Comments By BillTheSlink

This is something that has been on my mind for a long time, but there were other pressing issues to ask about. I came from a tiny family anyway (no brothers or sisters) and now everyone I spoke to who was local has aged and died off. Since I have taken care of family members 24/7/365 for over seventeen years now and had zero social life I have no close friends I could impose upon to use their address. I take voting extremely seriously and haven't missed a single election since I was 18 (actually because of the way my birthday fell I got to vote in a primary at 17). Not a single one have I missed, even the one that was an uncontested election for school board. I am in a very important swing state too and would hate to give my residence here up because it's always hotly contested and plays out huge in the electoral college.

My plan was when I leave for for my training to sell the house. If I didn't it would be stripped for the copper pipe and wires anyway and be ruined. Basically my plan is to live OTR out of the truck and take home time where ever seemed interesting and I can get to. When you live no place and are basically a modern nomad without a place to call home, where do you register to vote, or for that matter how do you handle giving an address for a driver's license? I just think it would be terribly silly to rent a $400 a month apartment that at most is going to be used two times a year for a couple of days each. I am 41 and retirement is knocking and I don't have enough quarters in Social Security that have much pay to retire on so I need to pile up the cash, so I don't want to waste good money on rent and utilities I am not going to use. The way I figure it I can live good on the road and still bank a lot of cash for the future.

Reminds me the of the little blue rituial book I had to study and memorize as an officer in the Freemasons. Humm, could Prime have taken them over and now they are in charge of "The New World Order?"

Or an expandable baton.

The object of a defensive weapon, is to keep a potential attacker far enough away, that they cannot grab/stab/etc. you.

While "martial arts" are nice - by their very nature - they allow an aggressor to get close enough to STRIKE YOU TOO.

First one who gets a good shot in - WINS.

Rick

Can you believe it, but according to Bud's Gun Shop in Kentucky, which is where I order most of my firearms from, batons of any type are illegal in my state. I don't even know if they're even legal for law enforcement or security guards as the local cops quit carrying them years ago. I never paid attention to the neighboring township or county police so I don't know for sure.

So sorry to hear about your son. You have obviously been through a lot. I don't know if I would have been able to deal with that and remain sane. I have never had children, so I cannot say I can fully understand, but I know that would be heartbreaking.

I would agree with you the podcasts are great. Brett has as good a voice as any talk radio host and his ability to come up with content is just as good as well.

Good luck, B.T.S.

Thanks for the great info everyone. For the reasons stated above I will never bring it up again.

@ Rick I will get to work on getting the TWIC Card. That way I'll know. If I remember what I read right, my two top pick companies require being able to get TWIC HazMat, and a passport. Also there is no ink, scary or other wise. That was a no no as we were to be 100% clean cut and look like we fell out of a 50's TV show. We were to be "Respectable" members of the community

@ Rainy You never cease to amaze me. My sides were splitting on those two stories. You sound like me in that when I was a teen, even before all this happened, I was seriously concerned with politics. I was actually a member of the county club of one of the major parties, was active in campaigns, and was told my star was rising fast and when I finished university there would be a slot for me somewhere on the local ticket. Of course I blew my ice cream over when I did what I did, not that some of the local party bosses and big wigs didn't want to do what I did, they just couldn't be open about it. What butt heads and they were old enough to know better.

That is a major load off my mind. Not just because it could have killed my career before it started, but because I may have to have faced some stranger and tried to explain all this when I didn't have time to think and reflect and put together a coherent explanation of what went on and that, that isn't me anymore which I am sure would have been written off as, "a likely story."

To be honest I think Homeland Security should look for people with current extremist ties even if it hurt me. We had plans to use trucks to bomb stuff in what would be dubbed domestic terrorism. I am sure others-Left, Right, Religious who are extremists have the same idea. As Solomon said "There is nothing new under the sun."

Those plots were always sometime in the future when we were ready. It just wasn't real until it hit home like I explained. I just figured I would be dead and gone before that time ever came. Like most kids I wanted to be a part of something epic; something bigger than me that would have changed the world for the better--or what I thought was better at the time.

I almost never think about it anymore. It seems like it was in a different lifetime. In all honesty I would have to say it was.

I wanted to wait until I knew you guys were reasonable people who would hear me out and listen to the circumstances of what got me sucked into this mess at the time. I am confident now you are all good people who'll at least listen and not jump the gun for judgement until the facts are in, so please hear me out in the whole post before I am banished or you hate me. Believe me I am not the same person I was when this happened. I need to know if the Department of Homeland Security screens only for crimes or if they include extremist politics. Here is why:

Back when Bill Clinton was in office and passed his assault weapons ban I started getting angry. I had been taught growing up if the government ever banned our guns we would overthrow it. I was very angry and was a typical late teen who was just looking for a reason to rebel and I was ripe for the plucking.

I started listening to a radio program on short wave at that time that was very different than anything I had ever heard before. It was from a far right wing extremist group (although I wasn't wise enough yet to know that) and they were very slick. Everything they put out sounded like it was put together by a genius, and it was albeit evil ones. The groups founder and leader was PhD university professor who had left Berkley in the sixties to start the group. They knew just how far to push the envelope as to not reveal their full ideology or ultimate goals upfront. I sent for books and tapes the group published and slowly got brainwashed into believing Jewish people controlled the government and the people by "control" of the news and entertainment media and their goal was to set up a communist state and enslave the American people. The group was very careful as to only include actual facts when they published the names of who owned what, but of course that conclusion was wrong. Over time I swallowed the whole ideology of the type of government they were working to achieve which was Nazism rebranded. I say rebranded only in the sense they wore suits and ties and the meetings just looked like really suspicious meetings of your local Lyons Club.

Once I was in I quickly rose through the ranks of the group and was eventually put in charge of a large geographical area. Around this time we were branded the most dangerous hate group in America, not because we participated at that time in violent activity, but because we didn't, and because everything came off as so intellectual and polished we were growing faster and faster. When we knew we had you then we let the cat out of the bag about it being a revolutionary group; never before. We always kept new people away from the group at large until they were deemed ready. The influence of the group was starting to become serious in the armed forces--everything from enlisted men to commissioned high brass and those who kept track of such groups were starting to get frightened.

Things became all too real for me though and I sort of got jolted back to reality when Tim McVeigh blew up the Federal Building in Oklahoma City. I knew as soon as I heard the news on the radio where he had gotten the idea and instructions for the bomb. It came from a fictional book that the leader had written and published. When I saw the carnage on TV I knew instantly I was on the wrong track. I knew I really didn't want to hurt people or kill them, regardless of what I had thought up to that point in time. Things really started clicking when the leader said at one meeting that McVeigh just "had bad timing" and "had jumped the gun."

I started looking for a way out, but I knew I just couldn't up and quit because I knew too many things like who were members that had sensitive positions in government and other places we put a high value on, that huge sums of cash were flowing in from the Middle-East, etc. If I had just walked away what would have happened to me is there would have been a home invasion robbery gone wrong where I would be gunned down. That happened to certain people from time to time. At this time the ADL published a booklet on us and in it I was named as a high official. I had a religious experience and became a Christian and as I worked with a Catholic psychologist and priest my whole world view did a 180 degree turn around. I didn't think that way anymore and I was scared of what might happen and I was desperate for a way out. As if on cue the leader died of cancer in what was a break neck pace and a power struggle ensued. I used that as an excuse to exit and never looked back and don't regret leaving for one second.

I have submitted Freedom of Information Act Requests to the FBI a few times over the years to see if they have a file on me and they do not. The ADL advisory was published so long ago it does not show up in Google and nothing connecting me to the group ever shows up when I do a Google search on my name and location and I have an uncommon name. To be clear nothing I did was illegal. Despicable, yes, but it was Constitutionally protected. I have worried for years this would come back to haunt me and maybe it should. In my defense I would just say I was raised in such a way that made me vulnerable. Part of it was I had two Native American grandmothers and I was taught to be ashamed and hide this by my Mom. I still don't fault anyone but myself.

I did not identify the group as I don't want to advertise for them. They exist still but are tiny.

OK that's a load off. I have another question, but that deserves its own thread since someone might ask it in the future.

Errol is right, nothing is 100% guaranteed but if you do the right thing in their program they are going to hire you. Trucking companies are not CDL school charities. On thing I can think of would be you lying about something in your past and it somehow turns up not in the pre-employment screen where it should, but somehow before you get on the road.

OK so it looks like the 5% thing was a load of crap. Last question, does anybody know if once you are accepted into school are you pretty much guaranteed a job so long as you pass the schooling or is up in the air if they accept you or not. I just don't want to quit my current job, go to the CR England school and after that find out they will not be accepting my application.

I am a newbie-checking out company sponsored training programs. Yes, if you go to a company that trains you and you earn your CDL, you are hired. They spend a lot of cash to train you--something you will find out if you don't fulfill your contract with C.R. England or any other company. Make sure and read what your signing and make sure the company you sign with is a reasonable fit for you. You will be there awhile unless you want to owe them several thousand dollars.