003, diesel was a dollar cheaper per gallon than unleaded. I’ve payed as little as $0.87/G around that time. As the price goes up it does get tempting to supliment on-road with #2 (which runs really well in the older 7.3L’s) and increasingly becomes worth the risk if you don’t have a skid tank in your bed or reputation for shadiness in your town to draw attention to yourself.
Be Safe and Be Well,
Chris
On your electrical questions Jack, you cant put more than 4to5 recepts in a series. This is because the more things plugged into that series the more amps it will pull.
You have a single 30amp breaker most of the time on a series of recepts. Think like this a vacuum pulls 10 to 12 amps and if you have that on the same series as a window unit AC and hair dryer running on the same series it will far exceed the 30amps and trip the breaker.
So keep that in mind, if you have 3 or more recepts on the series pull a new line with another 30amp breaker.
Re: Dave in Michigan’s question.
I mentioned Jack’s system on an episode I did all about composting. I tried not to go through all the instructions and I think I left Dave and other’s frustrated but hey I’m not going to give away Jack’s secrets.
Regarding manure…I’ve found from experience that even with high nitrogen chicken manure all that’s really needed is some aging. The ammonium and urea tend to evaporate off and the nitrites and nitrates tend to be taken up by the wood mulch I add. The bad thing is that I have way too much nitro than carbon. So I age. About four weeks in the trash barrels and then onto the garden it goes. I’ve got watermelons and winter squash growing and around it is aged manure/wood mulch.
If you still think that is too rich, nitrogen wise I can show you the pole beans growing just 6 inches away.
I had to drill the chemical makeups of the additives in my head. I’ve got to give a presentation on composting at the Mother Earth News Fair. I’m not looking forward to it. Compost is my weakness.
J
In a purely hypothetical situation, because I would never advocate doing anything illegal…Combining two of the questions:
-Berkey water filters can remove food coloring.
-Could they remove “tax dye”?
Simpler solution for the freezer when on vacation, heavy gauge extension cord to a standard (non GFI or AF). This could be switched back when someone is around to monitor it again. Much cheaper than a UPS or battery backup for someone starting out.
It isn’t a bad idea it just isn’t always practical. In our case the outlets in the garage were ALL on the GFCI circuit. So a heavy cord would preclude us from shutting the door to the house from the garage. As we keep animals when we left in the summer the AC was still on (much higher but on), that door being open would have use cooling the garage.
One trip away and the electrical work paid for itself. At the most recent house we actually did what you suggested, but I had a cat door on the door to the garage, it made a nice passage way for the extension cord.
I like the response to the first caller.
I have plenty of experience talking to people (friends, relatives, strangers) about liberty coming from the angle that the government is too big, they are out to get us, truther, birther, tea bagger, whatever the hell they are calling us that week. Some people are receptive while others could care less or call you “conspiracy theorist” etc.
When you approach the same people from a perspective of how to obtain their own personal freedom and the steps they can take to get there — it opens up that selfish instinct because now there’s something in it for them.
With the first approach, people think there’s more in it for themselves when they go with the flow and follow the herd (because you see how people who don’t are ostracized and punished for speaking out).
With the second approach they see that there’s something in it for THEM. Then, as they see the obstructions the ruling class have put in place for them to obtain that freedom they are just going to wake up to the reality they live in on their own.
My house is wired the way you described. I noticed the outlet in the ceiling (for the garage door opener) is not wired in the series. I ran an extension cord along the ceiling and wall to my freezer.
GFCI are a safety device that serves a purpose, and saves lives. About the only time they suck is if they trip an outlet that needs to be constantly on. There are some simple ways to get around them though. The cheapest way is a patch behind the outlet. GFCI’s are designed to be inserted in series, but they can easily be inserted in parallel so that only that one outlet is protected. You can then do the same thing adding GFCI’s where you want them and not where you don’t. Second cheapest option that may work depending on your house design is a crossover patch. Instead of taking wire all the way from the circuit box, you splice the line just before the GFCI, and route it to where you want coverage to end and make a break so that the flow doesn’t go back to where you wanted protection. Assuming you have attic space, this is as simple as a couple junction boxes and some wire.
Obviously if you don’t understand wiring 101, don’t mess with it. I get sick of fixing ducktape splices, and bad electrical work causes fires all the time. It isn’t hard to get right, but it is important enough not to skip steps.