Prepography
The Art & Study of Self-Reliance
Situational Awareness – An Introduction (1,347)
Don’t Be ‘That Prepper Guy’ (883)
Fan of the Ammo Can – Top 10 Uses (636)
Prepping with Garage Sales (575)
OCOKA – A Key Survival Acronym (532)
Top 10 Preparedness Uses of Mineral Oil (514)
Top 10 Initial Steps to Preparation (509)
Snake Eater – How to Field Dress a Snake (505)
Prepper SALUTE Report – An Observation and Reporting Tool (336)
Jefferson’s Top 10 Commandments for Living (316)- Best Prepper Caliber? (314)
- Difference Between .223 Caliber & 5.56mm (311)
The Last Sane Man – Today’s Quote
Detective Del Spooner as played by Will Smith
The Party’s Over? Does Immigration Reform Make Sense?
Pretend you’re in high school for a minute and let’s have a party. Let’s invite our friends and the kids our age in the neighborhood. We’re going to be careful though and just invite people we know are level headed and won’t make trouble because we don’t want any police calls to the house. Also, we have to limit the number of party goers so that we have enough bratwursts, beverages and party favors for everyone.
Unfortunately, because we’re having the party in our backyard it’s just too easy for party crashers to waltz in and help themselves to our limited number of bratwursts, beverages and party favors so let’s get together a group, oh let’s say a gang of eight of our friends to develop a plan for dealing with the party crashers.
Our little gang of eight friends that we’ll let all the party crashers stay in exchange for a promise that they won’t break any more rules in the future (just because they broke rules to crash the party doesn’t mean they won’t follow our other party rules now that they’re here, right?) and an agreement that we’ll really, truly secure the property to keep any additional party crashers from coming in at some point in the near future (at this point all the party crashers get on their cell phones and tell their buddies not to wait and crash the party before it’s too late).
Churchill on Idealism – Today’s Quote
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism.
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill
A Better Way to Tax?
After spending entirely too much time this week (not to mention a year of keeping every receipt and logging every business, charity and military mile driven) and getting ready to spend WAY too much money filing my State and Federal Taxes I thought I’d do something I’ve never done before and appropriate today’s article from another website….it’s OK they want to get the word out…what follows is a brief introduction to a tax program that just makes so much sense the only reason we haven’t done it is because special interests wield so much power in our seats of government. Ladies and gentlemen there is a better way to tax…The Fair Tax…
While I’m partial the Flat Tax proposal as well I think it’s a harder sell because so many voters have been sold on the idea that the more successful you are the more of your labor (as a percentage of your income) should be taken from you (isn’t there a word for forcibly taking someone’s labor?)…don’t get me wrong…the only thing rich about me is my imagination, my friendships and the love of my family…but I aspire to be wealthier and don’t believe that the harder someone works the more they should be indentured to government. The Fair Tax takes that argument away because it taxes consumption (it also treats investment and dividend income the same as earned income)…and the more you make the more you are able to consume…but you could just as easily consume little and save…which is good for society as well.
The FairTax Plan Continue reading
Join me in a Post-Racial World
I live in a post-racial world…I can’t wait for the rest of the world to catch up…
Four California high-school students were reportedly suspended for chanting “U.S.A! U.S.A!” and wearing American flag bandanas during a basketball game. While their punishment has since been rescinded, school administrators said “the incident is far from over.”
Oxnard Union School District superintendent Gabe Soumakian told Fox News Radio that “we need to pursue this further” and “work with teachers and students and the community about the concept of cultural proficiency.” Soumakian and Camarillo High School principal Glenn Lipman felt that the students’ actions might have had racist undertones since the schools have large Hispanic student populations.
since when is chanting “USA” racist…seems to me that if anything, “USA” denotes the whole melting pot idea…
A school principal said no white children were allowed at an after-school tutoring program, and now some parents call it discrimination.
The principal at Mission Viejo Elementary in Aurora sent a letter telling parents the program is only for students of color. Parents CBS4 talked with said they were shocked to see, in this day and age, what they consider to be segregation.
“I was infuriated. I didn’t understand why they would include or exclude certain groups,” said parent Nicole Cox…
via Parents Complain About School Ad Excluding Whites From Tutoring Program « CBS Denver
What’s going on our schools? The only U.S. institutions that have been integrated longer than our schools are our military services. Let’s teach our children to treat each other with respect and not grant or deny favors based on race. I’m not sure how “USA” is anti-Hispanic or why the Principal of Mission Viejo Elementary only wants to tutor children of certain races… but it seems to me that we need to focus less on being hyphenated Americans and more on being…just Americans.
Doctor C on Gullibility – Today’s Quote
… an uneducated populace will fall for anything.
And if you and you talk to most people, they mean well but they don’t have much of a breadth of education, of knowledge, of understanding of what the real issues are and, therefore, they listen to pundits on television who tell them what they’re supposed to think and they keep repeating that and pretty soon they say, ‘Oh, well that must be true.
Department of PreCrime
If Philip K. Dick
In the story a government agency called the Department of PreCrime is established to identify criminals before they commit their crimes and incarcerate them as a preventive measure against crimes they might commit in the future. As the book unfolds it becomes clear that the Precrime Agency which might have been developed out of the best of intentions, has become a tool of tyranny. The nice thing about fiction is that you can clearly identify the good guys and the bad guys…unfortunately in real life it’s more complicated.
Hoplophobia – Today’s Quote
Hoplophobia is a pejorative[1] neologism originally coined to describe an “irrational aversion to weapons, as opposed to justified apprehension about those who may wield them.” It is sometimes used more generally to describe the “fear of weapons” or the “highly salient danger of these weapons ” or the “fear of armed citizens”.
Firearms authority and writer Jeff Cooper claims to have coined the word in 1962 to describe what he called a “mental aberration consisting of an unreasoning terror of gadgetry, specifically, weapons.“ The term was constructed from the Greek ὅπλον – hoplon, meaning amongst others “arms,”[8] and φόβος – phobos, meaning “fear.” Although not a mental health professional, Cooper employed the term as an alternative to other slang terms, stating: “We read of ‘gun grabbers’ and ‘anti-gun nuts’ but these slang terms do not [explain this behavior].” Cooper attributed this behavior to an irrational fear of firearms and other forms of weaponry. Cooper’s opinion was that “the most common manifestation of hoplophobia is the idea that instruments possess a will of their own, apart from that of their user.” Writing in an opinion piece, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review columnist Dimitri Vassilaros asserted that the term was intended by Cooper as tongue-in-cheek to mock those who think guns have free will.
King on Ignorance & Stupidity – Today’s Quotes
Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
Will on Ideas – Today’s Quote
Ideas are not responsible for the people who believe them
Wouk on Panic – Today’s Misquote
When in danger
or in doubt
run in circles
scream and shout…
just don’t go messing with my constitution.
Herman Wouk as amended by Andrew J. Jackson
Hitler on Propaganda – Today’s Quote
By the skillful and sustained use of propaganda, one can make a people see even heaven as hell or an extremely wretched life as paradise.
Adolf Hitler
Andrew’s Note: We think the era of National Socialism (NAZI) was bad…imagine how much more damage Hitler and his propaganda machine could have done with modern media technologies.
Don’t Bite the Hand That Feeds You…Twinkies
The 5,000 members of The Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union that work(ed) for Hostess never learned that you Don’t Bite the Hand That Feeds You.
Hostess Brands is Closed. We are sorry to announce that Hostess Brands, Inc. has been forced by a Bakers Union strike to shut down all operations and sell all company assets. For more information, go to hostess brands.info. Thank you for all of your loyalty and support over the years.
No one wants to take a pay cut, but because the Unions refused to accept an 8% short term pay cut and make other concessions those Union members and another 13,500 (18,500 total employees not including lost jobs in Hostess’ vendors network) Hostess employees are now out of a job. I don’t know about you but I’d rather have 92% of the salary I’ve gotten used to (or 82% or 72%, etc.) than 0%…at least that way I’d have time to search for a new job if I felt I needed/deserved more income.
In addition to the 18,500+ workers joining the ever growing ranks of the unemployed (look at the real numbers, not those massaged for pre-election public consumption) there are now 33 bakeries, 565 distribution centers and 570 outlet stores idled. Continue reading
Sinclair on Denial – Today’s Quote
It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.
Upton Sinclair
Andrew’s Note: Maybe we could rephrase this as ‘it is difficult to get a populace to understand the dangers of entitlement economics when such a huge percent is dependent.’
REALITY CHECK Preparing for Class Warfare – Battling the 47th Entitlement Corps
Andrew’s Note: Today we present another commentary in Roger’s REALITY CHECK series. This time Roger takes on the current frenzy over Presidential Candidate’s Mitt Romney’s recently released comments regarding The 47%. Enjoy your REALITY CHECK, Preparing for Class Warfare – Battling the 47th Entitlement Corps!
This is not a political website! [AJJ's Note: Maybe a little bit when it comes to assaults on Individual Liberty] Its purpose is to educate, communicate and facilitate the process of personal preparation for disaster and build self-reliance. However, one of the highest probability and greatest threats likely to cause The End Of The World As We Know It (TEOTWAWKI) comes directly from the political realm! I have discussed taxation, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Dependence, and the national debt-saster, in previous posts. I, like a sizable majority of Americans, feel the country is “headed in the wrong direction” and that is a direct result of the actions and inactions of politicians. Thus, I will Reality Check various partisan political topics from time to time.
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has been sodomized for committing the politically mortal sin of telling the truth during a private political event in which he stated that he felt 47% of Americans would be disinclined to support him because they pay no federal income taxes and/or receive a federal stipend of some kind under the current administration. Romney had the temerity to openly and accurately discuss the taxation and dependency realities of our country!! He then had the gall to stand by his statements and beliefs rather than blubber about how he didn’t mean it and feels horrible about it!! No one, expects his “honesty attack” to catch on with other politicians and, in fact, this condition is likely to prove terminal for him. What it has done is to provide counter-battery fire, a return salvo, to the drooling mutants making up the Occupy Movement and their successful ‘1%’ attack. Continue reading
The Intellectual Prepper Paradigm
Andrew’s Note: Today’s article is on the creating an Intellectual Prepper Paradigm and having the intellectual honesty to face your own blind spots so that you can think clearly and take care of yourself and your family.
At a dinner with my daughters a few years ago I posed a question to them to assess their knowledge of the world, their education and world outlook…I already knew how intelligent they are. The question I asked them is:
Are all cultures equally valid? Continue reading
Public Library Sued for Lending E-Books
Good news! The Department of Justice (DOJ) has protected us from a library with the audacity to lend books that blind people couldn’t read. No word on whether the library also lends audio or braille books…but I bet it does if it’s like my library. The Sacramento, CA Public Library thought they’d embrace new technology and loan Barnes and Noble NOOK e-book readers to their patrons. The NOOKs are capable of accessing millions of books and other digital products, but only if you can see. You see, lending books that the blind can’t read is discrimination…wonder if the sighted will now sue over those braille books that they can’t read and maybe the deaf will sue over the audio books they can’t use…perhaps the DOJ’s intended outcome is to have a library that’s a nice, clean, empty building… public library sued for lending e-books…now I’ve heard everything!
The U.S. Justice Department says it has reached a settlement with the Sacramento (California) Public Library over a trial program the library was conducting that let patrons borrow Barnes and Noble NOOK e-book readers.
DOJ and the National Federation of the Blind objected to the program on grounds that blind people could not use the NOOK e-readers for technological reasons.
The Justice Department said the settlement is aimed at stopping discrimination: “Emerging technologies like e-readers are changing the way we interact with the world around us and we need to ensure that people with disabilities are not excluded from the programs where these devices are used,” said Assistant Attorney General Thomas E. Perez in a news release.
A DOJ official told CNSNews.com it interviewed a woman who could not participate in the library’s e-reader program due to her disability and concluded that the program had violated the ADA.
via DOJ Targeted Public Library for Lending E-Books ‘Inaccessible’ to the Blind | cnsnews.com.
The Pentagon’s New Map – A Critique
Andrew’s Note: I have seen our national dialog once again turn to and contemplate military intervention in the Middle East. This time it’s Syria (I’ll leave Iran for another day as it actually poses a threat to the U.S. through its pursuit of and stated policy of intending to use Weapons of Mass Destruction). Last year I wrote a critique of one of the foundational articles used to justify our military intervention in Iraq. I am an Iraq war veteran and am proud of my service and our military forces, but I think that Dr. Thomas Barnett’s article, “The Pentagon’s New Map” attempts to rationalize a particularly dangerous collection of ideas. I encourage you to decide for yourself if policing the world is the appropriate use of our power. Dr. Barnett expanded on the ideas presented in this article and published a book of the same title…my critique only addresses the original article from Esquire magazine. Here is that critique:
Dr. Thomas Barnett states in his 2003 article “The Pentagon’s New Map” that countries and regions of the world that are disconnected from the benefits of globalization represent a significant danger to the United States and other globalized nations. He proposes that we should globalize those “Non-Integrating Gap or Gap” nations at the point of a gun if necessary when he states that we must “begin the systematic, long-term exportation of security.” Barnett’s goal of “shrinking the Gap” by further integrating the world’s backwaters and rogue nations into a productive community of nations is laudable and would undoubtedly improve security and prosperity. However, the scope and mechanisms Barnett proposes to achieve worldwide globalism and a stable security environment is simply not affordable. Continue reading
Tax the Rich to Avoid Social Unrest?
Britain which has seen an influx of wealthy European Union migrants in recent months who are fleeing excessive taxation on the continent (France has proposed up to a 75% rate) have found a way to welcome their wealthy, fellow Europeans…tax the rich!
As part of the global push to tax the rich, Britain is now debating an “emergency” wealth tax. But the idea has hit fierce opposition from conservatives, who say the “politics of envy” hasn’t made the country rich.
Deputy Prime Minster Nick Clegg, leader of the Liberal-Democrat Party, has proposed a one-time tax on the wealth (rather than the incomes) of high-net-worth Britons. The details aren’t clear, but Clegg says the country is facing an economic war caused by a prolonged recession, and needs to tax the rich in order to avoid social unrest.
via ‘Emergency’ Tax on the Rich Roils Britain – U.S. Business News – CNBC.
A one time tax on wealth sounds remarkably like something else to me…at least a thief won’t tell you that he’s taking your hard earned assets for your own good. Continue reading
da Vinci on Types of People – Today’s Quote
There are three classes of people: Those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see.
Leonardo da Vinci
