Colorado movie theater shooting

I awoke this morning, as many of you did, hearing about the shooting at the movie theater in Colorado.  This is truly sad news, and my heart goes out to the families of the victims.

The alleged perpetrator was identified as James Holmes, a former college student.  I don't know what the hell he hoped to accomplish by opening fire into a mass of innocent people, most if not all who had to be strangers to him.

What I do know, and feel embarrassment as an American to see, it that among the hundreds of people in that theater not one of them was man enough to take Holmes down once he started shooting innocent people.  It seems as though my fellow countrymen would rather curl up into a ball and wait for death to arrive, rather than take the action necessary to bring the hostilities to an end.

It was dark in there, for Christ's sake, with hundreds of people surrounding him.....there is no way he could have kept track of all his tangos in a situation like that.  One or two men could have taken him down easily from his blind side with minimal chances of being hurt.  Not taking action in that situation is nothing more than cowardice tempered with selfishness on display.

Even if the action you take results in getting shot, the way I see it, a man has got to die sometime.......you may as well make your death count for something meaningful in this world.  Saving all those people in that theater who died unnecessarily counts as something meaningful in my book.

I don't respect anyone displaying cowardice in the face of the enemy.....there was plenty of that happening yesterday, sad to say.

May God have mercy on us.



LWM out.............

Degrees of Preparedness- Level 3

We started off this topic with a discussion of how to prepare for a Level 1 situation followed by what you would need for a Level 2 event.  Today we will talk about preparing for the big daddy, TEOTWAWKI, The End Of The World As We Know It.

This is a good news/bad news scenario.........The bad news is, if a Level 3 event actually happens, our living conditions will revert back to the technology standards of 150 to 200 years ago, and will most likely stay that way for the rest of our lives.

The good news is, that the calamities necessary to cause a Level 3 event are exceedingly rare, and highly unlikely to occur during our lifetimes.  Level 3 prepping will make you and your family as ready as you can be for an event lasting in excess of three months.

Degrees of preparedness- Level 2

In Degrees of Preparedness- Level 1 we talked about what types of survival supplies you would need to keep stocked to make it for 7 days without electricity or water.


In this article we will cover the supplies and gear you need to have for a Level 2 prep, which will outfit you for a three month period of time.  This length of preparation will get you through most natural disasters until your region or community can get back on it's feet.  It is also long enough to get you through the recovery of a terrorist attack, an extended bank holiday if a federal state of emergency is called or let you wait out a quarantine if there is a pandemic.

Water purification information

Having enough pure water to drink is the backbone of survival.  Period.

If you run out of water, you die in less than a week.  If you are drinking impure water, you will end up with a debilitating case of diarrhea at the least, and possibly Cholera, Typhoid or Dysentery at the worst.

During the crisis of a survival situation when you will need to be at your sharpest, any one of these diseases will put you down to the point where you may not make it back up.  This is the last kind of problem you need when your family is counting on you for their survival.

Survival terminology dictionary

With the hopes of untangling the alphabet soup of acronyms and explaining the sometimes silly terminology of the survivalist's lingo, I have put together a dictionary of sorts.  It includes most of the common terminology used in modern survival articles.  If you have encountered a term not covered here, let me know and we can add it to the list.

Degrees of preparedness- Level 1

I'd like to take a couple minutes to talk about the varying levels or degrees of preparedness, and what supplies would be good to keep on hand for each level.

When I say degrees, what I mean is that most folks out there do not have a huge underground bunker set up with ten years' worth of shelf stable foods, water and the arsenal needed to protect it.  Nor do most people even want a survival set-up like that.

Most folks recognize the need to be prepared for short-term situations, such as power outages caused by storms, and are interested in prepping for them to make life for their family easier.  They do not believe in, or care about planning for an end of the world scenario.

Also, a lot of people just do not have the room in their homes to stockpile much in the way of supplies necessary for long-term survival.

Is the Springfield Armory XDM 5.25 good for survivalists?

Let's talk about the Springfield Armory XDM 5.25 in 45 ACP.

Bartering- obsolete practice or future currency?

Who here knows what fiat currency is?

Fiat currency is money that derives its value from government regulation.  Fiat currency does not have its value tied in to the value of gold, silver or any other precious metal.  Fiat money is not worth the paper it is printed on once faith in the government issuing it has been lost.

Our U.S. dollar is now fiat currency.

No legitimate sporting purpose....

Our all-knowing, all-seeing, all-powerful elected politicians who have been pushing the gun control issue over the years have, from time to time, put forth the notion that certain guns should be banned because they "have no legitimate sporting purpose."

Specifically, they tend to refer to semi-automatic rifles, box magazine fed shotguns and any handgun as being weapons not designed for sporting use on animals in the field.  They, therefore, have no legitimate sporting purpose and should not be available for purchase in this country.

5.56 ammo discussion

Let's talk about 5.56 NATO ammunition......

For those of you with AR15's in this common caliber, I would like to pass along my opinions and a few links to aid you in making an ammunition purchase.

Prepping as an investment

This article is written for those of you out there who are somewhat inclined to get into prepping, but aren't quite sold on the idea that anything worse than a hurricane or blizzard will ever occur.  Survivalism appeals to you in some ways, but the mainstream media, the politicians, and your doubting friends have you believing that nothing that bad will ever really happen, and that you are wasting your time and money by being a prepper.

Greatest threats after the fall of civilization

Let's say that one day you find yourself in a long term survival situation.  I think everyone knows that it will be a struggle to do most everything that is easy for us now.  Even if you have stockpiled shelf stable foods and have a large quantity of water stored, preparing your meals and ensuring that your drinking water is purified is not going to be as convenient when the grid is down.  Besides, eventually your food and water stores will be depleted, and you will have to raise your own vegetables and hunt for meat if you want to survive.

Form a group or go it alone?

Be advised: some of my comments and opinions included in this post are bound to rub some of you all the wrong way.  I make no apologies for the content of this article; in my eyes a spade is a spade.

If you walk the path of preparedness long enough, you will eventually have to make the decision on whether to team up with neighbors, friends, and/or family members or go it alone if a survival event strikes.  This decision, like most made by a prepper, should be made in advance of an event and should not be taken lightly.  If done correctly, with the right type of people, a team of survivalists stand a better chance of making it compared to an individual.

Bug out or bug in???

OK, so you have gotten on board with prepping for survival in the event of a catastrophic situation.  Congratulations on seeing the light......now we must narrow our focus a little.  Specifically, are you going to "bug out" if a survival situation develops, or are you going to stay at home and weather the storm out (so to speak)?

Edged weapons for preppers.

Weapons are nice to have around most anytime, but they can be especially helpful (possibly even life-saving) during a survival scenario.  We talked about survival firearms recently, and in this article we will discuss edged weapons that are useful for preppers.

When we're talking about blades, perhaps we should think of them as multipurpose tools that can accomplish a number of things in addition to being "weapons".  I'm not trying to be PC here, either.  Edged weapons can be used to kill, but they can also be used daily for a multitude of non-lethal household or campsite chores as well.  These are the tasks that we really come to appreciate them for.

What should be in your survival arsenal.

OK, so you've decided that it definitely makes sense to prepare for whatever survival-type situation that you are concerned about, be it blizzards, thunderstorms, tornadoes, hurricanes, pandemic, bio-terrorism, hyperinflation, peak oil, or those pesky zombies.  You've packed away shelf-stable food, plenty of water, water purification equipment & chemicals, medications, a generator, batteries, and all sorts of alternative lighting methods for a grid-down situation.

Good list for prepping beginners.....

Here is a good list that came from SurvivalistBlog.net. It may not be the very last word on what you should have around in case of an emergency, but it is one hell of a starting point, especially if you are a new prepper looking for a place to apply yourself.

IMO, any list you choose to follow should be personalized to the needs and wants of your own family.  This is especially true with respect to prescription medications, food allergies, or specific physical requirements.

The list may seem long, but you probably have half of this stuff laying around your house already, but just never thought about using it in a survival scenario.

Any comments or additions to the list are certainly welcomed.

Paranoia and prepping

Have you ever wondered, while you were reading an article on survival, if the author was wearing a tin foil hat while it was being written?  Or if he might have been checking the room for bugs & video cameras about every 30 minutes or so?  Or if he was bouncing his internet signal around half a dozen servers in four different countries so it couldn't be traced?

Why should I be prepared?

"Why should I prepare?  I am not some paranoid nutcase expecting the end of the world or a zombie apocalypse."

This is the type of response I tend to receive when the subject of preparedness or survivalism enters into a conversation.  I personally believe that the main benefits of prepping don't have much to do with the ideas that are typically tossed around when discussing survival in popular circles.

The traditional hardcore survival situations including nuclear holocaust, EMP, solar flares, asteroid strike, global warming, or 2012 doomsday could possibly happen, but I don't believe that the odds are very good that any one of them will come to fruition.

So why prepare?  I believe the greatest reason lies in the self-sufficiency and security that you will gain during a temporary civil breakdown related to one or more of the following events: