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.

The Train is Coming

F.D.R. (Franklin Delano Roosevelt) championed “The New Deal” with his legislative program, while L.B.J. (Lyndon Baines Johnson) pushed for “The Great Society.”  I firmly believe that the legislative agenda being promoted by B.H.O. (the guy who lives in the White House) and so ably abetted by The Speaker of The House and The Senate Majority Leader should be called “The Bum Steer.” 

It seems incredible to me that we elected a man who freely admits that he actively sought out the companionship of Marxists.  Yet, he freely admits virtually nothing else.  What’s going on over the Internet, as this is written, about no classmates of B.H.O. remembering him from Columbia University is alarming.  This is not a recent revelation.  When B.H.O. was a candidate for the nomination, FOX News aired programs on the background of the major contenders.  B.H.O.’s invisibility was brought up at that time, but I guess not enough people actually understood the implication.  That’s the only thing I can think of to explain why anybody except a Communist or Socialist would have voted for the guy.

When I’m not writing columns and articles and other non-fiction, Sharon and I write novels, as most of you know.  If B.H.O. were a figure in a political thriller, we couldn’t draw his character with such obvious strokes.  When I was a kid, one of my favorite cartoon characters was “Mighty Mouse.”  Mighty Mouse was always saving “Pearl Pureheart” and her father from the evil “Oil Can Harry.”  Oil Can Harry looked the part of a villain.  Villains in movies and in theater used to actually look like a villain, so the audience would know when the guy came on stage or in frame and could hiss at him.  In modern fiction, you can’t make your villain so obvious.  We could never have a character with background like B.H.O. supposedly has because it would be like having a guy in dark clothes and a tall hat curling the ends of his mustache as he ties the defenseless damsel in distress to the railroad tracks while the “Special” is steaming around the bend.

The United States is the “damsel in distress” in this story.  And what about the guy with the mysterious past, who hangs out with un-repentant Marxist bombers, who used to attend a church pastored by a man who curses America, who wants to re-distribute wealth, which is a principal tenet of Communism?  He’s tying us to the tracks and the freight train of domestic spending, globalism, socialism and betrayal of the basic principles of a free society is racing down on us.  We can hiss the villain all we want, but to get out of the way of the locomotive is going to take action in the 2010 Mid-Term Election and effort worthy of a superhero in 2012 when, God willing, we re-take the White House.  We must relegate The Bum Steer to its proper place in history – the trash.

Update

I’m sorry to have been away from the website for so long a time, but it was for a good cause.  No, I wasn’t making the world safe for democracy.  We can all do that, God willing, in the November elections, by voting out every leftist, closet socialist and “fellow traveler” Democrat on the ballot, gathering momentum for the 2012 General Election and re-claiming our nation.  No, instead, Sharon and I were working on two new books for Gun Digest Books that had, out of necessity, deadlines way too close to one another.  One of these is entitled THE GUN DIGEST BUYER’S GUIDE TO CONCEALED-CARRY HANDGUNS, while the other is ARMED FOR PERSONAL DEFENSE.  Between those two books and trying to keep up on my regular columns and get a look at THE SURVIVALIST group page on Facebook every once in a while, we never lacked for things to keep us busy.   Family matters, too, of course, demanded time and/or attention, among these our nephew, George, like an oldest son to us in many ways, needing quintuple coronary bypass surgery, our youngest grandchild, Olivia, having a big birthday bash when she turned three and Honey The Wonderdog getting a checkup.  Honey has a clean bill of health and she’s doing just fine.  George is healing up and has a good prognosis.  Olivia’s enjoying being three.  

And, of course, SURVIVE! THE DISASTER, CRISIS AND EMERGENCY HANDBOOK came out on April 14^th.   Also going up on the website today is a copy of the Press Release announcing the book and something the publicity people for Krause – nice folks – put together as JERRY AHERN’S TOP TEN SURVIVAL TIPS.  I want to clarify a couple of things.  First, in the Press Release, mention is made of “…magazines such as Guns & Ammo and CCW: Carrying Concealed Weapons.” I did quite a number Right To Keep And Bear Arms articles for “Guns & Ammo” decades ago and, for twelve and one-half years, I did the holster column for “Handguns Magazine,” which was owned by Petersen and its successor ownership.  And, CCW: CARRYING CONCEALED WEAPONS is a book we wrote over thirteen years ago.

As to my SURVIVAL TIPS, I’d like to clarify a few points.  Tip #3 should not imply that the police don’t want to protect you.  Of course they do.  But, in a major league crisis, the police will be spread so thinly you cannot count on them protecting you, try as they might.  Tip #6 talks about your GPS device possibly not being reliable in the wilderness.  In certain types of disasters/emergencies, the GPS System might not function at all, might even be knocked out or rendered permanently inoperable.  And, of course, the satellites themselves are getting older. You don’t have to be in the wilds to need a compass.  Tip #9 isn’t aimed at making you someone who won’t help a stranger; rather, it’s intended to remind you that, in a life-altering crisis, there are going to be lots of people who are prepared for nothing at all past ten minutes from now and won’t think twice about killing you and your family in order to steal your stuff.  That’s a sad commentary on modern life, but it’s true.    

Sharon and I hope you read SURVIVE!  Bob Anderson, an old friend and a man whom I truly admire, was kind enough to write a review which is way too flattering.  We’re posting it anyway and are indebted to him for his generosity of spirit. 

SURVIVE! is a book written for a purpose, beyond the obvious one of writing books, columns and articles as the means by which we make our living.  Sharon and I know way too many people who seem amazed when you remind them that, should the power grid go out, their ATM cards won’t work, gas pumps won’t work and grocery store cash registers won’t work.  Good people all, their woeful failure to think through the fragility of their daily existence could well be fatal in a crisis.  Sharon and I kind of think of SURVIVE! THE DISASTER, CRISIS AND EMERGENCY HANDBOOK as a wake-up call.  Hopefully, people will heed it.  Life’s too precious a thing to be wasted.

Survive! Reader Review

from Bob Anderson, PhD, CMSgt(Ret)

SURVIVE! The Disaster, Crisis and Emergency Handbook hits the mark better than anything I’ve read in forty years.  I could not put it down!  Realistic and complete yet an easy read, as usual Ahern cuts through political correctness and urban myths to tell the truth in an entertaining and educational master piece.

This not only is a life altering book, it is a life preserving work of art.  For forty years I have been frustrated with half-hearted, undocumented efforts on this subject that have done little more than promote fear and failure and set our citizens up for failure and probable death if it was ever necessary to implement their suggestions.  Jerry Ahern has created a comprehensive, concise guide for individual, family and community response to circumstances that can occur, and some that already have occurred; Jerry has done the research and testing of products that I can use to protect myself and my family when the unthinkable becomes reality.  This should be required reading for every member of the U.S. Military, law enforcement and first responders and publicly distributed by the Department of Homeland Security.