Meet the 19th Century American Who Warned About Big Government, Religious Liberty Assaults. – P.M.
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Hertz installs in-car video cameras to spy on its rental customers. – T.P.
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Obama Administration considers independent journalists to be ‘enemies of the state,’ warn reporters. – RBS
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Putin vs. the preppies and the Ph.D.s: Outsiders, not insiders, change the world. – T.J.
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Canadian Town Bans Spitting, Swearing And Gathering In Groups Of Three Or More. – H.L.
“Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed.” John 6:27 (KJV)
Ready Made Resources is offering 12 Panasonic Eneloop batteries and a solar battery charger (a $59 value) with the purchase of their ITT upgraded PVS-14 Gen 3+ Autogated. Remember, a night vision without batteries is like a rifle without bullets, and one of the many uses of night vision is the ability to bug home or bug out at night when most people will not be able to do so.
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Today, we present another entry for Round 57 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The $12,000+ worth of prizes for this round include:
First Prize:
Second Prize:
Third Prize:
Round 57 ends on March 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.
Now for the most contentious issue– guns. Let me preface this by saying that everyone has their pet favorite, and to them that is the only gun that will ever work and it will do everything. Being chased by a grizzly bear, someone will tell you how you can totally take that bear out with your 10/22. Want to go dove hunting? Somebody will tell you how you really need a Barrett .50 cal. to take those tough little suckers down. The reality is that the only gun you will ever need is the one in your hand when everything goes south. Guns are going to be the single most expensive thing you will buy for your survival kit. They don’t have to break the bank, though. You can get a used S&W model 10 in .38 spl. at a gun show or pawn shop for under $200. Granted, the finish might not be in the best shape, but those guns are hard to tear up. You’ll no doubt hear all about how your .38 revolver isn’t up to the sky-high standards of a 9mm with a 15 or 17 round magazine, but if you ever find yourself fighting for your life, that little .38 will do whatever you need it to do. Or, if you have to have a semi-automatic with a magazine, hi point makes a cheap gun. I think they are about $200 brand new. I don’t know how good they are; I’ve heard good things about them, but I’ve never been overly impressed what the ones I’ve looked at. I’ve seen the old Ruger P series selling used for around $300, and those are top of the line guns. Shotguns can be bought very cheap. Again, that you have a gun is more important than what kind of gun you have. A used single shot H&R 12 gauge can be bought for under $100, and there’s virtually no way you can tear one of those up short of blowing it up. Used pump shotguns from Mossberg and Remington can be found for around $300, though they are likely to be a few years old and have some wear on them. CZ makes a 12 gauge pump that sells new for around $300, and CZ is a very reputable company. Rifles will be the most expensive gun you’ll buy, if you decide to buy one. Semi-automatics will run the most, with the AR or AK type rifles running $1000 or more. There are some, like the M-1A, that are more expensive. For the budget-minded prepper, though, there’s the SKS. It’s semi-automatic with 10 rounds if you stick with the factory mag, and it’s super reliable. They will run around $200-$300 at gun shows or pawn shops in the standard configuration (as they rolled off the assembly line). There are many, many after-market parts for them, from stocks to magazines. For under $500, you can have a polymer stocked SKS with a 30-round detachable mag. If you want to go with something less expensive and still a battle-tested rifle, the Russian Mosin Nagant can be bought for around $125. It’s a bolt action, 5 round internal magazine, 7.62x54R. If you don’t feel that you need a semi-automatic fighting rifle, you just want a rifle to put food on the table, there are bolt action hunting rifles for around $350-$400 with a 3-9×40 scope already mounted and sighted. I don’t recommend that you try to use one of them without taking it out and verifying that the scope is mounted and sighted correctly though.
For most of your survival gear, like tents, sleeping bags, knives, and such things, the best places to shop will be in sporting goods stores or in the sporting goods section of Walmart or Target. Some things, like the hatchet, saw, tarp, and other items that I mentioned above, can be bought at Home Depot for less cost than on the camping aisle of Walmart. Walmart, if it’s a super center (I’m not sure if any of them aren’t super centers any more), is okay for food, but Sam’s Club or Costco is a good place for bulk purchases of food, water, and household items, like bleach and first aid supplies. Clothing will be an issue that I want to cover separately, but there are no shortage of places to find good clothes economically. Of course, the dollar stores– Dollar General, Dollar Tree, The Dollar Store, and so forth– are good places to find a lot of this stuff. Something I haven’t touched on here is tools, the reason being that most people have the tools that they need, so that shouldn’t be an issue. If you think of something that you’d want to put in a bug out bag/emergency kit and just leave it there, you should do that. I’ve always taught that your emergency gear should be stocked and packed according to your individual needs; there is no cookie cutter pattern for what someone should or should not have with them in an emergency, other than the absolute basics of food, water, shelter, first aid, and protection. Some people may have a specific issue with their vehicle or a piece of gear that they need to keep a certain tool or tool kit to deal with. If that is you, than by all means, have the tool or tools with you. If you want to buy spare tools to keep packed for an emergency, I would not recommend buying Craftsman or some name brand. Harbor Freight has decent tools; some of them are available for $1, so you can stick them in a bag or box and leave them there. If you are wanting to build a home or automotive tool kit, then by all means buy the best you can– probably Craftsman, unless you have the thousands of dollars to spend on Snap-On or Mac. However, for an emergencMilitary Surplus/Tacticaly spare, $20 for a 1/2” combination wrench at Sears vs. $5 for a similar wrench at Harbor Freight is a no-brainer. That said, do not scrimp on roadside emergency gear, such as tow chains (preferably not tow straps or ropes), a four-way wrench, and jumper cables. You don’t want something that’s going to fail when you need it. Obviously, online shopping can be very helpful, especially with your gear. Cheaper Than Dirt is a good site for survival/emergency gear, and there are a number of sites with tactical and camping bags and packs that are affordable and good quality. Any of the major retail stores have websites where you might be able to find things more economically than you can find them in the stores. Just watch out for deals that are too good to be true; a lot of the sites I’ve been on will try to charge you $12 for shipping a 1oz. plastic buckle. (That’s not a joke.)
I wanted to give this gear its own section. Military surplus gear is great for survivalists and preppers for a lot of reasons. First off, it is durable. Now that we have been at war for over 13 years, there is a ton of the stuff on the market. It is also made for being outdoors, in the elements, and carrying everything you need in one place, on your back. If you are in a rural area, it will blend in well to the environment. Even the older OD green stuff will work better than wearing your red skiing jacket or your blue and silver mountaineering pack and trying to hide in the brush. That said, military camo, even the newer digicam and the far superior Marpat camo, is probably not the best thing for where you live. Military camo is a universal camo. It is designed so that a soldier can blend in reasonably well in a multitude of environments and is not made for one specific place or environment. Hunting camo, like RealTree and Mossyoak, are made specifically to blend in with certain environments and can render you virtually invisible if used right. However, RealTree and Mossyoak can be expensive and Mil Surp is not usually. It you are going to go with a military pattern camo, I would recommend the old woodland camo that was used in the 80s and 90s; even the army is unhappy with their current digi cam pattern. If you feel the need to be cool and have the digital camo, like everybody else, hold out until you can find the Marpat camo used by the Marine Corps. Higher end gear from some of the tactical makers have many of the same advantages as the Mil Surp gear listed above. It is made to be durable; it is weather resistant, though often not to the same degree that military gear might be, and it is made for survival use. While Mil Surp gear can include clothes, the tactical gear will not. The few tactical makers that do make clothes, like 511, are very proud of them. Think $50-$75 for a pair of cargo pants; you can buy three to five pairs of surplus BDUs for that. But their bags, belts, pouches, and holsters are usually high quality and can be bought fairly inexpensively. 511 is going to be the exception to the “cheap rule” here; their stuff is absolutely top of the line, and it’s priced like it. Maxpedition is another maker, mostly of bags and packs, that are top line but very expensive. Makers like Condor Tactical and NcStar are more reasonably priced but still high quality. Also, as far as holsters, belts, and pouches go, stay away from mainstream law enforcement brands like Bianchi or Don Hume and the suppliers like Galls. Obviously that gear is some of the best on the market, but it will also break the bank. Shopping online is the best way to find the inexpensive yet good gear. Some stores may carry it, but it will be marked up for retail sale. Often times you can buy from a website where you can get your gear at near-wholesale prices. The downside of using any mil surp or tactical gear is, of course, that it can send a message to others that you may not want to send; that message being “I’m a prepper, and I have stuff”. In a SHTF scenario, you don’t want to draw unwanted attention to yourself. You will want to be a “gray man” and not stick out. About the best way to stick out in an emergency is to run around wearing BDUs and carrying a loaded ALICE pack. That says to the many people around you, who will not have been in any way prepared for an emergency, that you have things that they need, and they will not be shy about asking for them, or just flat out taking them. After a few days, when the reality sinks in and you may need to be armed and geared up, it won’t make much of a difference who knows what; there won’t be any hiding that you and your family have food and water for long anyway. That will be the time to break out the weapons, camo, and tactical/military gear, but for the first couple of days of panic and anarchy, you don’t want to make yourself any more of a target than you have to.
I know this is long, and for that I apologize. Hopefully this gives you a starting point for beginning to live a more prepared life. I have not included anything in this article that is difficult to find, and I have tried to stay away from things that may be more involved or complicated than need be. To survive any disaster, remember the basics– food, water, shelter, clothing, first aid, and defense. Any of this can be fairly affordable if you put some effort into it. There are many good, knowledgeable people out there who can help you if you just ask; many of them are probably in your community, and many more of us are online.
HJL,
I enjoyed the article by D.K. Vet on the topic of getting home while traveling away from home. I often travel for work as well, and I plan for getting home in much the same way as the author. One specific issue that has always concerned me, and I hoped would have been addressed by the author, is the challenge of getting back into one’s hotel room to access my “get home bag” in the event that a power outage happens to occur while I’m out of my room. As most of your readers likely know, nearly all modern hotels now use electronic access cards for entering locked hotel rooms instead of traditional hotel room keys. How would you suggest one get back into his/her room if the power is down and these electronic access keys no longer function? Thank you for your consideration of this question, and many thanks for the excellent material you provide on a daily basis. – R.B.
HJL Responds: The hotel card entry system on the individual doors is powered by batteries. When the power goes out, the doors will still work for as long as the normal battery lasts. That should give you plenty of time to retrieve your belongings, unless your door is already running on weak batteries. In any case, almost all doors still allow key access so that the manager will always have access. What is not known is the effect of an EMP upon such a system. Since there are no wires connected to serve as an antenna, they may survive such an event just fine. The programming machine is generally powered by regular electricity, so no new programming will occur unless alternative power is restored.
U.S. exports at risk as bird flu hits heart of poultry country. – P.M.
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Items from Mr. Econocobas:
The Debt Ceiling Debate Returns and So Does the Trillion Dollar Coin
Patience with Greece Running Low after Tough Week
Rig Count Drops For 14th Week In A Row, Fastest Rate In 29 Years
Dead-Cat-Bounce Dies (Again) – Stocks Plunge As EURUSD Breaks Below Crucial 1.05 Level
Bill restricting rights of citizens to videotape the police introduced in Texas House. – T.P.
This is dangerous legislation, and it must be stopped. The importance of the right of American citizens to record video of our public servants carrying out their duty is explained at our spin-off web site, CFAPA.org, where we also offer press credentials to any literate adult citizen, free of charge. – JWR
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Christian Life Church in Columbia, SC is having a one day Preparedness Conference on April 18, 2015. Please see website for details: www.leapcon.net. – M.H.
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SurvivalBlog reader J.B. sent in this link to Parkville’s Troop 26 Recipe book for outdoor cooking.
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Straight-A College Student Kicked out Because He Was Homeschooled. – D.S.
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EPA Concerned With Western Corn Rootworm’s Growing Resistance to Genetically Modified Corn. – H.L.
“Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation, because the cloud abode thereon, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle” – Exodus 40:34-35 (KJV)
SurvivalBlog writing contest number 57 only has two weeks left. Make sure you get that article you have been writing finished up and entered!
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Safecastle is moving to an “Annual Membership” model, but before they do, they want you to know that SurvivalBlog Readers can get the lifetime membership for free. Just enter “SURVIVEFREEMEM” as the coupon code and get the lifetime membership, valued at $49, and lock your benefits in now.
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Today, we present another entry for Round 57 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The $12,000+ worth of prizes for this round include:
First Prize:
Second Prize:
Third Prize:
Round 57 ends on March 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.
What storm? The stock and bond markets in the US are doing great, the media has sold the strong employment story, and all those nasty wars are far, far away.
So the top few percent are doing well and are sheltered from the storm, but what about the rest of us? What storms are pounding us?
What will central bankers and politicians do? Extend and pretend, print currencies, create far more debt, and fabricate stories about how everything is good.
Look at the US national debt for the past 40 years. The exponential trend is clear – up 9% per year on average and about 10% per year since the 2008 recession/depression. It will rise until Congress drastically cuts spending (just kidding) or some nasty reset occurs. Exponential increases do not last forever so our current exponential increases in debt, stock prices, welfare, military expenses, and economic stupidity will end someday.
Gold and silver are real money, while dollars, euros, and yen are paper substitutes that circulate as currency in place of money. Look at the graph of the ratio of silver to the national debt for the past 20 years. Note the long term rise in the ratio and especially the increase since 9-11. Yes, there has been huge volatility in silver prices as shown by the ratio, but silver and gold – real money – are demonstrating their true value in the face of escalating debt.
Debt will increase and silver prices will rise more rapidly. Since silver and gold have been crushed during the past four years while stocks and bonds have rallied to new highs, expect those trends to reverse this year. When stocks and bonds decline central banks will accelerate their creation of currencies to reflate them and debt will increase even more rapidly, along with silver and gold prices.
|
Current (March 2015) Ratio |
0.87 |
|
US National Debt |
$18.15 Trillion |
|
Silver price |
$15.81 |
Suppose (more of the same – no hyperinflation):
|
Zone 1 (Approximately 2017) Ratio: |
2.5 |
|
US National Debt |
$23 Trillion |
|
Silver Price |
$55 |
|
Zone 2 (Approximately 2020) Ratio: |
3.5 |
|
US National Debt |
$30 Trillion |
|
Silver Price (no hyperinflation) |
$85 – $105 |
Read: Bill Holter: Being “Polite”
Originally posted by Gary Christenson at The Deviant Investor
For many people, prepping seems like something only people with a good deal of time and/or disposable income can do. Shows like NatGeo’s Doomsday Preppers and, unfortunately, some YouTube channels give the impression that if you don’t have several years of food and enough weapons and ammo to outfit a small militia stored somewhere in a mountain bunker you can’t join the prepper club. Remember that the TV show is, at least partly, scripted, staged, and creatively edited, and some of the more questionable YouTube channels are run by gear/gun snobs. There are, however, ways to prep on a budget. All that matters is that you get the supplies and gear that work, last, and will be there when you need them.
MREs and freeze-dried foods are what are popular right now, and for good reason; they can be stored for years, if they are not in extreme temperatures. Unfortunately, either of those options can be expensive. If you run into low-cost MREs, beware; they may be about 12-18 months from expiring. I haven’t seen any inexpensive freeze-dried anything, but if you find something, be very suspicious. Obviously, fresh meat, cheese, milk, or anything that has to be refrigerated or frozen will not work for long-term storage or in an emergency if the power goes out. Dried foods, like rice and beans, work and will keep for years if stored right, and they can be bought in bulk (20 lb. bags). Also, pasta or noodles of any kind will work as well, and they’re inexpensive. Canned foods will last for years as well, if stored properly, regardless of the “use by” date. If they go past the date, they may degrade in taste and nutritional value a little bit, but they will hold up fine and be safe to eat for years. Also, flour, sugar, salt, corn meal and spices will keep for years as well, provided that the packages are not compromised, and flour, corn meal, salt, and sugar can be bought in bulk. Also, don’t be afraid to buy store brands; they are just as good as name brands and will last just as long. Of course, there is a downside to this, which is that weight will certainly be a problem should you be forced to bug out. Twenty pounds each of rice and beans is, of course, 40 lbs., and canned foods are heavy as well. However, if you’ve been forced to relocate and if you’ve planned well, you should be able to get a few days (depending on how many people you’ll be supporting) worth of rice and noodles. This is where Ramen noodles would come in handy; while not very nutritious, they are light, inexpensive, and don’t take up much room. Dry seasonings, such as beef or chicken bullion (put a few cubes in a Ziploc bag) or Ramen seasoning packets, will make your meals palatable enough to eat for a couple of days; and realistically, most people are not going to last for more than two or three days carrying everything they need to live long term (60 lbs. minimum) on their backs.
During a disaster or emergency, water may not be safe to drink. As a general rule, unless you can be 100% sure that the water you are going to drink is safe, such as bottled water or water that you have stored and/or purified yourself, it is better to assume it is unsafe. Of course, the easiest way to treat water is to boil it, and you should always have plenty of matches on hand, as well as lighters, fire steels, and other ways to light fires in your bug-out-bag/emergency kit, all of which can be bought very inexpensively. However, you may not always be able to have a fire. For example, you may not be in an area where you can safely make a fire, or you may not want a fire so as to go unnoticed. Also, if you boil water, unless you are out in the middle of winter, you will have to let it cool down for a few hours so that you will not raise your core body temperature. If you can not boil water, the best purifier is unscented household chlorine bleach. First, use a paper coffee filter, any kind will work, to filter out any solid particulates from the water, then use one or two drops per liter or two to four drops per gallon; stir and let it sit for 30 minutes to kill anything harmful in the water. Bleach can be bought by the gallon and is relatively inexpensive. One gallon will purify several gallons of water. Water purification tabs are also an option, but the amount of water that they will purify compared to bleach makes the bleach the best option. Again, the weight and size of a gallon of bleach will be a problem if you are forced to move on foot, but enough bleach can be poured in a 20 oz. Coke bottle to purify enough water for a couple days.
Shelter can be a bit more tricky when on a budget. Obviously, if you are able to stay in your home, shelter will be a non-issue, and if you have to evacuate in your car you will be able to survive, but if you are forced to evacuate on foot, portable shelter will be an issue. If you are by yourself, a small tent can be found fairly inexpensively, but if you have someone with you who is depending on you, larger tents can run into high dollar territory. You will need enough room in the tent for everyone and their gear to fit inside, which means that a four-person tent will realistically fit two people or maybe three, if one of them is a small child. Some people talk about making shelters out of what they can find in nature, and that is a good skill to have if you are ever stranded on a mountain road, but natural shelters are incredibly hard, and labor intensive, to make. While that may be better than nothing in some cases, they are not ideal in inclement weather because, unless you have an incredible amount of practice, they will not shed water and will not hold heat in. Note that I am not saying not to build one if you have to, nor am I saying that it is a skill you should not learn. If, however, there is another option, take it. Obviously a good tent is preferable, but if that is out of your price range, tarps can be bought for less than $10. A tarp and 50 ft. of paracord will make a suitable shelter to spend a night in and move on the next morning. An added advantage is that a tarp and paracord are very light and easy to carry in a backpack. Unfortunately, sleeping bags are going to be one of the things where “you get what you pay for”, and there isn’t really going to be any exception to this rule with regard to sleeping bags. You can buy an Ozark Trail sleeping bag for less than $20 at Walmart, but it’s not going to be very high quality. The zippers aren’t going to last very long, and those are rated for 40-60 degrees. Obviously, the sleeping bag you will need will depend on the part of the country you live in. You will need a lot more insulation in Montana than you will in Florida, no matter what time of the year it is. However, being warm is an absolutely necessary part of your survival. Of course, you can always roll up a bunch of blankets and carry them with you, but blankets are usually not waterproof. You can use a tarp and some blankets to make a bed roll, like the ones popular in the 1800s, but those become heavy and unwieldy in short order. Things like space blankets and bivy bags are okay, in an extreme emergency, like the mountain road example above, but for long-term survival, your health is going to depend upon having the right sleeping bag for your environment.
Gear, like backpacks, paracord, something to cook and eat with, and other things, can be bought inexpensively at any Walmart or Academy. The Game Winner bags from Academy, which I use, are high quality and affordable. I have seen some packs at Walmart from time to time that seem to be reasonably well made and not too expensive, though I think the Game Winners are better for the money. Mess kits and camping utensils are reasonably priced, if you stay away from name brands (like Coleman, etc.). A one-person mess kit (I can not stress enough that this will work for only one person), which can be used for cooking, and a camping utensil set– knife, fork, and spoon– can be bought for less than $20. For cooking, fires will always work, but if you must have a stove for some reason, obviously a two-burner Coleman stove will be too big to carry around with you, though it would work in an emergency at home, as will a grill, propane, or charcoal, if you have one (and yes, you can use it to cook in skillets and pans), but there are many different options for single-burner stoves that are inexpensive and can be easily carried with you, or you can make your own. To make your own, all it takes is a couple of coke cans, a nail, some high-temp sealant, and denatured alcohol. Things like a hatchet, saw, and portable shovel can be found at Home Depot for a few dollars. First aid is another “you get what you pay for” thing. Of course you can buy low-cost bandages, gauze, et cetera, but some things, like QuikClot, should be name brand and will be expensive. However, if you need QuikClot, it will save your life. Knives are the subject of great debate, but if you have a good, fixed blade survival knife and a good folding knife, you should be fine. There are some inexpensive yet good quality folding knives out there. The SOG Trident, which I carry, is $50 now at Walmart. That’s a vast improvement over the $100+ that they used to cost. Winchester (the gun company) has a line of knives you can buy at Walmart for $20 or less. They are made by Gerber and are nice knives. Some of Buck’s knives are around $20-$30. By far the best survival fixed blade, and my personal preference, is the Gerber Bear Grylls survival knife. When you look at survival knives, forget the old hollow handled knives with the “survival kit” in the handle and a compass on top. Those will break, if you try to use them very hard at all. You want a full tang knife, where there is one piece of steel from the tip of the blade through the handle. It’s not necessary, or even advisable, to buy a bowie knife or a full size Ka Bar. A good quality Bowie will set you back a few hundred dollars, and a Ka Bar, while it’s a great knife, may be too big and unwieldy; it can also give the wrong impression if someone sees you with it. Flashlights are another thing that you will see people pay mind boggling amounts of money for, which is not necessary at all. A good mini mag-lite LED is bright, tough, reliable, and they use standard AA batteries. Yes, a Surefire tac-light is smaller, brighter, and it’s cool looking, but it’s also going to run over $100, and they take Lithium CR 123 batteries, which are hard to find and can cost $15 for two. Coleman also makes some nice flashlights that are very bright and compact, and they’re well under $100. A giant 3D cell mag-lite, or one larger (yes, they make them all the way up to 6D cell batteries) is not necessary and, if you’ve ever tried to carry one in a flashlight ring on your belt, they’re big, heavy and quite inconvenient and uncomfortable to carry with you.
HJL,
Sorry to bother you, but after reading an article that you linked on Survival Blog I just can’t get this off my mind. It was the Doomsday Prepper meals article, and it said that Wayne Martin “stores canned goods in buckets of cat litter to increase the life expectancy of the product”. Is this to keep the cans from rusting as when kept in a damp basement? I can’t find any reference to that on the Internet except where the cat litter is used as a desiccant alongside of the actual food. Any comment on this would be appreciated. Thank you. – R.M.
HJL Responds: The article was interesting for the pictures it presented of the meals. However, the author had the “Doomsday Prepper” mentality. They often profile those who are extreme, and as a result you get some “interesting” concepts. The only thing that cat litter will do is act as a desiccant. Unfortunately, it’s not very good at doing that job. While it will absorb and hold large amounts of water, it doesn’t do much for humidity unless you are regularly drying it out in an oven or other such device. It’s more of a “feel good” band-aid, and you are better off not having the clay compounds, which have absorbed some humidity, up against metal rings or cans.
Mutating H7N9 bird flu may pose pandemic threat, scientists warn
Special Note: Down in paragraph 8, is this nugget:
“By collecting and sequencing a large number of samples, they found that the H7N9 virus is mutating frequently, acquiring genetic changes that might increase its pandemic potential.”
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World record? 100 inches of snow may have clobbered Italy in 18 hours, review pending. – P.M.
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A very neat DIY tactical shovel that would make a great addition to a B.O.B.
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Mysterious spy cameras collecting data at post offices. – H.L.
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Sharia Enforcement at University of New Mexico: “Resolution 6S” passes. B.B.
“I was born with more power inside myself than I ever dreamed. But along with it there came no more sense than any other idiotic kid. Somewhere along in here I need to grow up into a man I can stand to live with. A man who doesn’t just survive, but deserves to.” ? Orson Scott Card, The Lost Gate