Dealing with catastrophe.

Let's talk about survival situations in an urban area:

Say that we have a disaster with a magnitude like Katrina, where the entire infrastructure collapses. In the initial stages everyone will come together for the common good. We have a heard mentality, and will work for the good of the herd. But, as people begin realizing that there are not enough supplies to go around, it will become ugly. That is why it is important to make friends with those that can protect you later on. This means gangs in some cases. This may not seem morally acceptable, but understand that it is survival. Be ready to protect your supplies, that means, be ready to shoot anyone that tries to take them. Someone taking your supplies is a death warrant in this environment.

In disaster, creepers come out of the walls. Be ready for this, you will be the only thing standing between them and those you love. You will most likely not be able to hold them for authorities, as the authorities will be weeks away, and over swamped to boot. This means you will have to play judge, jury, and executioner, not a fun task. Be sure that you know what you are doing, do not strike in anger. Think things through, it will save you guilt later on.

The problem with urban is that it is not self sustaining. Everything comes from the countryside, and therefore, you eventually will have to move out. Have a plan to do so without using main highways or freeways. In some cases, they might not even be there. Know what environments you will have to to bug out in. If it's desert, know where the water is, and how to get it. Know the area, the plants, the animals, what can and can't kill you, and how to deal with it.

In a disaster, money will most likely become worthless, therefore have supplies to barter with. Beer and cigs are always going to be in high demand, and they are not necessary for your survival. Ammo and firearms is another, but you will need them for yourself, however, if you have ammo that you do not have a firearm for, it may be wise of you to use this to barter with.

As I write this, a tsunami is heading towards hawaii, pray for those that are there. The thing that caused this disaster was an 8.8 magnitude earthquake in chilli, pray for those there. Also pray for those in California, normally if an earthquake strikes South America, one strikes southern California within between 2 hours and 2 days.

God bless.

~Sheepdog

65 years ago...

...6 men, five marines, one navy corpsman; climbed to the top of Mount Suribachi and raised old glory. You may remember this famous photograph of it:

Thank those who serve. They are true Americans, true brothers, true sisters, true fathers, true mothers, true sons, true daughters, true friends, true heroes. 

The ten commandments.

I use Yahoo!Answers a lot. It's a great way to have questions answered, and to help others. A few minutes ago I answered this question:

Why are Christians routinely breaking some of the 10 Commandments?

There are 10 Commandments, which even organized religions routinely ignore and break. If these are the the rules directly from your god, how can christians, and even the "church" break them? You shall have no other gods before me. DOES PRAYING TO MARY, JESUS, OR ANY OF THE PATRON SAINTS NOT COUNT? You shall not make for yourself any carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments. MY GOD, HAS ANYONE BEEN IN A CHURCH, ESPECIALLY A CATHOLIC CHURCH? THEY HAVE CORNERED THE MARKET ON GRAVEN IMAGES, AND YET NO HAS A PROBLEM WITH THIS. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain. SORRY, I AM GUILTY OF THIS ONE MYSELF Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your manservant, nor your maidservant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. TELL THAT TO YOUR BOSS Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you. I AM GOOD ON THIS ONE You shall not murder. GOOD HERE TOO, NO MURDERS IN MY BACKGROUND You shall not commit adultery. DAMMIT, I WAS DOING SO GOOD TOO You shall not steal. I THINK THIS IS RIGGED AGAINST ME You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. ANOTHER IN THE GOOD COLUMN You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s."  WHAT IS THE WIFE I COVET ISN'T MY NEIGHBOR'S, WHAT IF SHE LIVES FAR, FAR AWAY? IS THAT A LOOPHOLE? I WAS DOING SO WELL ON THE MANSERVANT, MAIDSERVAN, OX AND DONKEY, DID NOT COVET ANY OF THOSE. I am poking a little fun, but the question why some commandments are ignored is still a valid question.

 My answer:

First off, no one said Christians were perfect. We are as broken as anyone else. We fail every second of the day. We are sinners, plain and simple. The difference is, we have accepted the love of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He is why we can stand. In him alone can we live, in him alone can we have salvation. He took my sin, and washed it all away, everything I have done, everything I will do (And I know there will be much more, for I am broken). Every time I fall, he picks me up, and the slate is wiped clean. Blessed be the name of the Lord.

As for your arguments:

Jesus is God. Mary, and the saints are not. If you pray to Mary or the saints you are breaking the commandment.

Catholics, in my opinion, are not saved. They try to earn their way to heaven themselves when the only way we can be saved is through Jesus Christ coming and saving us. This argument seems to really apply to Catholics, not Protestants (Christians)

Again, we are not perfect, we fail. It is impossible to follow the ten commandments, because our sinful natures actively opposes God. Yet, as Christians, we realize that creations purpose is to glorify God and enjoy him forever, so we fight the good fight, and try to endure. When we fall, we humble ourselves and let God carry us.

The sabbath was created so that man could rest. It was made for man, not man for it. There are times when you may have to work, but make sure that you remember that God is good.

Honoring your father and mother is a good thing, but you can't go down the list going "Oh, I'm great at that, I'm doing ok, I'm a good person." We are all broken, the greatest amount of good you can do, will never be able to cover the price needed to purchase you out of slavery to the world. We need a savior, and as I stated before, that savior is Jesus Christ.

The bible says that committing murder in your heart is just as bad as murder itself. It says that hating a man is murder, and I think everyone is guilty of that at one point. Again, God's grace covers your sin. I will say it again, we can not earn our way to heaven, we need a savior.

Committing adultery is probably one of the worst sins you could commit, but God's grace covers all sin. It wipes the sin away, sets the captive free, and gives us a clean slate. It is shown time and time again that we can not save ourselves, but that Jesus saves us.

Everyone who has ever lived has stolen. Again, it is not our works that save us, but by grace. Ephesians 2:8-10 says, "8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."

You shall not bear false witness, meaning lie. Everyone has lied. As before, grace, not works.

You shall not covet is basically what this commandment is saying, we are all guilty of breaking it, but again, grace not works.

I'll say it again, we break probably every commandment every day. We don't just ignore SOME of them, we ignore ALL of them. It is our nature to fight against God, we are rebellious creatures. Fortunately, God didn't give up on us, he sent his son, Jesus (who is 100% God by the way) to come down to earth, to live among us, to be tempted in every way, yet to not sin, and to die on the cross, the only perfect sacrifice for us all. To be buried, to continue under the power of death for a time, and on the third day, rise from the dead. In rising, he saved us, he triumphed over evil, and he reigns eternal.

Jesus wants you to be with him, he loves you, but you, as a human being, are running away. We all are really, but we need to let him turn us around, pick us up, carry us to the cross, and undo what we are. Please accept him as your Lord and Savior. There is no hope without him.

 This is what I believe. If you have any questions about this, please ask in the comments. If you'd like, go to the question and help him out. Remember, we are in a spiritual battle every day. God has given us a suit of armor for it, and we must use it. If we are not feeling any opposition in this battle, it is most likely because we are not fighting it. And the end of your life, I pray that you can say "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith." God bless.

~Sheepdog

P.S.:

What to do when your seated next to a jerk on a plane.

We all know about the jerks on airplanes. They wont leave you alone, nothings ever what they want, they are always complaining, you are worth less then dirt to them, and they just make your flight miserable. Well, I found this in my email today:

1. Take out your laptop

2. Open your laptop very slowly

3. Turn it on.

4. Make certain your neighbor is watching

5. Open your internet browser.

6. Close your eyes for a few moments, open them and look up to the sky, or the heavens if you will.

7. Breathe deeply and open this site.

8. Look at the expression on your neighbor's face.

Now, obviously this will get you most likely tackled, duct taped, hot water poured all over you and your lap top, taken off the plane at the nearest airport (probably not the one you wanted to be at), taken into FBI custody, questioned, and maybe brought up on charges; so it's probably best not to do it. You gotta admit it would be funny though.

Sig 522LR

So I've had my eye on the Sig 522 rifle for some time. Drooling over it, and stalking Sig's site. Yesterday, I saw that they now have a SWAT version. Looks like it just comes with a quad rail instead of heat shield with side mounts.

Now, I love to modify and improvise, so a quad rail is definitely a money wasting opportunity. I would never have enough accesories, and my gun would start looking like something out of an action film: totally impracticle. Thankfully the classic version will probably be cheaper anyway, and I can still hook up the minimum accessories I need. Oh well, it's still a ways off until I have the money to buy one. sigh.

Reflexes

Amazing little things aren't they?

From Scientific America comes this:

A study in the Proceedings of the Royal Society finds that reacting to a movement, such as being drawn on in a gunfight, is faster than initiating the movement

I know this to be true from martial arts. Your defensive reflexes are far faster. It is much easier to defend than to score a hit, the only problem is that at some point you must go offensive because eventually the opponent will get past your guard. That is why it will never work to only train with blocks as some have told me. Some say that we should just block and not try and hurt the aggressor because we then become the same if not worse. Well, you can't block forever and you have to get away some how. Normally you must disable the aggressor first. Train like its the real thing, and make sure you can Get-R-Done quickly.