Showing posts with label Self Sufficiency. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Self Sufficiency. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Prime 2A Justification

"A DeKalb County schoolteacher carjacked early Sunday scored a measure of revenge against his attackers...Harper ran inside and grabbed his .380 pistol.

“I was waiting for them,” he said. Harper estimates he fired two to three bullets, which might have contributed to the driver crashing the van less than a block away. A small amount of blood was found inside the vehicle." [link]

Very simply bad guy commits crime, bad guy gets immediate consequences via a law abiding armed citizen.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Graphic Representation of My Favorite Quote

As many of you who read this blog know I have a favorite quote and it is by the late Colonel Jeff Cooper. I just ran across a story that shows an excellent example of the philosophy of this quote in action. I hope you all enjoy the stories and pictures as much as I did.

"Fight back! Whenever you are offered violence, fight back! The aggressor does not fear the law, so he must be taught to fear you. Whatever the risk, and at whatever the cost, fight back!"--Col. Jeff Cooper

A knife-wielding burglar had a shock when he attacked a pensioner in his home - and discovered his victim was a retired boxer.

Senior citizen Frank Corti, 72, a former junior boxing champion is still a bit handy with his dukes.

And when he spotted the aforementioned intruder, Gregory McCalium, in his hallway he sprang into action and delivered two right hooks. [link]

On the left you see a before photo of the criminal and on the right you see a photo after his run in with Mr. Corti.


Thursday, June 11, 2009

Criminal Brings Knife to Gun Fight

"A 29-year-old man is dead after an employee at a West Side bakery shot the man as he attempted to rob the business, police said Wednesday.

Robert Adame walked into the establishment at the 1300 block of Saltillo brandishing a knife, police said. A male worker shot Adame, who fled the scene and was found at the 1500 block of Saltillo. He was taken to University Hospital in critical condition, where he later died, police said.

Police said they are not planning to charge the employee." [link]

Chalk another one up for law abiding citizens using guns for protection and as a crime deterrent.

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

On Liberty Pt. 3 (Personal Responsibility)

Personal responsibility is perhaps the cornerstone of true liberty. It is not always easy for a person to say that "I am responsible for myself and my actions at all times", but this is the reality of life, and the sooner this is understood the sooner all people can start living free. How can such a simple statement be so powerful? If I am responsible for myself (my safety, well being, health, economic standing, etc...), then I will also be on the lookout for things that could harm my self interest and take the necessary measures to fix them.

Selfishness! In a way yes, but in the broader scope of things it works out differently. How do "selfishness" and "self-interest" actually coincide with a better community for all? If each person in a community were to be personally responsible for themselves and their actions then they would not do anything to jeopardize their "self-interests". This would include not committing crimes against people or property. This would also mean if I wanted to make money from my investment in my home that I would want to be on good terms with my neighbors. (Human nature is strange, make a friend and more often than not there will be friendly competition on a subconscious level. "I can make my lawn look better than his", or "Her flower garden is beautiful, but I bet I can outdo her"). However make an enemy and oftentimes out of spite they will let themselves go to make you look bad.

The best thing about personal responsibility is being in full control of your own life. If I do not have to depend on anyone for necessities then I am beholden to no one. As soon as you turn to someone else to take care of your needs, you are no longer the one in control of your life. You have chosen to allow someone else to control you and you are along for the ride. Do not misunderstand this in certain respects, charity in many instances is to help, if the charity is freely given. Once charitable contributions are forced (taxes) then there is a sudden rift between those being forced to be charitable and those choosing to accept the charity (tax money).

In a community where people are responsible for themselves charity is freely given, because each person usually realizes that things can happen. Homes can burn, crops can whither and die, fatal accidents do happen, sudden illness strikes, etc... In times like this it is best to turn to friends and neighbors for help. However if you have been responsible and charitable yourself, you will not have to turn far because help will usually be there before you even have to ask.

Sunday, June 7, 2009

On Liberty Pt. 2 (Entitlements)

Any more there are quite a few people that seem to think they deserve something for just being. Well in a since they are correct. They deserve to have their rights honored and the chance to work as hard as they want to achieve whatever they may. They also deserve the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

They do not however deserve a handout if they fall on hard times, they don't deserve a bailout because their 401K tanked, and they don't deserve "free" food because they don't make enough money.

Plenty of people would call this harsh and in a way it is, however it is not my job or yours to be forced to fend for those that either cannot or choose not to fend for themselves. To look at it another way. If not for the income tax, payroll tax, unemployment tax, social security tax, school tax, library tax, property tax, etc...a community could easily support those less fortunate via charity than is being done now via forced taxation.

Deep down a vast majority of human beings are very generous, we just don't always have the means to give what we would like. However if not for forced "entitlements" there is quite a bit of good that each and every one of us could share easily.

Keep watching for more short topics On Liberty.

Saturday, June 6, 2009

On Liberty

Liberty, as myself and many others much wiser than myself have said, is not free, is not easy, and is not always comfortable. With true liberty comes great responsibility and the realization that you are ultimately responsible for you!

For some reason in this day and age this is not longer thought of as something to seek and acquire. No longer something that is held in high esteem and respect. But is rather looked on as being a rather radical, extremist view.

There are many factors that I feel are the cause of this and should allow me many posts in the future to discuss this issue. Today however I want to take a look at two types of people, those that love true liberty, and those that don't.

For those that love liberty they want to be left alone, they believe in pursuing whatever interest, job, hobby, path, etc... life takes them on. More often than not they are very self reliant, ingenious about devising ways to get the most out of what is available to them, and can make a dollar go a very long way. They are also usually very kind hearted and true humanitarians, give back to their community and do charitable work quite frequently. (This is just a general observation I have noticed from those that I know and have contact with).

In opposition to them are those that want someone else to have a majority control in their lives. It is never their fault that they maxed out their credit cards, overspend on their budget, didn't get that job promotion, or didn't get hired for that better job. They look at life bitterly, as though just because they are born in America they deserve something automatically. They usually seek to impose a system that tries to make everyone "equal" by taking from those that do well to make sure those that don't have something, regardless of why those that don't are that way (they don't care if it is due to lack of motivation, laziness, etc...). (Once again a general observation).

That will wrap up my brief discussion on liberty today. Look for more in the future.

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Police and Safety or Lack Thereof

"This is devastating," he told reporters Tuesday. "None of us signed up for this kind of task."

Distelzweig said under the 2010 budget plan, the department will focus on priority calls and maintaining public safety. "Policing in this city will change as we know it today," he said. " ... [We're] going to do less with less." [link]

Directly from the mouth of a large city police chief. Doing less with less. That should really make one feel safe. Yet there are plenty of people that say average American citizens do not need to be armed because that is what the police are for, to protect "us". Well what happens then when things in the economy get so bad that the police don't get paid, but they still have their guns?

The same people that feel this way also usually don't realize that the police have no obligation to protect anyone and are not liable for injuries or death caused by crime or failing to respond in a timely manner. This is why the sole responsibility of individual safety should be left up to the individual.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Innocent Life Saved With Firearm

"A 42-year-old Midlothian man was fatally shot in self-defense Friday night, Arlington police said.

Rodney Kennedy was in his ex-wife's home when he was shot by his former father-in-law, 67, police said. The shooting happened at 10 p.m. during an altercation, according to reports." [link]

Purely conjecture, but based on past instances of events like these the man probably had a restraining order against him, broke or attempted to break in, was confronted by ex father-in-law and was shot. This could very well have ended badly if the woman would have been home alone with no firearm for protection. Like I said purely conjecture, but you can look to the past to see how these usually turn out.

Forget That Pepper Spray, Pack the Pistol

"The report found that the Department of Defense's Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Program (JNLWP) has spent $386 million since it was formed in 1996, and created exactly zero useful non-lethal weapons." [link]

Translation: Listen to what millions of law abiding gun owners have been saying for years. There is no substitute for a firearm. If you truly want to protect you and yours, you must be willing to learn, practice, and carry a firearm, there is not substitute. As Col. Jeff Cooper said: ""Fight back! Whenever you are offered violence, fight back! The aggressor does not fear the law, so he must be taught to fear you. Whatever the risk, and at whatever the cost, fight back!"

Sunday, April 19, 2009

A Declaration of Seperation

Copied and re posted in its entirety from Free and Unashamed. Only editing and link changes were made.

To The Governments & People of Earth:

We claim the right to exist, and we will defend it.

We do not seek to overthrow anything. We do not seek to control anything. We merely wish to be left alone.

All we ever wanted was to live in peace with our friends and neighbors. For a long, long time we bore insults to our liberty; we took blows, we did what we could to avoid injury and we worked through the system to get the offenses to stop. That has now changed.

We no longer see any benefit in working through the world's systems. At some point, working within a system becomes cowardly and immoral; for us, that point has arrived. Regardless of the parties in power, their governments have continued to restrict, restrain and punish us. We hereby reject them all. We hereby withdraw from them all. We hold the ruling states of this world and all that appertains to them to be self-serving and opposed to humanity.

We now withdraw our obedience and reclaim the right to strike back when struck. We will not initiate force, but we do reserve the right to answer it.

We did not choose this — it was forced upon us.

To The Governments of Earth:

You are building cages for all that is human. In the name of protection, you have intruded into all areas of human life, far exceeding the reach of any Caesar. You claim ultimate control of our property and our decisions, of our travels and even our identities. You claim ownership of humanity far beyond the dreams of any Emperor of any previous era.

Understand clearly: We reject your authority and we reject your legitimacy. We do not believe that you have any right to do the things you do. You have massive power, but no right to impose it upon us and no legitimacy. We have forsaken you. We are no longer your citizens or your subjects.

Your systems are inherently anti-human, even if all their operators are not.

We are not merely angry young people. We are fathers and mothers; aunts, uncles and grandparents; we are business owners and trusted employees; we are mechanics and engineers and farmers. We are nurses and accountants and students and executives.

We are on every continent.

This is not a burst of outrage; this is a sober declaration that we no longer accept unearned suffering as our role in life.

For long decades we sat quietly, hoping that things would turn around. We took no actions; we suffered along with everyone else. But after having our limits pushed back again and again, we have given up on your systems.

If our fellow inhabitants of this planet wish to accept your rule, they are free to do so. We will not try to stop them. We, however, will no longer accept your constraints upon us.

From now on, when you hurt us, we will bite back. If you leave us alone we will leave you alone and you can continue to rule your subjects. We are happy to live quietly. But if you come after us, there will be consequences.

You caused this because of your fetish for control and power. The chief men and women among you are pathologically driven to control everyone and everything that moves upon this planet. You have made yourselves the judge of every human activity. No god-king of the ancient world ever had the power that your systems do.

You have created a world where only the neutered are safe and where only outlaws are free.

To The People of Earth:

We seek nothing from you. We do not want to rule you and we do not want to control you.

All we wish is to live on earth in peace. As always, we will be helpful neighbors and generous acquaintances. We will remain honest business partners and trustworthy employees. We will continue to be loving parents and respectful children.

We will not, however, be sacrificial animals. We reject the idea that others have a right to our lives and our property. We will not demand anything from you, and we will no longer acquiesce to any demands upon us. We have left that game. We reject all obligations to any person or organization beyond honesty, fair dealing and a respect for human life.

We will shortly explain what we believe, but we are not demanding that you agree with us. All we ask is that you do not try to stop us. Continue to play the game if you wish; we will not try to disrupt it. We have merely walked away from it.

We wish you peace.

To Those Who Will Condemn Us:

We will ignore you.

We welcome and seek the verdict of a just God, before whom we are willing to expose our innermost thoughts. Are you similarly willing?

We would stand openly before all mankind if it were not suicidal. Perhaps some day we will have to accept slaughter for our crime of independence, but not yet.

Your criticism and your malice are much deeper than mere disagreements of strategy or philosophy. You do not oppose our philosophy, you oppose our existence. Our presence in the world means that your precious ideals are false. Some of you would rather kill us than face the loss of your ideologies, just as those like you have either hated or killed every sufficiently independent human.

You present yourselves to the world as compassionate, tolerant and enlightened, but we know that your smooth words are costumes. Oh yes, we know you, servant of the state; don't forget, we were raised with you. We played with you in the schoolyard, we sat next to you in the classroom. Some of us studied at the same elite universities. We watched as you had your first tastes of power. We were the boys and girls standing next to you. Some of us were your first victims. We are not fooled by your carefully crafted public image.

What We Believe

  1. Many humans resent the responsibilities that are implied by consciousness. We accept those responsibilities and we embrace consciousness. Rather than letting things happen to us (avoiding consciousness), we accept consciousness and choose to act in our own interest.
    We do not seek the refuge of blaming others, neither do we take refuge in crowds. We are willing to act on our personal judgment, and we are willing to accept the consequences thereof.
  2. We believe in negative rights for all: That all humans should be free to do whatever they wish, as long as they do not intrude upon others; that no man has a right to the life, liberty or property of another; that we oppose aggression, fraud and coercion.
  3. We do not believe that our way of life, or any other, will make life perfect or trouble-free. We expect crime and disagreements and ugliness, and we are prepared to deal with them. We do not seek a strongman to step in and solve problems for us. We agree to see to them ourselves.
  4. We believe in free and unhindered commerce. So long as exchanges are voluntary and honest, no other party has a right to intervene — before, during or after.
  5. We believe that all individuals should keep their agreements.
  6. We believe that honestly obtained property is fully legitimate and absolute.
  7. We believe that some humans are evil and that they must be faced and dealt with. We accept the fact that this is a difficult area of life.
  8. We believe that humans can self-organize effectively. We expect them to cooperate. We reject impositions of hierarchy and organization.
  9. We believe that all humans are to be held as equals in all matters regarding justice.
  10. We believe that the more a man or woman cares about right and wrong, the more of a threat he or she is perceived to be by governments.
  11. We believe that there are only two true classes of human beings: Those who wish to exercise power upon others - either directly or through intermediaries - and those who have no such desires.
  12. Large organizations and centralization are inherently anti-human. They must rely upon rules rather than principles, treating humans within the organization as obedient tools.

Our Plans:

We are building our own society. We will supplement traditional tools with networking, cryptography, sound money, digital currency and anonymous messaging.

Our society will not be centrally controlled. It will rely solely on voluntary arrangements.

We welcome others to join us. We are looking for people who are independent creators of value, people who act more than talk, and people who do the right thing because it is the right thing.

We will develop our own methods of dealing with injustice, built on the principles of negative rights, restitution, integrity and equal justice.

We do not forbid anyone from having one foot in each realm - ours and the old realm - although we demand that they do no damage to our realm. We are fully opposed to any use of our realm to facilitate crime in the old realm, such as the hiding of criminal proceeds.

We expect to be loudly condemned, libeled and slandered by the authorities of the old regime. We expect them to defend their power and their image of legitimacy with all means available to them. We expect that many gullible and servile people will believe these lies, at least at first.

We will consider traps laid for us to be criminal offenses.

Any who wish to join us are encouraged to distribute this declaration, to act in furtherance of our new society, to voluntarily excel in virtues and to communicate and cooperate with other members of the new society.

Free, unashamed men cannot be ruled.

We are The Free and The Unashamed.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

CCW Holder Kill's Armed Robber

"Police said a man wearing a ski mask walked into the store at Biscayne Boulevard and 54th Street and demanded money from a clerk. A customer, who has a concealed weapons permit, pulled a gun, said Officer Jeff Giordano, a Miami police spokesman. The customer and robber exchanged fire. The robber was shot dead at the scene." [link]

I wonder just how many lives this man may have just saved?

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Family Farms Are Losers In The Stimulus Pork Barrel

"...resident Obama's stimulus bill will be, on balance, a series of disincentives for family farms to run the risks of aggressive farming, because the stimulus bill unfavorably raises the risk / reward ratio...Moreover, farm families work long, hard hours all year long to build and to preserve their farms for future generations of their families. Reinstatement of punitive death taxes, as proposed in the President's budget, is a meaningful disincentive to all that hard work." [link]

Does it amaze you as much as it does me that the administration wants to hand certain people things (welfare type benefits) hand over fist, yet people that produce on their own, and for others keep getting penalized? What type of logic is this? If anyone can explain please do, I just cannot manage to get my head around this idea. I speak from experience on this as well. I grew up and still live in a small rural community and my family owned and ran a small farm. The government effectively punishes anyone who does this to try and make the least profit or supplement their income in any way by these means.

Monday, March 2, 2009

It Doesn't Always Have to be Big!

Sometimes lovers of freedom and liberty get caught up in our own ideas and forget the reason we love what we love. That being our own ability to think, say, do, act, etc... in any manner that we want to so long as we do not violate of infringe on the rights of others in our actions. A lot of times we look so much at the big picture we think we have to act in large world changing ways, when nothing could be further from the truth. Little bits here and there will eventually have the same (and almost always a more lasting) effect.

For example, the Commonwealth of Kentucky in its legislative brilliance has voted to raise alcohol and cigarette tax considerably. The legislature's and governor's reasoning "It will generate much needed revenue." When asked what is going to happen when, instead of generating revenue it causes people to cut back on, or give up smoking/drinking? Their answer, "It will allow us to stop spending so much on health care." However they neglect to point out that they way government does its bookkeeping these two things are not necessarily related to each other.

Okay, enough about some silly legislature, on to my point. I gave up smoking two years ago, so that was just that much more of my money the state is not going to get. My small protest now will be to learn the skill of home brewing. After I get my brewing kit set up and going, I will no longer be paying alcohol taxes, I will no longer purchase alcohol in the Commonwealth.

This may not make much of a difference with one person in the long run, but that is sort of the point of this post. Pass it along, think about ways you can "legally" subvert the system, start conversations with your friends about ways you can stop supplying government with your hard earned money, start taking responsibility for yourself and all of your actions.

Saturday, February 21, 2009

In Response to Those That Argue Government=Safety

Excellent article here by fellow blogger Kent McManigal. This would especially be a good read for those of you that like to justify more government as a means for safety and security. I know that none of you read my blog or Kent's, but maybe you will have a caring friend that will email our links along with Kent's article to you.

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Thoughts and Things Learned During the Ice Storm

First off, it is nice to have the comforts of electric back. It is easy to take it for granted until it is gone. Notice I did not say needed.



Okay, here we go with some things learned during this little ordeal. Food, water, and heating that we had was sufficient to meet every one's needs, and more or less offer some means of comfort. Temperature was a bit cooler than what we were used to with electric (we used a gas insert) but that was remedied by layering indoors. I will add that in a worse case scenario it would be very wise to have more than one means of heat, i.e. backup generator(standby would be more advantageous than gas or LP powered, but more expensive), extra propane stored for gas stove, some dry wood stored(which we had) just in case...



Food met all nutrition needs and kept anyone from a rumbly tummy and/or intestinal distress. However after about day 3 we all decided that more variety was needed. This will be remedied in the following weeks. I will be looking for several varieties and brands of canned soup, vegetables, dried/preserved/canned meats, "energy bars", candy (for the sweet tooth), and powdered drink mixes.



Hygiene, no problem, we had running water, also had water stored in case water went out. Pretty sure we had enough water for all of us for a full week. I will however be investing in a packable filtration system. Any advice on this would be appreciated, I have looked in the past, but could just not decide. Oh yeah, have powdered soap and a wash board handy, we didn't need to use them, but we had both.



I am sure there is more, but these were the things that stuck with me.



Other things on hand that were not "needed" during this event were: several different modes of transportation (that is to say 4X4 vehicles, atv's and utv's), extra fuel for each, chainsaws, firearms and spare ammo, also a fully portable reloading setup.



Overall it seems that Kentuckians are a rather resilient bunch, as well as self sufficient (I will expound on this more in a later post). Unfortunately there were some deaths in the state associated with this storm, however when you consider that up to 700K were without power with sub-freezing temperatures and as of now only 9 deaths were hypothermia related out of 24 total (hope this number does not go up)[link] I would hazard a guess that we Kentuckians know how to take care of ourselves and each other.
 
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