My Musashi Katana

If you read about "Reclaiming The Sword," you may recall I mentioned two favorite edged weapons that I keep at hand in case a firearm won't quite do the trick should we have a nocturnal visitation. This Musashi Katana from CAS-Hanwei is a superior sword that I really trust. I like the double peg arrangement, called Mekugi, which gives the sword added reliability, even though a single Mekugi is usually all that is needed.

Defend Your Home

Sharon and I are finishing up our latest book, so appologies for not posting here on the website too recently.  The book is entitled DEFEND YOUR HOME and should be out in early 2011.  But,we wanted to give you a heads up.  Starting Saturday July 17th for a period of several days, I assume, if you go to www.modernsurvivalonline.com you’ll find an interview with me that is pretty detailed and contains a number of my views on the current political situation.  I posted this announcement on the Facebook group page for THE SURVIVALIST.  If you haven’t checked out the Facebook group, Sharon and I would be grateful if you would.

STUFF I WANT TO TALK ABOUT

For those of you who don’t see the Facebook SURVIVALIST page, Sharon and I celebrated our 500^th month anniversary on June 19^th.  Sharon and I met the day after Labor Day 1961, were friends who had a first date the day after Thanksgiving in 1964, were engaged on Memorial Day of 1965 and married on October 19^th, 1968.  I got the idea of counting months decades ago and have kept it up.  Sharon’s the most wonderful and prettiest girl in the world or anywhere else and I’m hoping and praying for at least another five hundred and, after that – well, who knows?  So long as we’re together.

By way of celebrating this anniversary, Sharon and I went to the movies.  And, we had fun.  No, we didn’t get to sit in the very back row of a balcony, but we did enjoy the movie.  We saw THE A-TEAM and we loved it!  Funny, exciting, great special effects, respectful of the original series, it was terrifically entertaining and the new guys, led by Liam Neeson as “John Hannibal Smith,” didn’t try to re-invent nor did they try to impersonate the original characters – which is why they came off so faithful to the originals.  If you see it in the movies or wait until you can rent or buy the DVD, be sure to watch all the way through the end titles – the score’s rousing anyway – and you’ll be in for a surprise.  Unlike the TV show, bad guys do get killed, so be prepared.  And, the film lends itself very nicely to the possibility of a sequel or sequels.  Sharon and I’d stand in line for tickets.  If you have a sense of humor, like action and great special effects, you’ll like THE A-TEAM.

We have close friends who went on vacation this week.  Rather than going to Florida beaches, they elected to go to South Carolina, instead, just in case.  It’s a shame.  Not that they are having a well-deserved vacation, but that so many people will likely avoid even the parts of Florida and the rest of the Gulf Coast so far unaffected by the oil situation.  As much as I find the guy living in the White House to be a waste of time, I cannot, in conscience, blame him for the oil situation.  The people comprising the decision-making leadership of British Petroleum, on the other hand, do deserve a lot of blame, if for nothing else than their cavalier attitude toward the destruction of miles of beaches, countless thousands of sea creatures and birds and economic disaster for entire populations.  What I do hold the guy in the White House accountable for is the slow response, the lack of action and interaction concerning BP and general incompetence.  What I can actually commend the guy in the White House for is the potentially expandable twenty billion dollar escrow reserve for claims payment.  It’ll likely go higher. 

America needs leadership that won’t be afraid of shallow water drilling on the Continental Shelf and elsewhere and not allow deep water drilling until a plausible, realistic step-by-step provable methodology is shown for dealing with such disasters.  That done, go for it.  And, we need leadership that is more concerned with the welfare of the American people than the advancement of a social agenda.

Neither Sharon nor I want the guy who lives in the White House and his leftist stooges to bring about fundamental change in America.  If he and his minions in Congress and the bureaucracy want to live in a Communist or Socialist society, fine.  Let them move.  I’ll contribute a few bucks to help get them on their way.  Venezuela is probably lovely this time of year.

The BP gusher is a problem we will be dealing with for years and longer.  The group of wannabe socialists in the government and the idiots who elected them could be a problem that will be our undoing unless we act in the 2010 elections, the 2012 elections and rid ourselves of the last of the leftists in the 2014 elections.  I don’t know about you, but I hope I do.  And Sharon and I don’t want our grandchildren coming of age in an America that is no longer free, one that is run by leftists who hold political success more important than country.

Nuts

Our nephew George – he’s Sharon’s late sister’s son – gave us a real scare years back when he was only sixteen.  He’d come to spend a few days with us and had decided he wanted to treat Sharon and me to some Chinese food.  George had one bite of egg roll and started getting almost deathly ill.  He developed a fever, had terrible cramps and felt genuinely awful.  He’d been poisoned.  No, the chef at the Chinese restaurant wasn’t “Fu Manchu” or even his evil daughter, “Fah lo Suee.”  No, this was when we learned that George was allergic to peanuts and George learned that it’s not uncommon for egg rolls to be fried in peanut oil.  I was reminded of this incident because I noted this week that the government is supposedly considering banning peanuts on aircraft.  At first blush, this may sound a bit over the top; but, those with severe peanut allergies can get sick without ingesting peanuts or peanut by-products.  Those persons can be made ill by inhaling the tiny particles which we sense as odor.  Some estimates runs as high as eight out of every ten allergy related deaths are caused by peanuts and peanuts by-products.

Now, am I slamming on peanuts?  Actually, Sharon and I each had a piece of toast spread with peanut butter this morning.  We almost invariably skip breakfast, except for orange juice.  This morning, we knew were going to be schlepping some furniture for the antiques business and thought it might be better done on a not totally empty stomach.  I like peanut butter and Sharon and I — we rarely snack – will occasionally munch on peanuts while watching a film or something on TV.  No, I’m down with peanuts.

I’m not at all upset that the United States government is taking steps to safeguard American citizens from peanuts.  I just wish the current administration would do more about some of the other nuts that are really dangerous.  I’m talking about Kim Jung Il, the little dictator that could who rules North Korea with an iron fist, a big army and – apparently – will be aided in doing so by the United Nations.  Since he’s selling nuclear technology to other enemies of the United States – Iran and Syria – and threatening all-out-war with South Korea, the nut in North Korea is probably going to be paid off by the nuts in the U.N., which will be financed by the nuts in the U.S. government who continue to back the U.N. in its general nuttiness. 

And, talk about nuts in groups, well, there’s the Myanmar Junta, the nuts who rule Burma with an iron fist, who, after Cyclone Nargis hit in May of 2008, killing over three hundred fifty people and leaving over a hundred thousand homeless, withheld aid from other nations so they could put their nutty little names on the aid packages, with the possible exception of relief supplies they might have sold for profit. It seems that these nuts are starting their own nuclear weapons program.  And, chief among the nuts is Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who is working toward hastening the arrival of the Islamic version of Armageddon.  The Iranian nut has been suckering American, British and other western nuts to buy time to accumulate what just this week was announced as sufficient nuclear material to make two nuclear weapons.  He can put those on his improved missiles and hit Israel or even parts of Europe.  Talk about nuts!

I am proud that our government takes our safety so seriously that they are considering banning nuts on airplanes.  Now, if they would just figure out a way to ban those other nuts – like maybe crush them with military power or contract to have the world’s super bad guys knocked off or whatever – I’d really feel safer.  Those are the kinds of nuts that can really be hazardous to everyone’s health.

THIRD PARTY, THIRD RAIL – BOTH ARE DEADLY

When Sharon and I were growing up in Chicago, one thing that was held as the popular wisdom had to do with “the third rail,” where supposedly a powerful current was running through, powerful enough to kill you if you stepped on it.  I’m referring, of course, to the elevated and subway train tracks used by “The El.”  And the current is powerful enough to do you in.  Our moms and dads were right.  That electrification system started in Chicago in 1895 and is used to this day.  “Third Rail” is also a political term to describe something best left alone, too dangerous to touch.  Immigration may very well prove to be a “third rail” for a number of politicians.

To me, at this point in time, any kind of a Third Party movement is like a Third Rail, but the kind with the deadly direct current high voltage running through it.  And, I’m not sIamming on the Tea Party.  They’re good people trying to wake up America.  I just hope and pray they don’t form an actual Third Party ticket.  I’ve touched on this before and I’ll be touching on this again until – God willing – the electorate has made the guy in the White House a one term President.  From all I’m able to understand, he’s a decent husband and father.  I very sincerely want him to enjoy life with his family, and I want him to stay out of my life and stop trying to change the USA to match his vision for a European-style social democracy.  That’s not what we are.  Now, the guy in the White House and I have one thing in common politically.  We both have a vision for America. 

My vision for America is to minimize government intervention in our daily lives, minimize taxation, minimize spending and gradually – which is the best we can do – get our nation out of debt to foreign countries.  My vision for America is to foster individual independence, not dependency, to encourage economic growth, not to stifle it, to always stand for what is right, not what’s convenient or popular.   We are the beacon of hope for mankind, the whispered dream for the throngs of humanity who preceded us through the millennia on this planet and lived their lives in the belief that someday mankind’s lot would be better.   The guy in the White House may sincerely believe that socialism – which is lace curtain Communism, calling it what it is – is the way in which life will be better for people.  He may feel he’s doing genuine good. I disagree.   

And, that is why I equate a Third Party with a literal Third Rail.  A Third Party, at this time in our nation’s history, will not take votes away from the Democrats.  A Third Party will only take votes away from the Republicans, thus ensuring another four years for the guy in the White House and his associates to advance their left wing socialist agenda for America.   Now, if you think “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs” sounds like a good idea, it’s a line from Karl Marx, the author of “scientific socialism,” better known as Communism.  It’s not original to him.  It was used by Utopian Socialists decades earlier and, whether it’s a health care law or higher taxes for those who are bigger earners or some other scheme, the guy in the White House and his fellow travelers are just re-phrasing it. 

Put your voting power behind a Third Party and you’re helping to put America right on that Third Rail.  Accept the fact that supporting, campaigning and voting for whoever the Republican Presidential candidate will be in the 2012 Election is a vote to save the USA.  And, in 2010, pave the way for undoing the harm the Democrats have already done.  Let’s give the guy in the White House a Republican majority in the House and Senate.