Wideners Has Some Bulk Ammo In Stock

http://www.wideners.com/

Be Prepared!

Heh...

(Source)

Joshua Milton Blahyi

Several months ago, I commented on the case of  Joshua Milton Blahyi, an African warlord who, by his own admission, was responsible for at least 20,000 deaths. Blahyi converted to Christianity, and has since been working to help others.

For some reason, I have been thinking about Blahyi over the last couple of days. However, I can't find any recent news about him, other than this brief article from the middle of last month, which notes (in the Google translation):

A team of filmmakers has Blahiy accompanied for 5 years and documented his dramatic transformation from General Butt Naked [to] an evangelist and pastor in a movie. "The Redemption of General Butt Naked" raises the deep question of how much a person can change - and what repentance and forgiveness really make. How can a person from mass murderers to be a preacher? Is the whole thing just a trick - or is there a force behind it that really turn evil in a man, and thus may also be a response to a deeply divided country?

 I don't know if Blahyi will ever read this, but I have related his story to my family, and prayed for him tonight to continue his path into the light of Christ and truth. I believe the gospel of Christ can bring peace to this Earth.

TTAG Review of the Glock 42

Another positive review for the new Glock 42.

Surviving a Fall Through the Ice

An illustrated guide at the Art of Manliness.

Taipan Magazine Down

Taipan Magazine (formerly "Warrior Talk News") is currently down. The notice indicates that:

Taipan Magazine is being replaced by the future Suarez International corporate blog
Your previous links to Taipan will no longer work, and only some existing content will be moved.

This is disappointing because I have linked to several of their articles, and the announcement suggests that those articles will not be reappearing.

Food Storage--Shelf Life

I recently came across the iPrepared blog, which appears to be a handy blog for food storage. iPrepared has a couple articles on shelf life. First, she notes some recent research from BYU on the shelf-life of common food storage items. Second, she notes a recent study showing that the food expiration/sell by dates on most foods are not an accurate indicator of the maximum safe storage life--most foods are useable well past that date.

Codevilla--Live Not By Lies

Angelo M. Codevilla  has, once again, written a compelling piece on the ongoing usurpation of our government.

Being human, politicians lie. Even in the best regimes. The distinguishing feature of totalitarian regimes however, is that they are built on words that the rulers know to be false, and on somehow constraining the people to speak and act as if the lies were true. Thus the people hold up the regime by partnering in its lies. Thus, when we use language that is “politically correct” – when we speak words acceptable to the regime even if unfaithful to reality – or when we don’t call out politicians who lie to our faces, we take part in degrading America.

As a case-in-point, he cites Bill O'Reilly's failure to tell Obama that he (Obama) was lying by stating that there was "not even a smidgen of corruption" as to the IRS targeting conservative groups. Rather, to add insult to injury, O'Reilly said that Obama's "heart is in the right place."

I have written in this space: “Obama’s premeditated, repeated, nationally televised lies… are integral, indeed essential, to his presidency and to the workings of the US government.” They are neither innocent opinions nor mistakes. Rather, they grab for power by daring the listener to call them what they are. Failure to do so, never mind gratuitously granting them bona fides, is redefining our regime.

... For ordinary Americans, calling the regime’s lies by their name, deviating from political correctness, carries far stiffer penalties, because the regime has labeled each such deviation as an antisocial pathology: racism, sexism, homophobia, islamophobia, “denialism,”etc., any of which mark you as an opponent of those who count. They may fire you, pass you over, or just exclude you from that to which you wish to be included.

This is new and incomplete. But only in America. It is the very routine, the very constitution, of totalitarian society. ... 

Codevilla recommends that we start calling out the lies as we here them. To walk out of speeches and lectures and movies that preach the lies.

(H/t Instapundit)

Civil War in the United States

Source

J.R. Nyquist has an essay (actually, the 3rd part of series of essays) that discusses a possible civil war in the United States. He writes:

Machiavelli wrote that if princes expect to prosper they must be both lions and foxes. He said they must be lions to drive away the wolves and foxes to avoid traps. But it is rare to find the lion and fox combined in one person. In wealthy, successful societies the elite begins (over time) to consist almost exclusively of foxes. Lions are effectively sidelined as they are perceived as a disruptive influence. Peaceful negotiation becomes the imperative. Fighting and confrontation is seen as negative. The foxes believe their way is best, that all conflicts can be resolved by negotiation and cunning – without the use of force.

... If the elite of America have pushed out the lions, then we will not find our lions in the elite. Our future lions will come from outside the elite; that is to say, from outside the existing power structures. It should also be admitted that these structures are, in the long run, doomed to fall. The elite of any country cannot be fully man without being partly lion. Anyone with sense can see that effeminacy has taken us by the throat. Effeminacy rules from the White House and the board room. The lower classes are free to maintain their manhood, and their brutal lion-like instincts. The elite are not so free. Those who aspire to money or office cannot be men in the full sense; for real men are excluded from the liberal club as they are non-liberal by nature. To further clarify the point, today’s conservatives are themselves merely liberals who are slightly behind-hand. They also avoid the masculine fault (so ascribed): They are in terror of being unmasked as bigots, bloody reactionaries, or homophobes. 

There is a psychological angle to all of this. The rising tide of elite effeminacy is like a disease carrying the entire system into dysfunction. As men cultivate their female side women have been cultivating their male side. While men become foxes, the women are free to become lions. This perversion of human nature accelerates the disintegration of family life and leads to pandemic narcissism – a narcissism in which the “projection of the shadow” confronts the passive-aggressive man with the slogan, “I am woman, hear me roar.” This “projection of the [sexual] shadow” is not merely the result of revolutionary politics usurping the place of religion. It is, in its own right, an identity disorder (like feminism and homosexuality) in which the rejection of the true self leads to the passionate embrace of a false self. Here the male projects his anima (female side) and the female projects her animus (male side). This pathology draws the entire culture into a collective madness unequaled in world history. 

The upper and middle class manhood, so essential for the persistence of society, has been thoroughly undermined in the West. This coincides with the phenomenon of the political lioness who, as women, is allowed to say things that would end the career of any man who said the same. ...

... One day, however, everyone will see what has happened. No words will then remain to perpetuate the deception. The bankruptcy of the foxes will herald the return of the lions. Counter-revolution will have its day. The war will come, and the world will be renewed in blood. This is the tragedy of our time. The counter-revolution will occur because counter-revolutionaries yet exist, and the revolution eventually calls them forth.
Regardless of the preparations made by the Communists, I do not know how the socialists will cope with the tomorrow's lions.

 Read his whole article. Also part 1 and part 2 of his series.

Book Review--"Prepare Today--Survive Tomorrow"

Book: Prepare Today--Survive Tomorrow by Joe Harold (1984). This book is no longer in print, but it appears that used copies are available from various sources.

Overview: A how-to book on surviving a nuclear war or full economic collapse, including shelter, food, medical care, and self-defense.

Impression: This is the first book I read dealing with disaster preparation, as opposed to wilderness survival, and, for better or worse, has significantly shaped my outlook towards disaster preparation.

The book has a copyright date of 1984, so it was written very much with the thought of the Cold War and the possibility of full-scale nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union. Although the author also considers the possibility of an economic collapse (and devotes the better part of Chapter 1 to our "fiat" currency and the danger of hyper-inflation), the book is really written from the viewpoint of surviving a nuclear attack on the United States, as you can even tell from the cover, with the nuclear "flash" over a city, with a Cuban looking revolutionary standing in the background armed with an SKS rifle.

The book is divided into seven chapters, each with numerous subsections dealing with particular points.

Chapter 1--Our Crises Today, provides a quick overview of the author's primary concern for TEOTWAWKI: financial collapse and nuclear war.

Chapter 2--Needs for Retreat Living, provides a brief overview of some of the emotional and social needs for survival post-SHTF. The author stresses the needs for family activities and entertainment, and suggests musical instruments and board games. He also suggests working with neighbors, family and friends for mutual support and even forming survival groups; and even includes a simple democratic system to use for decision making. The author also briefly touches on the topics of developing usable skills and trades, ideas for medical preps, and the education of children.

Chapter 3--What's for Supper? starts to get into the meat of the matter (excuse the pun). He discusses various strategies for putting in a long term storage program, gardening and raising animals, and storing and purifying water. The author splits food storage into two general areas: (i) what he terms an initial storage system (basically, the food you store away); and (ii) "a continual storage system" which refers to storage of seeds and livestock for raising food down the road. Because of the author's focus on a potential nuclear war, he anticipates living off the initial storage system, which pretty much boils down to the old "Basic 5" that the LDS church emphasized at the time: wheat, powdered milk, salt, honey, and vitamin-mineral supplements. However, the author discusses supplementing this with sprouts and dehydrated and canned goods.

Chapter 4--Shelter from the Storm discusses the physical shelter in which you survive. The author presumes that you will have chosen a rural retreat location (and specifically warns against trying to stay in the large cities). He discusses some of the criteria for an ideal retreat location, including not only natural resources (good water and soil) but also staying out of fall-out zones. The bulk of the chapter, however, discusses some different designs for fall-out shelters--everything from an underground home, to an in-basement shelter, to other types of fall out shelter designs.

Chapter 5--The Three "Rs" is a detailed discussion of nuclear weapons, fallout, radiation, EMP, and shielding yourself from the same.

Chapter 6--Weapons for Defense is a primer on defensive/combat firearms, and the pluses or minuses to each of the various systems. Remember that this book was written in the early 1980s, so there was not the selection that is available today. However, after giving a run-down on pistols, light- and heavy-"assault rifles" (yes, the author uses that term), and precision rifles, the author then gives a fairly good discussion of the manufacture and employment of various booby-traps.

Chapter 7--Defense Philosophies is a short chapter setting out an attack scenario by a pair of bandits, then discusses some tactics for defending a fixed location.

Notable Points: Some of the things that strike me looking back on this book:

First, this is actually a fairly entertaining read. The author has a folksy, easygoing way of explaining things, interspaced with examples, ideas, and little stories, that makes it far easier to sit and read than many other similar books. With the amount of reading dry reports and analyses that I do at work, I really appreciate something that is actually enjoyable to read.

Second, if you are interested in techniques in surviving a nuclear attack, this book has a good summary of radiation and fall out. I think the book is worth getting just for that information.

Third, this book is notable to me for its introduction to improvised booby traps.

Fourth, I find the history of survivalism/prepping interesting, and so this book is a nice window to what ideas where current in the early 1980s.