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Tax Day and Back from Travel

Posted April 15, 2013 | By Andrew J. Jackson

Tax Day

Today’s a good day to reflect on what a fair level of taxation is. If someone taking 100% of the fruits of your labor is slavery and taking 0% is absolute economic freedom then what’s the balance that results in the least loss of freedom yet maintains our necessary spending? I say necessary because as Dr. Thomas Sowell says in today’s quote “The real goal should be reduced government spending, rather than balanced budgets achieved by ever rising tax rates to cover ever rising spending.” There’s no doubt that we’ve collectively elected generations of politicians from both parties who have been hell bent on taking our hard earned income in order to line their pockets, favor their friends and build their pet projects.

Back From Travel

I’m just back from a few weeks of travel and will share some of the thoughts I’ve been toying with over the next week or so and some of the preparedness projects that the weather will finally let me tackle.

Posted in Government Gone Wild, Note:, Your Tax $ | Tagged Note:, Taxation | Leave a comment

Happy Easter from Prepography.

Posted March 31, 2013 | By admin | Leave a comment

Happy Passover from Prepography.

Posted March 25, 2013 | By admin | Leave a comment

Between a recent tour of Army Reserve duty (with very poor internet access), illness, family injuries and the resulting car shopping I’m a bit behind on my writing. Everyone is fine but it’s messed with our publishing timetable.

Rather than setting aside some of the more in depth articles I’m working on including an eye prepping and a dental prepping article… I’m going to take a short publishing sabbatical to catch up on my writing and get a head start on additional travel I have to take later in the spring. Check back 3/28 for a return to our regular publishing schedule.

Thanks for understanding and in the meanwhile enjoy the Quote of Day and/or these best (or at least most visited) of Prepography articles.

Ayoob in Helicopter Crash

Posted January 27, 2013 | By Andrew J. Jackson

I just learned that one of my favorite firearms writers, Massad Ayoob survived a helicopter crash into a swamp in St. Lucie County Florida on Saturday. He was reportedly treated and released from hospital. I hope he survived the incident relatively unscathed…he’s a national treasure and a voice we need to hear now more than ever.

I’m about halfway through his book Gun Digest Book of Concealed Carry…it’s the best book I’ve read on the subject.

Posted in Note: | Tagged Note: | Leave a comment

Check out our Online Preparedness Tools and Resources

Posted January 26, 2013 | By Andrew J. Jackson

If it’s been a while since you checked out Prepography’s list of Online Preparedness Tools and Resources it’s worth checking out. We’ve added several new tools and links recently.

Posted in Note:, Prepography Announcements | Tagged Note: | Leave a comment

We’ve received a lot of attention for are article Ammo Saver Pouches suggested by Prepography reader KAW71. One of the e-mails I fielded was from the editor of the new website, PreppersPlanet. It”s worth a look…check it out.

Posted January 7, 2013 | By Andrew J. Jackson | Leave a comment

Posted December 24, 2012 | By Andrew J. Jackson | Leave a comment

Prepping Isn’t for Doomsday

Posted December 21, 2012 | By Andrew J. Jackson

Those Pesky Mayans!

SURPRISE…WE’RE STILL HERE!

So much for the predictions of stone age peoples…next time maybe we should ask the ancient druids.

Seriously though…maybe there will be some good deals on preps like there were after the millennium scare as the fair-weather (maybe we should call them foul-weather) preppers dump their preps for pennies on the dollar.

Remember, prepping isn’t for doomsday…it’s for every day!

Keep on prepping,

Andrew

Posted in Humor, Note: | Tagged Humor, Note | 1 Comment

Firearm Discussions Insensitive?

Posted December 16, 2012 | By Andrew J. Jackson

I’ve received several comments from Prepography readers regarding the ‘insensitivity’ of including firearms and firearm accessories in my Prepper Days of Christmas series. These readers believe that in light of the recent murders in Connecticut that were perpetrated using firearms I should refrain from discussing firearms for a period of time. I understand that for many people firearms are a very emotional subject but will remind my readers that my articles related to firearms only discuss firearms that are legally acquired and legally used. Prepography’s discussions of legal firearms have the same relationship to stolen firearms used as murder weapons, possessed illegally (due to the accused perpetrator’s age), transported illegally (transportation permit is required for handguns in Connecticut) and a firearm that is possibly in violation of Connecticut’s assault weapons ban as a car article in Motor Trend Magazine does to the 88.67 people killed daily in auto accidents in the US… i.e. NONE.

I remind all Prepography readers regularly to keep it legal, keep it safe and take control of their own self defense. It’s a sad fact that the places we are most vulnerable are the very places that prohibit the law abiding from defending themselves. Criminals and the mentally deranged are unwilling to follow laws the rest of us have agreed to abide by.

Prepography’s mission is to help it’s readers become safer, better prepared and more self reliant, we’ll keep focusing on that…for those wishing to politicize the suffering surrounding this tragedy I direct you to GunPolicy.org, International firearms injury prevention and policy which reports that in 2009 (the most recent year that data is available) the U.S. had a firearm related homicide rate of .00298%, the lowest in 10 years during which the U.S. experienced its greatest firearms law liberalization in history. It’s counter intuitive, but the presence or potential presence of legal, licensed firearms in the hands of the law abiding decreases gun violence.

In the coming weeks and months we will likely have a national dialog on criminality, mental illness, physical security for our most vulnerable citizens and the role of firearms in our society but for today I will continue to pray for the families and communities involved in this recent tragedy…I encourage you to as well.

Posted in Firearms, Note:, Security | Tagged Guns, Note | 1 Comment

Welcome New and Returning Subscribers

Posted November 27, 2012 | By Andrew J. Jackson

WOW! What a difference 48 hours makes. I’d like to extend a hearty welcome to new and returning subscribers! Since the introduction of Prepography’s Doctrine of Full Spectrum Preparedness we’ve had more than a 15% growth in e-mail and RSS subscriptions. If you’re not currently subscribed by e-mail or RSS I encourage you to do so using the links at the top left side of this page.

Since we have so many new subscribers I thought I’d step back a moment to introduce Prepography and some of our features. Simply put, we are a self reliance and preparedness site. We believe that prudent preparation will allow us to thrive or at least survive major life or societal change. We encourage you to prepare for disasters, both little and big; both personal and regional or societal. We believe that preparedness is the only rational response to an awareness of the current world situation and even a cursory study of history. Read more on our Why Prep Page.

Because we encourage self reliance on an individual, local, regional, and national scale we provide commentary on society as well as government actions and initiatives. There’s nothing wrong with outside connections and ties…just don’t bet your life on them. Politics…don’t see much difference between the parties and we’re critical of both when they attack liberties, encourage dependence or try to spend our great-grandkids future income.

Additionally, we don’t believe in conspiracy theories…because we know that people generally aren’t very good at keep secrets… and secrets are required for effective conspiracies. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t movements and mechanisms at work that would hurt our Republic… just that we can abandon our tinfoil hats and focus on the numerous real threats to our security and self reliance.

We have several regular features and columnists:

Jay…just Jay writes articles that often feature the lighter side of prepping
Roger Reality provides a periodic “Reality Check” by challenging conventional wisdom and established government policies with a heavy dose of analysis
In addition to editing, yours truly writes several features. A few of these are:
- Top 10 Lists
- It’s Not This, It’s That: Looking at things and situations from the Prepper’s viewpoint
- Reviews on products, books and movies
- Government Gone Wild, There Shouldn’t Be A Law and Your Tax $: Direct from the news…you couldn’t make this stuff up
- Military Pedagogy: Learning from and adapting military tools, techniques, and procedures for preppers and preparedness
- Prepucation: Education for preppers
- Wall of Honor: Honors those that do the right thing, often when faced with a difficult choice
- Full Spectrum Preparedness: We’re currently in the process of reorganizing Prepography around the Doctrine of Full Spectrum Preparedness in order to make it easier for our readers to develop and implement their own preparedness programs.

Finally, we encourage our readers to get into the act through our Submit a Prep Tip, Ask Andrew a preparedness question or through article comments.

Expect some additional improvements as well but bear with us during the process, our webmaster as well as our writers are all volunteers with demanding day jobs. For those readers over 50 and especially for faithful reader Charlie…yes we’re getting rid of the black background, I know it’s hard to read with ‘mature’ eyes.

Welcome again…and keep on prepping,

Andrew J. Jackson

Posted in Note: | Tagged Note | Leave a comment

A few words of thanks to friend and Prepography reader ‘Southpaw’ for the heirloom okra seeds. Okra is one of Rachel’s favorite and when the wife’s happy…everybody’s happy!

Posted November 18, 2012 | By Andrew J. Jackson | Leave a comment

A Veterans Day Message

Posted November 11, 2012 | By Andrew J. Jackson

From one veteran to all the others…thank you for your service.

Andrew J. Jackson; Editor, Prepography

Posted in Military, Note:, Quote | Leave a comment

Today I’m ‘Sharpening the Saw’ at the USAPrepares Get Prepared Expo in Springfield, MO. If you attend, say hello to the guy sitting next to you…it might be me.

Expect an After Action Review next week.

Andrew

Posted November 3, 2012 | By Andrew J. Jackson | Leave a comment

The Preparedness Review – Inaugural Edition

Posted November 2, 2012 | By Andrew J. Jackson

The editor of PrepperWebsite, Todd Sepulveda has just published the inaugural issue of The Preparedness Review. Todd describes The Preparedness Review as “A FREE eReview of articles from some of the best preparedness authors on the web”.

The inaugural issue features 15 articles from some of my favorite preparedness writers… as well as a couple of articles that yours truly was able to sneak in. I’m humbled by the company I’m keeping within the pages of The Preparedness Review.

Two issues of The Preparedness Review will be published each year, in the Fall and Spring. Here’s a partial author’s lineup for Fall 2012:

Dr. Bones & Nurse Amy

Joe Alton, M.D. and Amy Alton, A.R.N.P., are the authors of The Doom and Bloom Survival Medicine Handbook which has been ranked #1 on Amazon in the categories of Survival Skills and Safety/First Aid. They are also the owners of the highest ranked medical preparedness website on the Internet at DoomandBloom.net.

Creek Stewart

Stewart is the Owner and Lead Instructor at Willow Haven Outdoor – a leading Survival and Preparedness Training Facility located on 21-acres in Central Indiana. Creek is also author of the new book Build the Perfect Bug Out Bag: Your 72-Hour Disaster Survival Kit.

Mac Slavo

In addition to being a dear friend of Prepography, Slavo runs the number one ranked survivalist website, SHTFplan.com. I’ll forever be grateful to Mac for the support and encouragement he provided me when I first started Prepography. Continue reading →

Posted in Note:, Preparedness, Reviews | Tagged Preparedness | Leave a comment

Prepography Announces New Preparedness Glossary

Posted October 28, 2012 | By Andrew J. Jackson

Here on Prepography we strive to explain acronyms, slang, military jargon and prepper-speak terms the first time we use it and periodically thereafter. In order to make our articles more readable we are pleased to announce the Prepography’s new Preparedness Glossary. This glossary is a work in progress so check back often using the button on the left side of the page.

Posted in Note: | Tagged Preparedness | Leave a comment

50,000 Pageviews Milestone

Posted October 10, 2012 | By Andrew J. Jackson

Just a short note of thanks to all of Prepography’s loyal readers. Yesterday was a milestone for Prepography as we surpassed 50,000 pageviews since ‘going live’ just four months ago.

…and a special thank you to the multitude of preparedness, survival and other sites and site editors that have commented on and linked to our content in order to help readers find Prepography. Here’s a partial list of the websites (my apologies if I missed anyone):