Some noteworthy news articles:

• NO on Issue 2 – Toledo Blade, 10/28/09
  

  “Regardless of how anyone feels about the treatment of farm animals, Issue 2 is poor public policy, and it should be defeated.

  The Ohio Constitution should never be used to promote the interests of specific individuals, businesses, or industries. The reasonable approach to balancing the needs of Ohio’s farming industry and the concerns of animal-rights groups would have been to follow Michigan’s example and work out a compromise in state law that would protect both farmers and farm animals.”

• Livestock care is key in Issue 2 debate – Columbus Dispatch, 10/25/09
  

  In case there’s any doubt about this being big business, consider Ohio’s 2008 agriculture numbers:

  • 4 million pigs were raised on 4,000 farms. Another 170,000 sows were used for breeding.
  • 27 million hens laid 7.1 billion eggs. There were 57.5 million chickens and 6 million turkeys raised for meat.
  • 1.2 million beef cattle came from 15,000 farms. Another 700,000 calves were marketed for veal.

• Controversial proposal is battle over who regulates agriculture industry – Dayton Daily News, 10/25/09
  

  While the Ohio Constitution authorizes a state board of education, boards typically aren’t prescribed in that document, said Charles Hallinan, a University of Dayton law professor and constitutional scholar.

  “It’s an oddity,” Hallinan said of Issue 2. “It is unusual enough that it would give me pause to include it in the constitution.”

• Issue 2 Spending – Columbus Dispatch, 10/23/09
  

  Backers of state Issue 2, the proposed constitutional amendment to create the Ohio Livestock Care Standards Board, gave more than $4 million to that cause.

  “Contributions to Issue 2 are about much more than just supporting a ballot measure,” said Jack Fisher, executive vice president of the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation and treasurer of Ohioans for Livestock Care Political Action Committee.

  “They are really an investment in educating all Ohioans on farmers’ commitment to excellent animal care and to providing safe, affordable, locally grown food for our consumers.”

  Issue 2 supporters said about $3 million of the total came from Ohio family farmers and groups representing farm organizations.

  Records show about $1.2 million came via more than 100 donations from out-of-state organizations, ranging from the Delaware Farm Bureau to the Arizona Pork Council to the Texas Turkey Federation to the Hawaii Cattlemen’s Council. Eli Lily Co. of Indianapolis added $25,000.

  The drive to pass state Issue 2 was led by a dozen six-figure donations. The Ohio Farm Bureau chipped in about $535,000 overall, although the largest single contribution, $200,000, came from United Egg Producers in Alpharetta, Ga.

• Justice calls State Issue 2 misuse of constitution – Columbus Dispatch, 10/20/09
  

  O’Connor said the state constitution is a “much bigger document” that should not be amended to include policy decisions, such as livestock care, that are best left to lawmakers.

  O’Connor, who plans to run for chief justice next year, said backers of Issue 2 understand that once something is added to the constitution, it will take “an arm and a leg” to overturn it, the paper reported.

The most recent list of groups who officially oppose Issue 2 (I’m sure I’m missing some):

Finally, I’d like to draw attention to an analysis of contributions to the Ohioans for Livestock Care PAC conducted by Ohio ACT.

They’ve published the findings as a PDF, but for greater accessibility I’m posting the info here as well. The numbers clearly show what Issue 2 opponents have been saying all along, Issue 2 is NOT about protecting small farms, this is about protecting the abusive and immoral practices of FACTORY farms.

Ohio ACT Analysis of Contributions and In-Kind Donations to Ohioans for Livestock Care PAC

Large Contributors/Donors ($20,000 or More) Represent Two-Thirds of the Contributions to Ohioans for Livestock Care (Pro-Issue 2):
Fifty donors, all large institutions, that gave $20,000 or more to the Ohioans for Livestock Care PAC were 2 percent of the contributors but two-thirds (66 percent) of the financing. More than one thousand donors (1,046 contributors) donated less than $100, but these small donors made up only 1 percent of the PAC’s contributions.

Dozen Largest Contributions/In-Kind Donations Made Up More than One Third of Contributions:
The twelve largest contributors (all agribusiness interests) contributed at least $100,000 gave a total of $1.4 million, 35 percent of all funds contributed to Ohioans for Livestock Care. The statewide Ohio Farm Bureau Federation gave $505,186 (in four separate donations) that constituted 12 percent of the funding for the PAC. Three out-of- state interests contributed a total of $413,000, or 10 percent of all contributions to the PAC (United Egg Producers (Georgia), National Pork Producers Council (Iowa), and Pioneer Hi-Bred (Iowa-based seed and agrochemical firm).

Non-Individual Contributors Provided Nearly All (94 Percent) of the Financing:
About half the contributors (49 percent) were “non-individual” contributors, but they contributed $.3.8 million (94 percent) to the PAC. These non-individual donors were primarily agribusiness trade associations, livestock operations, agricultural service companies and farms.

Farm Bureau Chapters and Livestock Operations and Associations Among Largest Donors:
State and local Farm Bureau chapters made 451 contributions totaling $995,719 to the pro-Issue 2 PAC – 18 percent of the contributors and 25 percent of the financing. This includes 13 non-Ohio-based Farm Bureau chapters that gave $60,000. Hog trade associations and operations contributed $624,106 (15 percent); egg trade associations and operations contributed $477,298 (12 percent); poultry associations and operations contributed $271,695 (7 percent). Beef, dairy and other livestock interest contributed $257,944 (6 percent) combined.

Contributors from Outside Ohio Provided More than One Fourth Contributions:
More than one hundred (106) out of state contributors donated $1,196,080 to Ohioans for Livestock Care, only 4 percent of the contributors but 30 percent of the financing. Ten Iowa contributors gave $498,300 (12 percent), 3 Georgia contributors gave $211,000 (5 percent), 3 Minnesota contributors gave $115,000 (3 percent), 26 Indiana donors gave $97,075 (2 percent), 3 Kentucky contributors gave $58,000 (1 percent), 5 Missouri donors gave $56,000 (1 percent), and 3 North Carolina contributors gave $50,000 (1 percent).

Methodology: Ohio ACT examined the Coalition for Livestock Care PAC contributions and in kind donation data that was released October 22nd and coded the non-individual contributors that gave $5,000 or more based on agricultural sector. Trade associations and companies that provided a livestock-specific service (pork packing, poultry packaging or cage manufacturing, or hog business consulting software, for example) was coded with the appropriate livestock industry. Livestock services that were not livestock type specific (veterinary services, cattle genetics) were coded as agricultural services). Feed and seed elevators that provide a range of agricultural services but appear to be primarily elevators are coded as feed/grain/oilseed.

Of course, this is not an all-inclusive update, there is so much being said about this issue I can’t possibly cover it all. PLEASE do your research, and don’t believe the feel-good commercials the Farm Bureau is putting out, they’re anything but honest.

If you’re in Columbus, Cleveland, or Cincinnati: Ohio ACT really needs volunteers to help with phonebanking and passing out door hangers.

Spread the word: VOTE NO ON ISSUE 2!

(Can’t see the video? Click here.)

I’ve been meaning to write about Issue 2, a sneaky little campaign (backed by factory farms and Big Ag) that would create the “Ohio Livestock Care Standards Board.” Since this op-ed letter I just wrote to Outlook News pretty much summarizes where I stand, I’ll go ahead and copy it here.

For more information on this issue, please check out OhioACT.org (Ohioans Against Constitutional Takeover) and the Facebook group I’ve created: Ohioans Against Issue 2. On both sites you can download flyers, view recent news articles about the issue, and more.

To: hayes@outlookmedia.com, mdaniels@outlookmedia.com
Subject: Issue 2 endorsement

Dear Mr. Daniels,

I was highly disappointed to find an endorsement of Issue 2 in the latest issue of Outlook. Disappointed for many reasons.

The first reason is the obvious lack of research on the issue. Did you take your summary of the issue straight off the Farm Bureau’s website? Did you read ANY opposing arguments? Did you look at the list of groups who oppose it? This list includes the Capital Area Humane Society, Ohio League of Women Voters, Organic Consumers Association, Ohio Sierra Club, Ohio Farmers Union, Food & Water Watch… the list goes on.

Do you know how quickly the ballot measure was pushed through the Ohio legislature, passing through the House and Senate in just 6 days? Talk about suspicious. Issue 2 came about as a knee-jerk reaction to the idea of dealing with the Humane Society’s potential focus on expanding animal welfare laws in the state of Ohio. Rather than leave the decision up to voters who may decide farm animals deserve better treatment (as was recently the case in Michigan and California), the Farm Bureau decided to take matters into their own hands and shrug off the democratic process completely, saying they will regulate themselves. The fox wants to guard the henhouse, literally.

Issue 2 would amend the Ohio Constitution, an action that should NEVER be taken lightly.  Creating a Livestock Care Standards Board takes away power from the voters, as all future animal-welfare decisions would be decided upon and handed down by this unelected 13-member group. Did Outlook investigate the would-be members of this board? To put it simply: they’re not looking out for animals or food safety, they’re pawns for Big Agribusiness. Not to mention the cost of creating this new board. Can Ohio really afford this right now? Expanding government always means expanding the budget.

Also worth mentioning is the effect it will have on Ohio’s small farmers, who would have even more regulation to deal with if Issue 2 passes. That does not mean safer food, historically this has resulted in increased costs for small farmers who end up going out of business, then factory farms and Big Ag gladly take over. Factory farms certainly do not provide safer food, and absolutely do not provide better care for animals.

This is not “Ohioans taking care of Ohioans” — this is Big Agribusiness taking care of themselves. I can’t believe Outlook News fell victim to the Farm Bureau’s campaign. You’ve done a disservice to your readers by taking the lazy road to arrive at your endorsement decision, and it will be Ohio’s small farms and animals that suffer.

It’s convenient that Outlook is now a monthly publication, since even if this letter made it to print, it would be too late for anyone to see. Nevertheless, I feel obligated to speak out against this ignorant endorsement.

All the talk in the news today has been about AIG’s $165 million taxpayer-funded bonuses and how it has outraged Mr. Obama. It’s been a very effective distraction, indeed.

What the media ISN’T telling you is that Obama’s Stimulus Plan actually PROTECTS the AIG bonuses. Or that our National Debt has now gone past the $11 TRILLION mark ($50+ Trillion if you count unfunded obligations.) They’re also not mentioning that Mr. Obama is now traveling the country trying to convince the American public (pretending it’s their decision, after all) to accept his $3.6 TRILLION annual budget.

That’s a lot of numbers to process, I know, so let me put them into perspective: AIG’s $165 million is 0.0046% of Obama’s proposed $3.6 TRILLION annual budget and 0.0015% of the national debt. So yes, GET ANGRY. But not just at AIG. Throw your shoes at King Obama, his Majesty’s Court, and every member of Congress that rolls over for him.

To celebrate today’s Kool Aid Moment, I give my readers The Obama Deception, the latest documentary by Alex Jones that sums up the Obama Scam better than I ever could.

What I wouldn’t give to have my brainwashed friends watch this. Alas, I’ll settle for preaching to the choir.

*Caution, don’t mention this film on Facebook or your account could get deleted.

A recent work trip reminded me that if you want a glimpse into the future of America, all you have to do is fly somewhere.

• If you make it so far as getting your boarding pass, congratulations for not being on the No Fly list, which contains an estimated one million names.
• Upon arriving at the security checkpoint, you get to strip down to your socks and if you’re lucky they let you keep your shirt and pants on. Cross your fingers as you step through the TSA scanners, hope a filling or metal grommet on your clothes doesn’t trigger a S.W.A.T. raid.
• While your body is being checked for dangerous objects, another TSA agent will rifle through your belongings making sure you haven’t brought along anything dangerous, like 4 oz. or greater of face wash or lotion, which can spontaneously combust at high altitudes.
• If you’re lucky enough to make it through security, you run a high risk of being checked by TSA agents again, usually a half hour before boarding. They’ll interrupt you while you’re reading or checking your email and will wear rubber gloves (in case you’ve suddenly contracted cooties) as they check your boarding pass.
• Getting thirsty? Too bad you had to dump your drink at the security gate. Water collected outside the airport can spontaneously combust.
• Fortunately, if you get thirsty or hungry while waiting to board you can visit one of many food chains located near the gate. But be prepared for hyper-inflation, as you are a captive audience. $5 for a bagel and $4 for coffee sounds about fair. But eat it FAST because it is not allowed on the plane, more spontaneous combustion risks. The peanuts and soda they pass out are specially treated and do not run this risk.
• While waiting to board, you may find it hard to concentrate on a phone call or book because every five minutes you will be interrupted with a loud but friendly message from the Department of Homeland Security reminding you of the day’s current threat level. Five bucks says it’s orange. But DON’T BE ALARMED.
• As you’re called to board the plane, you run the risk of being singled out AGAIN by a TSA agent for a random pat-down and boarding pass check. In case anything’s changed since the first three checks. They will also look at you menacingly, guilty until proven innocent, the American way.
• Once on board the plane you will be offered a drink and food menu, but most items can only be acquired through electronic payment, no cash allowed.
• All of these items will be outrageously priced, but you have no choice, you’re on this plane for hours and your drink from home was confiscated at the security checkpoint long ago.
• If you survive all the previous steps, you should eventually arrive at your destination, feeling like a criminal that’s evaded capture yet again.
• What a lovely experience that was! Hard to figure out why air travel is declining…

What have we learned from this little adventure? Hyperinflation, electronic currency, Fourth Amendment violations, and police-state surveillance tactics are all being tested at the great human laboratory we call the Airport.

You’ve probably already experienced these things throughout your day-to-day life, but that was nothing. Just wait til Airport mode comes out of beta — Homeland 2.0!

Oh yeah, and make sure your seat is in the upright position prior to landing. That 5 degree decline really distracts the pilot.

Disclaimer: In my previous post I gave the impression I would completely stop being political. That’s not exactly the case. I can’t stop paying attention, stop caring completely, or stop being pi$$ed off because I still have a working brain and heart. But I AM drastically toning it down and sticking to the big stories. Most of the White Flag changes are happening offline, as Congress motivates me every day to spend less time pointing out the obvious and more time prepping for the culminating disaster. I no longer see light at the end of the tunnel, I see an oncoming train. If you want more news stories like I used to post, I suggest checking out my News page, where I’ll continue to highlight events and stories that deserve attention.

As I said, I’m sticking to the big stories now. And this Spendulus bill is REALLY big. Equal to a third of our annual budget, in fact. It is indeed the Democrats’ own Patriot Act (which Mr. Obama voted for in 2006):

• Presidential fear-mongering for its passage
• passed by Congress without them even reading it
• late-night voting
• ignoring the people’s calls, emails, and faxes that are 100 to 1 against
  
• and ultimately the crushing of the shriveled remnants of our Constitution.

Congress has done this before and apparently hasn’t learned their lesson. Another year, another Congress, another President. OBAMA = BUSH = CLINTON.

I’ve already ranted about how completely ineffective and wasteful this bill is, in fact it only got worse since that posting. But I haven’t yet mentioned how its passage is breaking an important campaign promise made by Obama back in 2007.

He LOVES to talk about transparency. It gets the zombies excited. So excited they forget to actually demand it.

BEFORE:

“When there is a bill that ends up on my desk as president, you will have five days to look online and find out what’s in it before I sign it.”

Barack Obama
June 22, 2007, Manchester, N.H.

AFTER:

“Approved earlier by the House, the [Spendulus] plan — which went through multiple permutations as it bounced back and forth on Capitol Hill over the past week — now goes to Obama’s desk, where he plans to sign it into law by Presidents Day.”

- CNN

B R O K E N .

The bill passed the Senate on Friday night and will be signed Monday? That’s 48 hours at the MOST. And why should we have to work on the weekend when the government doesn’t have to? Fortunately the bill is a light read, just 1,100 pages, so you only have to read 550 pages a day to finish it by Monday. If you read quicker than that, you’ll have enough time to write up some feedback to send to Obama beforehand, I’m sure he’ll take it into serious consideration.

I’d like to start reading except right now I can’t find it anywhere on Whitehouse.gov and there’s nothing on Recovery.gov. Found it, sort of, it wasn’t easy — plus one of their links is broken so only 998 pages will load. They’re even soliciting comments, acting like they actually care what you think. Not that it’ll make a difference, but tell them anyway, maybe we can blow up their server. Thank god for the people at ReadTheStimulus.org who are devoting their time to making it at least somewhat accessible. But why isn’t Obama’s team doing that?

A side note: Ohio’s own Senator Brown was the deciding vote. It’s safe to say he will NEVER AGAIN get my support (as he did in 2006), and I vow to financially support anyone that runs against him in the future. Mr. Brown, you’ve sold out the people of Ohio and the rest of this country, you should be ashamed. As should all the Senators and Representatives who supported it. You have failed us. Again.

Before I step away from this and start enjoying my weekend, I will leave you with a glimmer of hope. Somehow Congressman Ron Paul manages to fight on and speak the truth, and thank god for that. Ron Paul is my President. Buck Farack.

(Can’t see the video? Speech transcript here.)

It’s official, President King Obama has taken his first steps towards ruining our country, seamlessly picking up where George W. Bush left off.

Last night his $825+ BILLION “Stimulus” bill was passed. NONE of the House Republicans voted for it (for once Ron Paul did not stand alone), and all but 11 Democrats voted for it (including Mary Jo Kilroy, new Representative for Ohio’s 15th District, who will NEVER AGAIN get my vote.)

Congressional Democrats had no problem rushing through a spending bill that they surely didn’t read (it’s 1,588 pages.) It seems all a President has to do now to get their agendas passed is claim that it’s an emergency (DO IT NOW, OR ELSE!!!) and threaten that “it’ll be worse if we do nothing.” Hmm, I think that’s the same line they used to justify rushing the TARP bailout plan through. And look how successful that’s been, aren’t we all much better off now?

So what’s in this bill that’s supposedly going to bring back jobs, fix our broken mortgages, and put more money in our wallets? Let’s examine some of the ridiculous things Mr. Obama has deemed urgently necessary:

Allow me to remind you: it’s NOT the federal government’s job to make sure you have digital TV service, museums, and trains. If you can find this clause in the Constitution, I’ll give you $100. It’s obvious that 98% of these items don’t have anything to do with emergencies or job-creation, they’re just going to expand an already overweight federal government and feed its bureaucracy.

What Obama hasn’t told you is that this bill has added an additional $6,700 of debt for every man, woman, and child in this country. Do you really want new sod that badly? What about your kids, how do you feel about enslaving them without their permission? It’s been said the tax cuts in this bill will put an extra $12 a week in the wallet of every American. Which number is bigger: 12 or 6,700? At $12/week it would take 10+ years to get that $6,700 back, and you can bet it will be worth WAY less than it is now thanks to inflation.

Needless to say, I’m beyond angry at this point, our political “representatives” (along with the American people) are RUINING this country with their apathy and lack of education on basic economics. Piece by piece we are building our own graves, and people are actually applauding it. The basics are simple to understand, and yet Americans still can’t grasp how it works. We are $10+ TRILLION in debt (counting unfunded obligations, that number is $50+ trillion), so Obama proposes tax cuts and spending INCREASES? He never once considered spending LESS on our military budget, pre-emptive wars, and empire-building, of course. I suppose once you get above $10+ trillion, the number is incomprehensible anyway, who cares how much higher it goes, right? (Unless you’re aware of what happens when you expand the money supply by trillions of dollars.) Americans see nothing wrong with this. We can spend, spend, spend, it’s all okay!

No, it’s NOT okay. Let me try making an analogy using these same principles, free from political terms that confuse and turn off most Americans:

Joe the Plumber is $500,000 in debt. He ran up his credit cards buying a bunch of things he didn’t need, lives in a house that he can’t afford, and financially supports a family in another neighborhood that constantly tries to attack the people next door to them. He’s lived this way for years and years but suddenly now he’s FREAKING OUT because he can’t make his monthly payments so the credit card companies are getting very angry, threatening to take away all of his assets, and the power company is threatening to turn off his electricity. He had to fire his pool boy, the dog’s private yoga instructor, and his private chef. Times are tough.

Joe comes up with a plan to fix this problem: he’s going to take a pay-cut at work and spend $100,000 using another credit card. He uses that $100,000 to buy a fancy new BBQ grill, some new trees for his yard, a new car, presents for the family in the other neighborhood, and other non-essential amenities. Joe the Plumber is now making less money each month, and is another $100,000 in debt. Do you think his plan will work? Will Joe wake up next week and suddenly be debt-free, with his pool boy and Spot’s yoga trainer back on the job?

If you support Obama’s plan, I have 3 assignments for you:

1. Find where in the Constitution it says the federal government is allowed to use tax-payer money for these things.
2. Read the Stimulus Bill for yourself. All 1,588 pages.
3. Report back to me in a few months and tell me how many jobs have been created and how much better off we are thanks to this emergency pillaging.
4. EXTRA CREDIT #1: Research how FDR’s New Deal programs actually prolonged the Great Depression.
5. EXTRA CREDIT #2: Research the Weimar Republic and how hyperinflation affected them.

The kicker of this whole thing is that Obama has said over and over again that it’s time for an Era of Personal Responsibility. This means NOT RELYING ON THE GOVERNMENT TO DO EVERYTHING FOR YOU.

If you really want to follow the King’s advice, quit begging for help from the government and then crying even louder when they make it worse. Quit asking for more debt. Quit asking for less control over your life. Try some COMMON SENSE, America.

All Americans who are concerned over the fiscal irresponsibility of Congress and the inflationary effects of its trillion dollar deficits, trillion dollar bailouts, and trillion dollar stimulus package, MUST contact their representative immediately in opposition to H.R. 1, the economic stimulus package.

“There is a lot of stimulus and growth in this bill – that is, of government.  Nothing in this bill stimulates the freedom and prosperity of the American people.  Politician-directed spending is never as successful as market-driven investment.  Instead of passing this bill, Congress should get out of the way by cutting taxes, cutting spending, and reining in the reckless monetary policy of the Federal Reserve.”

- Congressman Ron Paul

Rep. Ron Paul issued a statement yesterday regarding this bill which makes it clear what type of bill it is and some of the reasons why we must oppose it. Here are some highlights:

• “In reality, this bill is just an escalation of a government-created economic mess. As before, a sense of urgency and impending doom is being used to extract mountains of money from Congress with minimal debate….. We are again being promised that its passage will help employment, help homeowners, help the environment, etc.  These promises are worthless.  This time around especially, Congress should know better than to pass anything of this magnitude without first reading the fine print.”
• “At least $4 billion is allocated to expanding the police state and the war on drugs … and the COPS program, both of which are corrupt and largely ineffective programs.”
• “To help Big Brother keep a better eye on us and our children, $20 billion would go towards health information technology, which would create a national system of electronic medical records without adequate privacy protection.”
• “$79 billion bails out states that haphazardly expanded their budgets during the bubble years, but refuse to retrench and cut back, as their taxpayers have had to, during recession years.”
• “Of course the bill is rife with central planning projects.”
• “This bill delivers an additional debt burden of $6,700 to every American man, woman and child.”
• “There is a lot of stimulus and growth in this bill – that is, of government.  Nothing in this bill stimulates the freedom and prosperity of the American people.  Politician-directed spending is never as successful as market-driven investment.  Instead of passing this bill, Congress should get out of the way by cutting taxes, cutting spending, and reining in the reckless monetary policy of the Federal Reserve.”

The bottom line is that Americans need to help preserve their freedom and prosperity by opposing this nearly trillion dollar economic stimulus package.

Speak out against this, contact your Representative immediately!

As the clock runs down on Bush’s time in office, I should be rejoicing, but my muscles can’t help but tense up. Such is the life of one who lives outside the left/right paradigm, a.k.a. The Matrix.

There are many possible explanations for this — the on-set of Obama’s socialist regime being a MAJOR concern — but the most immediate worry is if Bush and Co. are going to do anything to avoid handing over power (perhaps their favorite: some sort of false-flag event like 9/11) it’ll obviously happen before January 20th, which is only 8 days away.

Eight days to go then we can breathe easy and go back to our TVs, right? Unfortunately, the time to worry doesn’t end on the 20th. For months now there have been mentions of Obama being “tested” as soon as the 21st or 22nd of this month (so say Kissinger, Gates, Powell, Biden, etc.) Like it or not, the stage is set for something big to happen — Bush and his globalist buddies have been very busy the past 8 years. The most immediate threat is the engineered dollar collapse, but war on Iran, war on Pakistan, total economic depression, and domestic rioting are also very real possibilities. Whatever it is, I want to be ready.

A search for emergency preparation / survival lists will yield many results.

Some people’s suggested inventories are rather extensive and daunting (not to mention expensive) and would be hard to fulfill if you’re of average income like myself. I’m trying to find a middle ground — keeping it simple and sticking to the basics, less than 15 items:

1. lots of water (1 gallon per person per day, I prefer distilled or spring)
2. lots of food (legumes, nuts, rice, canned fruits & vegetables, nutritional yeast, protein powder, TVP, tofu, energy bars, emergency food kits)
3. batteries (maybe not needed if you have #4)
4. hand-crank radio / flashlight / cellphone charger
5. toilet paper
6. bleach or calcium hypochlorite (pool shock) to disinfect your water
7. castile soap (can be used for shampoo, dish soap, laundry, etc.)
8. first-aid supplies
9. candles & matches (a Firesteel is good to have too)
10. vitamins and essential oils
11. seeds (get non-Monsanto, non-GMO!)
12. gun(s) and ammo
13. full gas tank
14. cash / gold / silver
    (When IndyMac failed last July, customers were locked out of their accounts online, at the ATMs, and at the actual branches. They couldn’t even check their balances. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want my money being locked away from me, esp. in an emergency, so I’m withdrawing as much as I can.)

* For people with pets: don’t forget about them! Here’s a good list of items to have ready for cats and dogs.

Everybody has their own needs and preferred amenities, so obviously my list is not going to work for everyone, but hopefully it’s a good starting point. I recommend reading the list of 100 Things to Disappear First to determine what you may want to stock up on while you can. I also recommend listening to the Survival Podcast as often as possible!

Worst that can happen:

Too many things to list here, but they would all end with “I told you so” and I really hope I never have to say that.

Best that can happen:

I’m wrong and am left with a bunch of emergency supplies I should have anyway.

Hope this helps get you thinking about whether you’re prepared to survive on your own for at least a few days. Trust me, you don’t want to rely on FEMA to save you, just ask New Orleans.

Godspeed!

Earlier today I listened to tornado sirens blare and watched a dark red “storm cell” that had every possibility of sprouting a tornado pass directly over my neighborhood. Coupled with the incomprehensible tragedy that struck Myanmar a week ago, I feel it’s the perfect time to share an article that explores the total ridiculousness of hyping terrorism when natural disasters hold a much greater threat.

The article I’m sharing was written in response to the storms that decimated Myanmar. An estimated 50,000-100,000 people may have died from the storms, and yet all we hear is that there’s a very real possibility we will be annihilated by terrorists, so we should spend over HALF of our government’s budget taking proactive measures against this so-called, but unsubstantiated threat.

In October 2002, George W. Bush said “…facing clear evidence of peril, we cannot wait for the final proof, the smoking gun that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud.” Well, I’m no national defense expert, nor am I a meteorologist, but I think it’s the funnel clouds we should really fear.

Deadly Cyclone Puts Terror Hype In Perspective

By Paul Joseph Watson – Prison Planet
Wednesday, May 7, 2008

The deadly cyclone that has hit Burma could eventually claim around 50,000 lives – the equivalent of seventeen 9/11’s – and yet in the face of such tragedies that befall the planet on an almost monthly basis, we are constantly lectured that the contrived fear of terrorism – a threat less dangerous to Americans than peanut allergies or accident-causing deer – is reason alone to let control freaks completely re-engineer society and change our way of life.

Listening to the steady drumbeat of government proclamations, you’d think that there were terrorists lurking around every street corner ready to slit our throats or detonate suicide bombs, yet in reality the only “terror attack” directed against westerners in the past near-three years was the comical ‘dumb and dumber’ “Glasgow airport attack,” as it was billed by the corporate media, which consisted of two semi-retarded morons setting fire to a Jeep Cherokee, driving it into a window, and hurting only themselves in the process.

This has nothing to do with any success on the part of the Bush administration or the British government in “fighting terror” since 9/11, the same pattern can be observed throughout the latter half of the 20th century, when the notion of “terrorism” first began to take on its modern incarnation.

The truth is that we are a trillion times more likely to die from a heart attack, a road accident or even a freak weather event, yet we don’t spend all day worrying about it or changing our way of life to accommodate for it, as the control freaks that use the contrived fear of terror demand we do to combat the hyped threat of Al-Qaeda.

The menace of global terrorism has been labeled the greatest threat to western civilization since communism and yet swimming pools, peanuts and lost deer kill more Americans every single year. Why are our governments facilitating the terrorist’s agenda by hyping a peril that simply does not exist?

The number of Americans killed as a result of international terrorism since the 1960’s gives us a benchmark from which we can correctly identify and target other dire dangers to our very way of life.

• Allergic reactions to peanuts
• Accident causing deer
• Lightning strikes

That’s correct — all of the above have killed an equal number of Americans since 1960 as terrorism. One could even categorize M&M’s, lost deer and the weather as an “axis of evil arming to threaten the peace of the world,” as George Bush famously once said.

As Ohio State University’s John Mueller concludes in a report entitled A False Sense Of Insecurity

“For all the attention it evokes, terrorism actually causes rather little damage and the likelihood that any individual will become a victim in most places is microscopic.”

The much vaunted August 2006 transatlantic terror plot, a facade that has since collapsed under the weight of its own absurdity, led to ridiculous measures in airports banning any form of liquids in carry on luggage and mothers were forced to drink their own breast milk. Yet there has not been a bomb planted in a piece of checked luggage on an American carrier since the 1988 Lockerbie disaster, of which the culprits are still in question. Since that time Americans have been routinely interrogated millions of times about the contents of their luggage while cargo remains completely unchecked.

To equal the danger that Americans place themselves in every day by driving their car down the highway, there would have to be a September 11 every month. To reach the same level of risk that one undertakes in boarding an airline, you only have to travel eleven miles in a car.

The principle goal of terrorists is to terrify populations and governments into acquiescing to their political demands. The only way they can achieve this is by generating a substantial amount of fear and making people believe the lie that their life is significantly threatened by potential terrorism, when in reality the swimming pool in their backyard poses more of a danger.

As soon as we lose the fear, the terrorists lose their power over us to control our behavior. If western governments were really trying to win a war on terror as they claim then they would downplay and sideline acts of terror, pointing out that an individual has more chance of being struck by lightning than being killed in a terror attack.

And yet what do we see? George Bush and Dick Cheney frothing at the mouth predicting mushroom clouds over America, and Fox News telling us every day it’s not a matter of if but when we’re attacked again.

“What is needed, as one statistician suggests, is some sort of convincing, coherent, informed, and nuanced answer to a central question: “How worried should I be?” Instead, the message the nation has received so far is, as a Homeland Security official put (or caricatured) it, “Be scared; be very, very scared — but go on with your lives.” Such messages have led many people to develop what Leif Wenar of the University of Sheffield has aptly labeled “a false sense of insecurity.”

By making these statements and continually recycling the hysteria, these entities are facilitating the goals of terrorists, driving forward an agenda that could not be energized alone by relatively minor, rare and inconsequential attacks that take few human lives in comparison to the real dangers that we face every day – mundane things like car accidents, cancer and heart disease.

In that context, western governments are staffed at the very top by rhetorical terrorists who are openly espousing the creed and statecraft of terrorism.

Should we concerned about global terrorism? Undoubtedly. Should we let it be used by governments as a pretext to completely eviscerate our freedoms and alter our way of life? Certainly not – the notion that terror is a fundamental threat to the very foundation of our civilization, as some have claimed, is simply not supported by reality.

Only by coming to the understanding that terrorism is such a limited threat to our livelihoods and communicating that to others can we disarm the alarmist propaganda that governments utilize in order to enlist our obedience for the construction of the prison planet and the total control freak policies being imposed under the justification of the hyped terror threat.

A Libertarian friend of mine recently pointed out that questioning Global Warming is now one of the top 3 politically-incorrect things a person can do, along with questioning 9/11 or questioning U.S. support of Israel. So before anyone freaks out (though since when do I care about being politically correct?), I’ll preface by saying NO— I’m not denying Global Warming completely. I don’t know what to believe yet, I haven’t researched it enough myself.

If it is real– well, I’m a vegan, I recycle, and I try to be a conscious consumer just because I like the idea of taking care of the Earth, regardless of whether or not it’s trendy and/or government-mandated.

Real or not, I have some other issues with the Global Warming religion:

• If they’re going to shove solutions down our throat, they should be preaching vegetarianism, not driving a Prius. Not eating meat is WAY more beneficial for the environment than driving a hybrid vehicle (but you don’t get campaign money from the auto industry for saying that.) Albert Einstein himself said, “Nothing will benefit human health and increase the chances of survival of life on earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.”
• Federal Government intervention (aka Carbon Tax) is NOT the solution! Since when has MORE government solved a problem?? Look at how successful the War on Drugs has been, or the War on Terror, or the Department of Education. We still have drugs, terrorism, and the public schools isn’t learning our kids too good. Get my point?
• People need to look into WHY this is being propagandized across every media outlet you can think of. In what other instance do you see this happen? When they’re selling something, of course— like a Pepsi or a new car. Who stands to profit from everyone going green? Does Al Gore happen to have personal investments in carbon-credit companies? Does he stand to profit from the widespread adoption of ethanol as fuel? Hmm, these are relevent questions, no?

Anyway, I’m rambling. Here’s the video:

“They must find it difficult… those who have taken authority as truth, rather than truth as the authority.”
- Gerald Massey

UPDATE: We got some coverage on Infowars.com!