THE GREAT EQUALIZER

From SHTF Plan:

The Gun is Civilization by Maj. L. Caudill USMC (Ret)

Human beings only have two ways to deal with one another: reason and force. If you want me to do something for you, you have a choice of either convincing me via argument, or force me to do your bidding under threat of force. Every human interaction falls into one of those two categories, without exception. Reason or force, that’s it.

In a truly moral and civilized society, people exclusively interact through persuasion. Force has no place as a valid method of social interaction, and the only thing that removes force from the menu is the personal firearm, as paradoxical as it may sound to some.

When I carry a gun, you cannot deal with me by force. You have to use reason and try to persuade me, because I have a way to negate your threat or employment of force.

The gun is the only personal weapon that puts a 100-pound woman on equal footing with a 220-pound mugger, a 75-year old retiree on equal footing with a 19-year old gang banger, and a single guy on equal footing with a carload of drunk guys with baseball bats. The gun removes the disparity in physical strength, size, or numbers between a potential attacker and a defender.

There are plenty of people who consider the gun as the source of bad force equations. These are the people who think that we’d be more civilized if all guns were removed from society, because a firearm makes it easier for a [armed] mugger to do his job. That, of course, is only true if the mugger’s potential victims are mostly disarmed either by choice or by legislative fiat–it has no validity when most of a mugger’s potential marks are armed.

People who argue for the banning of arms ask for automatic rule by the young, the strong, and the many, and that’s the exact opposite of a civilized society. A mugger, even an armed one, can only make a successful living in a society where the state has granted him a force monopoly.

Then there’s the argument that the gun makes confrontations lethal that otherwise would only result in injury. This argument is fallacious in several ways. Without guns involved, confrontations are won by the physically superior party inflicting overwhelming injury on the loser. People who think that fists, bats, sticks, or stones don’t constitute lethal force watch too much TV, where people take beatings and come out of it with a bloody lip at worst. The fact that the gun makes lethal force easier works solely in favor of the weaker defender, not the stronger attacker. If both are armed, the field is level.

The gun is the only weapon that’s as lethal in the hands of an octogenarian as it is in the hands of a weight lifter. It simply wouldn’t work as well as a force equalizer if it wasn’t both lethal and easily employable.

When I carry a gun, I don’t do so because I am looking for a fight, but because I’m looking to be left alone. The gun at my side means that I cannot be forced, only persuaded. I don’t carry it because I’m afraid, but because it enables me to be unafraid. It doesn’t limit the actions of those who would interact with me through reason, only the actions of those who would do so by force. It removes force from the equation… and that’s why carrying a gun is a civilized act.

By Maj. L. Caudill USM C (Ret)

The greatest civilization is one where all citizens are equally armed and can only be persuaded, never forced.

Remember only two defining forces have ever offered to die for you, Jesus Christ and the American Soldier. One died for your soul, the other for your freedom.

IT COULD BE 24 YEARS BEFORE OIL STOPS FLOWING

Pray that the "Top Kill" works. If not, pray for all mankind because life as we know it is coming to an end.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

H/T Business Insider

CHEAP OIL IS KILLING US

"This is a sign to Louisiana. This is a sign to the entire Gulf. It is a sign to all humanity.

We need to get back in harmony with God's Creation.

We were meant to coexist with and live off nature -- not treat it as the enemy, not annihilate it (in the name of short-term profits).

Nowhere in America was as contaminated.

Now it reaps what it has sown. I remember the eerie feeling, watching helicopters lifting off pads on the delta to head for the offshore rigs, which have no place there.

This is a moral issue. It isn't a political issue. It is not a tree-hugging issue. This isn't a liberal issue. It should be a conservative (conservation) issue. It also should be a pro-life issue. A recent study startled the nation by saying that we have no real idea what the tens of thousands of chemicals we now use may do to us because few of them have been tested before companies were allowed to go ahead in the name of the economy and disperse them. The lowest estimate is that they cause at least six percent of all cancers (the figure is undoubtedly far higher).

Just think a moment (and pray for more than a moment) about the cancer rates."
Spirit Daily

I agree with the sentiment above. We must exploit nature to live but we don't have to work against it or destroy it. The question though is how we disentangle ourselves from the life we've built?

We can live like the crazed tree huggers would like us to live by going back to our caves, teepees or log cabins in some sort of idealized Utopian existence that never was and never can be. Or we can continue to live in a false, oil driven world of cheap energy and disconnect from our nature and nature itself. We can continue to pretend that somehow a system that causes the average meal to travel 1500 miles to reach the plate of the diner is sustainable. We can pretend that supporting slave societies in places like China is justified as long as we can buy cheap shoes. We can agree that a constant state of war is a good thing as long as the oil flows and the jobs in the defense industry are available.

Or maybe there's a third way, a way that makes sense on a human scale. Maybe we can use technology and combine it with sustainable activities and choices ordered towards local economies. Maybe if we would start to think about our families, communities, counties, states and federal government, in that order, and focus on fixing the problems closest to us, maybe we could find solutions to the larger problems created by globalism and oil.

Disconnect from the system as much as possible. Make your family as independent as you can. Then help your neighbors do the same thing. Create neighborhoods that can stand by themselves, islands of independence that don't rely on the outside world. This won't be easy and we may never completely unhook from the grid (I define the grid as something more than just power but all the controls placed upon us by governments that violate our basic individual rights) but to the extent we can we gain freedom for ourselves and our neighbors.

We need energy, period. The thing is, oil isn't the only or best source of it. We need to join our independent little communities together in our counties and states and push for the use of nuclear, natural gas and coal. I know, they all have some downsides but there isn't anything that doesn't. We need energy to cook and heat our homes at the very least. I don't know about you but I kind of like electricity, too.

Nuclear has a long record of safety. It is clean and we ain't going to run out of it. Natural gas is abundant, really, really abundant, clean burning and it wouldn't take that much effort to convert our cars and trucks over to it. Coal is the bald headed step child in this trio because it is dirty and it is the old technology. However, we can burn it cleanly and it does produce a lot of energy and we've got more of it than any other place in the world. And it won't leak out and destroy the ground it's mined in.

We need to take advantage of our technology and use it wisely. Why do white collar workers that sit at computers all day long to perform their jobs have to drive to an office? With broadband internet they should be working from home. Think of the energy that would save. No commute and no office building. Of course this would cause a massive shift in our economy. If everyone stays home we won't need all the restaurants. People won't buy as many clothes and shoes. Starbucks will get killed. Car sales would drop.

However, local communities would get a boost. There would be a demand for local merchants to supply the items that we need since we wouldn't be traveling around town all the time. The money saved by staying home could be spent on something besides energy, helping to create new jobs to offset the ones that were lost.

And most importantly our focus would be on our communities, the places that most affect our lives and where we have the most control. If we strengthen our families and then our communities everything else will fall in place. Regardless of what our political leaders would like us to believe, power comes from the bottom and flows up, not the other way around.

Cheap oil has ruined families, communities, countries and now with the leak in the Gulf it has the potential to ruin the very system that supports our life. We need to bear whatever the cost is to break away from it, if not for us for future generations.

NO OIL RELIEF 'TIL AUGUST

So far nothing has worked to stop the flow of oil. If everything goes right they may be able to get relief wells drilled into a six inch pipe more than a mile beneath the surface by August.

This leak has been pouring from the ocean floor for about a month now and August is three months away. I'm not a mathematician but that tells me that we've only seen 25% of the total oil that's going to be released into the Gulf.

The Gulf is dead if that's the case, along with the entire Gulf coast and who knows how much of the American economy. The larger question is how much will this impact the Atlantic, the East Coast of the U.S., Europe and the world. The oil will get into the Gulf Stream and it will be carried across the Atlantic, to Europe and Africa and North up the coasts of Central and South America. If it effects the Gulf Stream flow massive changes in weather will occur around the globe, not to mention damage to sea life and our food chain.

This is a problem of Biblical proportions; quite literally.

Pray, pray, pray!

"For weeks, it was a disaster in abstraction, a threat floating somewhere out there.

Not anymore. In the last week, the oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico has revealed itself to an angry and desperate public, smearing tourist beaches, washing onto the shorelines of sleepy coastal communities and oozing into marshy bays that fishermen have worked for generations. It has even announced its arrival on the Louisiana coast with a fittingly ugly symbol: brown pelicans, the state bird, dyed with crude.

More than a month has passed since the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig blew up, spewing immeasurable quantities of oil into the Gulf of Mexico and frustrating all efforts to contain it. The billowing plume of undersea oil and water has thwarted the industry’s well-control efforts and driven government officials to impotent rage."
New York Times

"The last resort for the owner of the blown-out well, and the most trustworthy way to plug the gush of petroleum, relies on the steady but slow toiling of two rigs now drilling what the industry calls "relief wells."

That label suggests the opposite of the two wells' true intent, for they are meant to kill, not relieve, the stricken well that has been leaking oil and natural gas for more than four weeks.

BP PLC, owner of the damaged well, predicts it will take 70 to 90 days — perhaps into August — to stab through more than 3 miles of seawater and earth and puncture the vertical pipe that is channeling a torrent of oil and gas to the surface of the Gulf near the Louisiana coast.

"So how the hell are you going to hit something that's 6 inches wide?" said Bill Abel, founder of Abel Engineering & Well Control Co. and someone who has helped do just that about 30 times.

The short answer: decades of practice combined with increasingly precise technology."
Orlando Sentinel

THAT HAD TO HURT

Why do I have this image of a vampire writhing in pain from some old horror movie stuck in my head?

"Two teachers accused of sprinkling holy water onto an avowed atheist colleague have been removed from the classroom, and may be fired.

The teacher who was allegedly sprinkled filed a complaint with the Broward County school district, which is investigating the incident as an act of bullying.

At the center of the investigation are Blanche Ely High School reading teachers Leslie Rainer and Djuna Robinson, who profess that they are Christians. They are accused of sprinkling holy water onto fellow teacher Schandra Tompkinsel Rodriguez.

On March 11, Rodriguez was in her classroom discussing her disbelief in God and the Bible with students when the alleged incident took place."
SFL Times

I wonder what we'd be hearing if the teacher had been explaining to her class her belief in God and the inerrancy of the Bible? If the same two teachers had walked into her room and clubbed her in the head to save the minds of the children from religion they would have been hailed as heroes.

IT TAKES A VILLAGE

From Ecclesiastes Chapter 4:

8 There is but one, and he hath not a second, no child, no brother, and yet he ceaseth not to labour, neither are his eyes satisfied with riches, neither doth he reflect, saying: For whom do I labour, and defraud my soul of good things? in this also is vanity, and a grievous vexation.

9It is better therefore that two should be together, than one: for they have the advantage of their society:

10 If one fall he shall be supported by the other: woe to him that is alone, for when he falleth, he hath none to lift him up.

11 And if two lie together, they shall warm one another: how shall one alone be warmed?

12 And if a man prevail against one, two shall withstand him: a threefold cord is not easily broken.

I heard Glenn Beck on his TV show today quote this passage and I found it interesting in light of what I wrote earlier about individualism and salvation. We can't do this alone. It does require a village, of sorts; just not the village that the Progressives would like us to be part of.

As things begin to spin apart here in America and in the world we must turn to our families. Our families are our strength. If we can get everything straight there then, and only then, we should move out into our social group; friends, neighbors, communities. You see, the path, not only to salvation but to peace here on earth starts in the family, not the government. Each of us is part of something that is holy, sanctified through marriage and empowered through birth and death, grace and prayer, struggle and victory. God and family provide safe harbor in times of trouble and it is from this harbor that the ships of restoration and redemption must sail.

All power in the temporal order flows from from God through the family. The solution to most problems can be found in the family. Families must be supported by society in order for society to function correctly. Parents need to be allowed to exercise the power that they've been given by God. The state has no part in any family decisions unless the family has broken down and can no longer function; and even then the state should be the last resort. That's why we have churches and fraternal organizations. The power of the family should be held sacrosanct. A mans home is his castle and his family is his kingdom.

This is a reflection of the fatherhood of God. Just as the family reflects the triune nature of God it also is structured in the same way that God's kingdom is. Husband and wife share the same nature through marriage , just as the Father, Son and Holy Ghost share their divine nature. The same relationship is experienced in marriage as in the Trinity; husband and wife are the same yet the husband is the head. I'm sure that's going to get someone mad (sorry, honey).

"But from the beginning of the creation, God made them male and female.
For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother; and shall cleave to his wife.
And they two shall be in one flesh. Therefore now they are not two, but one flesh.
What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder."
Mark 10:6-9

"Let women be subject to their husbands, as to the Lord:
Because the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ is the head of the church. He is the saviour of his body.
Therefore as the church is subject to Christ, so also let the wives be to their husbands in all things.
Husbands, love your wives, as Christ also loved the church, and delivered himself up for it:
That he might sanctify it, cleansing it by the laver of water in the word of life:
That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any; such thing; but that it should be holy, and without blemish.
So also ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife, loveth himself.
For no man ever hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, as also Christ doth the church:
Because we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.
For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they shall be two in one flesh.
This is a great sacrament; but I speak in Christ and in the church.
Nevertheless let every one of you in particular love his wife as himself: and let the wife fear her husband."
Ephesians 5:22-33

That passage from Ephesians is bound to get women riled up. Why? It's a clear picture of how the family is supposed to work. It is a reflection of the relationship between Jesus and the Father and also Jesus and the Church. This is how the world is supposed to work because it's the way God works.

Do you see how easy it is for some one of a Marxist/Progressive/Masonic/Satanic bent to pervert the meaning of this passage and in so doing to turn the natural order on its head? Do you see why religious education has been banned from schools and why religion has been diluted by the false gospel of social justice? Can you understand why men and women have been pitted against each other through the Feminist movement? All of this has been done to destroy the family because if the family is destroyed then God's conduit of grace is destroyed. This isn't Barack Obama's plan or George Soros' plan. This plan comes straight from hell and the mouth of the Devil! And he's managed to keep us all focused on politics while he sets fire to God's creation with the intent of burning it to the ground.

Focus on your family men and get your house in order. It is our responsibility and if we don't do it we will be held accountable. Wives, you have responsibility in this to. You and your husband are one flesh through marriage so you must act in accord, not just for yourselves but for your children and all of humanity. The power comes through you, not some Satanic government overlord, bent on control and destruction of all mankind.

It takes a village all right; a village of families.

CONSPIRACY THEORIES AND REALITY-WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE

"Conspiracy theories exist in the realm of myth, where imaginations run wild, fears trump facts, and evidence is ignored. As a superpower, the United States is often cast as a villain in these dramas."
America.gov

Regardless of what the government would like you to believe sometimes conspiracy theories are true. Some may seem crazy and some not but that doesn't mean they should all be dismissed without further investigation.

Just for the fun of it go to 33 Conspiracy Theories That Turned Out to be True and take a look at all the things that have been called crazy at one time or another yet proved to be true.

Always stay skeptical and question everything. That being said we live in a world of lies and obfuscation, misdirection and deceit. Keep your eyes open and pay careful attention. Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean that somebody's not out to get you.

IS GLENN BECK RIGHT ABOUT INDIVIDUALISM?

Cardinal George Pell said the new mass had a "different cadence" to the translation of the Roman Missal that two generations of Australian Catholics grew up with, and which was a "bit dumbed-down".

...The new translation places a heavier emphasis on Christ's sacrifice and underlines the dependence of individuals on God. In one of the most controversial changes, the words of the consecration in the mass specify that Christ shed his blood "for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins", rather than "for all" as the present translation puts it.

Cardinal Pell said the change reflected the official Latin version of the Roman Missal, and although Christ died for everybody, this would remind worshippers of the need for personal repentance.

In the creed, the faithful will now say "I believe" rather than "we believe", emphasising the importance of personal belief."
The Australian

On Tuesday's show, Beck called on church leaders to "stand up for individual rights." Beck, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, said the gospel is about individual salvation only.

"It's individual salvation. The Lord doesn't call us up, review our salvation and go, 'Ok now hang on just a second. Now serving group number 10!' It's individual. Your church is either for socialist government or the living of the gospel. It's either about God or government. Tonight you're going to find out which is which," said Beck.

...Falwell was not alone this week in referring to Jesus' parable to discuss social justice. The day before the Beck broadcast, the American Family Association's (AFA) Bryan Fischer said the talents parable runs counter to "the worldview of Jim Wallis."

"Bottom line," said Fischer, "Jesus, as much as Wallis will hate to admit it, had capitalism in his DNA."

Efrem Smith wrote on Sojourners' God's Politics Blog that this interpretation of the parable is wrong because it roots the gospel in "individualism and capitalism."
"The church is called to make disciples and to do justice and love mercy," said Smith. "Let the Word of God drive the evangelical church and its theology, not a political talk show host."
Christianity Today

So is Glenn beck right about salvation and the individual? Or should we listen to the Progressives when they link our salvation to the group? And why does the new translation of the Mass highlight the individual relationship in a return to tradition? Is our personal relationship with Christ all that matters? If so, why have a church community?

I certainly don't look to Beck or any other talk show host for my religious edification. However, truth is truth and it can exist in many forms in many places. His understanding of religion, in the abstract, is similar to mine, especially in relation to the Constitution and the intent of the Founders. Obviously there is a great deal of difference between Catholicism and Mormonism, points of contention that I don't wish to address here.

The religion of Progressivism is antithetical to Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular. It's reliance on group think and corporate salvation through the state denies the efficacy of the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. I stand shoulder to shoulder with Beck in this belief. However, his reliance on individual salvation goes a bit too far.

While we will stand as individuals before God in our personal judgement our salvation is bound up in our relationship within our families. The basic unit of human existence is the family. Families reflect the inner reality of the triune God, multiple persons, one nature. We exist, live, die and find our path to salvation inside our familial relationships, never alone. No man is an island.

It is in either rejecting or failing to recognize this simple fact that both Evangelicals and Progressives lose their way. Both swing too far in the opposite directions. As usual, the Catholic Church finds the sweet spot, theologically speaking, in melding two seemingly opposing views into a sensible and correct understanding of true human nature.

Of course, the Evangelicals come closest to the truth while the Progressives are playing for the other team. Progressivism is so appealing simply because it contains just enough distortion of the truth to seem like it is the right way to those that have forgotten the true meaning and function of the family. Progressivism replaces true family as designed by God with the family of the state. It uses government to fill the hole it created through the actions it has taken to destroy the real family of God.

Satan is one devious bastard!