The Zombieslayer

I know what I like. You can agree, disagree, or whatever. I’d love to hear it. Here’s the skinny on various cuisines…

Chinese - Was exotic two decades ago, but now that Americans have exposure to better Asian cuisines, it’s losing its appeal. Most Chinese food is crap, although there was a dang good one in Pasadena, California I used to frequent.

California Fusion - The future. Some are crap, some are decent, but the better ones are making some serious money.

Japanese - Splitting into 2: sushi - Mrs. Z’s fav food and one of mine. Everything else - the art of simplicity. Love it.

French - Overrated and overpriced. However, French make some of the world’s best desserts.

Ethiopian - Looks like dysentery and tastes like dirt. One exception - a place in Austin, Texas is absolutely delicious. Wish I remembered the name.

Thai - Was better a decade ago before everyone started doing it. The authentic Thai food is much better, the stuff that hasn’t been Americanized. One warning, if you see Chinese working there, it’s probably not authentic. Plus, the Chinese have none of the grace and warmth of the Thais.

Vietnamese - I don’t care what anyone says, Pho has healing powers. I’ve had both horrible flus and hangovers and Pho heals them both. Love those spring rolls and those fruity drinks with the pearls as well.  Best Pho I’ve ever had was Saigon City in Bellevue, Washington.  Gorgeous waitresses too.

Southern cuisine - Love it, but refuse to have a steady diet of it. If you eat Southern food your whole life, don’t be surprised if you’re 50 pounds overweight in your 30s, have your first heart attack or stroke in your 40s, and die in your 50s.

Cajun - Love the shrimp and crawdads. Gumbo’s good if you’re sick, and jambalaya is okay. People brag endlessly about Cajun food and I like it, but won’t put it in my favs list.

English food - If you look up oxymoron in the dictionary, they use English food as an example of an oxymoron.

Italian food - I love Italian food as much as I love hot Italian actresses. The trick is to weed out the good from the mediocre. Good Italian food I could have on a daily basis and not get sick of it.

Spanish food - The forgotten Mediterranean cuisine. It’s actually not bad, but it’s not as good as Italian.

Greek food - It’s fast. It’s fun. Not one of my favs though.

Indian food - Mushy yuck yuck. I guess it’s good for people who have no teeth. One exception - Kennedy’s in San Francisco, an Irish pub with Indian food. It’s absolutely awesome. But most Indian food is horrible.

Mongolian food - Not sure how authentic Mongolian bar-be-que places are, but if I want a lot of food for cheap, I’ll go to one. The reason I’ve never been kicked out of them is because I tip well. I’ve been back for fourths before.

German food - As French is the most overrated, German is the most underrated. Goes great with good beer and good company. You might even find yourself singing. Sober, it’s kind of on the bland side though.

Moroccan food - I remember liking it, but it’s more the experience. If they don’t have a belly dancer, I won’t go. Nothing like belly dancing right after your multi-course meal.

Mexican food - Like Southern food, it’s good, but it will kill you. Not one of my favs, but I’ll hit happy hour with friends, drink a margarita or two, and enjoy some fine food. One hole in the wall in Martinez, California stands out. Have their soup. It’s not only delicious, but you’ll be able to breathe after eating it, no matter how bad your allergies are.

Czech - I remember liking it, but I think I’ve only had it once or twice. Not great food though.

Korean Bar-Be-Que - Been to one restaurant in Oxnard, California. This is good food. I love KimChi too.

Dim Sum - I’m keeping this separate from Chinese because I actually enjoy Dim Sum.  Best I’ve ever had was in Seattle.

Russian food - One of the good things about vodka is it makes you forget just how bad the food was.

I hear it all the time that it doesn’t matter if the common person has guns or not, the government has tanks and planes.  Whatever.

If you study war, war is won or lost by the common foot soldier.  You have seventy million families with guns, and among those 70 million families, there are over 270 million guns.  If you think the government is one big, scary monolithic body, you’re on crack.  We all saw how effective the government is when Katrina rolled through.  I’m not worried about tyranny in this country any time soon.

Plus, we’d have a split in the military.  Some will favor the good guys, some will favor tyranny.  You have millions of people in America who served too.  Do you think they’ll just magically forget the tactics they learned? Plus, millions of people each year play war games, myself included.  Nobody can win a guerilla war in America.  It’s not possible.  Maybe the aliens with alien technology and alien super armor can.  But if you’re worried about that, you need to turn the t.v. off and stop smoking so much dope.

Guns aside, it’s too easy to make a Molotov cocktail.  You currently have the equipment in your house to make a dozen of them.

Well, the eternally paranoid say, the government has tanks and planes.  This isn’t China.  I’m not worried about the government rolling over citizens with tanks.  And do  you really think the government will use nukes on its own people? What the hell would that gain? If they did that, so much for having any support whatsoever.  And smart bombs? Like the “government” is going to use smart bombs house to house.  What would that solve?

Sure, if the “government” wanted me, they’ll get me.  Not much I could do about it.  But if they wanted to suddenly take over 300 million people, forget it.  They simply don’t have the manpower, they’re outgunned, and too incompetent.  I’m not worried.

So worry not my friends.  If you should be worried about anything, it’s the upcoming zombie plague, not the government.  If the government in this country is anything, it’s not evil.  It’s stupid.

I remember back in the 90s, the big panic about those evil, crazy, racist redneck survivalists.  Made a big story, as does every other panic scare that our greedy media throws at you to make a buck.  I’m here to tell  you, that most survivalists are just average people who want to learn new skills, just like you might take a cooking class to improve yourself.

I am a survivalist.  Hung out with some Native Americans and took the outdoor survival class with them.  In it, we learned how to make a fire with what you had, how to build shelters, emergency clothing, etc.  Best $45 I’ve ever spent.

I go in the woods a lot.  Got caught in a blizzard once.  It was 5 degrees below with 70 mile an hour winds, and I got exactly zero hours of sleep, taking turns holding the tent up all night so we could breathe.  It’s times like those where learning survival skills pays off.

I’ve known plenty of other survivalists in my days.  Sure, you get the loonies and the racists, but from someone who has known a lot of people, you get loonies and racists in every group, especially in groups that claim to be sane, open minded, and not racist.  Correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t psychiatrists the highest profession when it comes to suicide? I’m sure psychiatrists will be the first people to tell you that they’re sane and you’re not.

What about the guns and the generators? Well, if you live in the backwoods, you darn better have a generator.  And you’ve heard me say it before, but I feel safest when everyone around me has guns, because I believe 99% of people are good, and armed good guys is a good thing.

Do all survivalists think the government is going to turn corrupt and turn on its own citizens? No.  Some do.  I don’t.  I believe the government is too incompetent to do just about anything right except deliver mail and make roads, and we all know how good our roads are.

Then why all the fuss? Because, it sells newspapers.  Everybody should be a survivalist.  You should know how to change a tire.  You should know how to start a fire.  You should know how to shoot a gun.  You should know what to do if your car breaks down in the middle of nowhere and you’re with your family and they need your brains to get them out of a bad situation.

Or of course, you can spend your whole life in the suburbs and be scared of everyone and everything around you, and rely on the government to bail you out of every bad situation.  I’d rather not.  We saw how incompetent FEMA is.  Don’t you think it might be a good thing to learn some survival skills just in case?

On the old blog, a long, long time ago, I worked on a piece about racism in other countries. I’m pretty tired of other people pointing the finger at America when their country is much worse. Plus, a lot of Americans are mistaken that racism only occurs here.

I’m thinking of doing this as a recurring piece, and why not start with Australia because their Prime Minister recently mocked our Constitution? Why not shed a little background on their recent racist history?

Australia’s a perfect example of hypocrisy. Let me give you a quick background.

I was born in the 70s, so I’m using my lifetime only, not a long, long time ago. I’m not at all discounting American racism, because I myself have experienced it on many occasions, from blatant police harassment to little things like white women hurriedly locking doors when I walk to my car (while they don’t do the same when white men walk by). But Australia is worse, way worse.

1970s. As you know, I hang out with a lot of ex-military folk. I love their stories. Some stories I don’t love though come from colored sailors going to Australia. In the 70s, I’ve heard this from many different Navy folk, the colored folk stayed on the ship while the white folk got to see the sights in Australia. It’s not because of racist American policy, but because of Australians in the 70s were a bunch of racist assholes, and it was for obvious safety reasons.

1980s. Pop Zombieslayer’s getting sick of overpopulation in America and considers immigrating to New Zealand or Australia. Pop has a BA. Mom has an MS. Both have squeaky clean criminal records and long employment histories. Both countries say no, for at the time, they didn’t like non-whites.

1990s. Australia still has eugenic laws on the books, when it comes to mating. A big no-no to mate a white with an Aborigine. Remember that INXS song in the 80s? That wasn’t about America. It was about Australia.

My older brother, being part white, gets mistaken for being full-white. It’s just one of those genetic things where the genes completely split. I have white in me, but look like I don’t at all. Anyways, he used to teach in Canberra in the 90s, and told me that Australia is the most racist place he’s been to. This is coming from a guy who has lectured in every continent except Antarctica and Africa, although he’s been to Africa several times.

2000s. Australians are still in denial about the Tasmanian Genocide. Not only do they deny it, they blame the victims. Yes, it was the fault of the Tasmanians for walking in the way of white Australian bullets. White Australians used to keep body parts as souvenirs, including skulls, hair and even scrotums. Granted, disease was the largest factor in the dwindling numbers, but the forced movements and random killings for fun didn’t help. Wikipedia has some fair assessments of the Tasmanian genocide, and other articles on Tasmanian Aborigines if you’re interested.

Thankfully, from 300 survivors, the numbers are recovering. To this day, you won’t hear much sympathy from a lot of Australians. They’d be much more quickly to blame the victims.  The other thing is  you’ll hear to no end the tragedy of that stupid gunman who went nuts and killed people as if it were the worst thing to ever happen in Tasmania.  Of course, killing off thousands of non-whites doesn’t count.

My folks were over the past few nights, on their way to Montana.  We had a bunch of people over, friends and relatives, and ate tons of food.  We still have leftovers in the refrigerator.

Now I know where I get it from.  I don’t like being told what to do by anybody.  I especially don’t like people from other countries trying to push off their neutered politically correct politics on us, especially during times of tragedy.

Mom came to America alone, with very little money.  She first got a BS.  Then an MS.  Mom is tough, and knows how to survive.  She never played the victim card or the woe is me bullshit.

The other day, she was talking about the wimpy politicians who want to control our lives.  She said she doesn’t want to be told what to do by anyone.  Heh.  Now I know where I get it from.

Mom’s tough as nails, and doesn’t back down to anyone.  I’ve always admired that in her.  That’s what a true American is.  Someone who believes in personal freedom.  Someone who will stand up for it.  Someone who’s smart, tough, brave, and street wise.  I’m glad some Americans still have it.

Oh, by the way, Stubbs makes a fine bar-be-que sauce.