When you thought it was all covered

Freakin' ridiculous. What is this supposed war going to be fought over? Weapons of mass destruction, purchase of nuclear materials, or ties to Al-Queda?

The League of the South, a pro-secessionist organization, doesn't have much a foothold in the Southern public's mindset. The coasts are often portrayed as more liberal than they are, but they are liberal enough not to go to war with each other. The big corporations have offices and customers all over the country, and a war would cause the dollar to drop like a rock, so the business community will actively oppose it.

I suspect it's a concept pushed at security consultant get-togethers under the topic of "Fun and Easy Security 'Threats' to Maximize Consultant Income".

Let's face it, Y2K was brilliant for our business.

We haven't had a good fake scare for years !!!!

Let's work on this one - what will you need?

Well, redundancy springs to mind.

A second set of hardware, in case the Skud comes falling through the roof.

Lots of consultancy. Lots and Lots.

Here's a subject for a new training course: "Body Bags and Business. How to keep going when your staff, clients and suppliers are reduced to atomic matter"

Squeaky clean software licences in hermetically sealed bags.

Time to set up an ammunition dump in the back store-room. Can your PA handle an M16 and take calls at the same time?

A scared consumer is a good consumer.

Now, exactly who did you say was the enemy?

Pesky Californians? Oregon folk? Where's the line? This side or that side of Fargo?

Jees, it's a conundrum isn't it?? If only the enemy wore turbans like the Taliban - so much easier to get 'em in the sights.

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Now, why would the people spreading this sh!t not fall into the category of terrorist warmongers?

Can't you hit them with the Patriot Act, lock them up, make fun nudey videos of them in jail, make them run round a bit with the German Shepards?

Carlton, it is your duty as a citizen to have these people arrested immediately. Full force of the law. That sort of stuff.

Or make the whole thing into a cartoon and get rich real quick.

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Or better still, let it happen. If nothing else, we will all get an answer to the 2nd Amendment question real quick.

Within a few clicks on Amazon, some wonderful titles to share with the kiddies:

* How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must): The World According to Ann Coulter

* Help! Mom! The 9th Circuit Nabbed the Nativity (Help! Mom!)

* Help! Mom! Hollywood's in My Hamper! (Help! Mom!)

* Why Mommy Is a Democrat

* The I Hate George W. Bush Reader: Why Dubya Is Wrong About Absolutely Everything

* NO, George, NO! The Re-Parenting of George W. Bush

but my personal favorite is:

* It's Just a Plant: A Children's Story of Marijuana.

To quote the words of a 'reviewer' on Amazon:

[i]Don't worry, you can still explore the lunatic fringe with your children.. [b]it's just a matter of bringing the right tool for the job.[/i][/b]

... therein lies the answer to the 2nd Amendment question?

Not to repeal it. Just whether or not it can be true to its original purpose, as per the other thread.

Cool, maybe I can afford one....Wait, did you say Alabama?
Never mind, need a raid like that her in Ca.

I was told to consider all possibilities regardless of how stupid or unlikely they sounded.

I'm an Australian and the idea of a civil war over here is even more preposterous then it is in the States (something about us being formed by a vote not a war) but its still a posibility no matter how remote remembering that nothing is impossible.

Also not all IT centres are in politically stable regions, sometimes (with mining companies especially) infrastructure has to be placed in unstable areas (Think about Chevron's DR plan given their Venezuela situation).

That being said, I've spent more time writing this post than thinking about "civil unrest" whist doing DR plans.

I have seen scenarios being proposed that are more and more "outrageous" as time goes by.

Is it possible that your company is trying to "super-disaster" plan? I understand why, if so.

We never thought that anyone would fly a plane into a building. Until it happened. I think that disaster planners have been trying to stay one step ahead ever since.

Just a thought.

it is about America, seems that the people in power have forgotten about America.
They just bicker and fight about their views, their power, their votes. All the while we the people say hay, what about the rule of law, what about the border, what about illegals in our country.

I think you are right:

Somebody cue up Charlie Daniels, please.

"And we all stick together,
And you can take that to the bank.
That's the cowboys and the hippies,
And the Rebels and the Yanks."

If we are lucky mayhaps someday we will be America once more.

The best take on this sort of thing remains the novel "Farnham's Freehold" by RAH, just as I thought "The Handmaid's Tale" inferior to RAH's much earlier tale of an American Theocracy "If This Goes On." RAH at his best represented IMHO the utter apogee of the mid-20th-century American can-do spirit. But his political views were a tad cynical to say the least, but much closer to reality than many of his era!

Lest you think his worst-case scenarios are all likely to happen, do look up his remarks at the 1961 Seattle Worldcon (they've been anthologized several times), in which he predicted a Soviet takeover before the end of the 20th century (and doubted he himself would die of natural causes). Here are a few quotes from that speech:

"I wonder what our own history will be, say fifty years from now...Will Plymouth Rock and Jamestown be dropped out of history books in favor of the Russian colonies...What new unpersons will there be? Edison? Einstein? Eisenhower...I am strongly of the opinion that our most likely future is a Communist World State. This is not a certainty--but it is the strongest of the probabilities."

"The remaining possibility is that, if we avoid an all-out World War III, that in time the Communist Axis would reform internally, cease to be aggressive and imperialistic, cease to menace us and the rest of the world...it?s physically possible, we must add it to the list. But not in the ninety percent."

"Of all the possible futures ahead of us for the rest of this century most of them encompass the destruction of the United States of America as the political entity we know and the death of at least 50- or 60,000,000 of her citizens. Our country destroyed and one-third of us dead"

"The cold Equations say No. I?ll never see such a world. I?ll be doing well to stay alive to my natural span. And so will you. Because one-third of us here in this room will die in the near future."

Dining on IT is too much like cannibalism, especially if you try to feed zombies the Help Desk technicians.

Salesmen are the preferred food source. They're easy to capture since zombies can move faster than a golf cart. The high fat content provides the energy needed for a zombie's high metabolic rate and make it easy for a toothless zombie to swallow. Zombies also like the greasy taste it leaves in their mouths.

In principle, the federal government has agreed that if a Quebec referendum happens and the question is "clear and unambiguous" and the majority of Quebecers vote to seceed, they will enter into negotiations to let them go. That could turn out peacefully. Or not.

They is great debate about how the assets and debts fo the federal government would be apportioned to Quebec. That could cause a civil war.

But I see this possibility lessening over time.

But riot is always possible. One of Canada's major banks built a key data centre in downtown Toronto, and a few years later, the SkyDome was built next door. It has happened that afetr a major win or loss, people take to the streets to celebrate or in some cases get angry. No doubt the bank had to plan for situations where their personnel would be blocked from leaving or entering their building due to riots. I know they strngthened their entrances and made it virtually impossible to overwhelm the security to get in.

James

Are you suggesting Quebec or the Maritimes?

We'll take the coastal provinces, they're enough like Maine as to make no difference. And since they're already contiguous with the existing "Lower 48" they won't get treated like second class citizens, like we do to Hawaii, Alaska, and Puerto Rico.

However, regarding Quebec, we already have enough people unwilling to learn to speak English.

I work in a finance department, so I'll have to give some thought to which type of monster would prefer me as its source of sustenance...

:D

And I would have thought that the disaster would stem from gargling peanut butter.

Personally, I find crunchy to be creepy.

Don't forget the last referendum was pretty close.

Personally, wouldn't fight to keep them., but I'd be sad to see them go.

I work every day with people in Quebec. The momentum for separation I think is gone. The Separatist party ran third in the last election(mostly because they elected an idiot as leader). But it could turn if we are unlucky.

Norway separated from Sweden over 100 years ago, and it wasn't a bad thing for either of them.

James

But the magnetic field reversing, and btw, it is WAY overdue, I think it was every 600k years. There was a great special on this on NGC channel I think. Showed spots in one of the oceans, might have been the southern Atlantic, where it the field is almost zero due to upwelling molten magma plume.

I think you'd have to buy a place where confused burds won't drop en-masse onto you ftrom the sky. And sell yoru stock in compass companies. Maybe buy GPS companies but if we lose the magnetic shield, or a major solar flare happens, the GPS satellites are toastie-O's also.

the molten magma is what conducts the electricity that generates the mag field which is wound in among the flows. The sun also reverses magnetic fields for same reason but much more frequently, 11 years, tied to solar spot cycles.

I didn't read the invasion book so don't know if chinese; I'm thinking would be the Ruskies as the Chinese have so much money saved they'd simply BUY us.

Oil hitting $110 a barrel.

due to rebels in Nigeria, Chavez cutting out sales to US, Mexico unable to produce much oil because they didn't invest in their production methods, ditto for Russian fields scaring away big biz investors, Saudi fields drying up as they admit they've pumped most of the oil and lied about rserves, terrorists blowing up refineries, tankers, platforms...

By themselves we could live with but they'd likely trigger worldwide rcessions, wars, etc.

see daily reckoning website for gloomy predictions about $150/barrel oil. I dont think is as easy as all that but good things to worry about if you're too happy right now:)

You just rinse and spit. You gargle anchovy paste, or treacle, if both if you prefer.

Sorry, too many episodes of "Two Fat Ladies".

on yahoo or nytimes about charlotte, NC bot gdn guy growing 50 dift palms as climate has shifted one zone warmer for most gardeners in last 30 years.

I love the things. So much variety and unusual forms / flowers. Am in my local cactus club. Even saw prickly pears growing in Brooklyn Botanical garden, native plant area. Grows in sandy areas of Long Island.

And they're real handy to shield your yard from the teeming hordes / zombies that will result from any of the above disasters.

I think hiding in the automated McSwineys is from "A S.S.R. is Born".

Long before Pratchett, Adams, Anthony, or Aspirin wrote satirical F/SF, Harry Harrison was detailing the adventures of the "Stainless Steel Rat". A successful career criminal, the Rat sees his crimes as positive services to the otherwise mundane future communities. He gives the media something to report on, and the taxpayers get the full benefit of their public security services. After all, why pay for cops if they don't have anyone to chase after?

Harrison takes shots at various public institutions, include politics (The S.S.R. for President), the military (The S.S.R. Gets Drafted), religion (The S.S.R. Goes to Hell), popular music (The S.S.R. Sings the Blues); you get the idea.

The Upper Peninsula has been threatening to secede from the Lower P. for decades. The timber-and-mining oriented U.P. has little in common with the cereal-and-automotive L.P. They could conceivably control shipping through Lakes Superior and Michigan.

"Make 'Superior' the 51st State!"

Norwest Bank circa 1993 or so when they started their "Totally Free Chequing" (Free chequing? Yeah, when pigs fly! Cue the invading flock of piggies)

Now the one that will really cause the snit to hit the oscillating device is when "Someday" gets here. That is really going mess things up!

Edit- This whole thing is getting scary!

Here the finance dept used to be the road blockers.

"You can't do that! I have to approve any such purchase and I haven't approved that!"

To be fair that's not true anymore, but old prejudices die hard.

You were busy at the time, thinking something else.

:D

I personally do not care for Altman plants because of the hybridizations. Lowes, Osh, Home Depot, K-Mart, etc. all buy from Altmans. However, Target does not.
Most of my collection are various forms of Aloe. I currently have 123 species growing, almost all seed grown.
I also like Aeoniums, Agave, Crassula, and Echeveria's.
The key is to stop watering early enough for most of the water to be out of the leaves. That way they can handle the cold better (suffer less from cell damage after a frost). Most of the plants that I grow, aside from Agave, are all frost sensitive. The larger plants stay outside year round, but most are protected from rain to make sure that they can handle the cold.

Also, if the surface area is rocky, it can raise the temp a few degrees at night. Rocks/sand absorb heat in the day and radiate it at night. And a wall can help against wind chill and heat dissipation.

I had a big problem with zombies and other critters jumping my fence, especially while running from the police.
But it is are these days with the cholla and prickly pears all over.

I confuse those 2 all the time - senile dementia, Alzheimer's, potential zombihood?

edit another typo - symptomatic of brain fog

no reason to be red-faced, I live in Ca, and Yosemite is only 4 hours away from me. I used to get them confused all the time as well.
Getting ready to plan a trip to Yosemite in the next few weeks, so I hope it doesn't blow!!!

Of course, I also remember either reading or watching a discovery channel show about a magma chamber in the Mojave desert. I forgot exactly where, but this chamber has blown several times in the past, but always in the ocean. Now it has shifted to ground. They say if it blows, it will almost be like a Yellowstone type in size.
I think it is currently almost under Kings Canyon park, just a short trip from Yosemite.

I don't think its the principle of Quebec being able to separate and vote for it that would cause a problem. All political parties have acknowledged that if they vote that way in a clean and clear referendum, Quebec can separate. But like in a divorce, its the distribution of assets that would cause a problem.

I would not support letting Quebec use our monetary system or passports, if they want to separate. But the big issue is, do we split up all the assets and liabilities. If Quebec is roughly 20% of the population, do we give them 20% of the national debt? What about Crown assets? What if more than 20 % of crown assets are in Quebec - do they have to pay the rest of Canada? Do they get 20% of the armed forces equipment?

Its those issues that could cause civil strife, and while I don't see an all out civil war, we could have riots in Quebec and/or Ottawa.

Once upon a time I worked for a crown corp and had secret clearance too, but not in Quebec.

James

I always knew that auditors are sick people!

Seriously, just how do you audit the efficacy of the "Monkeys out the butt" disaster scenario? Is there a test case I am unaware of? Is it an avoidance thing?

And what about the ninjas from the ceiling? Does the avoidance scenario include additional physical security in the drop? Is setting a laser printer to "stun" a response requirement?

I love playing "Stump the Auditor"!

"I always knew that auditors are sick people!"

I'm an auditor because that's what this contract is....I'd much rather be doing "HONEST" security work.

"Seriously, just how do you audit the efficacy of the "Monkeys out the butt" disaster scenario? Is there a test case I am unaware of? Is it an avoidance thing?"

I would consider that scenario to be either a Business Resumption or Disaster Recovery function. It would be such a low liklihood of occurance that the ALE would be low enough so as to be ignored.

"And what about the ninjas from the ceiling? Does the avoidance scenario include additional physical security in the drop? Is setting a laser printer to "stun" a response requirement?"

Again, the ALE for this is low enough that you could ignore it. The laser printer is a different story though. It becomes a requirement if you have a tech named Chekov or Sulu, otherwise it's a voluntary setting.

"I love playing "Stump the Auditor"! "

As long as it's not my limb you're going to chop off to call me Stumpy!!

and BTW...I got started on Jaeger and Beer as a network admin...to help forget the trials and tribulations brought upon me by the KCIs.

(Keyboard - Chair Interfaces)

:-) :-) :-)