Hair Aflame, Some Just Thrive on Doom

If you're into crisis preparedness, you might know someone out there who lives for danger and societal demise. You know the type--they can bury their secret retreat and camoflauge the bug-out vehicle in the backwoods, but they can't disguise the adrenaline habit that arises out of tracking headlines continuously for signs of impending carnage.

Of course, weeping and gnashing of teeth sells widely in the media anyway, but there are many info-consumer/bunker rats walking among us who just plain thrive on bad news. Maybe they are invested financially or emotionally in it, maybe it is just a validation of their outlook that the end is near.

Either way, or for whatever other reason, imminent potential disaster injects borderline excitement and fear into the week and reinvigorates an impatient existence spent otherwise stocking the larder and stringing barbed wire around the perimeter.

OK I Confess

Hey--can you tell that I know of what I speak? Yep--I've been there, dug that bunker.

Main point: Real survivors know there's a sharp distinction between being a prepper and being a doomer. It is nowhere near as evident as in times of impending disaster. Right now, it's mainly the downturns in the economy that are feeding the monster that demands to be fed negativity.

I can say my own monster is pretty well locked away these days in a closet I haven't visited in quite some time. The key to that lock is in being as physically, spiritually, and mentally prepared as you can be. Then embracing the peace of mind that comes with that.

Seize Control

Don't let fear manage you. It's counterproductive and could actually kill you in real crisis. Be the rare individual who is equipped to intelligently fight and lead through adversity.

In genuine worst-case scenarios, only about 15% keep their wits about themselves--and it's not always the ones who you would suspect. For more on that, click here.

Get Ready, Seriously ... www.safecastleroyal.com

"One Nation, Under Gun"

Interesting multimedia presentation on MSNBC's site:
One Nation, Under Gun
(click on the photo gallery at the above linked page to start the audio and slideshow)

More than anything else, I have to marvel at the "wonder" expressed by the creator of the project.


Get Ready, Seriously ... www.safecastleroyal.com

"Al Qaeda Cell May Be Loose in U.S., British Plot Hints"

http://www.nysun.com/article/59872

"... intelligence gleaned from last month's British 'doctors plot' of car bombers suggests that a Qaeda cell is on the loose in the American homeland.

"E-mail addresses for American individuals were found on the same password-protected e-mail chains used by the United Kingdom plotters to communicate with Qaeda handlers in Europe, a counterterrorism official told The New York Sun yesterday."


Get Ready, Seriously ... www.safecastleroyal.com

Emerging Crisis of Confidence in Highway Infrastructure and Governance

The Minneapolis bridge failure is possibly only an initial tragedy in a series of infrastructure failures yet to come.

The knowledge of the need to invest serious taxpayer dollars in the renovation of the aging highway system in the U.S. has been in the public domain for at least 20 years now. But as is the case with so many emerging issues of importance, in America we tend to put things off until there is a jolting realization of imminent crisis before we choose to act.

Unfortunately there is no quick fix to the situation now. Even if we decide to throw all the needed money (an estimated $188 billion dollars today) at the bridges already identified as being deficient in the U.S., the reality is that it will take more than a generation to get that needed work done. And of course by then, there will be that many more bridges to repair or rebuild.

The Minnesota Department of Transportation is the agency on the hot seat at the moment for not opting to bolt reinforcing steel plates onto the steel girders where inspections had identified fatigue fractures in the 35W bridge that collapsed two days ago and killed at least 5 people. The bridge was identified as being "structurally deficient" but not necessarily unsafe, they say.

It is not my style or intent to play the blame game. I fully respect the ability of those MnDot folks to do their jobs. Unfortunately, the department decision-makers will have this tragedy eating away at them for the remainder of their days.

In the meantime, we need to pay attention to what this means to us today and in the future. In Minnesota alone, there are 13,026 bridges. They are all subject to regular inspections and as many as 1,042 have been tagged as being "structurally deficient"! That's 8% of the state's bridges.

Think you're in better shape if you live elsewhere? Guess again. A whopping 12% of the nation's bridges are "structurally deficient."

Think about that next time you are driving over a bridge.

As a nation, we are starting to reap what we have sown. We have chosen not to adequately invest in the upkeep of our highway infrastructure. Repairing bridges that look just fine to the untrained eye does not normally qualify as a popular use of our state and federal dollars, so we have dangerously been putting off what we should have been doing for many years already--repairing and rebuilding bridges.

So what now? I'm of course in the business of selling people some measure of increased peace of mind. That's what preparedness is about. So I know there is a very strong need out there for confidence in our day-to-day systems and surroundings in America. We want safety in our world. We fully expect it in this great nation. We hate surprises. We especially despise surprises that kill innocent people.

In the near future, we will of course be seeing more money invested in highway and bridge maintenance. Probably not nearly enough at this point since this was but one localized incident. Before a genuine public outcry is raised and the politics take on a life of their own, sadly, more bridge failures will need to occur.

Bottom line for today--this is not the kind of thing the average citizen can prepare for on his or her own. You CAN carry in your vehicle a first aid kit and one of those small emergency hammers to help you break your vehicle glass from the inside if you find yourself trapped after an accident or underwater.

But beyond that, I fear, we are going to have to deal with some growing level of uncertainty about the roads we traverse daily ... probably for the rest of our lives ... since the overwhelming number of potentially dangerous bridges out there are already beyond our ability to rectify in the near-term.

See: MnDOT Feared Cracking in Bridge but Opted Against Making the Repairs

Get Ready, Seriously ... www.safecastleroyal.com

Overhead Image of the 35W Minneapolis Downtown Area

For those of you trying to recall exactly where this bridge is that has collapsed--here's an overhead map/satellite hybrid view. Click the image to see it larger.

Get Ready, Seriously ... www.safecastleroyal.com

Minneapolis 35W Bridge Down

In the last hour or two, reports have saturated the airwaves locally and nationally about the ongoing rush-hour tragedy in Minneapolis. A major thoroughfare for commuters and travelers through the Twin Cities, in direct proximity to the University of Minnesota, has collapsed.

Several eyewitness reports on the bridge at the time it collapsed indicate the possibility of explosions that were "blowing" debris and people up in the air before the spans dropped. The bridge was gridlocked with traffic due to construction taking place on the bridge.

Homeland Security and the FBI are on the scene as well as all available emergency responders in the Twin Cities area. There are an unknown number of fatalities and injuries.

Estimates are that there were 50 vehicles on the bridge and 20 construction workers.

Local cell phone service and bandwidth is being overwhelmed and those in the region are being asked not to use their cell phones to allow for emergency responders to use those frequencies. Severe weather is about to move through the area that will temporarily hamper rescue efforts. Correction--just heard that responders are involved in "Recovery efforts" in the river, not "Rescue efforts" at this point.

Our prayers are with all involved here. We also pray that we don't see any other similar or follow-up events here or elsewhere that would indicate this is anything other than an accident.

8pm update: Construction-failure investigative expert Tim Galarnik declares he has been made aware that there were fatigue fractures detected last year in the steel support under the superstructure during maintenance inspections.

Get Ready, Seriously ... www.safecastleroyal.com

GlobalIncidentMap.com - A Must for Your Situation Room

If you're not already aware of the Global Incident Map at www.globalincidentmap.com, you are now.

It's a public resource that actually many agencies out there utilize in their official activities. The site offers real-time, graphic mapping and info-summaries of terror and other related events around the world.

Ain't technology grand?

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Get Ready, Seriously ... www.safecastleroyal.com

Looting, Panic Buying - and a Water Shortage

This is what those who prepare aim to avoid. You never know what kind of event will bring it on.

Our prayers are with those in the U.K. flooding, said to be the worst in modern history there.

Read the whole article from the TimesOnline.

Excerpts:

The Health Protection Agency is advising people to take the advice of their water companies about the safety of drinking water after evidence that some supplies had been affected. There were also fears of looting in Gloucester as many families were evacuated from their homes and their streets were blacked out after an electricity sub-station was swamped in the flood. West Mercia Constabulary said that looters were targeting stranded vehicles abandoned by flood victims.

Staple food items, including fresh vegetables and salad, are also in short supply because supermarket lorries were unable to make deliveries. Fresh produce grown in the waterlogged Vale of Evesham has also been unable to reach the shops. Kevin Hawkins, the director-general of the British Retail Consortium, gave warning last night that there would be localised shortages but that supplies would be resumed quickly in the next two days ...

... Even those who escaped the floods are suffering. More than 200,000 people have now been left without drinking water. Severn Trent Water said that homes in the north of Gloucestershire would be left without supplies for the next two days after a big pumping plant near Tewkesbury was overwhelmed by the floods.

Carrie Douch, 26, a mother of two children from Gloucester, said that she had driven more than 15 miles to buy water after the closure of the water treatment plant. “We have been to three supermarkets and water had sold out in all of them,” she said. “The queues outside the supermarkets are horrendous. Everyone is desperate to get their hands on some water. We have heard stories of grown men pushing kids out of the way to get to bottles of the stuff. It is disgusting.”

Many minor roads in the flooded areas remain impassable and the police have been advising motorists to take warm clothing and food in case they become trapped in their cars. Rail services between Hereford and Shrewsbury were due to resume last night but other services could be delayed or cancelled this morning in areas hit by the flood water overnight.


Get Ready, Seriously ... www.safecastleroyal.com

25% Off Mountain House 30-Year Food & Maxpedition Hard Use Gear!

Now through August only, Safecastle Royal members are getting 25% discounts on any Mountain House and Maxpedition products in our store.

Why Maxpedition and Mountain House?

- Maxpedition has just introduced 19 new products!! We have most of them listed (and we can get any others for you too). In total, we are listing 37 Maxpedition products at the moment. There just isn't better utility/tactical gear out there.

- Mountain House is raising their prices for the first time in six years. Effective September 1, Mountain House Emergency Storage food in #10 cans is going up. January 1, pouch prices will go up as well. Shipping fees have already increased. We are holding the line till September 1 ... not only that, we're cutting members some additional slack with a bigger discount than ever before we have to bump up our prices.

- Finally, we're running our own 18-variety, 3-case Mountain House special here one more time before the price increase. We'll need to get the order in before the end of the month, so we will do that special group buy no later than August 24.

As always, everything ships free.

Sometimes it really pays to be a Royal!

Want in? ... Join here.

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Get Ready, Seriously ... www.safecastleroyal.com

"Current Nuclear Threat Worse than During Cold War"

The risks of an accidental nuclear war have increased since the Cold War as Russia's early warning capability has deteriorated, a former U.S. defense official said. William J. Perry, who is a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and co-Director of the Preventive Defense Project at Stanford University, said in congressional testimony Wednesday that "the danger of nuclear war occurring by accident" still existed.

For more: link.


Get Ready, Seriously ... www.safecastle.com

Unreported Al Qaeda Activity

A few new details on Al Qaeda activity being reported in certain member-centric circles (bound to be public knowledge soon) include:

1. Increasing terrorist movements are being seen in western Europe, as are communications being relayed to operatives in America. The perceived intent is a massive Al Qaeda strike on aircraft/airports in the USA. Other targets are possible however. WMDs are potentially involved; the goal is casualties in the hundreds or thousands, probably in the summer timeframe.

2. Terror training in the Pakistan/Afghanistan border areas increased of late and agents have been moving into Europe ... and probably from there into North America. Infiltration of North America and the formation of terror cells here have been a growing threat. Capabilities to do this are back in place for Al Qaeda, and they are likely to be taking advantage of a US visa waiver program that eases restrictions on travelers to the USA from the UK, Denmark, Germany, and the Netherlands.

These details are reported from reliable sources and dovetail with more sanitized publicly reported comments from US officials over the last month.


Get Ready, Seriously ... www.safecastle.com

Read the Full National Intelligence Estimate on the Terrorist Threat to the USA

http://www.dni.gov/press_releases/20070717_release.pdf


Get Ready, Seriously ... www.safecastleroyal.com

Free Preppers Online Features

If you haven't already saved our Ning network site as a favorite, check it out:

http://preparedness.ning.com/

Among the features, all free--an audio playlist for preparedness afficionados, dozens of related videos, a forum and blog that members can contribute to.

Fun stuff! And once you sign on, you get the very same cpabilities to create your own network sites at no charge!

Get Ready, Seriously ... www.safecastleroyal.com

Food From China: Can You Trust It?

"Not even the people monitoring imports can say with certainty that those goods are safe for consumption."

http://www.startribune.com/535/story/1303235.html


Get Ready, Seriously ... www.safecastleroyal.com

Pencil In a Full, Blessed Life Ahead, BUT ...

Preparedness. What's it really about?

It's about having a backroom or storm cellar stocked with some emergency supplies IN CASE something happens in our area that makes it difficult to rely on others to continue to supply us with our everyday needs.

It means being suitably equipped to not only consume our emergency supplies, but also to some extent, be able to produce or acquire more via our community and in nature.

It's about understanding how the day could arrive when nothing is easy, and suffering becomes a new reality, for at least the short-term ... and mentally and spiritually positioning for that possibility.

It implies we know that worst-case survival scenarios often demand unusual levels of cooperation between people who find themselves "sharing a life boat."

It acknowledges that very bad and unexpected things happen everyday on this earth to someone out there, and that we consciously choose not to bet the lives of our loved ones on chance.

Balance

When all is as it should be, we enjoy life and plan to live every day of it to its fullest.

We hope and pray for blessings and work for prosperity for our households, our communities, and our nation. But being among those who embrace a logical level of personal readiness, we have chosen to ensure we are ready for most anything that can come our way today.

Thus, the odds are strong that at the end of our journey, we will look back with thankfulness and satisfaction at how we handled all our opportunities and risks.


Get Ready, Seriously ... www.safecastleroyal.com

"Obsession: The Threat of Radical Islam"

Must-view 2006 documentary, now at a time when more and more are shrinking away from the fight.

To view next part of documentary, click here.

Get Ready, Seriously ... www.safecastleroyal.com

How to Survive (Almost) Anything

I've been waiting for this August issue of National Geographic Adventure to be posted online. The magazine itself arrived in my mailbox two or three weeks ago. I have to say--this is one of only two magazine subscriptions I keep current--it is absolutely a fascinating and relevant publication--and very well done.

Anyway--here is an excellent series of articles on survival aspects and experiences that you are not likely to come across anywhere else (at least in such an easy to digest form). Wander around the site and read them all--better yet, get the magazine--it's a keeper.

Here's one small excerpt of one article:

The Darwin of Dumb

by Laurence Gonzales

Accidents of all types used to be analyzed in terms of their physical or mechanical causes. When the cause was clearly human error, they were often written off as the result of foolishness or lack of training. But among those who investigate accidents, there is an increasing awareness that this type of analysis does not fully explain why otherwise rational people do what may seem irrational.

For example, in May 1989, Lynn Hill, the winner of more than 30 international rock-climbing titles, was preparing to climb what she called a "relatively easy" route in Buoux, France. She threaded her rope through her harness, but then, instead of tying her knot, she stopped to put on her shoes. While she was tying them, she talked with another climber, then returned to climb the rock face. "The thought occurred to me that there was something I needed to do before climbing," she later recalled, but, "I dismissed this thought." She climbed the wall, and when she leaned back to rappel to the ground, she fell 72 feet (22 meters), her life narrowly saved by tree branches. In her case, more training would not have helped. In fact, experience contributed to her accident. She had created a very efficient model for tying her rope to her harness. She could do it without thinking. So the act of tying her shoes may have been similar enough to tying her rope that it allowed her to reach the unconscious conclusion that her rope was tied, even while leaving a slight residue of doubt.

I've been studying accidents of various kinds for more than 30 years, and I have tried to go beyond conventional analysis to explain why seemingly stupid actions can actually make a type of biological and evolutionary sense at the time and under the circumstances. We can laugh at the Darwin Awards and write off our mistakes as stupidity or bad luck.

But at some level, most of us are like Lynn Hill, with a knot half-tied somewhere in our lives, just waiting for us to put our weight on it. And one of the most frequently ignored factors in many accidents is the way we form models of the world and refer to them—not the world itself—in most of what we do. Understanding this system will help explain why smart people do irrational things. And some of the dumbest things I've done have been in the wilderness.

Get Ready, Seriously ... www.safecastle.com

Nuke the Enemy?

Many online enjoy playing an alternate-reality role of armchair commander in chief, and they freely and regularly espouse one solution for most difficult issues -- "just nuke 'em."

Not actually having on our shoulders the responsibility for the well-being of millions of fellow Americans in a very complex and dangerous world, we are free to spout off as we see fit online.

Talking about nuking the enemy is gratifying to some extent for those of us who are frustrated by difficulties in the war on terror. Some take to literally hoping for it or even expecting it to happen. On the flip side, there are those who promote the fearfulness of nukes for their own political purposes (claiming and sometimes believing the neocons will unleash nuclear hell upon the world for whatever reason). Either way, I would hope that most folks fully understand that we are nowhere near a potential reality of a U.S. nuclear launch.

It just ain't gonna happen.

We have as a society irrevocably attained a level of civilized restraint and abject horror at the prospect of incinerating thousands upon thousands of innocent people. In fact, our homogenous, all-tolerant level of enlightenment would even cause us to seriously debate similar retaliation (and probably decide against it) in the wake of nuclear attack on the USA.

The ONLY way there is even a possibility of a commander in chief beginning to entertain the idea of nuking the enemy is if he has a very solid majority of political support in government, in his party, and in the population. And of course these days, that is only really possible when the whole country is up in arms and shocked to its core about some great atrocity. (Still however, in that rare window of opportunity, the rule remains applicable that we would not as a people allow for even a strong leader to obliterate a lot of innocent people. It just ain't gonna happen.)

For those who need it spelled out--face the sad reality--IF we were to retaliate in kind with a nuke ... EVEN if we were to take several nuclear hits first within our borders ... most of the rest of the world would fully band against us, isolating us, freezing us out, and they would quite possibly give Russia/China/N. Korea/Iran, etc. the mandate to try to take us down by force. That certainly has to be understood by the American powers-that-be today.

At the very bottom line, political reality is defined today by the popular media in the world. Every selected news story is tinted to achieve a desired perception in the mind of the viewer. One or two stories so managed do not make for a brainwashed populace, but over a period of time ...

Until the day comes when more control is exerted over the media, the west will be largely impotent to go full bore at victory in any war, nuclear or not. Politicians are beholden to the messages projected on issues in the mass media and to resulting opinion polls. We are crafting our leaders today to be flip-flopping, flexible mirrors of what we think we want that day. (Do you REALLY think it's a good idea to have your circle of friends, neighbors, and relatives continuously dictating what's best for our nation?)

In today's war on terror, where so many (out of high-minded politically correct principle) can't even name the enemy for who he is, well ... the best we can pragmatically hope for in today's environment is a strengthened intell capability and the political will to use very precise attacks wherever we find the enemy in the rest of the world ... and of course THAT is even out of reach.

(For the record, personally, I see very valid uses for tactical nukes in warfare, but careful targetting is critical even in all-out, unrestrained wartime.)

American Nukes are Display Pieces, Propped on a Bed of Political Strength

Nuclear weapons in the arsenal of stable nations are for all practical purposes mere chips for deterrence. The USA does not threaten anyone with the use of our nukes. Still, their existence and our technical capability to use them if really needed serves to keep some of the world's actors from doing their worst on the global stage.

Of course, deterrence impacts entities with a geographic/political footprint (physical target). An enemy that can materialize, morph, dissolve, and re-form anywhere in the world is a challenging foe. Obvious targets for even conventional force projection are elusive. Nuclear targets, even if our societal mores and national security demanded it would be few and far between.

Main point: Yes, every sitting president has the nuclear football at hand, but it would take a full-on mass attack from no less than Russia's mega-nuclear inventory before a commander in chief would be able to act in kind. ANYTHING less than in-progress nuclear annihilation of the U.S. and/or its closest allies would require widespread buy-in of key parts of the governmental/political machine before our own nuke card could be trotted out.

Most of the world understands by now that that in turn requires a manageably strong political stance from which the President could exercise his judgment and exert such military will.

When we allow ourselves to effectively pull the rug out from under our political leaders, threatening them with impeachment, etc., we have largely disarmed our nation. That is simply a crime. It is weakness. It is a woeful flaw in our system that our enemies love to have at their disposal since it is so easily manipulated through our own media.


Get Ready, Seriously ... www.safecastleroyal.com

At Stake in the Iraq War: Survival of a Way of Life

Below is the link to a really timely opinion by Andrew Roberts in today's edition of the Christian Science Monitor.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0712/p09s01-coop.html

Excerpt:

The English-speaking peoples of the world need to unite around their common heritage of values. And they need to sacrifice their naiveté about the true nature of war – and the losses that inevitably go with it. Otherwise, they will lose a titanic struggle with radical, totalitarian Islam.

Excerpt:

Those who still view this struggle as a mere police action against uncoordinated criminal elements, rather than as an existential war for the survival of their way of life, are blinding themselves to reality.

Sending signs of surrender

But recent news suggests the blindness is growing. Antiwar sentiment in America is swelling. As key Republicans desert the president, senators are pushing amendments to force the withdrawal of US troops. All this before US Gen. David Petraeus reports on the surge.
Are the English-speaking peoples really about to quit before Islamic totalitarianism has been defeated in Iraq? Are they seriously contemplating handing the terrorists the biggest victory since the Marines' withdrawal from Beirut? It was that surrender in 1984 that emboldened Osama bin Laden to believe that his organization could defeat a superpower. Surrender in Iraq would prove him right.

Click the link and read the whole editorial, please.

In my own opinion, unwavering national leadership during the many crises of war is critical, as is the ongoing effective selling of the need for personal sacrifice by the population. In the U.S. and other English-speaking nations today, the unprecedented power of the commercial media--traditional and new--have made these challenges a long-term improbability.

Certainly in the U.S., if there aren't enough folks in Congress to hold the line and contribute to that requisite leadership to fight our enemies through all the pain and difficulty, then we are doomed to have to feel far greater pain before we will regroup. We need a few strong leaders to stick to an admittedly costly strategy long-term to defeat an enemy that is not about to throw in the towel themselves in the near future.


Get Ready, Seriously ... www.safecastleroyal.com

Eight Al Qaeda Fanatics Working for the Police (But They Don't Dare Sack Them)

This portends a very long and intense war down the road ... (click on title above to view article)

In a nutshell, as many as eight police officers and civilian staff are believed to be linked to extremist terrorist groups, to include Al Qaeda. Thing is, they cannot be fired due to political correctness run amok; not to mention the fact that classified material on individuals is not admissible as grounds for dismissal.

Get Ready, Seriously ... www.safecastleroyal.com