THE SURVIVALIST’S SECRETS (SOME OF THEM) REVEALED!

If you are or were into the adventures of “John Rourke” and his family as told in our series THE SURVIVALIST, then you might want to visit www.survivalweekly.com/?p=292 and read an interview I did in which I reveal a number of details most people don’t know about John Rourke.  For example, I talk quite candidly about why a script could not be written that would enable one of Hollywood’s most revered producers to exercise his option and make “THE SURVIVALIST – THE MOTION PICTURE,” or whatever it would have been called.  There’s also a contest to win a copy ofTOTAL WAR, the first book in the series, autographed by Sharon and me.  We’ll try to write neatly.  You’ll find lots of good information on the site, as well…

If you are into Facebook, and you like THE SURVIVALIST, you’ll find that there is now a Facebook Group page devoted to the series.  Thanks to James Baird for this, and introducing me to Facebook, which our daughter and our son kindly explained to me and I still don’t fully understand.  If you are a member or whatever you call it, go into Facebook and then into “Groups” and there are pictures, U.K. book covers, photographs, etc.  Sharon and I hope you check it out…    

If you are interested in the latest facts and opinions on law enforcement/military equipment, you may want to check out still another website, the web version of the popular slick magazine TACTICAL GEAR.  The website is www.tacticalgearmag.com and I’m sure sometimes you’ll be seeing something with my byline there, since I write quite frequently for the print version.  It’s a “sister” publication to GUN DIGEST THE MAGAZINE…

If you like westerns that are really westerns, two of TV’s best are once again airing regularly.  And, you can see them – or record them – if you’ve got a package that includes the Encore channels.  Encore’s western channel runs lots of great films and series – they are running “Gunsmoke,” for example.  But, two of Sharon’s and my favorites from the late 1950s and early 1960s were/are “Cheyenne” and “Have Gun – Will Travel.”  I’ve had the pleasure of talking extensively by telephone with “Cheyenne’s” Clint Walker and, as soon as Sharon and I get the tape transcribed, pieces of an interview I did with Clint Walker will be appearing in some of my columns and probably here, as well.  Clint Walker in real life is just as much the kind of guy you can like and respect as “Cheyenne Bodie” was/is on screen.  I never got to talk with the late Richard Boone, but his iconic black clad gunfighter, “Paladin,” should certainly be award posthumously the title for projecting the most believable menace of any good guy character ever created.  Both westerns hold up perfectly and are not something you’ll wish you hadn’t watched again.  They are as fresh and well done as anything made today, and quite a bit better than most of today’s fare.  Get your kids to watch these early “adult westerns” and help them to develop an appreciation for the values of the old west, not to mention meticulously written scripts, terrific direction and peerless acting…

Sharon and I are busily trying to get one book finished, as far as writing is concerned, and two books photographed.

LET’S JUST TALK ABOUT THE WEATHER, SHALL WE?

The snow is melting away as I write this. It began melting yesterday. On Friday, Northeast Georgia got hit with the odd snowstorm. I use the word “odd” because, in most years, we never see snow. This year we’ve seen a dusting or two and that couple of inches that is just melting off. It’s been an unusually wet winter. Actually, fall and summer were pretty wet, too. Georgia has gone from water shortages and drought to floods and ground so saturated even relatively minor rainfalls are causes for flash flood warnings and rivers and streams rising to or above flood stage. This is all in less than a year. Sharon was just checking the forecast and we may wind up with another inch or two of snowfall starting tonight and into tomorrow. I’m no meteorologist, but I’ve always been interested in weather, read books and articles about meteorology, done some serious research in association with our writing. And, the climate is changing.

But, that is normal. Earth’s climate is not static. Go driving in Wisconsin sometime and check out the terrain. You’ll see things called “terminal moraines,” little ridges and hills that were formed where the advancing glaciers of the last true Ice Age stopped. We used to live in Chicago, in the suburb of Oak Park. We checked a map showing the southernmost boundary of the Ice Age “Lake Chicago,” a sort of Lake Michigan on steroids. If we’d lived in Oak Park in those days, we could have walked to the beach which was only about a mile away, according to that map.

When the Earth warmed up after that last great Ice Age, it wasn’t because there were too many cars emitting too much pollution, nor were those great factories that didn’t exist belching too much smoke into the atmosphere. No, it was just because the climate of our planet is cyclical. Why? I have no idea. Maybe God just wanted it that way, or maybe the very cycles of our planet’s climate keep it from ever getting so hot or so cold that it would be uninhabitable. Solar cycles have to do with Earth’s climate, of course, and I’d really love for one of the “mankind is destroying the planet” fanatics to explain exactly how we are affecting the Sun.

What man does on the surface of the Earth certainly has some effect. If we are in a cycle of global warming, our greenhouse gas emissions may well be hastening it along – but, cycles are still natural and I’m becoming more and more convinced that a suspicion I’ve harbored for quite some time is proving out.

As I say in our forthcoming book, SURVIVE! THE DISASTER, CRISIS AND EMERGENCY HANDBOOK, “With the melt-off of cubic mile after cubic mile of fresh-water Arctic Sea ice and Greenland glacier comes the very real potential for radical cooling of the British Isles and much of Western Europe, due to a slowdown or shutdown of the Gulf Stream.

“The Gulf Stream is actually a two-way ‘street,’ part of which is called the North Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation – NAMOC, for short. The Gulf Stream brings warm waters up from the Caribbean, which allows England, Scotland, Wales, the Irelands and Western Europe to have temperate climates. This two way-street, however, can be closed for repairs when the temperature and salinity of the interchange location in the North Atlantic are altered. For the Gulf Stream to work and the warm current to come north, a returning current of salt water must travel back. An oversimplification, perhaps, but if traffic in one direction is reduced or stopped, traffic in both directions are affected. If the circulation is seriously altered, the British Isles and Western Europe will have drastically colder winters at best. At worst, the Northern Hemisphere could experience a return to glaciation and a new Ice Age – minus the cute animated animals. The ultimate irony would be that global warming – whatever the cause and extent – causes global cooling.”

In the light of Climategate and faked or unsubstantiated research being used as the basis for much of the “fact” proving the profound effect humanity is having on global warming, perhaps those climate authorities who are warning that we are entering into a period of global cooling and a possible mini-Ice Age will be given more credence.

It is not a bad idea to study the Earth’s weather systems, certainly. But, spending money to study something called “global warming” is rather like measuring a man for a pine box before putting him on trial for a hanging offense – outcome is assumed to be assured. People like the guy who lives in The White House and his minions and the world government crowd at the United Nations want to “prove” that mankind is ruining the planet, this as justification for more regulation, more taxes, more restrictions and fewer freedoms. If the facts don’t agree with the hoped for outcome, it matters not at all. Can you say, “Ulterior motive?”

A DANGEROUS GAMBLE

The guy who was stupidly sent off to live in the White House may be taking the biggest gamble not only in our nation’s history, but the history of the world. Sharon and I were married in 1968 and bought a television set – a little black and white portable that was a floor model – in time to see man’s first steps on the moon in 1969. And, yes, I really believe we did put a man on the moon. I had hoped that we would again. Now, however, fearless leader and his team of leftist social planners are chopping replacements for the obsolescent Shuttle fleet out of the budget. Just to get astronauts up to the space station, we’ll have to hitch rides with the Russians, for which they are charging us up the ying-yang, as they have a right to do, of course. The Russians continuing their endeavors in manned space flight is the problem.

If you recall, the reason John F. Kennedy pushed for racing to the moon was to beat the Russians to it. In those days, when the kindly Russians were the nasty Soviets, we and other western nations were worried that, if the Russians got to the moon first and built a base there, missiles could be installed and a veritable “sword of Damocles” would hang over our heads and the Russians could have their way with the world.

Well, guess what, leftists! Unless the Russians have changed their mind, it is their express intent to return to the moon and establish a permanent presence there. Both the European Space Agency and the Japanese have plans for manned lunar bases. I’m sure the Chinese have similar interests. What happens when not only countries that like us, but countries that don’t, have lunar facilities and The United States does not?

And, lest we forget, our planet is in what is often called a cosmic shooting gallery, Near Earth Objects (NEOs) of wide ranging size – maybe twenty-five percent of the bigger one’s catalogued – zipping around us all the time. It is commonly believed that the Gulf of Mexico was formed when one of these larger NEOs struck Earth and wiped out the majority of species on the planet. Eventually, what is called a “Planet Killer” will come again. Hey, maybe we’ll be able to divert or destroy it. But, what if we can’t? Mankind’s destiny is among the stars, lest some NEO, some terrible pandemic or some other cataclysm obliterate the species on this planet. It would be nice to think, if that should someday happen, that survivors of the human race might carry with them the principles of freedom and justice which have been the hallmark of The United States. Thanks to the short-sightedness of leftist social planners, America may one day be only a vague memory lost in the corridors of time. Administration plans cancelling development of manned space flight vehicles and a return to the moon are egregiously stupid.

WHY DON’T WE REALLY TRY CAPITALISM?

At lunch today, Sharon and I were discussing our usual mixture of personal, business and political “stuff.” Ever since the disastrous 2008 Presidential Election, we’ve been talking politics more and more. This morning, when I fired up the computers, FOX News and AP were both proclaiming that the guy living in The White House and his minions were planning to levy some additional taxes on the institutions which received an infusion of bailout funds. It seems like the current administration and its Congressional cronies can’t do anything without including a new tax or tax hike. And, we were talking about a friend who’s not very well off and had just undergone major surgery, in its aftermath experiencing some startling revelations about the extent to which his caregivers would be compensated — not very well, considering the heroic measures undertaken to save our friend’s life. He and I got in to discussing – and not resolving, by any means – what moral obligation there might or might not be for a governmental entity to pay for someone’s health care – sort of a microcosm of the macrocosm, as it were, with the Leftists in Washington trying to kidnap the nation’s health care industry.

To help people who cannot afford health care and the extent to which this is done is a complex moral question, to be sure. But, neither Sharon nor I see any moral or philosophical questions relevant to the proposed health care bills in Congress. What is proposed is theft, pure and simple. Stealing businesses, money and choice from the American people is not one of the powers granted to Congress in The United States Constitution. A lot of folks in both Houses of Congress seem to have missed that concept.

But, yet, certain things have to be paid for by governments. Not all the silly crap and pork barrel spending, but worthwhile expenditures such as national defense, the interstate highway system, the space program, the Centers for Disease Control, the National Weather Service and its related organizations, etc.

How do you do this without stealing greater and greater sums of money from businesses and individuals? Margaret Thatcher once said, “The trouble with Socialism is that you eventually run out of other peoples’ money.” What if you took other peoples’ money out of the equation? Gradually, of course. The United States Government tossed fortunes into a number of companies lately, most notably, perhaps, General Motors and Chrysler Corporation. Why not use this as the basis for a new start?

The problem in The United States as relates to government spending is we – individuals, small businesses, large corporations, banks, etc. – all function as Capitalists and that’s the way it should be, because Capitalism is the finest economic system ever created. The “rub,” however, is that the government runs not like anything having to do with Capitalism, but Socialism, instead.

During the American Civil War, an income tax was imposed in the North for a brief period. This was in 1862 and ended in 1872. In the 1890s, there was another experiment in income tax. In 1913, the Sixteenth Amendment was passed, saying, “The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.” By fiscal year 1918, the government had scored its first cool billion in income tax revenues. Who’d give up on swag like that? Withholding taxes were first begun in 1943, thus cutting out the middle man — you.

Why not gradually use the government’s investments of our money in private businesses as the start of various government owned – meaning, citizen owned – businesses. Let’s say the government has a mighty share in GM and Chrysler. As those companies hopefully become profitable again, just like any shareholders, the American citizenry gets dividends and those dividends get put into the Federal Budget. We get our people in Congress – and, if they won’t co-operate, we use recalls and regular elections to dump them and get trustworthy replacements – to mandate through legislation that citizen oversight boards make certain that partially government owned GM and Chrysler aren’t competing unfairly with non-government owned Ford and the import based brands. Free market economy!

Take this idea many steps further. You can choose to shop at Kroger or Jewel Tea or wherever else or at “U.S. Government Grocers,” and the government has to actually compete for your business and pay profits into the general revenue fund. Want to buy a new handgun? Maybe you’d pick up on a Glock or SIG or Smith & Wesson. Or, maybe, you check out the models available from “U.S. Government Firearms Manufacturing.” All the profits made, after expenses, go toward meeting the nation’s expenses, then eradicating the huge debt we owe to China and others, while parts of the profits from “U.S. Government Dairies” and “U.S. Government Airways” and “Uncle Sam’s U.S. Government Hamburgers, Under The Golden Sign Of The Dollar,” go into replacing the almost countless self-destructing bridges and roads that are part of our nation’s gradually crumbling infrastructure.

In the far distant future, when all government debt is paid and more money is coming in through these investments made on behalf of American citizens, the government can do like the state government of Alaska has done with oil revenue profits – send every citizen a check each year.

Let’s try Capitalism, because it’s a cinch that what the government is doing now certainly isn’t working! Let me know what you think, if you care to.

JASPER SCHURINGA — HERO

If everything is as it appears on Saturday, December 26, 2009, according to Fox News, we have a true Hero to thank for keeping Christmas 2009 from becoming “12-25-09″ in our memories. A cowardly crackpot religious zealot terrorist homicidal maniac cretan apparently tried killing around 300 people on a Delta/Northwest flight about to land in Detroit. It seems that this worthless excuse for a living organism wanted to be some kind of “hero” in the afterlife, the kind who gets waited on hand and foot by a bunch of fawning mindless virgins as a reward for comitting senseless slaughter in this life. As the blithering fool was getting his weapon into action, a Dutch film director named Jasper Schuringa smelled smoke, heard a popping sound, bounded over four fellow passengers and discovered an infernal device hidden beneath a blanket and between the dirtbag’s legs. Flames were rising. The Hero Schuringa grabbed the weapon, started beating out the flames by hand and was soon joined by flight crew personnel. Then, the Hero subdued the villain. The aircraft landed and the forces of evil had lost their latest despicable gambit, no innocent lives taken on the day the Christian world celebrates the birth of Jesus. We should all line up to shake the Hero Schuringa’s hand and hope he wins every Best Director award from now on — but a Congressional Medal of Honor might be more appropriate. As to the villain of the piece, let’s waterboard him or skateboard him or snowboard him until we recover every scintilla of useful information about the global terrorist network from his warped brain, then give him a fair trial — something his vile masters would not understand. If he’s convicted, kill him mercifully and be done with him. Enough of guys like him; never enough of guys like the Hero Schuringa.