“The Second Amendment is a doomsday provision, one designed for those exceptionally rare circumstances where all other rights have failed — where the government refuses to stand for reelection and silences those who protest; where courts have lost the courage to oppose, or can find no one to enforce their decrees. However improbable these contingencies may seem today, facing them unprepared is a mistake a free people get to make only once.” – Justice Alex Kozinski, US 9th Circuit Court, 2003
June 18th is birthday of Pastor Douglas Wilson. Born in 1953, he is the pastor at Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho and a prodigious author on Reformed theology.
Have you ever wondered why God spared Job’s wife?
Ladies, can I ask you a few personal questions? It’s a question about nagging. Have you ever nagged a man so much that you pushed him too far? Basically, have you nagged him to the point where you regretted it? I’m not going to discuss the topic of abusive male aggression here or domestic violence. On the contrary, I’m hinting at the reality of how we, as women, have the innate ability to nag men. We all know how to do it. Some are more gifted than others. Have you wanted something very much and your way of asking (nagging) backfired? You pushed too hard. You were harsh, rude, demanding, and bitter about it. Have you ever done this to a man? If you answered “no”, then I highly suspect you are lying. If you honestly answered “yes”, then you understand what it means to push a man too far. So, if you have done this, did you learn your lesson and realize that you were wrong? Did you stop yourself the next time you were tempted to nag and say to yourself, “I know this way won’t work; I need to approach him instead with respect and love.”?
Don’t get me wrong, I still nag my husband. Sometimes I do it like a champ. However, I know that I am wrong for approaching my husband this way, and I know that to approach him with love and respect is the better way. I do need to mention that there are men out there who are legitimately abusive to their wives, and there is no excuse for this. Both men and women are weak in different ways. We have to fight against our weakness and lean into the truth if we are going to find the peace that we seek in our closest relationships and in our own hearts.
Continue reading“Killing the “HAKA”, by The Recovering Feminist”
I’ve been reading the MAX V articles about practical application of tactical gear, et cetera. This spurred me to add my .02 cents. During a 2014 deployment to Kandahar with the Air Force Reserve, I had an ankle injury that wasn’t serious enough to send me home but serious enough to slow me down for my entire tour. I had brought with me a Tactical Tailor H-harness and belt set, which I set up to wear under my armor. (Once the armor was on, I never felt it.) I kept one magazine pouch and a small admin pouch, used for power bars and band-ades, on the armor. Everything else was on the H-harness/belt.
Loading up the carrier with ammo pouches and extra crap looked high-speed for the younger troops, but I felt was additional weight to try to get on and off in a hurry. Also, with my age related ankle injury, I decided that should I have to ditch my armor to trade for speed, that keeping the ammo, canteen, and admin pouch with CLIF bars separate was the way to go and something to consider for the “old warriors” in the readership. Keeping in mind that during an emergency here when a person needs to ditch 30 lbs of armor to run an important message, or simply E&E an overwhelming foe, might be something to consider.
Mid-crisis is not the time to strip your plate carrier to reconfigure for weight saving. Pulling and caching the plates might work as well but would still require time that could be better utilized creating distance. – T.G.
SurvivalBlog presents another edition of The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods – a collection of news bits and pieces that are relevant to the modern survivalist and prepper from “HJL”. Today’s focus is on the fall of America.
Kalifornia has often led the way in polices across America. Now, taxpayers in California will be forced to pay bullies on college campuses who will force their agenda on classmates guilty of “thought crimes”. Between 8 and 10 Social Justice Activists (SJAs) will walk around campus. They will indoctrinate whomever they come across of the perils of whiteness, patriarchy, and heteronormativity. You might think that paying students to incite racism, sexism, and heterophobia in the name of social justice is counterproductive and satire. But it’s apparently happening. Thanks to H.L. for the link.
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Rhode Island schools who participate in the “1-1” programs, where each student is issued a laptop, have a policy of encouraging the students to use the electronics for more than just schoolwork. Some even go so far as to encourage the parents of students to use the computers as well. The schools insist that they have the right to monitor the computers. They routinely search the laptops for information. Some have been known to install certificates allowing man-in-the-middle interceptions of private sessions.
“Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.” – Romans 13:1-2 (KJV)
June 17th is the birthday of musician Red Foley (born, 1910, died September 19, 1968). His patriotic song Smoke on the Water topped the music charts for 13 weeks in late 1944 and early 1945, and charted for 24 weeks. This song, which describes the doom of tyrants, would be considered quite politically incorrect these days.
June 17th is also the birthday of novelist John Ross, who was born in 1957.
You have some garden options that include a “good-enough cheapskate garden”. You could buy a bunch of stuff, get special ground covering, and mark it every two inches. Then you could buy poles, and notch then five feet up, and then prepare your soil by double digging. (Make sure to plant at the setting sun, and on and on.) Even if I had the time, money, strength, and patience for all the instructions I have read over the years, I’m just rebel enough to try the easiest, cheapest, and quickest way to get it in the ground and get it growing.
I’ve spent years gardening in hot sunny areas, super cold snowy locations, and now somewhere in the middle. It is possible to grow in any of these locales with a minimum of work and money.
I know there are some people who are genuinely unable to garden due to limitations. And I am truly sorry for that and know a little of how that feels. I had my time recently where I thought that’s the way it was to be for me too. And my husband has been that way for many years. I am not writing this to tell those folks that they should somehow be doing what I’m doing. But my hope is they will find something in what I write that will help them too. Many of my easy methods were discovered while I was going through chemo and recovering from lung surgery.
If you like spending all your time pampering your plants, you may want to look away. If you like to garden but can’t or don’t want to make it your life’s work, maybe I can help a little. I’ve gardened while working full time, with little kids, with a family run business, and lately while going through a few years of chemotherapy and surgery for cancers. There have been times where it was sink or swim for the plants. Yet they’ve always come through. But we all know we can’t make anything grow on our own. I can put a seed in the ground and water it, but I can’t make it grow. God is ultimately the Giver of Life, and He has certainly blessed my garden.
Continue reading“The Good-Enough Cheapskate Garden, by J.D.”
As preppers work to make progress to achieve prepping goals, we took some actions this week too. The SurvivalBlog editors made plans earlier in the week and now reflect upon these. At this time of year, gardening is at the top of our lists. Below, the editors share what we each accomplished. Please write to us in the comments and tell us what you did this week to get your preps in place and to be ready. Today’s highlight is combating some raspberry cane fungus.
Dear SurvivalBlog Readers,
Some recent rain was great for our pastures, orchard, and gardens, but it drove us indoors.
Lily weeded the garden again. Nearly everything is growing nicely. However, she had recently noticed that her red and black raspberry canes looked liked they had taken a very serious beating from our hard winter. Their bark was peeling and, some had died, while others had very poor growth of their leaves. The more she looked at them, the more she realized that they must have a disease. So she looked up raspberry cane diseases and discovered that they really were not suffering from our severe winter, but rather from a cane fungus infection caused by wet and humid conditions from our very wet summer last year and also, probably from running the wave sprinkler on them too often during the wrong times of the day. Bummer!
I read the [multi-part] article and had to tell you I thought it was pretty good. I talked to a few of the guys up there, and it does indeed look like the course is going to be canceled. It went through some cool changes after E.T.’s course and the ones to follow. It’s too bad. It was good education. I was really impressed with how much he remembered. I sent it to the other guys who were there at the time too. Hope all is well for him now. He’s got some good stuff going. – Jerry
SurvivalBlog presents another edition of The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods – a collection of news bits and pieces that are relevant to the modern survivalist and prepper from “HJL”. Today’s focus is on liberal-progressive terrorism.
Reader K. sent in this YouTube video of a confrontation with a woman calling for the death of Alex Jones. She states “Her attitude is scary. She is supposed to be a teacher but I’m not sure how that was determined. I have no respect for the boyfriend/husband that would tolerate this woman’s views. I think people need to see this video so they can make a calculation as to what we are up against.” There is certainly a double standard that the liberal progressives hold.
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A Union County Democrat has called for Republicans to be hunted. James Devine posted several messages on Facebook following the DC shooting. Liberals are quick to call “hate speech” on anyone that disagrees with them, but this fits that category like no other.
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A truck flying a “Make America Great Again” flag was shot at in Indiana. Apparently a driver who didn’t like the message pulled up next to the pickup on the freeway, pulled a hand gun and shot several times. Thankfully, no one was injured, but no arrests have been made yet. Thanks to reader T.P. for the link.
“And the Lord said unto Moses, How long will this people provoke me? and how long will it be ere they believe me, for all the signs which I have shewed among them? I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of thee a greater nation and mightier than they.” – Numbers 14:11-12 (KJV)
Today is the birthday of John Enoch Powell (born 1912, died 8 February 1998). He was one of the very few military men to rise from enlisted Private to Brigadier General. Similarly, in the U.S. military, Nathan Bedford Forrest enlisted as a Private and advanced to the rank of Lieutenant General of the Confederate Army during the U.S. Civil War. (His postwar career was, ahem, less distinguished.) Chesty Puller did the same in the U.S. Marine Corps. Likewise, U.S. Army General Tommy Franks began his Army career as a Private in 1965 and went on to eventually wear four stars, as did Admiral Jeremy Michael Borda, advancing from USN E-1 to USN O-10 (from Seaman to Admiral and Chief of Naval Operations). There have been a few such examples but not very many. (Special thanks to SurvivalBlog reader George S. for mentioning this birth date and the similarity in the service of Forrest, Franks, and Borda.)
The intent of this continued post is to tie in the related, practical application concepts of tactical gear, fitness, teamwork, logistics, and tactical loading, in order to present a realistic and logical way to approach the subject. There are a number of related factors at play here. Part 1 covered the mission, logistics, tactical load, physical conditioning, transport, and ballistic plates along with a note urging people to avoid heavy steel plates.
In order to be able to conduct any sort of patrolling/security operation, you are going to need a team. This means numbers of trained personnel. You cannot have that QRF if you do not have the trained bodies to man the operations center and the QRF team, while also running a security rotation on your home base. Thus, it goes without saying that you need trained people, in sufficient numbers, to provide an effective tactical team.
So what do you carry? The point is that you have to balance the logistics of what you carry on your body with what you can effectively maneuver around in. Thus, physical condition and strength must increase, while the load must come down to something that you can tactically maneuver in. You have to be able to be comfortable wearing this gear. Particularly if a collapse goes on for a time and complacency starts to rear its head, you have to have a practical plan that allows you to wear some gear. You also must have it ready and comfortable for long periods of time.
I’m looking for some justification of some prepper advice I’ve seen. More than a few articles recommend getting out of debt now before SHTF. I say, “Why?”. In the event of TEOTWAWKI the banks will be shut down anyway. Who’s going to process the repo paperwork? Who’s going to come enforce the repo? The local Sheriff is going to have more important things on his plate. That is assuming that he’s even still performing the duties of LEO. On top of that, I’d be willing to bet that when things started to get “back to normal” past debts will be forgiven in the interest of rebuilding the basic organizational structures needed for the operation of a society or enterprise. Just some thoughts… – D
You shouldn’t need any more advice than “It’s the right thing to do”. Getting out of debt should be your goal no matter what. Remember the debtor is basically a slave to the banker. It is the bankers who are pulling the strings on the world economies today. Do you really think that they’ll let anyone off the hook? The standard thinking in the case of hyperinflation is that your debt gets gradually smaller. But history doesn’t bear that out. TPTB have a tendency to trash the current hyperinflated currency, introduce a new currency, and then re-evaluate all debt in the new currency, even if it’s just as simple as dropping a zero from the currency.
