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To save a bunch of money on row houses there is another trick you can do. Buy yourself some fiberglass tent poles and some clear painters plastic drop cloth.

When you construct your beds install rings on each of the sides (length wise). Make sure you have the ability to crossbar at least two poles (like your popup tent crosses the bars). Then at any time you can comeout and install N number of these tent poles and cover that with cheap plastic tarps.

There you have a row house for far cheaper than you could buy that kit. Use bricks, sand bags, whatever to anchor the tarp.

Another thing you can do is get a 2 liter bottle. Fill it 3/4 of the way with hot tap water. Then place that under the tarp over night. It will help keep the enclosed area warm. Old Milk jugs work too.

Hi, Jack:

I’ve been enjoying your podcasts a great deal… and greatly admire anyone who can produce worthwhile content as frequently and diligently as you!

However, there’s one area in which I think you’ve been misinformed… or perhaps choose to misinform yourself. I do recognise that a conservative / libertarian political stance tends to dominate modern survivalism in the United States, for historical reasons that we need not go into here. (I should add, before I go on, that I do not directly have a dog in this fight, so to speak – I am a New Zealand and Canadian citizen). But characterising Fox news as “centrist” and the majority of the rest of the mainstream media as “left wing” does a grave disservice to both terms… similarly, your characterisation of the Republican and Democrat parties as representing “right” and “left” respectively.

From an internetional standpoint, BOTH parties, and the policies they represent, are right-wing. Fox News is among the most right-wing media outlets on earth, short of those owned completely by the government in other countries as organs of state propaganda. Certainly there’s no mass media outlets in the US that compare to the political spectrum of newspapers in Europe.

Second, it is distressing that the very same tactic which you correctly, honestly, and forthrightly point out you were duped by regarding the Biden interview was used in the editing of the 2001 radio interview. That is, Senator Obama’s words are mischaracterised, used out of context, and edited short. You cannot, to my mind, take pride in avoiding one piece of journalistic hoodwinking and then retain that pride while falling prey to the same thing, done in the same way, days or even hours later. The full, unedited radio interview is available online – in short, Senator Obama is NOT talking about the redistribution of wealth by the government, or from the legislative bench, but striving for equality (financial and otherwise) through community organisation and activation. ABC, amoung other mainstream media outlets, have debunked the claims of McCain / Palin in this regard.

Again, I have no dog in this fight. I am, along with the majority of the world’s population, appalled at the tenor that the US presidential campaign has taken from the Republican side – a near-constant message of hate, fear, and divisiveness – and the distorted ideological grip it has taken on the minds of its adherents. I have agreed with the vast bulk of your views on your podcast, will respect your political beliefs, and understand that, as you stated, some political fervor is inevitable as election day gets closer in the United States. But if I respect your work, it behooves me to correct misapprehensions or misrepresentations, even as a foreigner.

Please keep up the good work, and I look forward to more podcasts!

@Pangie, @ Bailey and Jack,
You’re points to @Dubley are interesting and good; I might have an insight to his point-of-view though, being a Canadian; I agree with most of Jack’s points of view and all; the issue of equality (from the vantage point of society, looking Canada and New Zealand (there are strong similarities in how each country operates)) is not one (I suggest) of forcibly making people the same; but bringing all up to a common level of sufficiency to live (maybe not a great living, but enough to survive on) through wise use of government funds. Yes, both NZ and CA are generally seen as social democracies; but I would hazard a suggestion that @Dudley might have been meaning equality on a community level, not a national one. At the national level, you run the risk of bankrupting society, whereas on the community level, you can focus more on the individual efforts to improve things (whether that be job retraining facilities, supportive housing, etc.).

Also, @Pangie, I think you’re taking the idea of @Dudley’s point too far with the reference to Vonnegut’s work. We are far from that in many ways, and should we slide towards such an abyss of society as that, we should fight it (as Jack has suggested in a way, for Americans to recapture your rights to freedom and all that have been whittled away at over the years and to recapture the essence of the US constitution as it was written).

As always Jack, thank you for the great podcast and for provoking thought in all; whether we agree with you wholly or in part.