Karl Denninger rests much of his case regarding the authenticity (or lack thereof) of the Obama COLB on the apparent lack of chromatic aberrations in the PDF document available on the White House website. (Please see his video linked below in the previous post.) I found that to be fairly compelling until this morning, when I made my case for the likelihood of innocent explanations. By this evening, I am convinced Denninger is completely full of shit.

I have links here to two PDF documents. The first one is a page from a random magazine in my heap. It contains text on a white background, together with some text on a green colored background and some other color elements. It was scanned on a Sharp MX-5001N color copier/scanner/printer at 600 dpi, using the built in "scan to PDF" feature. Download this document, open it up in Adobe Acrobat Reader, and zoom WAAAAY in on some of the text.

Notice the nearly complete LACK OF CHROMATIC ABERRATION? Yes, that is right! The fulcrum upon which Denninger rests his argument--that ALL scanners will generate chromatic aberration at the edges of text, etc.--is false. Not all scanners have crappy optics. Some of them are sufficiently achromatic as to almost completely eliminate chromatic aberration in the scanned image.

Now, open the second one. This is the same PDF document as above, except that I opened it in Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro, and ran an "optimize" operation on it, using the default settings in Acrobat Pro. Zoom WAAAAY in on some of the text.

Notice how much of the text has been greatly sharpened, while some text elements were left alone unsharpened. Compare this to the Obama COLB PDF and the issue that Denninger was trying to make of this in his video. Yes, that is right! This is the natural result of nothing more than a quick "scan to PDF" and then "optimize PDF" operations! As for "why optimize", all you need to do is compare the file size. The optimize operation greatly reduces the file size, which would certainly be of interest to the webmaster of a page that receives the hits that the White House site was likely to receive. Plus, it is entirely possible (though I have no data here) that the actual PDF software that created this PDF (see below post) may have done the "optimize" step automatically as part of the file creation process.

Now, those of you with Adobe Illustrator, or another graphics program capable of viewing and picking apart PDF layers, can open this scanned and optimized PDF and see that all by itself, without li'l ol' me doing a damn thing extra, the "optimize" operation created a HUGE number of layers, picking little bits and pieces of the document all over the place to work with.

Sorry Karl...

color hi-res scan
color hi-res scan-optimized
(Please, whatever you do, right click and "save-as", then open with Acrobat Reader. My poor little server cannot handle the traffic of direct clicks. Plus it is a lot quicker that way.)

Labels: politics, Right-Wing retards

Having slept on it, thought about it, and read some thoughts from people who work with graphics software and OCR software on a regular basis, I am trending back to this being nothing more complicated than someone at the White House sticking the certified copy of the birth certificate in a scanner, hitting "scan to PDF", and the built in software doing the rest of what we see.

Karl Denninger is right in that a simple image scan would leave certain artifacts, particularly the chromatic aberration that he discusses in his video. However it is entirely plausible that the "scan to PDF" software in the scanner could have post-processed the image in the manner we see in the pdf, as an automatic prelude to an OCR (optical character recognition) process, OR as a means of compressing the file size. This post-processing would have removed the chromatic aberration around the edges of the letters and replaced it with the hard black lines we see when zoomed in.

This process apparently exists in a number of high speed scanner applications, and several people who are very familiar with this stuff say they see it all the time. Thus we have in the PDF, an image layer that appears to have most of the text elements cut out and several processed layers that contain the text elements that were automatically cut from the background image.

The "document properties" of this PDF indicate that it was created by "Mac OS X 10.6.7 QuartzPDFContext" on 4/27/2011 at 12:09:24 PM (assuming the computer clock was set correctly to whatever time zone in which this was created. This software appears to be a built-in "print to PDF" feature of the Mac OS. Based upon this information, it is probable that the original document was scanned to an image file and then converted to a PDF using this MAC OS feature. The same post-processing could be an automatic feature of this software. I am looking into this.

Karl also noted a difference in the appearance of the green safety paper background between the outer edges and the portions in the center. This is elementary. The outer edges were screened off and received no image and thus no toner from the copier that produced the certified copy. The area within the document bounds had a slight gray scale background that transferred toner to the original certified copy. This is sufficient to account for the slight difference in the appearance of the background in the scanned certified copy.

The "document properties" of the PDF obtained from the AP site indicate that it was created on 4/27/2011 at 9:28 AM, again assuming the computer clock was set correctly, using "Adobe Acrobat 8.26 Image Conversion Plug-In". My surmise is that the White House made ordinary photocopies of the original certified document and distributed them to the press. The AP took their hard copy, scanned it again back to a PDF, this time probably scanning it to an image file and converting that image file to a PDF file using the Acrobat software noted in the document properties.

Based on the date stamps on the two documents, it is plausible that the White House held off scanning the document to place on their own website until after the press conference. Unless someone thought to find a way to edit the "document properties" date stamp, it is clear which document came first, and that Karl's guess that the AP version was a printed and rescanned version of the White House's allegedly "assembled" document is false.

As an additional data point, the older "certification of live birth" that the WH also made available on their website at the same time has a "document properties" date stamp of 4/27/2011 at 12:11:23 PM, just a couple minutes later than the "certificate of live birth" document, and created with the same Mac OS software. This would be consistent with someone scanning and adding both the documents and the White House weblog post at about the same time. Worth noting however is that the weblog post itself is dated 8:57 AM, and the press conference was held earlier in the morning as well, ending at 9:18 AM EDT. It could be that the computer clock on the Mac used for this purpose was off, but it also suggests that the White House either added the documents after the press conference as noted above, or rescanned the documents and posted the updated documents to their website later in the day. If someone knows whether there was an earlier version of these documents on the website, I would be greatly interested in knowing this.

For now I am going to go with this nostrum: "Never ascribe to malice that which may be adequately explained by incompetence.

For posterity and review purposes, I have placed a copy of all these elements below the fold, together with a link to the WH and AP PDF documents.

Labels: conspiracies, politics, The Failed Obama Presidency

So now we have something that appears to be the long sought long form certificate of live birth, thanks apparently in part to the bloviations of a flamboyant celebrity.

And?

Well there is a lot of finger pointing on both sides. There were those who falsely claimed that Obama had already released his birth certificate. There were those who claimed that it was impossible/illegal for him to release the sought after long form.

They were wrong. But don't expect them to admit as much today.

These same sorts are declaring the "birther" movement dead.

Well.

This is but one layer of the onion, as they say, and those who are actually paying attention certainly know that this document cannot possibly put to rest the issue. The real issue is that of the Constitutional requirement for the President to be a "natural born citizen". This term has a very specific definition. It requires one to be born on American soil to parents, both of whom are American citizens. The relevant case law is Minor v. Happersett, 88 U.S. 162 (1874), quoted here:

The Constitution does not, in words, say who shall be natural-born citizens. Resort must be had elsewhere to ascertain that. At common-law, with the nomenclature of which the framers of the Constitution were familiar, it was never doubted that all children born in a country of parents who were its citizens became themselves, upon their birth, citizens also. These were natives, or natural-born citizens, as distinguished from aliens or foreigners.

The same judicial opinion stated that the "natural born" status of those born in a country of parents *not* citizens of that country is not well-established.

There are many who attempt to obfuscate this requirement by stating that since Obama was born on US soil that makes him "natural born". No, no it doesn't. The argument could be made from case law, but it is far from established as such. It simply means he is a US citizen by birth, as opposed to a "naturalized citizen". The relevant take-away point is that the Presidential requirements for being a "natural born citizen" are more stringent than the requirements for simply being an American citizen by birth.

If this is the genuine article, then Obama was indeed born on American soil. However he is still missing the requisite qualification of having been born to two American citizens. Barack Hussein Obama, Sr. was a British citizen and the British Nationality Act of 1948 applies. By the requirements of this statute, President Barack Hussein Obama, Jr is unambiguously a British national by descent.

End of story.

Sorry folks, you can spin and obfuscate and shriek and fling feces all you want. The Constitutional requirements are clear and relevant case law strongly suggests that Obama does not meet them.

Now as for the big picture, I don't put much stock in the impact of this whole issue. The United States has not been operating under the auspices of the Constitution for a rather long time. This is simply one of thousands of examples of how the Rule of Law has been subverted and trampled in the mud for the sake of expediency.

Obama's apparent lack of qualification for the office he holds is really a gnat in comparison to the camels that are running rampant in this nation.

Vox Popoli: Obama finally releases his birth certificate

--------------------
UPDATE: Oh ho ho! It appears we have another "Fake But Accurate" scandal on our hands-- You Have Got To Be Kidding Me!
I'm surprised how quickly this blew up. This appears to be a *really* amateurish Adobe Acrobat hack job. Criminy...

To summarize, when the .pdf document posted at the Whitehouse blog here is opened up in Adobe Illustrator, there is a wealth of forensic evidence right out in the open that this document was tampered with. I expect that document to be yanked shortly to be replaced with a "flattened" version that erases the forensic evidence.

Too late. The cat is out of the bag.

Adding to the mystery, there is another version of this document being circulated by the AP news service lacking the green safety paper background. I don't have a copy of Adobe Illustrator, so I am intensely curious to see if the same alterations are apparent in this version.

Anybody got Adobe Illustrator? Please click the link above and 'save as', then open it up. Per Karl's instructions: "(To get the full list of things on the clipboard, load it and then select "Window->Actions->Links." There they are.)"

If that version disappears, please contact me. I saved a copy a couple hours ago. I will get it to you somehow so you can open it and report back.

I smell a red herring. This is *way* too clumsy to not be on purpose...

---------
Update again: More examination of the "layers" in this document using photoshop.

---------
Ok here is my theory as I sign off this for the moment (lunchtime coming up). The AP version is a "negative" image of the original archive negative (I still have seen no verification that this one is unaltered, but it looks clearly *less* altered). Some retard at the Whitehouse didn't think that looked official enough and so dropped it into a Mac pdf editing program to add a safety green background and touch up some of the text.

So is this a "nothingburger"? Possibly. But an incredibly stupid move by the WH for all the explosion they just generated.

--------------
If you want to examine these files yourself, download them from the links above, then download the trial version of this software: Xara Pro Designer 6. After installing, open the pdf document, click on it to highlight, then hit F10 to view "Page & Layer Gallery". Voila, there are the individual clipped elements!

Now!

Open up the version from the AP and do the same. Hey, no edited elements, eh? Just the original jpeg image of the whole thing.

Barring new evidence, I'm declaring "nothingburger" on it being fake. Just Whitehouse bumbling incompetency to fart around with it trying to make it look more official.

Idiots.

But we already knew that.

-----------
Update again, I extracted the jpeg image from the AP version of the PDF, brought it into Irfanview, and then created a negative image. Looks pretty good, yes?

----------------

More--Karl lays it out, why the WH document is clearly "assembled" and not a genuine scan of an existing birth record, and the AP document is just a photocopy and rescan of this assembled (fake) document:


There *should* be hell to pay for this, but at this hour I am unable to find this document anywhere on the WH website--in other words they've yanked their forgery and I am assuming, hope to deep-six the whole story with the help of the sycophant mainstream press.

Yes, I am walking back that "nothingburger" for now.

Labels: politics, The Failed Obama Presidency

More time spent high in the air this weekend, wondering about my mortality.

I thought I might be getting a start on plumbing the solar hot water heater this weekend, but after reviewing what I had purchased and what I had yet to purchase, I decided I did not have nearly enough parts to make it worth starting that yet. I spent part of Saturday online locating and ordering additional parts that I could not find locally, including a truckload of heat sink paste for the interface between pipes and collector panels.

Instead I continued with the tower corner trim. I finished priming the boards and assembled them into overlapping corner pieces.


The stack of completed corner pieces:


They all received a finish coat on the ground to avoid still more flying trapeeze maneuvers later:

Once they are all up and other work is done, they will get a touch-up paint job for nail holes, etc.

Here is one corner covered down to where I stop for the solar hot water work:


And another corner nearly done. The last piece is waiting for next weekend to go up, as I ran out of time.


The collector plate pieces did arrive late last week. These are actually sold as heat spreaders for underfloor radiant heating systems. But they will work perfectly for my needs. These will slip over 1/2" copper pipe (with a bit of heat sink paste between pipe and plate)...


...and be secured firmly to the foil faced wood panels I put up a couple weekends ago. Then everything on the sunny side will be painted flat black.


I was up at the top of the tower today with the hatch open while I installed trim. There was a decently hot draft of air coming up the tower, even with the lower twelve feet still wide open.

In the garden, I can't get over how high the vetch is growing in this first bed (in case you haven't noticed yet). This is waist-high:

This bed will probably be turned under to grow my experimental plots this year. The rest of these beds will get black-eyed peas as a summer cover crop. Next week is May, so I am hitting high time to take the time to do this.

The fig tree was blasted to the ground again last winter by the abnormally low temperatures. Here it is sprouting from the base again.

Hope springs eternal

Labels: San Pedro homestead

I wish I could share with you the version of this song that I want. This is from Rick Braun's "Beat Street" album.

He released an updated version in 2006 on his "Sessions: Volume 1" album, and I far prefer that one. I recently bought that album and have been listening to it over and over this weekend.

Rick Braun may well be the top jazz trumpet player of our generation, but it is not that I am after. He's got a bassist in his ensemble that lays down some screaming hot licks in the better version of this song. There is a slap-bass solo in the later version that I can't get enough of.

Likewise this song--Coolsville:

It has an absolutely gnarly walking bass line, but the version on "Sessions: Volume 1" is far more polished. The song barely lives up to it's title in this older version. If anything, this shows that Rick Braun, and the musicians who play with him, are only getting better as time passes.

-----------------
Update: Here's a live version of Coolsville.
Check out the bass solo starting at about 6:15.

Also this--the only song from the Sessions Volume 1 album on YouTube:

This one's got a decent bass line too. Just not as compelling to me as the other two. :)

Labels: art appreciation, bass dreams

Last night expired before I remembered to post my pics. And I didn't bring the camera with me.

Dang.

I got some fiddly bits of finishing pieces up around the bottom of the tower, and got a big start on cutting priming the trim pieces that will go around the corners of the tower.

I also spent part of Saturday replacing the glitchy pressure control switch on the farm's water booster pump. It has been intermittently failing to kick on at low pressure, randomly starting some five or ten minutes later after water pressure had dropped to the base artesian well pressure. Well, no longer.

I coughed at the $200 it took to buy the replacement (that was half the cost of the whole damn booster setup) but hacked it up a couple weeks ago nonetheless. Bad timing as it came in the middle of trying to prepare for the tax payment.

I'll update later this week with the photos.

-------------------
Updated:

Fiddly trim bits installed


Trim boards in the process of painting


New flow control module on booster pump


The mesquites are finally leafing out in earnest this week. Suddenly we're transformed from gray dead sticksville to leafy green paradise!


Bob demonstrating how high the vetch is growing. "Way over my head, Dad."

Labels: San Pedro homestead

I just spent another hour on the phone today trying to resolve my 1099-C issue. I finally spoke to someone who didn't immediately transfer me to another dead end number or department. This was allegedly the "Executive Complaints" department.

However they told me a couple things that are bullshit. First they told me that it is normal for them to issue duplicate 1099-C forms to everyone on the note. They could not be made to understand that multiple forms are tallied by the IRS, who will be expecting the tallied total to be reported. They told me that canceled debt was not taxable income.

There is gross ignorance demonstrated, perhaps malfeasance!

They cannot say that. There are only certain circumstances in which canceled debt is not subject to taxation. They are providing incorrect tax advice, and if someone relied upon their statements they would end up in deep shit with the IRS!

In response to my request that they draft a letter of clarification to me, stating that the dollar amount on the 1099-C is the total amount of debt canceled for both my wife and I on that account, notwithstanding their having issued two 1099-C's, they said they would "open a case", but would not guarantee that they would write me such a letter.

A F#@ing one paragraph letter of clarification!

RRRRAAARGHHH!

My tax accountant told me that if they will not do this, we probably have enough documentation to demonstrate to the satisfaction of the IRS the correct amount of debt cancellation. In the face of this denial from Chase, I just need to gather up the documents, make a copy, and stick them with my tax return.

I would be so utterly thrilled to see the SS JPMorgan Chase slip beneath the waves in a fiery/watery end! I would dance a jig of joy on the grave of Jamie Dimon's lost bonuses. They have made this whole banking fraud/fiasco very personal for me.

Die! Die!

----------------------
I should note that I learned elsewhere that Chase has been offering principal reduction refinancing to masses of underwater homeowners who are otherwise in good standing. They are offering lower payments, lower fixed rate 30 year terms and a significant cut in the principal in exchange for a credit rating hit (the old loan gets reported as settled for less than the full balance). They appear to be former WaMu loans that Chase is saying "doesn't conform to their standards".

What do you suppose these are loans that are missing nearly every shred of paper required to enforce the loan if it went into default? They are preemptively fixing the messes, and in the process writing themselves a huge tax break (to the tune of whatever the charge-off amount is). I suppose this is a commendable action on their part, provided the principal reduction is large enough to cover the perceived value of the credit rating hit and the risk going forward of further losses in the value of the underlying real estate. We've been asking for two years why there have been few loans modified with principal reductions. Chase is trying to buy themselves out of the MERS mess with this move, now that they realize *that* ship is taking on water and about to go under.

Labels: financial ponderings, misanthropy, mortgage fraud

Big banks are government-backed: Fed's Hoenig - Yahoo! News

The 2008 bank bailouts at the height of the financial crisis and other implicit guarantees effectively make the largest U.S. banks government-guaranteed enterprises, like mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, said Kansas City Fed President Thomas Hoenig.

'That's what they are,' Hoenig said at the National Association of Attorneys General 2011 conference.

He said these lenders should be restricted to commercial banking activities, advocating a policy that existed for decades barring banks from engaging in investment banking activities.

'You're a public utility, for crying out loud,' he said."

That is exactly what I have said.

Isn't it interesting that something so commonsense as the notion that an institution empowered with the ability to create money out of thin air ought to be treated as a public utility rather than a private business, should be so obvious to a reasonably intelligent layman, but be outside the bounds of reasonable discourse to the majority of the banker/overlord class?

Not that I wouldn't prefer specie-backed currency issued by the US Congress as per the Constitution...

Labels: financial ponderings

Let's hope this settles it once and for all:
Thank you for filling out this questionnaire.

Your Aspie score: 67 of 200
Your neurotypical (non-autistic) score: 139 of 200
You are very likely neurotypical

That means normal, non-aspie, thankyouverymuch.



Take the test here

Labels: blogospheric navel-gazing

Confucius say, "When SHTF, wise man turn off fan."

Labels: felicity and jocularity

Friday was taken up in large part by wasted time on the phone. I was having flashbacks to the months I spent negotiating the second mortgage settlement. My tax preparer says I need to get Chase to correct the 1099-C they issued. They issued one to me and one to my wife, and so to the IRS it appears that twice as much debt was canceled as actually was. They need to issue a single 1099-C that shows the amount canceled for both of us.

Three hours later I finally got the gist that most offices at Chase were closed, and I was going in circles being bounced to people who had nothing to do with my question.

RRAARGGHHH!

Saturday was blustery and cold and in the afternoon it began to drizzle. I managed to get a couple panels up anyway. Today the weather cleared although it was still cold and windy. I finished the west side glazing panels down to the top of the hot water heater panels. Next week I start working on trim and closing in the tower around the edges. Maybe I'll pick up some of the plumbing and get a start on the hot water system.


Elsewhere the winter/spring cover crop is looking mighty juicy in places.


Last year's wheat field has wheat and vetch again this year. I plan to till this under this time, for soil building, and then I need to get Li'l Kitty back in the fenced area to level this field and finish leveling the millet field above it. Eventually I will need to rely on flood irrigation--my solar array is not sufficient for water pumping--and when I do I need the fields and beds to be level for that method.


Clyde says "I'm looking mighty cute here, if I might say so myself." He was enjoying the warm sunshine after yesterday's cold, and showing off his soft fluffy belly. But remember one of the rules of safe cat handling is: "All cats are loaded at all times".

Labels: San Pedro homestead

Self sufficiency can only stretch so far, and specialization has always resulted in higher quality of life.

How do you manage that in a world where the currency value has gone to pot? Well, hippies have some practice at this sort of thing. Not that communal living represents an ideal situation long term, but there are useful lessons to be learned.

At the link is an article about a place called "The Farm", started in Tennessee in the early 1970's, it still exists and has been gaining popularity again recently (gee I wonder why):
ClubOrlov: Lifeboats: A Memoir

Ideally a barter system must emerge, perhaps including the trade of such stores of value as silver coins, common caliber firearm cartridges and the like. Pure communalism is fraught with problems that simple trade can cure.

Incidentally I got to the link above via this article at Survivalblog.com, which has more thoughts on the topic.

I know I keep harping on this topic, but it continues to grate me that I am but one man attempting to do everything, and I know I can't. And yet those who will undoubtedly benefit from my efforts refuse to take the time to develop their own set of complementary skills, and put forth their own complementary efforts to developing this retreat. It is not "prepping" if you think you will start doing it **after** the world we all know falls apart. It will be too late to gather the required materials, tools and skills then.

There is no doubt that it requires sacrifices today to be ready to face tomorrow. It is funny how so many people realize this when they think of retirement (need for retirement funds), emergencies (need for insurance policies for every conceivable contingency), but never think of what sort of "insurance" would cushion them against the collapse of the money economy that their retirement funds and insurance policies rely upon. Middle managers of every stripe, technicians, therapists, paper pushers and form-fillers will be utterly lost in a world where farming, gardening, animal husbandry, hunting, weaving, tanning, carpentry, blacksmithing, forging, welding and the other various craft skills that were important over 100 years are the new economy.

Yes it will cost you today. Yes there are things you will have to do without, including your spare time to "relax" and "recreate" and "recoup". Why do you believe your personal comfort today is so important that you are willing to endure abject misery tomorrow? Or is it that you are unwilling to face what is assuredly coming?

As an engineer for public agency I ought to be able to sit back and coast into retirement if I believed as these do. I have a good job with a stable retirement system being funded, and in less than ten years I could be done with working and start on retirement living. I could be spending my weekends playing now, because everything else is assured. Instead I am effectively working a second job on the weekends because I do not believe the illusion of security. Unless I am fully prepared to live my life with the complete loss of the monetary security I now see with my eyes, I have no security for retirement. Neither do you, and it is time to open your eyes and commit to doing what is required to obtain that security.

Time to pull your head out of the sand and SEE. And then DO.

Labels: personal responsibility, preparedness, society and culture

This is last weekend's work on the tower. I got the south glazing installed down to 12' above ground:


This weekend I installed the mounting boards for the solar hot water heater collector. They come from the store with the foil facing, which I thought was cool. This will help to reflect the heat back onto the metal collector plates that will be mounted to these boards.


Inside the tower and behind the boards I plan to install these two old hot water heaters to serve as storage for the hot water generated by the collector panels.


From last weekend at the Desert Museum, here is one of my mascot animals--a bobcat:


Back home here is the big lazy version:

Labels: San Pedro homestead

Yup. The banks done gone screwed themselves bad. At least according to this circuit court judge in this case.

Uh, About Those Non-Securitized Securitized Mortgages.... in [Market-Ticker]

Bottom line, the bank *may not* foreclose, ever. This is not precedent setting, unless the bank appeals and loses the appeal.

What is true is that the loan simply becomes unsecured credit, which is still subject to collection efforts. But that can be wiped out with bankruptcy, unlike a mortgage.

What happens if this becomes widespread is QE 3, and 4, and 5 and...whatever it takes to keep TBTF afloat at the expense of the future of us all.

The world has gone to hell in a handbasket and most people are still blithely unaware...

The Dollar Will Collapse Within 3-4 Months | zero hedge

God help us who aren't fully prepared...

In other news, it appears that my Zombie Gun is about to be banned from further import:
Saiga 12 Review.
Looks like I'm boxed in to what my next major purchase has to be. "Plain Ole Bob" the Agent Provocateur went on at length about feral dog packs and the danger they pose post-SHTF. The Saiga 12 coupled with a MD Arms 20 rd. drum magazine full of birdshot is my answer to that problem. Given how many dogs are down here in the valley, this falls into the Critical Purchase category. Not to mention it's superior effectiveness against zombie hordes...

People, for the love of God and family, if you haven't done anything yet, please PLEASE start stocking up on canned goods, dry beans, rice and the like while you still can. "God will take care of us", yes. But God's answer to your lack of faith in following His still small voice to prepare in advance may well be "this will be mercifully short, if rather unpleasant, and then you will be in My arms forever."

Think about it. Not all of God's children are miraculously rescued from great distress in times of trouble. Most perish, and their reward in heaven is the reward for their faith. Between here and there are likely to be some very trying times, and the scripture forewarns us that in these times there will be a mass falling away from the faith, the Great Apostasy. For having done nothing to prepare and seeing the silence of heaven in the midst of turmoil, the temptation will be great.

Don't let yourself and your family find themselves in that position! Read Here and get started!