Saturday, December 29, 2012

Petition Calls for Gun Free Zone at White House and Federal Buildings

Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com
December 28, 2012


Read the petition and sign it here.


In response to criticism of NRA VP Wayne LaPierre‘s suggestion that armed guards be placed in schools following the Sandy Hook massacre and the double standard presented by the Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990, nationally syndicated radio talk show host Alex Jones has posted a petition on We the People: Your Voice in Our Government, the federal government’s petition website.

Alex’s petition reads as follows:

We Demand Obama Issue Executive Order Making White House, Federal Buildings and Events Gun Free Zones

Journalist Alex Jones and Infowars.com are calling for President Barack Obama to issue an executive order amending the Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990. The executive order will establish the White House, all federal buildings and federal events as gun free zones and all federal security personnel will turn in their guns. We also demand the order apply to private schools such as Sidwell Friends School attended by the president’s daughters. This petition is a response to government and corporate media dismissing a call for armed guards at schools following the Sandy Hook shooting. Jones and Infowars.com believe there should not be a double standard. If the government believes gun free zones are a solution for citizens, the same standard should apply to government servants and employees.

You can sign the petition here.

“Since the government has bought over a billion rounds of ammo and armed vehicles and is hardening facilities, we are calling for them to all to turn their guns in, including all federal police… and the military,” Jones said on Friday prior to the petition post on the White House site.

The petition follows remarks made by corporate media host David Gregory over the weekend. Gregory criticized LaPierre for his armed guards in schools idea. Following Gregory’s dismissive remarks, it was reported that the Meet the Press host enrolled his children in an elite school – the same D.C.-based Sidwell Friends attended by Obama’s children – where students are protected by no less than 11 armed security guards.

“Gregory isn’t the only one putting himself in this hypocritical box, though,” writes Warner Todd Huston. “Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel was reportedly ‘outraged’ at the NRA’s security guard plan. But Emanuel also sends his kids to a school that has armed guards plying the hallways every school day. (Not to mention his fully armed personal security detail that shadows him everywhere he goes.)”

Jones said on Friday that if the government truly believes in gun free zones, Obama should insist that Sidwell Friends and other elite schools disarm in order to comply with the federal law. “Because, according to them, that’s what makes us all safe,” Jones told Infowars.com.

Proponents of gun free zones and the 1990 law mandating them never mention the fact that mass murderers specifically target defenseless schools, theaters and malls because they know there will be little resistance to their rampages if a defense-free rule is in effect.

We must stop blinding ourselves to the obvious: Most of these mass killings are happening at schools where self-defense is prohibited,” Carla Howell, executive director of the Libertarian Party, said in a statement following the Sandy Hook massacre. “Gun prohibition sets the stage for the slaughter of innocent children. We must repeal these anti-self-defense laws now to minimize the likelihood they will occur in the future and to the limit the damage done when they do.”

Despite Gregory’s dismissal and that of government officials and the corporate media, hiring armed security guards — and in lieu of that allowing teachers to carry firearms — is the only rational solution to mass shootings at schools.

For some time now teachers in Israel have carried firearms in response to terrorist attacks. “Two (armed) teachers would have kept (the Newtown shooter) occupied for 45 seconds each,” Oren Shemtov, CEO of Israel’s Academy of Security and Investigation, told Fox News on December 27.

During his Sunday Show, Alex originally called for a government gun free zone and others posted petitions on the White House site in response (see Eliminate armed guards for the President, Vice-President, and their families, and establish Gun Free Zones around them). On Friday, Infowars.com journalist Adan Salazar covered this petition.

Monday, December 24, 2012

Halloween decorations carry haunting message of forced labor

By Rachel Stark, The Oregonian
on December 23, 2012 at 9:00 AM, updated December 23, 2012 at 10:56 PM 
 
 
 
julie-keith.JPG 
 
Julie Keith contacted a human rights organization after finding a plea for help inside a package of Halloween decorations.
The letter came in a box of Halloween decorations purchased at Kmart, but for a year Julie Keith never knew. It gathered dust in her storage, a haunting plea for help hidden among artificial skeletons, tombstones and spider webs. Keith, a 42-year-old vehicle donation manager at a southeast Portland Goodwill, at one point considered donating the unopened $29.99 Kmart graveyard kit. It was one of those accumulated items you never need and easily forget. But on a Sunday afternoon in October, Keith pulled the orange and black box from storage. She intended to decorate her home in Damascus for her daughter's fifth birthday, just days before Halloween.
She ripped open the box and threw aside the cellophane.
That's when Keith found it. Scribbled onto paper and folded into eighths, the letter was tucked between two Styrofoam headstones.

Letter.jpg 
 
"Sir:
 
The letter describes conditions at a forced labor camp in China.
"If you occasionally buy this product, please kindly resend this letter to the World Human Right Organization. Thousands people here who are under the persicution of the Chinese Communist Party Government will thank and remember you forever." The graveyard kit, the letter read, was made in unit 8, department 2 of the Masanjia Labor Camp in Shenyang, China.
Chinese characters broke up choppy English sentences.
"People who work here have to work 15 hours a day without Saturday, Sunday break and any holidays. Otherwise, they will suffer torturement, beat and rude remark. Nearly no payment (10 yuan/1 month)."
Ten yuan is equivalent to $1.61.
"People who work here, suffer punishment 1-3 years averagely, but without Court Sentence (unlaw punishment). Many of them are Falun Gong practitioners, who are totally innocent people only because they have different believe to CCPG. They often suffer more punishment than others."
The letter was not signed.
Shocked, Keith sat down as her mind reeled.
Wow, that's daring, she thought. She imagined the desperation the writer must have felt, the courage he or she must have mustered to slip the letter into that box. If caught, what would happen?
Like a message in a bottle, the letter traveled more than 5,000 miles over the Pacific Ocean. It could not be ignored.

This package contained a letter folded into eighths and tucked between styrofoam headstones.
Unsure of where to start, Keith turned to Facebook. "I found this in a box of Halloween decorations" she typed beneath a photo of the letter. She wanted to spread the message.
The Facebook post sparked a slew of responses. Her friends had heard of labor camp horrors. But a letter from one of those camps? Never.
"I'm sure that person feared for his/her life to include that letter in the products, but it was a chance they were obviously willing to take," one friend wrote. "We take our freedom for granted!"
"What's weird to me is someone is actually thinking about, and praying something comes of this ... every day of their life since they sent it out," another wrote. "Makes me sad this even happens"
Some friends offered help, others asked for updates.
The anonymous letter evoked skepticism, too. Written largely in English scrawl, it was almost too bold of an act to seem plausible. Still, U.S. authorities on China took note.
"We're in no position to confirm the veracity or origin of this," said Sophie Richardson, China director at Human Rights Watch. "I think it is fair to say the conditions described in the letter certainly conform to what we know about conditions in re-education through labor camps."
China's re-education through labor is a system of punishment that allows for detention without trial. Various reports allege followers of the banned spiritual group, Falun Gong, are sent to the reform camps – claims supported in the letter – but the facts are difficult to confirm.
Masanjia labor camp is located in the industrialized capital of the Liaoning Province in northeast China. A Google search of the camp yields pages of grim results.
"If this thing is the real deal, that's somebody saying please help me, please know about me, please react," Richardson said. "That's our job."

If truly created in a forced labor camp, the Halloween graveyard kit from Kmart's "Totally Ghoul" product line could bring a blow to the U.S. chain of discount stores.
Title 19, section 1307 of U.S. Code generally prohibits the importation of all items "mined, produced or manufactured" in any foreign country by convict labor, forced labor and/or indentured labor.
After the Oregonian informed the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement about the letter, ICE's Homeland Security Investigations began looking into the case, public affairs officer Andrew Munoz confirmed.
Sears Holdings Corporation, which operates Kmart, released a statement on the matter:
"Sears Holdings has a Global Compliance Program which helps to ensure that vendors and factories producing merchandise for our company adhere to specific Program Requirements, and all local laws pertaining to employment standards and workplace practices. Failure to comply with any of the Program Requirements, including the use of forced labor, may result in a loss of business or factory termination. We understand the seriousness of this allegation, and will continue to investigate."
Daniel Ruiz, section chief of the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center's commercial fraud unit, said it would be difficult to predict the length of an investigation like this, which would involve American and Chinese authorities. Investigative findings would be released, he said, only if the agency takes action.

Julie Keith now checks the label of everything she buys, down to the Gingerbread house she purchased for the holidays. Her friends, she said, do the same.
"If I really don't need it, I won't buy it if it's made in China," she said. "This has really made me more aware. I hope it would make a difference."

Ted Nugent talks gun control

What Can Happen Without the 2nd Amendment. Charlton Heston's Famous 5 Words

Sunday, December 23, 2012

The Law Says Deport Piers Morgan

A petition on the White House website calling for CNN host Piers Morgan to be deported is likely to reach 25,000 signatures, a benchmark that will mandate a White House response. The petition, which was initiated by Infowars, states; British Citizen and CNN television host Piers Morgan is engaged in a hostile attack against the U.S. Constitution by targeting the Second Amendment. We demand that Mr. Morgan be deported immediately for his effort to undermine the Bill of Rights and for exploiting his position as a national network television host to stage attacks against the rights of American citizens. Infowars is calling for Morgan’s deportation for a number of very specific reasons. - It’s one thing for an American citizen to ideologically assault and trash the Constitution, although odious such activity would be protected under the First Amendment, but Piers Morgan is a foreigner in a position of influence on prime time television. He is a foreign agent using his power to lobby for the constitutional rights of American citizens to be overturned. - If I was on British television every night calling for the Queen to be dethroned and kicked out on the streets, many British people would also call for me to be deported. Morgan is subverting the very foundation of American freedom, the second amendment. - In joining with others like Mayor Bloomberg to lobby for Americans’ rights to be revoked and their property and birthright to be removed, Morgan is committing a clear act of subversion and should be deported. The fact that he is visiting with President Obama and posing for photos with him is also of grave concern. - Morgan has ideologically aligned himself with other foreign agents in trashing the Constitution, including synthetic citizens like his CNN colleague Fareed Zakaria, the Communist Chinese government, and the Russian government (via state-controlled media). - In other tweets, Morgan openly brags about how he is a foreign agent coming to conquer America. - Piers Morgan’s claim that he had no knowledge of the phone hacking scandal has been described by Lord Justice Leveson as “utterly unpersuasive”. Morgan should be extradited back to Britain to face charges for his alleged involvement in the scandal. - Public officials tasked with representing the interests of the American people have to swear an oath to uphold and protect the Constitution. In aggressively and repeatedly attempting to eviscerate that very Constitution, Piers Morgan has singled himself out as a threat to the liberties of the American people. Although it’s likely that the White House will be forced to issue a glib response to the petition, we don’t think it’s likely that Piers Morgan will be deported. However, if all the media attention that has been focused on Morgan’s offensive and dangerous rhetoric serves as a reminder that foreigners have no business telling Americans what rights should and should not apply to them under the Constitution, then the White House petition will have been worth it. Paul Joseph Watson contributed to this report. ********************* Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Infowars.com and Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a host for Infowars Nightly News.

British-Style Gun Control Coming to America? Get Up, Stand Up!

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Texas District Allows Teachers To Carry A Gun In School



School districts across the country are looking to Northwest Texas in the wake of the wake of the deadly school attack in Connecticut.

Harrold ISD is located northwest of Wichita Falls. The city of Harrold is remote and has no police department. The closest law enforcement is 30 minutes away.

Teachers with a concealed carry license are allowed to bring a gun to school.

"My mantra has been this: as school personnel with children here we are our first responders," Harrold Superintendent David Thweatt said. "My goal is if someone tries to come in and hurt my little ones that they are killed."

He believes teachers armed with a gun will prevent a school shooting.

In 2007 the district adopted a policy called the Guardian Plan. It has four components but essentially teachers who have a concealed handgun license may carry a gun with them to school.

In the five years it has been in place, there have been no incidents at the school. Thweatt attributes that to the extra security measures the district has taken.

Most students do not a problem with the policy.

"It's just like seeing a clock in the room, not even in your mind you just know that it's there."

"I like it because it kind of makes me feel safer because I mean, we don't have a police station here."

Parent Michael Hopkins agrees.

"I don't have any issues with it at all," he said. "If one of those guys gets into the school, he's met with an armed resistance."

Superintendent Thweat says it's his job to protect students and teachers the best he can.

"My call to the parents at the end of the day is 'your child is coming home, the bad guy he's dead.'"

The Texas Tribune reports that under federal and state law, school districts can grant written permission for anyone, including certain employees, to carry firearms on campus

Gov. Rick Perry Backs Teachers Packing Heat

Adan Salazar
Infowars.com
December 18, 2012

Compounding a mild pro-gun rant with a declaration to consider a 2016 presidential run, Texas Governor Rick Perry affirmed his commitment to the Second Amendment by encouraging allowing all teachers in the state to carry guns on campus at a Tea Party event Monday.



Describing his premier presidential run as “an extraordinary experience” he said he “would do it again.”

The Rep. governor expressed his belief that, once a concealed carry license is obtained, there should be no restrictions to where a person can carry a gun in the state: “In the state of Texas, with our concealed handgun license, if you have been duly backgrounded and trained and you are a concealed handgun license carrying individual, you should be able to carry your handgun anywhere in this state.”

Reportedly, just as he began talking about a school district that already allows teachers to decide whether they want to pack heat or not, “he was interrupted by loud applause from the crowd,” according to the Associated Press.

“One of the things that I hope we don’t see from our federal government is this knee-jerk reaction from Washington, D.C., when there is an event that occurs, that they come in and they think they know the answer,” Perry stated at the Tea Party forum in North Richland Hills, just north of Fort Worth.

Perry’s pro-gun remarks arrive amid a heated national gun control debate in which governors across the country are either defending the Second Amendment or taking steps to destroy it.

A Senate bill (S.B. 59) passed by the Michigan house would allow citizens to carry firearms into “pistol free” zones; it awaits Gov. Rick Snyder’s signature.

New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez told the Albuquerque Journal the state should “consider legislation to keep guns out of the hands of the mentally ill” before considering more drastic action.

Some legislators are geniunely confused about the entire situation and don’t know where to put the blame.

Arizona governor Jan Brewer, whose state weathered heavy Second Amendment attacks following last year’s Tucson shooting, says the answer may lie in evaluating behavioral health services, not in gun control, while Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper pointed to video games and a “culture of violence” as the main contributing factors in these types of attacks.

“There might well be some direct connection between people who have some mental instability and when they go over the edge – they transport themselves, they become part of one of those video games,” Hickelooper told CNN’s State of the Union.

Still, other governors think the answer lies in destroying what’s left of the Second Amendment.

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick said he will keep pushing for stricter gun laws, not only in his state, but federally, saying, “there must be some kind of balance that can be struck between the interests of sportsmen and hunters and the need to keep automatic weapons and large magazines, with all these rounds and the kind of ammunition that was used in Newtown, off the streets.”

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn, according to the Chicago Tribune, “said he hoped the scope of the tragedy would motivate state lawmakers to act by early next month on a state ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.”

Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy, unsurprisingly, also called for tougher federal gun regulations at a press conference yesterday, stating, “Do I think Washington, D.C. needs to get its act together and enact stricter gun control laws at the federal level? You bet I do.”

At least one school district in Texas already allows teachers to carry concealed.

Meanwhile, one gun store in Austin is already offering teachers a $20 discount if they would like to apply for a concealed handgun license. “As we do with veterans, I would offer them a discount. Our normal rate is $110.00, so I would give them a rate of $90.00,” Crocket Keller of Kellers Riverside Gun Store told CBS Dallas.

Surviving 2012-2013 & The Coming Years In North America, Europe & The Rest of the World

Oath Keeper Sheriff Richard Mack

Sunday, December 9, 2012

New Light on the Nazca Lines

Phys.org
December 9, 2012


(WT-shared) Shoestring at wts.wikivoyage, via Wikimedia Commons

The first findings of the most detailed study yet by two British archaeologists into the Nazca Lines – enigmatic drawings created between 2,100 and 1,300 years ago in the Peruvian desert – have been published in the latest issue of the journal Antiquity.

As part of a five-year investigation, Dr Nicholas Saunders of the University of Bristol’s Department of Archaeology and Anthropology and Professor Clive Ruggles of the University of Leicester walked 1,500 km of desert in southern Peru, tracing the lines and geometric figures created by the Nasca people between 100 BC and AD 700.

The confusing palimpsest of desert drawings has attracted a host of theories purporting to explain them ever since they were discovered during the 1920s – notably the bizarre ideas of Erich Von Daniken who supposed they were made by visiting extra-terrestrials.

Read full article

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

TSA Claims It Is Above Congressional Oversight.

Steve WatsonInfowars.com
Nov 28, 2012


The TSA has refused to attend a House Transportation hearing this week, with agency head John Pistole personally refusing to appear and declaring that the Congressional Committee has “no jurisdiction over the TSA”.
The hearing, schedule for Thursday, will be held by the Subcommittee on Aviation, a part of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee (TIC). It is titled HOW BEST TO IMPROVE OUR NATION’S AIRPORT PASSENGER SECURITY SYSTEM THROUGH COMMON SENSE SOLUTIONS.
Headed by Rep. Thomas Petri, it will “examine the impact that the regulations and policies of the Transportation Security Administration have on aviation passenger experience and the free flow of aviation commerce,” according to a brief on the subcommittee’s website (PDF).
The TIC’s website indicates that TSA head John Pistole has been asked to testify at the hearing. However, a statement issued on the TSA’s website made it clear that neither Pistole, nor any TSA official intends to attend the hearing.
The statement reads:
By U.S. House of Representatives rules which state that the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee has no jurisdiction over the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), no representative from TSA will be present at the Subcommittee on Aviation hearing scheduled for Nov. 29.
TSA will continue to work with its committees of jurisdiction to pursue effective and efficient security solutions. In the 112th Congress alone, TSA witnesses have testified at 38 hearings and provided 425 briefings for Members of Congress.
TSA also continues to work to enhance security screening measures and to improve the passenger experience including through the expansion of TSA Pre?™. As part of its risk-based security initiatives, TSA has modified screening procedures for passengers 12 and under and 75 and older while pursuing a multi-layered approach to security that includes behavior detection officers, explosives-detection systems and federal air marshals, among other measures both seen and unseen.
House Republicans on the TIC have made it clear that they believe the TSA is in dire need of reform. A section on the Committee’s website describes the TSA as “a massive, inflexible, backward-looking bureaucracy of more than 65,000.”
“TSA is a top-heavy agency in need of reform,” the site also states.
The TIC is currently headed by Rep. John Mica, a consistent critic of the TSA, who has pushed for airports to ditch the agency and replace it with private security screeners. Mica, who wrote the legislation that established the TSA, recently declared the agency to be a miserable failure.
In the next Congress, Mica will make way for Pennsylvania Rep. Bill Shuster. When asked by reporters for a reaction on the TSA’s refusal to testify at Thursday’s hearing, and the agency’s declaration that it is not beholden to the Committee, Shuster said “I don’t think we have direct jurisdiction but when they impede commerce, when they impede the traveling public, they need to answer to the committee.”
Speaking to Bloomberg News, Shuster said he “absolutely” expects TSA officials to appear at transportation committee hearings. Asked what will happen if they refuse to testify, Shuster said: “We’ll cross that bridge when we get there.”
With public backlash against the TSA at an all time high, and given the scrutiny that the TSA has faced at the hands of the TIC and its subcommittees, it is somewhat unsurprising that agency head Pistole is no longer willing to face the music as it were.

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Secession: Are We Free To Go!

Ron Paul
Infowars.com
November 21, 2012

photo Thomas Jefferson believed secession was proper, albeit as a last resort.
Is all the recent talk of secession mere sour grapes over the election, or perhaps something deeper? Currently there are active petitions in support of secession for all 50 states, with Texas taking the lead in number of signatures. Texas has well over the number of signatures needed to generate a response from the administration, and while I wouldn’t hold my breath on Texas actually seceding, I believe these petitions raise a lot of worthwhile questions about the nature of our union.
Is it treasonous to want to secede from the United States? Many think the question of secession was settled by our Civil War. On the contrary; the principles of self-governance and voluntary association are at the core of our founding. Clearly Thomas Jefferson believed secession was proper, albeit as a last resort. Writing to William Giles in 1825, he concluded that states:
“should separate from our companions only when the sole alternatives left, are the dissolution of our Union with them, or submission to a government without limitation of powers.”
Keep in mind that the first and third paragraphs of the Declaration of Independence expressly contemplate the dissolution of a political union when the underlying government becomes tyrannical.
Do we have a “government without limitation of powers” yet? The Federal government kept the Union together through violence and force in the Civil War, but did might really make right?
Secession is a deeply American principle. This country was born through secession. Some felt it was treasonous to secede from England, but those “traitors” became our country’s greatest patriots.
There is nothing treasonous or unpatriotic about wanting a federal government that is more responsive to the people it represents. That is what our Revolutionary War was all about and today our own federal government is vastly overstepping its constitutional bounds with no signs of reform. In fact, the recent election only further entrenched the status quo. If the possibility of secession is completely off the table there is nothing to stop the federal government from continuing to encroach on our liberties and no recourse for those who are sick and tired of it.
Consider the ballot measures that passed in Colorado and Washington state regarding marijuana laws. The people in those states have clearly indicated that they are ready to try something different where drug policy is concerned, yet they will still face a tremendous threat from the federal government. In California, the Feds have been arresting peaceful medical marijuana users and raiding dispensaries that state and local governments have sanctioned. This shouldn’t happen in a free country.
It remains to be seen what will happen in states that are refusing to comply with the deeply unpopular mandates of Obamacare by not setting up healthcare exchanges. It appears the Federal government will not respect those decisions either.
In a free country, governments derive their power from the consent of the governed. When the people have very clearly withdrawn their consent for a law, the discussion should be over. If the Feds refuse to accept that and continue to run roughshod over the people, at what point do we acknowledge that that is not freedom anymore? At what point should the people dissolve the political bands which have connected them with an increasingly tyrannical and oppressive federal government? And if people or states are not free to leave the United States as a last resort, can they really think of themselves as free?
If a people cannot secede from an oppressive government, they cannot truly be considered free.

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Disearnment

One thing I want to say is use your own disearnment in what is going on in the world. CYA

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Arrest People Who Call For State Secession Say Democrats.

Seven states qualify for secession response from White House


The petitions for secession from the U.S. filed by Texas, Louisiana, and five other states have collected more than 25,000 signatures each, which the White House website says is enough for review and response.
WASHINGTON - Citizens from more than 40 states have filed petitions with the White House seeking to secede from the union, and by Wednesday, seven states had gathered enough signatures to qualify for a response to the largely symbolic protest.
The petitions, which have been signed by a small percentage of state residents, have virtually no chance of succeeding. The United States' bloodiest conflict, the 1861-1865 Civil War, erupted after 11 states withdrew from the union.
The White House has set up a "We the People" page on its website that allows Americans to file petitions on issues of concern. If a petition collects 25,000 signatures, the website says, the administration will review and respond to it.
The petition filed by Texas residents has racked up about 100,000 signatures. Six others from Louisiana, Florida, North Carolina, Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee have collected 30,000.
Among the seven states, only Florida gave its electoral votes to Democratic President Barack Obama in last week's election.
The Texas petition says the United States is suffering from economic troubles stemming from the federal government's failure to reform spending. It also complains of alleged rights abuses committed by agencies like the Transportation Security Administration.
"Given that the state of Texas maintains a balanced budget and is the 15th largest economy in the world, it is practically feasible for Texas to withdraw from the union," it said.
A counter-petition has been filed calling for the state capital Austin to secede from Texas and remain part of the United States.

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Citizens from 34 States Petition the White House to Secede from the U.S.

Adan Salazar
Infowars.com
November 13, 2012

Citizens from 14 additional states have opened up petitions on the White House’s “We the People” petition submission site – the government’s “new, easy way for Americans to make their voice heard in our government” – asking to allow “peaceful withdrawal” from the continental United States, a staggering increase from the 20 states reported yesterday.
Concerned citizens from the states of Alaska, Arizona, California, Delaware, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Wyoming, to name a few, now all have petitions inching their way towards the signature threshold of 25,000 on the government site. If the petitions reach the threshold, they will require a response from the Obama administration.
After enough signatures are garnered, members from all major policy offices “will help determine which policy office in the White House or federal agency should review and respond to petitions and ensure that petition responses are posted as quickly as possible.”
So far, two states, Texas and Louisiana, have reached their required signature thresholds and will require responses. Florida’s petition should reach the threshold by the end of the day.
Here’s the latest list of states and signature counts as of writing this. Some citizens in a few states have opened up multiple petitions for the same state.

  1. Alaska (2,814)
  2. Alabama (19,718)
  3. Arizona (11,642)
  4. Arkansas (14,384)
  5. California (5,444)
  6. Colorado (14,111)
  7. Delaware (4,532)
  8. Florida (21,129)
  9. Georgia (19,802), Georgia (9,457)
  10. Indiana (12,938)
  11. Kansas (2,786)
  12. Kentucky (12,319)
  13. Louisiana (28,741)
  14. Michigan (12,868)
  15. Mississippi (12,355)
  16. Missouri, Missouri
  17. Montana (9,634)
  18. Nebraska (1,879)
  19. Nevada (5,941)
  20. New Jersey (9,961)
  21. New York (3,974), New York (11,084)
  22. North Carolina (18,601)
  23. North Dakota (8,633)
  24. Ohio (1,010), Ohio (5,357)
  25. Oklahoma (3,681), Oklahoma (11,013)
  26. Oregon (10,158)
  27. Pennsylvania (2,420), Pennsylvania (7,624)
  28. S.C. (15,045), South Carolina (10,948)
  29. South Dakota (1,372)
  30. Tennessee (19,030)
  31. Texas (70,791)
  32. Utah (626), Utah (4,028)
  33. West Virginia (1,530)
  34. Wyoming (4,069)
Most of the petitions cite phrases straight out of the founding fathers’ Declaration of Independence, which states, “When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.”
Alaska’s petition asks for a “free election” to allow citizens of Alaska to decide if they “should be a free and Independent Nation.”
It was suspected that petitions were only being submitted by states from the original confederacy, which could potentially indicate racism towards Obama; however, the support of various other states in the nation has helped quash that theory.
Not everyone’s on board with the idea. One person put up a petition asking for signatures to support the deportation of everyone that signed the previous secession petitions. Another asked the U.S. to strip the citizenship of those who signed the petition and to “exile them.”
According to the site’s FAQ section, anyone with a valid e-mail address and age “13 or older can create or sign an online petition seeking a federal government action on a range of issues. Then it’s up to the petition creator and signers to build support for the petition by gathering more signatures.”
Seth Masket, a political science professor at the University of Denver, told the Washington Times that petitions of this nature won’t be taken seriously by the president or the administration and are little more than grandiose gestures illustrating the discontent of voters. “It’s hard to see this as anything other than sour grapes,” Mr. Masket told the Washington Times via e-mail. “These petitions have no legal power and no president would ever agree to them. It’s a way to register dissent with the way the majority of the country voted last week, but it’s little beyond that.”
The White House will still have to come up with some type of response for petitions that reached the 25,000 mark but they don’t give a specific time frame for when a response should be expected.

Friday, November 9, 2012

Vote Fraud Expert: Romney Votes Not Counted in Key States


Florida and Ohio called for Obama before substantial number of ballots checked
Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
November 9, 2012
Vote fraud expert Bev Harris told the Alex Jones Show that a substantial number of votes for Mitt Romney in the key battleground states of Florida and Ohio, both of which went to Obama, were not even counted before the result was announced.

Harris, the founder of non-partisan elections watchdog Black Box Voting Inc., is a well known vote fraud expert whose work has been featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, Time Magazine, CNN, ABC, MSNBC, CBS, Fox News, and NBC.
Harris said that a number of problems with voting in the days after the election came “flooding in” from across the country. As we previously highlighted, reports of electronic voting machine irregularities were widespread almost as soon as voting began on Tuesday.
Harris pointed to the actions of Karl Rove, who confronted Fox News for calling Ohio for Obama when only a mere fraction of the votes had been counted and the two candidates were separated by just 100,000 votes.
Rove attempted to explain to Fox News anchors that there were far too many outstanding votes left to be able to call Ohio for Obama, at least half a million and many in Romney strongholds, but his concerns were instantly dismissed.
“Based not on actual votes, but on projections from a single private entity, the National Election Pool (NEP), we were all told what the election results were going to be. When Rove pulled out his notes and calculations, he was basically told “Shut up, this is a science,” writes Harris.
Harris said the Ohio example was “emblematic” of what occurred throughout the night.
“I watched them call Tennessee eleven minutes after the polls closed without a single vote counted and with no exit poll,” Harris told the Alex Jones Show, joking that the people counting the ballots must have been “clairvotant”.
“Nobody knows anything about elections nowadays, what we are doing is watching the TV networks announce to us who the winner is based on a single private organization called NEP,” said Harris.
In Florida, which Democrats are claiming as an Obama victory, Harris noted how the voting trend changed only after the lights went out.
“They were calling Florida for Obama, they were separated by 40,000 votes, Pinellas County had just announced ‘we’ve set aside 10,000 ballots that we won’t count until tomorrow’….this is the stuff that’s really going on, there were 400,000 uncounted provisional ballots in Arizona and there were massive meltdowns in Pima County….so we are just now beginning to unravel what really happened during this election,” said Harris.
Harris emphasized that she was an Independent and supported neither major candidate, but that the system was obviously broken and bore little resemblance to a democratic process.
She also pointed out how the outcomes of key battleground states were announced before the voting machine results were even counted.
Harris said she was still going through the reams of data in her possession and would be releasing more information on her website next week.
“If we’re going to accept the idea that they can just tell us who won without counting any votes then….do we deserve this?” asked Harris.
*********************
Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Infowars.com and Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a host for Infowars Nightly News

Back Yard Farming

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Globalists Pull Out All Stops to Grab Guns After Obama Victory

photoAndy Warhol.


Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com
November 8, 2012

Prior to the election, Infowars.com warned that Obama, his Democrat allies and the internationalist gun-grabbers would move their agenda to disarm America forward if Obama was reappointed on November 6.
“Less than 24 hours after winning re-election, President Barack Obama’s administration joined with China, France, Germany and the United Kingdom, and more than 150 other governments, in supporting renewed debate on the proposed United Nations Arms Trade Treaty, confirming the worst fears of the American gun rights community,” the Second Amendment Foundation reported on Wednesday.
“U.N. delegates and gun control activists have complained that talks collapsed in July largely because Obama feared attacks from Republican rival Mitt Romney if his administration was seen as supporting the pact, a charge Washington denies,” the New York Times reported the same day.
157 governments at the United Nations General Assembly’s First Committee on Disarmament in New York on Wednesday voted to disarm citizens. The measure now goes to the 193-nation General Assembly for a formal vote where it is expected to pass.
“MPs and PGA [globalist Parliamentarians for Global Action] legislators all around the world, as well as many of the colleagues with whom we work, are deeply committed to making the ATT [Arms Trade Treaty] a meaningful reality in the near future,” PGA president and New Zealand Member of Parliament Ross Robertson said.
“We want a strong ATT and we want it soon. We will move heaven and earth to see that, once it is in place, it is signed, ratified and implemented in all our countries as soon as possible,” he added.
A gun buy boom followed the election as millions of Americans went out and stocked up on firearms and ammo, fearing the inevitable.
“People are definitely scared of a president who has voted when he was a senator against guns,” Anthony Bouchard, director of the Wyoming Gun Owners Association in Cheyenne told the Wyoming Star Tribune. “[If Obama gets re-elected] he’s in a lame-duck session and he can do the things he wants to do. That’s what we’re afraid of.”
Obama’s record as an aggressive gun-grabber is clear and during his second term he will have little to fear from defenders of the Second Amendment.
“Don’t forget that an Illinois senator named Barack Obama was an aggressive advocate for expanding gun control laws, and even voted against legislation giving gun owners an affirmative defense when they use firearms to defend themselves and their families against home invaders and burglars,” writes Larry Bell for Forbes. “That was after he served on a 10-member board of directors of the radically activist anti-gun Joyce Foundation in Chicago which contributed large grants to anti-Second Amendment organizations.”

Saturday, October 6, 2012

Growing Radishes

Radish is a cool-season, fast-maturing, easy-to-grow vegetable. Garden radishes can be grown wherever there is sun and moist, fertile soil, even on the smallest city lot. Early varieties usually grow best in the cool days of early spring, but some later-maturing varieties can be planted for summer use. The variety French Breakfast holds up and grows better than most early types in summer heat if water is supplied regularly. Additional sowings of spring types can begin in late summer, to mature in the cooler, moister days of fall. Winter radishes are sown in midsummer to late summer, much as fall turnips. They are slower to develop than spring radishes; and they grow considerably larger, remain crisp longer, are usually more pungent and hold in the ground or store longer than spring varieties

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

What is Next?

October 3, 2012 It’s only natural that the Democratic incumbent, Barack Obama, and the Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, should participate in tonight’s first presidential debate, but in fact there are two other candidates who qualified for the ballot in enough states that they could, technically, win the election. Gary Johnson of the Libertarian Party is on the ballot of 48 states and Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party is on 39 state ballots. In a pure democracy it would be considered a given that Johnson and Stein would join Obama and Romney on stage, but in the United States elections don’t work that way. That’s because the three presidential debates are run not by the government, but by a nonprofit organization, the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD). The CPD was created in 1987 by the Democratic and Republican parties as a bipartisan—rather than a nonpartisan—effort.

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

DHS Purchases 200 Million More Rounds of Ammunition


Additional purchase includes bullets designated for snipers

Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Following controversy over its purchase of around 1.2 billion bullets in the last six months alone, the Department of Homeland Security has put out a new solicitation for over 200 million more rounds of ammunition, some of which are designated to be used by snipers.



A series of new solicitations posted on the FedBizOpps website show that the DHS is looking to purchase 200 million rounds of .223 rifle ammunition over the next four years, as well as 176,000 rounds of .308 caliber 168 grain hollow point boat tail (HPBT) rounds in addition to 25,000 rounds of blank .308 caliber bullets.

As James Smith over at the Prepper Podcast website highlights, “It is the type of ammunition and not necessarily the quantity that is troubling.”

Smith points out that the DHS’ acquisition of .308 rounds is of concern because they are set to be used by well-trained snipers.

“All of the sniper grade ammunition is being used by trained, or in-the-process-of-being-trained snipers,” writes Smith, noting that the math adds up to 135,384 potential kills for the snipers to make, using the 176,000 rounds of ammunition, basing the figures on the fact that United States Army and Marine Corps snipers in the Vietnam War expended 1.3 rounds of ammunition for each claimed and verified kill.

As this police training website documents, .308 caliber 168 grain bullets are the ammunition of choice for experienced law enforcement snipers.



The number of bullets purchased by the DHS now adds up to a staggering 1.4 billion over the last six months alone. Although all those bullets won’t be delivered at once, the DHS’ commitment to purchasing such an arsenal of ammo is both worrying and ironic given that Americans are being harassed and treated with suspicion for buying a couple of boxes of ammo at their local gun store.

Following a barrage of questions about why the federal agency has purchased so many bullets, the DHS has refused to respond and even gone to the lengths of censoring information relating to solicitations for ammunition.

The DHS’ decision back in March to purchase of 450 million rounds of .40-caliber hollow point bullets that are designed to expand upon entry and cause maximum organ damage prompted questions as to why the federal agency required such powerful bullets and in such large quantities merely for training purposes.

This was followed up by a more recent order for a further 750 million rounds of assorted ammunition, including bullets that can penetrate walls.

The mainstream media responded to the controversy by focusing on a purchase of 174,000 bullets by the Social Security Administration while completely ignoring the fact that the DHS had purchased well over a billion rounds.

Although the Associated Press and other media outlets dismissed concerns over the federal government purchasing large quantities of ammunition as paranoia, the fact that the DHS is preparing for civil unrest cannot be denied.

Having recently acquired riot gear, the DHS also purchased a number of bullet-proof checkpoint booths that include ‘stop and go’ lights.

Last year, Department of Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano directed ICE to prepare for a mass influx of immigrants into the United States, calling for the plan to deal with the “shelter” and “processing” of large numbers of people.

The U.S. Army has also been preparing for domestic disorder.

A recently leaked US Army Military Police training manual for “Civil Disturbance Operations” outlines how military assets are to be used domestically to quell riots, confiscate firearms and even kill Americans on U.S. soil during mass civil unrest.

On page 20 of the manual, rules regarding the use of “deadly force” in confronting “dissidents” are made disturbingly clear with the directive that a, “Warning shot will not be fired.”

The manual includes lists of weapons to be used against “rioters” or “demonstrators,” including “antiriot grenades.” It also advises troops to carry their guns in the “safe port arms” stance, a psychological tactic aimed at “making a show of force before rioters.” Non-lethal weapons and water cannons are also included.

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Saving Seeds from your Garden

When saving seed, always harvest from the best. Choose disease-free plants with qualities you desire. Look for the most flavorful vegetables or beauitful flowers. Consider size, harvest time and other characteristics.
Always harvest mature seed. For example, cucumber seeds at the eating stage are not ripe and will not germinate if saved. You must allow the fruit and seed to fully mature. Because seed set reduces the vigor of the plant and discourages further fruit production, wait untill near the end of the season to save fruit for seed.
Seeds are mature or ripe when flowers are faded and dry or have puffy tops. Plants with pods, like beans, are ready when the pods are brown and dry. When seeds are ripe they usually turn from white to cream colored or light brown to dark brown. Collect the seed or fruits when most of the seed is ripe. Do not wait for everything to mature because you may lose most of the seed to birds or animals.
Beans, peas, onions, carrots, corn, most flowers and herb seeds are prepared by a dry method. Allow the seed to mature and dry as long as possible on the plant. Complete the drying process by spreading on a screen in a single layer in a well-ventilated dry location. As the seed dries the chaff or pods can be removed or blown gently away. An alternative method for extremely small or lightweight seed is putting the dry seed heads into paper bags that will catch the seed as it falls out.
Seed contained in fleshy fruits should be cleaned using the wet method. Tomatoes, melons, squash, cucumber and roses are prepared this way. Scoop the seed masses out of the fruit or lightly crush fruits. Put the seed mass and a small amount of warm water in a bucket or jar. Let the mix ferment for two to four days. Stir daily. The fermentation process kills viruses and separates the good seed from the bad seed and fruit pulp. After two to four days, the good viable seeds will sink to the bottom of the container while the pulp and bad seed float. Pour off the pulp, water, bad seed and mold. Spread the good seed on a screen or paper towel to dry.
Seeds must be stored dry. Place in glass jar or envelopes. Make sure you label all the containers or packages with the seed type or variety, and date. Put in the freezer for two days to kill pests. Then store in a cool dry location like a refrigerator. Seed that molds was not completely dry before storage.
Seed viability decreases over time. Parsley, onion, and sweet corn must be used the next year. Most seed should be used within three years.
Seed saving is essential for maintaining unusual or heritage vegetables and flowers. It is a great way to propagate many native plants too.

Is America Still a Free Country

Thursday, August 30, 2012

An Open Message to Gun Control Supporters

An Executive Order You Should Know About


Dear Friend,

With all that is going in Washington these days some things don’t make the news the way they should. Fourteen days ago President Obama issued an Executive Order that you should know about. This order gives an unprecedented level of authority to the President and the federal government to take over all the fundamental parts of our economy - in the name of national security - in times of national emergency.

This means all of our water resources, construction services and materials (steel, concrete, etc.), our civil transportation system, food and health resources, our energy supplies including oil and natural gas – even farm equipment – can be taken over by the President and his cabinet secretaries. The Government can also draft U.S. citizens into the military and force U.S. citizens to fulfill "labor requirements" for the purposes of "national defense." There is not even any Congressional oversight, only briefings are required.

By issuing this as an Executive Order the President puts the federal government above the law, which, in a democracy, is never supposed to happen.

As President and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, he has the Constitutional authority to issue executive orders. And while similar orders have been made before by presidents from Eisenhower and Reagan to Clinton and George Bush – it has never been done to this extent.

It is still unclear why this order was signed now, and what the consequences are for our nation – especially during times of peace. This type of Martial Law imposes a government takeover on U.S. citizens that is typically reserved for national emergencies, not in a time of relative peace.

I want you to know I am following this very closely. If you would like to read the order for yourself please click here.


Sincerely,

Kay Granger
Member of Congress

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

ABCNews.com: Va. Veteran Detained After Strident Facebook Posts‏

Va. Veteran Detained After Strident Facebook Posts
By LARRY O'DELL Associated Press
August 20, 2012
A former Marine involuntarily detained for psychiatric evaluation for posting strident anti-government messages on Facebook has received an outpouring of support from people who say authorities are trampling on his First Amendment rights.
Brandon J. Raub, 26, has been in custody since FBI, Secret Service agents and police in Virginia's Chesterfield County questioned him Thursday evening about what they said were ominous posts talking about a coming revolution. In one message earlier this month according to authorities, Raub wrote: "Sharpen my axe; I'm here to sever heads."
Police — acting under a state law that allows emergency, temporary psychiatric commitments upon the recommendation of a mental health professional — took Raub to the John Randolph Medical Center in Hopewell. He was not charged with any crime.
A Virginia-based civil liberties group, The Rutherford Institute, dispatched one of its attorneys to the hospital to represent Raub at a hearing Monday. A judge ordered Raub detained for another month, Rutherford executive director John Whitehead said.
"For government officials to not only arrest Brandon Raub for doing nothing more than exercising his First Amendment rights but to actually force him to undergo psychological evaluations and detain him against his will goes against every constitutional principle this country was founded upon," Whitehead said.
Raub's mother, Cathleen Thomas, said by telephone that the government had overstepped its bounds.
"The bottom line is his freedom of speech has been violated," she said.
Thomas said her son, who served tours as a combat engineer in Iraq and Afghanistan, is "concerned about all the wars we've experienced" and believes the U.S. government was complicit in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. One of his Facebook posts, she said, pictured the gaping hole in the Pentagon and asked "where's the plane?"
Whitehead said he found nothing alarming in Raub's social media commentaries. "The posts I read that supposedly were of concern were libertarian-type posts I see all the time," he said.
The big concern, Whitehead said, is whether government officials are monitoring citizens' private Facebook pages and detaining people with whom they disagree.
Dee Rybiski, an FBI spokeswoman in Richmond, said there was no Facebook snooping by her agency.
"We received quite a few complaints about what were perceived as threatening posts," she said. "Given the circumstances with the things that have gone on in the country with some of these mass shootings, it would be horrible for law enforcement not to pay attention to complaints."
Whitehead said some of the posts in question were made on a closed Facebook page that Raub had recently created so he questioned whether anyone from the public would have complained about them.
"Support Brandon Raub" Facebook pages have drawn significant interest, and other Internet sites had numerous comments from people outraged by the veteran's detention.
Raub's supporters characterized the detention as an arrest, complaining he was handcuffed and whisked away in a police cruiser without being served a warrant or read his rights. But authorities say it wasn't an arrest because Raub doesn't face criminal charges.
Col. Thierry Dupuis, the county police chief, said Raub was taken into custody upon the recommendation of mental health crisis intervention workers. He said the action was taken under the state's emergency custody statute, which allows a magistrate to order the civil detention and psychiatric evaluation of a person who is considered potentially dangerous.
He said Raub was handcuffed because he resisted officers' attempts to take him into custody.
———
Follow Larry O'Dell on Twitter: http://twitter.com/LarryOatAP

Friday, August 10, 2012

Growing Garlic


Early autumn is the best time to plant - usually summer finishes and autumn races towards winter and I often find me planting cloves on the colder end of this season. If you really want a successful harvest of these alliums then the cloves NEED to be in the ground at the start of autumn when the ground still has some warmth in it.

The soil needs to be deliciously friable - I know, I know. All we're ever recommended to grow in is friable soil and whoever has that? Well, in the case of growing garlic it's more a necessity than a luxury. Those with clay soils will struggle equally as much as those with sandy soils. The clay soil will restrict the growth of the bulbs in the same way as they encourage bifurcation of carrots. And sandy soils just won't be able to retain the moisture or nutrients that these precocious vegetables demand.

If you want to grow a good crop of garlic then your soil needs to be a welcoming mat. They love a soil that is slightly on the acidic side so pouring compost and manures into your bed before planting will please them beyond imagination.

Keep the soil moist - if your autumn and winters are fairly dry then keeping some irrigation on your young bulbs will prove invaluable. Otherwise, you might just want to mulch the beds. They don't need heaps of water but they don't appreciate drying out either.

Source quality bulbs for planting - most often you can buy bulbs of garlic to grow straight from the supermarket. However, increasingly it seems that many producers are spraying bulbs with growth inhibitors to protect their stock. Your best source for quality bulbs would be from someone who has already grown their own from a past season or from organic producers.

Plant the cloves the right way up! - Like any other bulb, if it's planted incorrectly they will never see the light of day - literally. The base of each clove should be pointing downwards while its peak should face the sun. Fairly obvious, one would assume, but the number of people who ask the question illustrates the need to make the point.

Once your cloves are in the ground you can easily engage the set-and-forget mindset. They will mostly take care of themselves and apart from a side dressing off liquid fertilizer once the foliage begins to show, they won't need much more attention.

Then in late spring, when the leaves begin to die down you can begin to harvest these wonderful veggies leaving them to dry out in the sun before storing. And the best way to store garlic is by braiding and hanging.

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

After Only a Few Short Days Without Food, Human Behevior Turns Ugly.

In the 1950s, the Pentagon conducted a study to find out what people would do at different stages of starvation.
What they discovered was shocking.

After just 10 days without food, 90% of people will steal, pillage and kill for food.
But after a mere 15 days, almost all human beings become cannibal... ready, willing, and...
Even Eager to Eat Their Neighbors!

Nasty stuff right? But at this moment, you are probably quite full. Or, at the very least, you know that your last meal was less than 6 hours ago.

But think about it, in a long-term food shortage, you may not eat for days, possibly weeks.

After just one week without food, hunger will be gnawing away at a person's stomach like a lab rat... fear will be stalking his mind like a serial killer.

But after two weeks, desperation sets in, making people do truly crazy things. Things like theft, murder and yes... even cannibalism.

Thursday, August 2, 2012

Learn how to do Canning at Home

To preserve foods by canning two things must be done. First, sufficient heat must be provided to destroy all microscopic life that will cause spoilage in food; and second a perfect seal must be made which will prevent the re-entrance of microorganisms. These problems of preventing spoilage have been practically solved by the improved methods of canning which are explained below.
Only the freshest of fruits and vegetables should be canned. Canning does not improve the taste of the product; it only preserves it for future use.
Methods of Canning

Open Kettle: This method involves cooking the product completely and pouring it into sterilized jars, using sterilized equipment throughout. The jars are then sealed and stored. The open kettle method is recommended only for preserves, pickles, and foods canned in thick syrup. For other foods use the following methods.

Cold Pack: Cold, raw foods are put into jars and covered with boiling-hot syrup, juice of water. (Tomatoes are pressed down in the jar so they are covered with their own juice.) Jars are partially or completely sealed, following manufactures directions. Jars are then processed in boiling water or in steam to simultaneously cook the food and sterilize the jars.

Hot Pack: Fruits and vegetables are preheated before packing causing shrinkage before food goes into jars. This is the preferred method as preheating the food before packing prevents “floating”, (especially with fruits) and assures a full pack. Processing time is also lessened when food is hot-packed.

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

P-38 and P51 Can Openers

Known as a "John Wayne" by the U.S. Marine Corps because the actor was shown in a training film opening a can of K-Rations, the can opener is pocket-sized (approximately 1.5 inches, 38mm, in length) and consists of a short metal blade that serves as a handle (which doubles as a flat-blade screwdriver), with a small, hinged metal tooth that folds out to pierce the can lid. A notch just under the hinge point keeps the opener hooked around the rim of the can as the device is "walked" around to cut the lid out. A larger version called the P-51 is somewhat easier to operate.

Official military designations for the P-38 include 'US ARMY POCKET CAN OPENER' and 'OPENER, CAN, HAND, FOLDING, TYPE I'. As with some other military terms (e.g. jeep), the origin of the term is not known with certainty; the P-38 opener coincidentally shares a designation with the P-38 'Lightning' fighter plane, which could allude to its fast performance. However, the P-51 can opener, while larger and easier to use than the P-38 can opener, also has a fighter plane namesake in the P-51, which is faster and smaller than the P-38 fighter. One rumored explanation for the origin of the name is that the P-38 is approximately 38 mm (1.5 in) long. This explanation also holds for the P-51, which measures approximately 51 mm (2.0 in) in length. U.S. Army sources, however, indicate that the origin of the name is rooted in the 38 punctures around the circumference of a C-ration can required for opening.

Sunday, July 29, 2012

Practice Your Survival Skills


The subject of survival is a big topic and the beginner, as well as the more experienced, may sometimes feel overwhelmed by the sheer volume of material that one can learn.

I always recommend frequenting the several excellent survival forums and message boards that are on the Internet. These are run by friendly experienced people well versed in the field of survival. Participants in these survival forums are skilled in everything from bushcraft to firecraft to handicraft. They take great pride and pleasure in helping anyone. Often the survival discussions are lively and informative. If you are interested in learning more about survival, you will be welcomed with open arms into the survival community.

In addition there are a number of excellent books and magazines that cover the topic of survival. The basic ways of surviving have not always changed much over hundreds of years, and very old outdoor survival books contain nuggets of wisdom that even modern day survivors can use.

But it is not enough to read survival books and visit online survival forums. You have to get out there and practice your survival skills and survival gear. Set up a lean-to, build a debris hut, build a fire, find water. Test your skills in a variety of conditions and with a variety of materials. Make sure you would be able to do these very same things while injured or when it is wet or cold or blazingly hot.

The more you learn about survival techniques the more you realize how much there is to learn. When faced with a large task it is often easier to break it down into bite sized chunks. Survival experts have found through experience that the foundation of survival rests on five basic survival skills. Master these 5 basic survival skills and you are well on your way to being an expert survivor yourself.

So discuss, read, and practice. That is the way of becoming a survival expert.
5 Basic Survival Skills
Acquiring survival skills is an ongoing process that will last for your entire life. There is always more to learn and experience, which is part of the fun of being a survivor.

As your survival expertise grows the knowledge and abilities you gain are often useful in other areas. For example survivors prepare ahead of time, and they are experts in the art of ingenuity and inventiveness. Excellent attributes for anyone.

The possible environments and situations you could find yourself in are innumerable. Although each situation has its particular requirements for successfully surviving, in the final analysis it is mastery of five basic survival skills that are essential. Proficiency and preparedness in these 5 basic skills will give you the edge and put you on your way toward becoming a talented survivor.

First Basic Survival Skill - Fire

Knowing how to build a fire is the best survival skill you can have. Fire provides warmth, light, and comfort so you get on with the business of survival. Even if you do not have adequate clothing a good fire can allow you to survive in the coldest of environments.

Fire keeps away the creatures that go bump in the night and so you can have the peace of mind and rest you need. And that is not all. Fire will cook your food and purify your water, both excellent attributes when you want to stay healthy when potential disease causing organisms are lurking about. Fire will dry your clothing and even aid in the making of tools and keeping pesky insects at bay.

But even that is not all. Fire and smoke can be used for signaling very long distances.

Always have at least two, and preferably three, ways of making a fire at you immediate disposal. With waterproof matches, a butane lighter, and a magnesium fire starter or firesteel you should be able to create a fire anytime anywhere no matter how adverse the condtions.

So the lesson here is to learn the art of fire craft. Practice and become an expert. Your ability to create a fire is perhaps the most visible mark of an experienced survivor.

Second Basic Survival Skill - Shelter

Shelter protects your body from the outside elements. This includes heat, cold, rain, snow, the sun, and wind. It also protects you from insects and other creatures that seek to do you harm.

The survival expert has several layers of shelter to think about. The first layer of shelter is the clothing you choose to wear. Your clothing is of vital importance and must be wisely chosen according to the environment you are likely to find yourself in. Be sure to dress in layers in order to maximize your ability to adapt to changing conditions.

The next layer of shelter is the one you may have to build yourself, a lean-to or debris hut perhaps. This is only limited by your inventiveness and ingenuity. If the situation requires, your shelter can be insulated with whatever is at hand for the purpose. Being prepared, you may have a space blanket or tarp with you, in which case creating a shelter should be relatively easy.

Before you are in need of making a survival shelter, be sure to practice and experiment with a variety of materials and survival scenarios on a regular basis. Should the need arise you will be glad you did.

Third Basic Survival Skill - Signaling

Signaling allows you to make contact with people who can rescue you without having to be in actual physical contact with them. There are a variety of ways to signal for help. These include using fire and smoke, flashlights, bright colored clothing and other markers, reflective mirrors, whistles, and Personal Locator Beacons. Three of anything is considered a signal for help: 3 gunshots, 3 blows on a whistle, three sticks in the shape of a triangle.

In a pinch, your ingenuity in devising a way to signal potential help could very well save your life.

Fourth Basic Survival Skill - Food and Water