Free Republic

The first 72 hours following any disaster are the most critical, but it's also during those intial hours that emergency services and personnel are stretched to the limit. With a system of carefully planned 72 Hour Kits, your family can be self-sufficient until help arrives. 72 Hour Kits, or Bug Out Bags, are those handy-dandy, all-in-one grab bags that, theoretically, could keep you and your family in good shape during a three day emergency. How well they do their job depends on how well-equipped they are for your family's particular needs. Think of your 72 Hour System as three layers...

Since 52% of American voters were foolish enough to buy the story that Barack Hussein Obama is some sort of "liberal messiah," I thought it would be interesting to compare the belief systems of America's father of liberalism and author of our Declaration of Independence, with the Marxist belief system of the false messiah. And since today's liberals have so much trouble properly interpreting our Founders' simple message to future generations, I am under no illusion that these facts will carry anymore weight with modern Marxists than Article II - Section I of the Constitution, which clearly states that Barack...

It's unanimous: We all want violence against women to stop. In fact, nine out of 10 women said that ending domestic violence and sexual assault should be the top priority for a new women's movement (according to the Center for the Advancement of Women) -- and also for every politician. There are ways you can make this happen -- for one woman, and for all.

A Virginia Republican's fierce call to resist President Obama's political agenda -- with bullets if necessary -- ignited an outcry on the Internet yesterday, and forced her to clarify that she was not looking to incite any violence. Appearing at a "Tea Party" rally on Wednesday to protest President Obama's expansion of government, Catherine Crabill, a political neophyte running for the House of Delegates in the Northern Neck, quoted from a March 1775 speech by Patrick Henry and then went further, calling on Americans to resist the course Obama has set for the country. "We have a chance to fight...

As a master zombie scholar it is my duty to fulfill the queries of the people, and I am happy to oblige. Mallory “Subsister” Morrow dropped me a line asking which is the superior weapon class for use in a zombie outbreak. An exhaustive number of factors must be taken into account when preparing for any life-threatening situation, and a war with the walking dead is no exception. First, some people hold to the notion that machine guns and shotguns will dominate when our fair planet is overrun. These pre-dead are notoriously difficult to persuade and must be denied entrance...

There are no layoffs, no furloughs and no signs of a recession at gun stores such as Barnwood Arms in Ripon. A spike in sales that began after Barack Obama won November's presidential election continued throughout the spring, with the FBI reporting dramatic monthly increases in the number of background checks it performed on would-be gun buyers. Although the Obama administration hasn't taken a strong stand on gun laws, customers are betting that a Democrat in the White House and a Democratic-controlled Congress will translate into stricter gun-control laws and perhaps the revival of a national assault rifle ban that...

President Barack Obama may never have fired a gun but he is turning out to be one of the best firearms salesmen in American history. I've sold probably four times as much in the last six months as I have in 20 years combined," said Cliff Hunter, owner of Tommy Bronson Sporting Goods in Memphis. "Hand guns and the tactical weapons, they're absolutely off the charts." Most of his gun sales used to be for hunting, or personal protection in a city riddled with crime. But just before the November election, anxiety that Mr Obama would win and enact a...

No matter how you approach it, summer grilling is a lose-lose situation for Mother Nature. Are you cookin’ veggie burgers over natural, low-impact lump charcoal that you fired up with a chimney starter? You’re still also cookin' up an ample amount of air pollution. Are you serving local veggie kabobs expertly grilled over a gas-powered flame? You’re generating less sooty particles but that gas, as you’re probably aware, is a nonrenewable resource. What about that free-range chicken cooked over an electric grill? If it's plugged in, you're generating greenhouse gases there, too. If you gotta grill, you gotta grill (but...

Recently I had a long lunch with an old friend. He sits on the board of one of the largest and most successful publicly traded regional banks in America. He got his seat when that regional bank acquired the very successful community bank he built from the ground up. I will not name him or this bank, but I will pass on a few things he said to me. He said, “Our bank’s leadership team and others I know at the local or regional level feel paralyzed and intimidated by the climate of fear created by the Obama administration. We...

Had a good turnout for the ultimate backwoods teaparty. It's raining right now in Indy and we had our teaparty/gun shoot yesterday. We knew it would be raining today so we had our event yesterday. Made some noise, shot some guns, set off some explosives in celebration of the the 4th at an undisclosed location in Indiana. Heard the news about Gov. Palin resigning, coupled with the Gov. Sanford self destruction, we feel there is no hope left. Powder is dry. For those who feel the need to point out that we are now on the DHS most wanted list...

HOLLYWOOD — Clearly the Obama administration needs to address the issue of teacher salaries and fast. On AMC's "Breaking Bad," Bryan Cranston is playing a science teacher making meth, and now we have Thomas Jane as Ray Drecker, a high-school basketball coach-turned-male prostitute in HBO's "Hung." Both are men of middle age who find themselves undone by fate — Cranston's Walter White has cancer, Ray's wife has left him and he's lost his home to fire — and a lack of ambition. Both are angry at a world that seems to have reneged on earlier promises so, with their personal...

We have accumulated probably 3-6 months worth of stuff thus far, a good chunk of it being dry and canned goods, but more and more I am eying that deep freeze and all the food in it, because although there have been discussions of a generator purchase, we still don’t have one and I am very wary of the possibility that a power loss will render most of it useless. Another motivation is the fact that dried food lasts for so much longer and loses far less nutrients than canning, and I would like to use or save every bit...

Have I told you about my Scarlett O’Hara moment? It was a couple of years ago when a hurricane was just hours away from coastal Florida. The news video showed a bewildered looking woman staring at empty grocery store shelves. At that moment I said, “As God is my witness, that will never be me!” I vowed to never be the woman on TV who hadn’t given a serious thought of preparing for a disaster and now stood, vulnerable, to whatever dangers lay ahead. Taking steps to be prepared for various emergency situations or a significant downturn in our economy...

Pat McHugh invented the Space Blanket, an amazing piece of survival gear that has changed the face of emergency care for decades. McHugh said millions of Space Blankets were sent to help victims of the Indonesian tsunami a couple of years ago. But such large-scale disasters form only part of the basis of survival and outdoors gear McHugh has designed and represented. One of my favorites is an MPI outdoors backpack with a single shoulder strap that allows shooting a rifle while wearing the pack. But, while he said hunters and fishermen usually possess all the gear they need to...

The never-ending rain may be wreaking havoc with everyone's weekend plans this summer, but at the White House Garden this week, it was hailed as the reason the crops were so lush and abundant. As fifth grade students picked 73 pounds of lettuce and 12 pounds of peas, assistant White House Chef Sam Kass noted that the garden had flourished quickly due to the downpours, the Washington Post reported. Besides the lettuce and peas, the 1,100-suare foot, L-shaped garden has also produced beans, kale, chard, collard greens and herbs, Kass told the paper. The White House kitchen has been turning...

While the credit crunch has caused life-changing hardships for many, some, believing the world is on the verge of a major depression, have taken to living off the land, regardless of how hard it is. Seven years ago, Viktor Sergienko felt life in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev had become too stressful. On top of that he had read several books that claim a big world crisis was imminent. The software engineer decided not to hesitate and prepared for the worse. In 2007 he bought a small house in the countryside. Last September Viktor was among the few who could...

Buying canned groceries and extra bags of flour and sugar have been the easiest part of food storage for me. Dehydrating my own food seemed to belong in the same category as spinning my own wool. Yes, it can be done, but why would I want to go through all the trouble??! I found out for myself that dehydrating my own food is one of the easiest and least expensive ways to stock up. Now, if I say it’s easy, you know. It’s easy! The foods are fresh with no additives of any kind, so I know exactly what my...

Let me be clear about two very important things before I continue in this article. 1. This is not going to be anything about how personal income tax is unconstitutional. While I actually believe it is, right now if you don’t pay it you get in a lot of trouble, you must pay all your legal tax obligations. 2. I am not a tax expert or a financial adviser. This article is more about exactly how to think about taxes then the specifics of how to reduce them. Cutting to the chase on this let me say when it comes...

Bryce sent me this great link to a very interesting study on women defending themselves from rape and the success rates of these methods. Huge hat tip to him as this is awesome. For those on dial up I will sum it up. Women who used non violent methods of resistance (crying, pleading, etc) were raped about 96% of the time. Women who used forceful verbal resistance (yelling, screaming) were raped about half the time. Running works better then yelling as the women who ran were raped about 15% of the time. Forceful physical resistance is slightly more successful than...

I don’t remember when I first become convinced that homeschooling was the only type of education I wanted for our children. I do know it was long before I ever became pregnant! Now that we’ve finished our fifth year of homeschooling and we’ve started taking “prepping” seriously, I’m more glad than ever that we chose this route for our family. Homeschooling provides a continuous flow of education in spite of changing circumstances. A dramatic decline in income might force a family to move to another neighborhood, city, or even to a different state. Other than losing some time in the...