Comments

Episode-718- Listener Calls for 8-5-11 — 30 Comments

  1. Hey Jack, I keep hearing about these nightlight/flashlights but I’ve never seen them in the stores or heard you mention a brand name. Where can I find them?

  2. I live in ABQ, I agree with Jack, yeah, we got issues in town, but I think it is on both sides of the fence. Some of the people that live here are ‘off’ a little bit if you know what I mean, and the police in town are probably a bit more leery of all of us because of it. But overall, the cops here do a great job, all this stuff that recently went down about Darren White was downright silly. I think this is simple proof that all of us that live out in the dessert are a little more baked and too crispy on the edges for people living in greener places. From the landing spot of the runaway bride (why do we only make the national news for nutcases), have a good weekend!

  3. An wood cooking option which I had noticed is the grover rocket stove for $135. I know you can try to make your own, but maybe this one is a decent stove, it looked kind of impressive:

    Stands around 16 1/2 inches tall with the legs attached. – 11″ without legs – Top surface 8″ wide. Widest area of stove when together 12 1/2″
    • Weighs 11 lbs. and is made entirely of steel

    http://www.stockstorage.com/

    I looked at the emberlite video in the gear section which I also was impressed with, but the grover stove seems bigger and could probably cook more for several people is my impression ..

    I am going to mention to my mother on the chimney insert for her house ..

    Catnip sounds interesting and I had seen some at the nursery and noticed it was a mint. I had already planted some spearmint, pepermint, wild mint, and others. Will these mints cross pollinate ?

    What I wonder is if I grow catnip at my BOL, will it likely attract bobcats, lynx, panthers or whatever might be in the area ?

    I also saw that some site say that Nepetalactone causes a hallucinogenic effect and that there are many different kinds of catnip ..

    John Mcain is another politician whom I used to like many years ago, but no longer respect whatsoever ..

  4. http://www.cat-world.com.au/all-about-catnip
    Catnip is a perennial herb and member of the Mint family Labiatae that is well known for it’s ability to get cat’s high. It is native to Europe & Asia, however has become naturalised in America & Canada after being introduced. There are approximately 250 species of Catnip, and this figure doesn’t include hybrid species. Some of the more readily available ones are:

    Common Catnip (Nepeta cataria)
    White flowers, grows up to 3 feet. This is the variety most cats enjoy.

    Camphor Catnip (Nepeta camphorata
    White flowers with purple dots, grows up to 18 inches. Camphor scent.

    Greek Catnip (Nepeta parnassica)
    White, pale pink flowers, grows up to 18 inches.

    Lemon Catnip (Nepeta cataria citriodora)
    White flowers, spotted with purple, grows up to 3 feet. The leaves have a lemony scent.

    Catmint (Nepeta mussinii)
    Purple flowers. This plant has smallish, grey/green leaves. It grows up to 15 inches high.

    The name Nepeta is believed to have come from the town of Nepete in Italy. Cataria is thought to have come from the Latin word for cat.

    Catnip is also known by the following names: Cataria, Catmint, Catnep, Catrup, Cat’s Heal All, Cat’s-play, Cat’s Wort, Catswort, Catwort, Chi Hsueh Tsao, Field Balm, Garden Nep, Herba Cataria, Herba Catti, Nebada, Nep.

    The active ingredient which causes this is an essential oil called nepetalactone, which can be found in the leaves & stem of the plant. Other constituents include Acetic Acid, Alpha & beta-nepetalactone, Citral, Nepetalactone, Geraniol, Dipentene, Citronellol, Nerol, Butyric Acid, Valeric Acid and Tannins.

    When a cat encounters catnip, it usually sniffs it, rubs against it, licks it & finally eats it. It’s actually the sniffing that gets produces the high, it’s believed that cats eat catnip to bruise the catnip & therefore release more of the nepetalactone. The high produced will usually last between five & ten minutes.

    When sniffed, catnip will stimulate a cat, however when eaten it will act as a sedative.

    Around 50% of cats are affected by catnip, and those who are, are affected to differing degrees. Kittens younger than 8 weeks old aren’t able to enjoy it’s effects. In fact, they show an aversion to it. The response to catnip appears to be inherited as an autosomal gene. It’s not just domesticated cats who enjoy the effects of catnip, many lot of wild species also enjoy it. Cats can smell 1 part in a billion in the air. Males & females, entire or desexed, there appears to be no one group who is more readily affected by catnip than another.

    Nepetalactone causes a hallucinogenic effect. Some say the effects are similar to LSD, others say similar to marijuana. Because cats roll on the floor, which mimics a female in estrus, it has been suggested that catnip acts as an aphrodisiac, but this is unlikely as males react in just the same way. What is likely is the cat is reacting to similar “feel good” pheromones released during sexual courtship/activity. However, non sexual behaviour including playing, chasing & hunting can also be observed. The response to catnip is via the olfactory system. Even cats who can’t smell will can still respond to catnip.

    The effects of catnip seem to change from cat to cat. I have one cat who drools & rolls on the floor, I have another one who becomes very hyperactive, a third becomes aggressive, and picks fights with the other cats when he’s had catnip.
    Catnip is not harmful to your cat. They won’t overdose on it. Most cats know when they’ve had enough & will refuse any further offers.

    Interestingly, researchers say that nepetalactone is about ten times more effective at repelling mosquitos than DEET, which is the active ingredient in most insect repellents. It was also discovered that catnip repels cockroaches too!* Plants aren’t alone in containing nepetalactone, some insects & ants also contain it. It’s been speculated that this protects them from insects.

    Rats & mice are also believed to have a strong dislike of catnip & will avoid places where it grows.

    If you set it, the cats will eat it. If you sow it, the cats don’t know it.
    Philip Miller, The Gardener’s Dictionary

    This saying came about because fresh catnip is supposedly more attractive to cats when it is bruised & transplanting catnip bruises the leaves. I don’t know how much truth there is to that, certainly my cats will have a nibble on the catnip I keep in their enclosure, which hasn’t been bruised.

    Catnip is usually fairly easy to grow, you should be able to purchase the plant from your local garden centre. It likes light sandy soil, and grows best in full sun.

    Most pet shops either sell catnip toys, or tried catnip. When storing catnip, put it in an air tight container, in the fridge or freezer.

    To dry fresh catnip, hang upside down in a dry, ventilated area, away from the sun.

    Human uses:

    Catnip tends to have a sedative effect on humans. It is most often drunk as a tea.

    It is also useful for settling an upset stomach. It has also been used to treat headaches, scarlet fever, coughing, insomnia & smallpox.

    Catnip can also be used for cuts, studies show it has a natural healing quality. Crush fresh catnip leaves, damp them & apply to your cut. **

    Some other medicinal uses for catnip are: Anaesthetic, antibiotic, anti rheumatic, antispasmodic, astringent, carminative, diuretic, muscular aches and pains, rheumatism, chills, cold in the joints, haemorrhoids, toothache.

    K’Eogh, in his Irish Herbal (1735) wrote of catnip, “It provokes urination and menstruation: it expels the stillborn child; it opens obstructions of the lungs and the womb, and is good for internal bruises and shortness of breath. Drunk with salt and honey, it expels worms from the body.” ***

    Pregnant women should avoid catnip.

    It can also be used as an aromatic herb in cooking & salads.

    According to The Herb Garden, “The root when chewed is said to make the most gentle person fierce and quarrelsome”. In fact, there is a story about an executioner who would have to chew on the root of catnip so he could bring himself to do kill.

    Valerian also produces the same reaction in cats. As do plants which contain the chemical Actinidine.

  5. Interesting side point about catnip, Jack. It was first brought to America as a replacement for tea which didn’t grow well here. Aside from all the great herbalist applications, it’s actually pretty enjoyable just as an option to a hot cuppa joe… and it grows great here in Oklahoma! Great show, keep up the good work!

  6. I planted a Labrador tea plant at my BOL last spring. I think they told me to put it in partial shade or shade. It is kind of back in the woods from the clearing and doesn’t get too much sun. It has flowered but isn’t growing super fast. I had heard that Labrador tea was a tea replacement when tea from England wasn’t available during the revolution. Farther south, the New Jersey tea plant was popular. I am also trying to plant lots of mints and will probably get some catnip as well. I am a bit of an insomniac so it should be interesting on that front ..

  7. I agree with Jack if you want credibility don’t resort to exaggerations like that caller that provided false statistics. However, I would caution not all tin foil hat brigaders are representative of this one caller. There are disturbed individuals in all groups of society.

    In fact, labeling people that believe in conspiracy as “tin foil hatter” is in itself labeling an entire group of people as possibly crazy. That in itself is almost as bad as labeling an entire Police department as murderous men in goofy costumes.

    • @Sage of Monticello

      If you don’t conflate facts, if you don’t lie about statistics, etc. You are NOT part of the tin foil hat nut jobs in my honest opinion. While tin foil hat brigade is a name we use with some humor for the conspiracy board on TSP, it really isn’t seen as a negative there. It is just designed to keep the conspiracy talk in a designated area.

      The caller wasn’t part of the TFHB, he was a foil hat nut job. Posters like Surfvivor below are common posters in the TFHB board on the forum but we respect them and are very decent in our conversations with them even if we think they cross over form reality to non reality once in a while.

      People like surfvivor and most likely yourself are often a bit to quick (in my view) to accept any counter culture theory as real but you often also often shine a light on real honest to God conspiracies and abuses, such as the Bilderbergers, Fluoride in the Water, GMO food, much of what came out in Wikileaks, etc. All of which I have discussed and personally believe are major problems and therefore have spoken against.

      Perhaps I need another word for the assclowns like the guy I featured today to not soil the name of the honorable members of the forums TFHB.

  8. Jack has done alot of good work in pointing out that not all the police are angels. I recall he actually said that the police are trained to lie and won’t get in trouble for lying but if you lie, it is is incriminating .. He also point out that living in rural areas is nice because there are less police there and the ones that are there are typically more friendly. He wouldn’t say stuff like that if he was a fan of all police ..

    I think he realizes that there are problems in law enforcement and most of the law enforcement people on TSP are probably decent people and anyone who seriously misbehaves in the forums in any way gets thrown off the site whether they are law enforcement or anyone else ..

    I also think the oath keepers thing has been good from every angle I have seen thus far and I have been glad that TSP has been promoting that ..

    The only thing I feel on the other side really is I am less a fan of the overseas wars and feel like the military spending is a bigger problem than Jack seems to think.

    But yea, tin foil hat was never a name I picked for myself .. but obviously alot of people feel that conspiracy stuff has a bad stigma to be associated with.

    • @surfvivor,

      Actually I want all three of the wars ended and ended swiftly. Keep in mind my constant support of Ron Paul. I do believe we can support the troops though even if we are not happy about the war, that is the stance I take.

      I have also spoken often about how the US outspends the rest of the world on defense. How we don’t need a presence in over 120 nations etc. Being a solider is a noble pursuit, the soldiers are abused by the current system not the other way around. A few less nuclear subs in the next ten years would cut a lot more from the budget than screwing with military retirements as the assclowns want to do right now.

      I am for cuts in ALL DEPARTMENTS of the government including the DOD. That doesn’t mean I am for screwing over the guys getting their asses shot off for a mission they believe in.

  9. That’s true Jack, that I recall you had come out against the war. I guess I was thinking that you focus on cutting social security more so than military spending it seems .. but I don’t want to argue about that stuff like I used to when I first joined TSP .. I feel like when I am on TSP I want to focus on other things than argue about some of these complex things that to me have kind of concepts of fairness, political theory and so on that seems hard to fully rationalize one way or the other .. I don’t feel I am getting anywhere with it and it is not really why I am on TSP which for me seems to be to focus on survival related things and commonality ..

  10. Perhaps I need another word for the assclowns like the guy I featured today to not soil the name of the honorable members of the forums TFHB.

    How about nut job. LOL.

    Keep up the Ron Paul support!

    Thanks Jack.

  11. The house has 438, it’s 538 if you add the Senate. Just keeping you accurate. Good show Jack.

  12. Re: the horses mentioned on the show
    Horses are wonderful creatures but very expensive to own. If someone already has them anyway, it would be a nice topic to talk about functional uses as well as recreational uses. But, as a former equine vet, I can tell you that most people who get horses underestimate their upkeep costs.

  13. Woo-hoo, Jack played my call & responded! Thanks for the plug, there’s been a recent uptick in my YouTube subscriptions.

    I’ll get a hold of Howard Garrett and see what he says. Is there any particular you want me to tell him? I was planning on giving him a brief overview of TSP & point him to the guest signup. Lemme know. -Jason

    • @Jason, tell him I am a huge fan of his and had listened to him for years until moving up to Arkansas. That I believe in natural growing and permaculture and want a garden in every back yard and would love to have him on my show to discuss natural gardening and natural pest control. Letting him know more than 25,000 people a day listen to TSP wouldn’t hurt either. LOL

  14. Jack,
    In the interest of accuracy, there are 435 members of the US House of Representatives. It takes 218 (simple majority) to pass any legislation.
    You said that your local sheriff is looking for deputies with horses, and they use them around here also. A uniformed, armed officer sitting astride a 1200 to 2000 pound horse makes a huge force multiplier for doing crowd control, which is one of the things they are used for around here. I suspect that out west they are the ultimate ATV. You also mentioned their use in times past as a tractor and transport. We have a large Amish population in our area, and they are still used for the same tasks today. And for use as a fertilizer supply, they are fantastic. We are down to a single miniature horse, and she is a prolific provider of “pony poop” giving us more than we could ever use. She provided enough supply to fill 4 raised beds (80 Sq Ft total) to a depth of 6” in about one week.

  15. Man, I wish that guy would’ve called in about catnip earlier, I just passed up on a ton of free catnip plants from a garden center two weeks ago. The only thing I thought it was good for was keeping cats occupied and according to some kid I knew in 8th grade it would get you stoned – he claimed he smoked it on top of his grandma’s garage and then he saw some black dots coming after him and he fell off the garage, breaking his leg :::shrug::::

    A while back ago I had an two anarchists tell me that the cops here in Des Moines killed ten people during that year. The real number was one. When called out on it, he claimed that “things happen that you don’t hear about” (how would he hear about them?) and then “numbers don’t matter”. I think some people create these kind of fantasy worlds to justify their worldviews to themselves.

  16. The omelet sounded so good, I went out and got a bunch of lamb’s quarter leaves from the yard, some basil, (had some feta cheese and eggs in the fridge) and made an omelet for lunch. Delicious!

  17. Brent in PEI here:

    Good recommendation on the woodstove question Jack. I heat exclusively with wood. I have a 1500 watt electric baseboard that I turn on in the event I am gone for a few days in the dead of winter. I considered this stove:

    http://www.enterprise-fawcett.com/monarch.php

    But it is a monster, and at $5000 cdn, way to expensive and it would have sucked up all the remaining space in my kitchen. Instead I got a Regency wood stove with an enormous flat top surface. I cook with it and heat my dishwater from about mid November to mid April. I have multiple cast iron cookware pieces and the woodstove is all I need. A trivot is all you really need to control the heat. I have four that I layer in the event the stove gets too hot.

    I paid $1600 back in 1999 for said stove.

    If the caller reads this post, check out hearth.com for all things wood. You can post any question you like and I guarantee you will get the answers you need.

  18. for the fellow that asked about horses: if you have plenty of fenced unused land, and money burning a hole in your pocket horses can be had right now for a minimum if you aren’t particular about their breeding. i have been working with horses off and on all my life they can be very expensive and down right dangerous if you don’t know what you are doing. my observations are that most people don’t have enough land to start with and they end up with a sand lot and a colicky horse. john wayne said that “a cow ain’t nothing but a thousand pounds of trouble in a leather bag and horses ain’t much better” from “the cowboys”.
    to own them you will lose money at it that should be a given, to minimize your losses one should: learn to be your own vet (give injections, recognize common ailments, apply dressings, sew up cuts) be your own farrier (trim hooves, and shoe them if necessary- not all of them need to be shod) be your own leather worker (fix your own tack, learn to stitch leather back together) be your own feed store (grow corn/other grains, put up your own hay) be your own carpenter (fences will need to be put up and inevitably repaired, sheds for stables, tack and feed storage will need to be built).
    if you can do all/most of this then have at it. i have owned as many as 5 horses at a time and they can be expensive even if you, like me don’t baby them. i finally got rid of the last two and swore that i would never get another, then i stumbled on a deal. i bought a mule trained to ride and drive, i bought her the harness, and a cart for $800 (a steal)
    i guess the mule will come in handy if the DOT makes driving tractors without a cdl illegal. who am i kidding i will still drive my tractor let ’em try and stop a country boy!

  19. Jack is not at all a lover of Government. Jack has opened my eyes to political theater they put on to get you caught up in class warfare where we the people loose and they win by wasting more tax dollars and gaining support for there team. We lose when we hate the red team or the blue team.

    We want freedom, not a big government that is the over ruler of all.

    Jack taught “Taxes are charity work at gun point. If you don’t pay your taxes a man will show up with a gun at your house”

  20. Jack,

    You opened the show talking a little about guys who are out in left field thinking they are going to set up the ultimate zombie apocalypse bug out location. You then compared it to our boys over in the sandbox who have all sorts of supplies and support and are getting torn up over there. All this was said to reinforce community.

    I just wanted to add that the reason our boys are getting torn up over there is because we are fighting against the community that has already been set up! The fact that people living in mud houses with a tight knit community can take on one of the most powerful armies in the world should be a testament to what community can accomplish.

    Just my 2 cents 🙂

    • @CountryRoots…

      It is more than your 2 cents, it is damn well put and spot on. That was my entire point. If you listen to that part again you will see I was talking really more about the people that think they will just go take from others. The hole up in isolation has many issues to but the comparison to our troops was more in reference to the idiots that say, “all I need is a rifle and I can take what I want”. Should such a day ever come idiots like that will hang in trees while some farm kid uses the back of that rifle to stir a cauldron of beans to feed the community.