Winning the Smaller Battles First

If you listen to talk radio hosts for any amount of time you have come to expect them to say things that are provocative or insightful. Part of the job of a talker is to do just that to engage the listening audience in conversation. Then there are some talk hosts that also take to social media and provide some interesting statements that really make you think. Earlier today WISN talk radio host Vicki Mckenna did just that.

In a Twitter comment she noted the following:

If WI republicans can't do something SMALL & SIMPLE like pass a special needs voucher bill, are promises of BIG & BOLD just BS? #wiright

— Vicki Mckenna (@VickiMcKenna) January 22, 2014

I found this to be an extremely fascinating and thoughtful comment. I thought so because all too often we hear people commenting and complaining about the state of affairs on such a large scale that people tend to overlook the minutiae. National debt, NSA domestic spying, assaults on 2nd Amendment rights. All of which are important issues to contend with but in all reality what can be done about those items if we cannot muster victories on smaller scales.

Those issues on the smaller scales are issues that we as individuals can have direct influence within our own communities. Whom we elect to political office on a state level and lower, Common Core implementation within our school districts, or as Vicki Mckenna noted a bill to allow special needs children obtain school vouchers to help them as their families see fit. These are all issues that if we apply ourselves individually can and will coalesce in to actions and reforms that we believe will add to the betterment of our state as a whole.

Often many times you will here me talking about NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) and the reality is that everything that happens in this state is in our backyard. If we are not willing to put in the work to take care of the smaller and simpler issues that can accomplished what hope do we have to deal with anything on the larger political stage?

#dischick

The hypocrisy of the left is something that will never cease to impress me. I choose the word impress because the double standards that they live by are not surprising by any means. Rather, it is impressive that they can get away with it for so long and doing it in such a blatant fashion.

If you recall a few weeks back there was that whole uproar about Phil Robertson and what he said in his interview with GQ magazine. Simply for stating his beliefs regarding homosexuality based on his religious world view it sent the left in to tizzy. Mr. Robertson also made comments about blacks being "happier" pre-Civil Rights era which drew out Jesse Jackson from what ever hovel had been hiding in recent days.

The calls for boycotts and demands for Phil Robertson to apologize were all over the place and resulted in the "suspension" of Mr. Robertson from production. Nothing really panned out as episodes continued to air, Mr. Robertson was "reinstated", and life went on although the show has taken a hit in ratings in recent days. Now whether that is a result of Mr. Robertson's comments, the backlash against A&E for the initial stance, or that people are just tired of the show is yet to be seen.

Then there is #dischick: Madonna

A few days back Madonna was taking pictures of her son while he was doing some MMA sparing. And like parents these days do she took a picture with her phone and uploaded it on to Social Media. What proud parent wouldn't? The problem with this picture is the commentary she adds to it.

Immediately she did receive some feedback (at best) from people disapproving of her particular hashtag. However that was pretty much it. Sure you can run a search and see articles written about this incident but there are no calls to boycott anything she does. Jesse Jackson is no where to be found. The media as a whole is dead silent. And why? Because of a half-hearted attempt at an apology?

"I am sorry if I offended anyone with my use of the N word on Instagram. It was not meant as a racial slur. I am not a racist. There's no way to defend the use of the word. It was all about intention. It was used as a term of endearment toward my son who is white. I appreciate that it's a provocative word and I apologize if it gave people the wrong impression."

READ MORE: http://news.naij.com/57110.html
READ MORE: http://news.naij.com/57110.html"
A term of endearment? Perhaps I am missing  few things as I move along in years but my terms of endearment generally do not include demeaning or racial slurs.

One also has to wonder what is she sorry about? I have always been one to say that if someone says something don't be sorry. Stand by what you said. At this point the only thing it appears that you are sorry about is that you were caught, called out, or put back in place from people letting you know you shouldn't be saying things like this.

This story regarding Madonna and her commentary will disappear as soon as it has popped up. Chances are by the time you are reading this story will have gone the way of the dinosaurs. But I ask you all to keep it in the back of your mind. To remember the double standards that left are so found of. To call out what needs to be called out and not just because those folks don't fit your political paradigm.

Operation: American Spring - A Different Take

In recent weeks there has been talk about something called "Operation: American Spring". If this is something you are unfamiliar with allow me to shed some light. Currently it serves as one more demonstration with the intent to descend on Washington DC and hold the politicians accountable for the state of our nation. The Facebook event to Operation American Spring gives a great description of it as follows:

"Restoration of Constitutionally limited government by RESTORING our Ninth and Tenth Amendment laws to full force and affect upon Both Houses of Congress and the Executive branch, OUR Bill of Rights, OUR Declaration of Independence, and the balance of Our Constitutional laws upon our elected Republican and Democrat servants, freedom, liberty “of the people, for the people, by the people” from despotic and tyrannical federal leadership."

Now that you've had the chance to read over the description and check out the Operation American Spring event on Facebook it's time for me to cause some butthurt. Please feel free to share your thoughts because once again I believe this, like many other events, was not well thought out.

First, I have a problem with the name "American Spring". Yeah, because we all know how well that "Arab Spring" worked out. Words have meaning and that mean carries more power then we realize. The more I write the more I see the truth in this. To take up the moniker or name of an essentially failed event seems to set one of the path of failure from the get-go. 

Second, by and larger I support the idea of what this concept is about. I strongly believe that there are people on both sides of the aisle that need to step down, be held accountable, and represent the American people (we can debate whether that is the Will of the People or the People voting for the politician to represent based on said politicians beliefs later). The problem here is this: Let us assume that we do get these people to step down. Let us also assume that some will be held accountable. How do you propose this be do? Some Kangaroo Court that already has verdicts set up without the Rule of Law? 

Using this same premise of assuming the politicians would step down, then what? What will be used in place? It has been quoted and rephrased many times over that government is a necessary evil so I ask you what brand of evil shall you replace the current one with? I fully expect responses to everything from personal attacks to restoring the Constitutional Republic that this nation was intended to however you have to think is that possible?

Third, again I have to restate that I do agree with the overall concept of this idea. This next problem I have is with what I like to call your CoD (Call of Duty) Patriots.You train on FTX's? That's great. You have a group of 5 to 10 people you run with? Wonderful! You just got yourself a new AR with all kinds of mods? I'm envious. Really I am. You don't want to wait and you think action needs to be taken now? *insert slamming of the brakes noise* Hold that thought because we have just lost cabin pressure.

The issue here is that hot heads or CoD Patriots are getting to get people incarcerated, hurt, or killed because of a belief the need to do something now. Think this through: You have 10 people you may train with periodically. That is great. But how well do you really think you are going to fair against a trained, professional SWAT team, a squad of battle tested infantry soldiers, or anything else to that effect. Newsflash: This is not some video game where you get to respawn once you've been taken out.

Now before anyone starts saying that I am a traitor to the cause or I am advocating the laying down of your arms or just rolling over and taking whatever comes nothing could be further from the truth. I simply have no interest in entering in to a fight that cannot be won conventionally. I believe all the passion in the world that we have does nothing if we are locked up, immobilized, or worse yet dead. I know that in any of those three situations I am of no value to the service and protection of my family.

As Frontiersmen, many of us joined out of concern for our families. We have growing concerns for the state of affairs of our Republic as well and rightfully so. The oath that we have taken before God and each other to be our Brother's Keeper means to be there in times of need not to go on some suicide mission. Contrary to popular belief there is no glory in death.

Undoubtedly, I have upset, dare I say pissed off, a good number of people at this point. Now allow me to provide an alternative solution. Something that will require more work and dedication then any other endeavor you have taken short of being a half way decent parent:

Start at home.

All politics are local. Yes, Washington controls so much of what goes on through legislative actions, regulations, and executive actions/orders. Yes, we know the names and quotes from the players in DC. But do you know you local mayor? Common council? School board? If you do, do you know what their platforms are? When was the last time you went to a town hall meeting about your own town? Do you even know your own neighbors?

The change the we all want to see has to start at home. This is the nexus point to which all other things spring forth from. From there it spreads to our neighborhoods then to our towns/cities then to our districts and so on and so forth. The battles to be fought are not in Washington but rather must happen at our home fronts through action in the arenas we have all but forgotten about.

Will there every come a time when hostilities may take place? Yes. No. Maybe. I have no idea. My crystal ball does not give me the foresight to glean that path. But until such time happens each of us have an opportunity to effect change on a local level that has the potential to spread to the national level. 

Let us be wise about how we choose to fight least there be none of us left to fight should the time come.

The War Against Men Part I

Perhaps one of the biggest problems that we as a nation and as an overall society have is the breakdown of the family. This is something that I have said for some time and something that anyone can witness should they look around them. The rise of single mothers to children born out of wedlock, the ratchet behavior of parents and those around them to their children (oh there is an Ether in your future), or just go to the Walmart to see the insanity of what passes for family there on any given day (Sorry Walmart, you save me money but for some reason you are a magnet to a number of WTF moments).

So much of what ails our communities and thus our overall society is this breakdown of the family structure and primarily that men have been pushed out of the family. There is a gentleman that I look up to that made a great observation and wrote on a Facebook status regarding this topic. I like to think I am somewhat of a decent wordsmith but I am highly dubious that I could have summed it up better:

"I'm bothered by how many men are seen with their kids on the weekend. Years ago we saw families out together but now it seems to be mothers during the week and fathers on the weekend.

Not that spending time with your kids is bad, but the reality is the majority of them are divorcees with weekend visitation. A common theme these days and a solemn reminder to the erosion of the bedrock of this nation - the family unit.

What house can stand when the foundation crumbles? Surely ours will collapse and how great that crash will be for such a rich and mighty home as this."

Let's think about this. The welfare system does not encourage the men to be at home with the women and children. Should he be there the women risks losing any entitlements. The Family Court systems do little to help the situation with the tilted judgments in child custody cases towards women and the incarceration of men who cannot make child support despite their best efforts in many cases. The lack of accountability of that same child support to ensure it does go to the children. There is the selfishness of the individual that chooses to break up the family rather then work on what needs to be worked on within the home. Then there is popular culture which in effect has a made a parody at best of men in the home.

The idea of what a man is has also been torn apart to the extent where any idea of the classic definition of a man is seen as some type of evolutionary throw back. Aside from the men out of the home, even the men in the home are seen as a joke. Their authority usurped and seen as clueless or absentminded. Doubt me? Feel free to check out almost any sitcom on Nickelodeon. It would almost seem that today's version of what a man is is not longer someone like Ward Clever, John Wayne, or Clint Eastwood but rather Pajama Boy.

It is almost too easy to point fingers at what the source of this is but in truth that is not going to do much. There will be and should be a time for finger pointing if for no other reason to prevent and fight against those that have started our families down this dangerous road. With such a monumental task before us let's all the men reading this get up and look in the mirror and start there.

For those of us in the home, men MUST reaffirm their bonds to their families. Makes themselves indispensable to the family unit. Not just in the financial sense but in the way that each and everyone of us in our families are key to each other. To establish our authority as the Man in the House, not in the role of dominance by force but in the role of dominance of us willing to make the tough choices that benefit our families.

For those of us that are not in the home (personally, I wear both hats), we MUST to fight for the rights that we have as fathers. To be relevant once again to our children and not been seen as an extra wallet to our ex. To teach our sons what it means to be a man and to teach our daughters the ideal of the man they should accept at a bare minimum.

As Men we need to learn to be the example to the world and not the butt of some poorly worded joke.

We hear over and over again from the left about this so-called "War Against Women" but that is little more then unsubstantiated conjecture at its worst. The stark reality of the world we live in today is that there is a War Against Men. And we stand up and retake our rightful places with our families and in society as whole or least we be seen throughout history as the first to fall in this long line of dominoes.

To Be Our Brother's Keeper

All too often when we see young men of color in the news it is usually in a negative light. Knockout, robberies, murders, drug dealing, take your pick. For the most part when someone acts the fool they sure do deserve the negative spotlight.

However, what happens when young men of color do something good? How often is this shown, reported, or given its proper credit?

The Today show often does a segment from a show called What Would You Do? The premise of the show is that the would set up a situation and take film to see what peoples reactions would be. At times I think they set things up to make people feel uncomfortable for better television but then there are times when things get real and you have to give credit to the people that took action.

Such is the case in the video below:

Often one will here me talk about NIMBY; Not In My Back Yard. For the people that saw this and I would dare say anywhere else, their reaction would be to carry on. It's not their problem, it's not their kid. But as you watched further along in the video the two young men listened and acted according and I think the way they did it was a thing of beauty.

Now, I do not know what their backgrounds are, what they were about, or anything else like that. What I do know is that they took action when all others looked the other way and went about their business. I have no doubt in my mind that they knew intervening would change their day had it been a real situation but that did not deter them. They walked, listened, dropped what they were doing, and almost with an uncanny instinct they moved to surround the man because they were not going to let this little girl get abducted.

There is a phrase that I am very found of as a member of a National Civil Defense Organization called the Frontiersmen and that is "Our Brothers Keeper". What this mean is that I will be there to help those in need when the time arises. It may be at some degree of personal costs but the benefits of what will happen far outweighs any costs that may be incurred.

These young men had the courage to be just that. And this is the challenge that each and everyone of us must take up:

Do we have the courage and integrity to be Our Brothers Keeper and take action when needed?

Why I am a Prepper

Prepper. The word conjures up a number of thoughts and images. A hermit living off the land, anti social, a bit crazy. Someone off of the show Doomsday Preppers that might be a bit crazier then the hermit living off the land. Or it might give one thoughts of some white, anti-government, hoarder, unrealistic people. With so many thoughts about what Preppers are I want to try and bring this to attention of the mainstream of Conservative Minorities about what a Prepper is and give it some clarity.

I am a Prepper.

No shock there. I mean if you have read my profile on Facebook, Twitter, or had a conversation with me this is common knowledge. I believe in preparedness. I believe it is better to have two of something just in case one breaks. I believe that if someone says that the chances of something happening are nonexistent it will probably happen within a week if not sooner.

Now people are Preppers for a number of various reasons. Some believe that there will be some cataclysmic climate event. Others believe there will be some fashion of marital law coming down. Others still believe there will be some sort of civil unrest. Then there are natural disasters. The point is there are hundreds of reasons of why an individual might be a Prepper and all of them have validity to them.

Over the period of my life I have live in areas where being a Prepper was a necessity. I have live in Wisconsin, Puerto Rico, Southern California, Hawaii, and Guam. The times I spent living in these places was awesome for the most part. However, as with any beautiful place there is a down side. Blizzards, Extreme Cold, Hurricanes, Typhoons, Earthquakes, Power Outages. All of these things my family and I had to deal with in one form or fashion. To be stocked up on canned good, Sterno on hand, and alternate methods of keeping food fresh in the event there was no power. To have reserve caches of water in the event that water is not potable (drinkable). All of this knowledge and activity was important to ensuring the safety and security of my family and it continues to this day.

Another reason that I am a Prepper is that I have a fear of an Economic Collapse of the US Dollar. All one needs to do is look at the news and see things like Quantitative Easing (Link NSFW, Language), the Devaluation of the US Dollar, or better yet look at your grocery bill. I like to gauge an economy on a can of Pringles, yeah silly I know but effective. I recall a couple years ago your typical large can of Pringles was a dollar at Walmart. Today this same can of Pringles is $1.50 for the same sized item. You don't complain much about it because it is only a fifty cent difference but add that up with other items and it is a cut in to any extra funds that you may have.

Now I am sure there are a lot of people that think or say that something like that could not possibly happen in the US, an economic collapse. Again, I ask you to review the current day news. We hear how unemployment numbers are going down but look at your major metropolitan areas or look up the U6 Unemployment numbers. And if history is any lesson we can always look back to the Weimar Republic to see the effect of hyperinflation.

And to add one more reason, I have chosen to be a Prepper is that our ancestors were and they were self-sufficient. Think about it. Our grandparents and their forefathers before them were people that knew how to get things done because if they didn't do it no one else was going to do it for them. They knew how to grow food, can that food, make the most out of what they had. They could do the must basic of things such as knots, fire starting, or building a shelter. Whereas today if every grocery store in the nation shut down we would all be up the creek without a paddle in less then a few weeks as those stores would go dry.

It is for three primary reasons that I am a Prepper. The first being that of Natural Disasters. I have been through enough of them to know that there is no such thing as being over prepared. Then there is the issue of the economy and a desire to become more self-sufficient. .

When we really think about it all of us are Preppers in one way or another. Otherwise, why else would you have insurance, bank with an FDIC insured bank, have a "rainy day" savings account or plan for your retirement?

Ultimately, whether one is planning for retirement or the Zombie Apocalypse (yeah I'm a huge Walking Dead fan) it is better to be several years too early then it is to be one day too late.

Your EDC & You

Most people do not think about the items that they carry with them everyday. Even fewer people think about things that they may need on a day to day basis. And for just about everyone there are just some things we do not leave the house without (keys, cellphone, wallet).

For people within the Prepper Community all of these items can be referred to as an EDC or Every Day Carry. If you look online or on YouTube you will find many great resources of EDC's about what to have included, what not to do, or some really great ideas. My contribution to the world of the EDC is that you must make it personal to yourself and your needs.

An individuals Every Day Carry is going to vary depending on the person and according to their needs. I said that one again because I am a fan of redundancies. As you will see in a later image I have redundancies build in to my EDC and that is simply because you never know what you may need (Two is One, One is None). Or you just got tired of hearing yourself say "I wish I had this with me like I did the other day".

One thing that I believe that is important to an EDC is that it is better to over do it then it is wish you had it with you. I have tailored my EDC to my life, which can be odd at times. At the risk of going on a tangent, my life is a bit like a sitcom. The funniest, strangest, and most one-off things that can happen probably will happen in my life. So as such my EDC reflects this as you see below:

What you carry in your EDC in is up to you. I have chosen to use the Red Rock Tactical Sling Bag. It's not too big and has the right amount of space for what I need to take a long with me. Moreover, it has a nice carry conceal pouch on the back and with the adjustable straps it is very comfortable to take just about everywhere.

As to the contents of my EDC there are many things that I take with me on a daily basis because I either use it or I have found myself needing those items. Again, your EDC will vary and it should. It should be tailored to your specific needs. This can be a bit time consuming trying to think things through about what you need, what you might need, or trying to decide if you need certain things. Then there is the costs involved. Remember, Walmart, Dollar Tree, and your local outdoors sporting goods stores (example Sherpers) is your friend.

And it is OK that you have certain items that you change out. For example, I generally try to carry my personal side arm with me (M&P 22). However, it is not something that I can take everywhere I go. Apparently some places want to be sitting ducks in an active shooter situation.

Bottom line, when it comes to your EDC it is never complete. Your Every Day Carry will continue to be a work in progress as you think of new things you need to keep along with you. Speaking of which there are a few more things I need to get added to mine.

As always: Stay Alert, Stay Prepared.