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A friend of mine on a popular social networking site just posted an interesting message. She says that prior to posting she had just completed an Web survey on commercials about how to survive a nuclear explosion. The survey covered basic emergency preparedness information, including information about a "ready kit". According to her, the people taking the survey did not say who they were. The wording of the questions was typical ("Did this commercial give you useful information? Did this commercial seem believable?", etc.). As part of the survey, she was also shown storyboard animation representing the eventual live-action commercial....

NORAD, USNORTHCOM participate in Exercise Vigilant Shield 09 November 5, 2008 PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. — North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command will participate in Exercise Vigilant Shield 09 Nov. 12 - 18. The focus of VS09 is on homeland defense and civil support. The exercise will include scenarios to achieve exercise objectives within the maritime, aerospace, ballistic missile defense, cyber, consequence management, strategic communications, and counter terrorism domains. VS09 will run concurrent with other Department of Defense-sponsored and international exercises to more realistically test the synchronized response of federal, state, local and international mission partners...

33 Minutes and Why it is Important in this New Missile Age In January of 2009, The Heritage Foundation will release a high-definition documentary that tells the story of the very real threat that hostile nations and rogue dictators now pose to every one of us. The truth is brutal: in 33 minutes or less a missile launched at America would hit the U.S. target it was programmed to destroy. We must cause people to stop and face this horrible reality. Aptly named, 33 Minutes: Protecting America in the New Missile Age, our documentary will be a key component in...

Duck and CoverAdmittedly, Hollywood is not a center of profound intellectual thought. It's been called the "dream capital of the world", and in a real sense this is true. Like dreams, many of Hollywood's movies consist of plots and dialogue that don't make much sense, and characters whose behavior defies the principles of psychology as frequently as it breaks the rules of physics. Some of them, like the dreary antiwar movies of the 1960s, are blatantly political and manipulative. But some of them can only be described as dangerous misinformation cynically disguised as entertainment. One of the worst examples of...

FOREST PARK, Ga. — The gruff, cigar-chomping general who led federal troops into New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina is convinced America hasn't learned its lesson from the storm. As Lt. Gen. Russel Honore gets ready to retire from the Army and hand over his command on Friday, he says he wants to spend the rest of his life creating a "culture of preparedness" to prevent another post-disaster disaster. "There's an attitude everywhere else that people are smarter than they are in New Orleans and in Mississippi. They're not," the 60-year-old general said at his office at Fort Gillem, just outside...

FOREST PARK, Ga. - The gruff, cigar-chomping general who led federal troops into New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina is convinced America hasn't learned its lesson from the storm. As Lt. Gen. Russel Honore gets ready to retire from the Army and hand over his command on Friday, he says he wants to spend the rest of his life creating a "culture of preparedness" to prevent another post-disaster disaster. "There's an attitude everywhere else that people are smarter than they are in New Orleans and in Mississippi. They're not," the 60-year-old general said at his office at Fort Gillem, just outside...

Question: I’m thinking of a policy proposal that could easily mean the difference between life and death for tens or hundreds of thousands–conceivably even millions–of Americans who are alive at this very moment. Each year that passes magnifies the urgency of the problem this policy would address. Experts on both sides of the political spectrum appear to agree on both the pressing need for reform, and on the appropriate way to meet the challenge. Yet in our public debates we hear virtually nothing of this issue. What am I thinking of? Answer: Nuclear fallout shelters. This country needs to develop...

The stark insignia of civil defense — a C and D forming a red circle in a white triangle on a blue disk — died yesterday after a long eclipse. It was 67 years old and lived in the mind’s eye of anyone who remembers air-raid drills, fallout shelters and metal drums filled with what had to be the stalest biscuits in the world.

The good news about nuclear destruction Posted: August 24, 20061:00 a.m. Eastern By Shane Connor What possible good news could there ever be about nuclear destruction coming to America, whether it is dirty bombs, terrorist nukes or ICBMs from afar? In a word, they are all survivable for the vast majority of American families, if they know what to do beforehand and have made even the most modest preparations. Tragically, though, most Americans today won't give much credence to this good news, much less seek out such vital life-saving instruction, as they have been jaded by our culture's pervasive myths...

Heading for the hills 05 May 2006 A neighbour's 5.15am phone call sparked the Kohn family in Gisborne into full-scale emergency evacuation mode, joining hundreds of locals heading for the hills. Heather Kohn's family live 700 metres from Wainui Beach. Daughter Hannah, 8, heard the call. "Mum went in to wake my brother Jacob and I heard her say `tsunami' and I just froze," she said. Within 10 minutes the Kohns were in their 4WD packed with water, a first-aid kit and sleeping bags, heading for the elevated safety of nearby Tuahine Pt Hill. "Nearly everyone in our street went...

Alarm would have been raised for real tsunami - CD chief 05 May 2006 By KIM RUSCOE Households and businesses in the path of a genuine tsunami will be door-knocked and told to evacuate immediately, emergency managers say. Civil Defence national controller Mike O'Leary said if yesterday's false alarm had been the real thing it would have meant the immediate evacuation of nearly a million people from low-lying areas around New Zealand. "If there was any doubt or risk that a tsunami could have struck, we would have done it." Gisborne Civil Defence officer Richard Steele said council and emergency...

Tsunami alert exposes response weaknesses 05 May 2006 By LANE NICHOLS Hundreds of people in coastal areas faced chaotic early-morning evacuations as a tsunami alert exposed substandard emergency preparations nationwide. Civil Defence is now the target of severe criticism for failing to tell a panicked public that a tsunami alert – triggered by a Tongan earthquake – posed no danger in New Zealand. The alert was cancelled within half an hour. The communication breakdown has been savaged by regional mayors. Residents in coastal areas, including Gisborne, headed for the hills in their hundreds fearing the worst. Some had been woken...

Editor's note: The following column includes excerpts from Robert Pfriender's upcoming book, "No Place to Run."     Robert Pfriender An awful lot can be said for adequate prevention and professional planning for a disaster. We as a great country rely upon our government and its vast agencies such as FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security to institute programs and procedures to protect us. But it seems these agencies and our elected officials have no clue, or perhaps they just really don't care about the public or our country's very survival. Unless a comprehensive national civil defense program is...

NEW YORK - Workers inspecting the structural foundations of the Brooklyn Bridge uncovered a Cold War-era trove of basic provisions that were stockpiled amid fears of a nuclear attack. The stash, discovered in a vault under an entrance ramp, includes water drums, canisters of calorie-packed crackers, paper blankets, medical supplies and drugs that were used to treat shock. The estimated 352,000 Civil Defense All-Purpose Survival Crackers are apparently still intact, said Joseph Vaccaro, a supervisor at the city Transportation Department. The metal water drums, each labeled "reuse as a commode," did not fare as well _ they're now empty.

The nation's top immigration enforcement official on Wednesday praised the work of citizen patrols along the U.S-Mexican border and said his agency is looking at creating a volunteer reserve program to help beef up security. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Robert C. Bonner said his initial concerns about possible vigilantism by citizen patrol groups have been eased by the volunteers' conduct. "We welcome the eyes and ears of citizens who help us gain control of our borders, especially when they do so in a peaceful way," Bonner said during a visit to the Port of Los Angeles. "I applaud the...

Finally, someone in government has offered a rational proposal to help solve the nation's chronic illegal immigration problem. Interestingly, the idea has been before us for years.Robert Bonner, Customs and Border Protection commissioner, suggested to members of the House Government Reform Committee last week the Border Patrol begin to train and utilize scores of civilian volunteers, as a cost-saving force multiplier aimed at boosting the pairs of eyes along our porous southwestern border."We need more Border Patrol agents, there's no question about that," Bonner said. But in recognition of the cold, hard fiscal facts, he also knows he's not...

Take a moment to consider all of the pressing issues facing America today. There is a war we are waging, and rightfully so, to rid the threat of Islamo-Fascist terror. That might rightfully, be placed right at the very top of our national concerns. After all tax-cuts, spending, education, and Social Security reform will take a back seat very quickly if terrorists were to strike here in America. So let us agree, for the purpose of this column, to assume the war on terror is the pre-eminent issue facing America. Now let us examine how the Bush administration has handled...

Attacks on U.S., coalition and Iraqi security forces in Iraq will not stop the country's march toward self-governance and democracy, a senior U.S. military officer said today. "Those who attempt to prevent a free and democratic state (in Iraq) will definitely fail," Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, commander of Combined Joint Task Force 7, told reporters at a Baghdad press conference. "We remain undaunted," he asserted, against attacks conducted by Saddam Hussein loyalists and terrorists. He pointed out that despite anti-coalition attacks designed to intimidate Iraqis, the numbers of those volunteering for security duty continue to grow. Training facilities for...

Before there was Homeland Security, there was Civil Defense. I grew up in the 1960s and '70s. During those formative years, I, like most kids of my generation, were taught from an early age about civil defense -- the actions one should take in the event of a catastrophic emergency. Growing up in the South, the emergency most often encountered was the Tornado Warning -- a frightening, but blessedly brief phenomenon. Civil defense against tornadoes generally consisted of hiding in a bathroom until the storm has passed. (Then as now, most Southern homes had no basements, due to soil conditions...

Yahoo! News   Thu, Jun 19, 2003 McDonald's to End Growth Antibiotic Use in Meat Thu Jun 19,12:53 PM ET CHICAGO (Reuters) - McDonald's Corp. on Thursday told its meat suppliers to phase out growth-promoting antibiotics that are also used in human medicine, prompted by concerns that overuse could reduce the effectiveness of the drugs in people. McDonald's, the largest fast-food chain in the world, uses more than 2.5 billion pounds of chicken, beef, and pork annually. McDonald's said its new policy calls for the elimination of antibiotic drugs some producers have used to help animals grow faster. It sets...