On Abortion

Abortion is murder, plain and simple. I know that is not a popular view, nor a politically correct one, but the truth is rarely popular, nor politically correct. The arguments I have heard is "My body, my life" and "This is about women's rights." These arguments are not valid, because they ignore the right of the defenseless baby. Though the baby has had no chance to harm anyone, he or she is not allowed to live for the sake of what? Comfort? The other argument I have heard is, "The baby is not a person yet." Therefore, they claim it does not deserve the same rights, and is somehow less human. There is a double standard however, if someone were to murder a pregnant woman, he would be charged with two counts: The killing of the mother, and of the child. So, our government does recognize the baby still has a right to life, however, they turn a blind eye, or in some cases, outright support the killing of innocent life if it is convenient for the mother. This brings us to the next point: Governments roll.

The roll of Government is to represent Jesus' authority on earth. Our government obviously has not done this, and refuses to do so. I understand that is not a valid argument in most groups, so I shall use one that is, not because I am ashamed of my savior, but because the goal of this is to bring about change in peoples thinking. The roll of the government should be to not let the rights of the citizens be encroached upon. This means, they are not to encroach on the rights of the citizens, and are to keep order in such a way as to protect and defend the citizens. At this too, they have failed. It is a slippery slope we find ourselves on, and our government isn't even trying to run back up, but instead, has turned and is leading the charge down. It is the duty of the government to intervene when the rights of the people are being infringed upon, and this means babies also. It boggles the mind that we have such a high value of children, but only the children that are convenient apparently.

Men, we have great responsibilities to bear, responsibilities that should have us on our knees every morning praying that Jesus would not allow us to fail, because the consequences are so great. One of those responsibilities is to "Speak up for those who cannot speak up for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly, defend the rights of the poor and the needy." (Proverbs 31:8-9) Society, and even many churches sadly, has turned men into cowards. Putting great emphasis on peace, and tolerance, so much so that we forget there are things worth fighting for. More and more, I see young Christian men, who grew up in the church, thinking just because they didn't do anything wrong, that they are in the right. You see, there are sins of omission, and commission. Take for example, original sin. Where was Adam when Eve first ate of the fruit? Genesis 3:6 "So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate." So, he was there, with her, and did nothing to defend her and her conscience, nor did he defend God and His commands. This is a sin of omission, not living up to his duty as a man to protect and defend. 

You are no longer an innocent sheep, you have now been given knowledge about the subject. You have three options, be a wolf and fight for abortion, be a guilty sheep and ignore what you have learned today, or be a sheepdog and take a stand. 

It's not like EMTs are people or anything..

I was looking for Christian EMT courses and found this:

http://atheism.about.com/b/2008/06/28/christian-emt-workers-allowed-to-let-pregnant-women-die.htm

So basically, the author takes a story of an EMT who refused to take a pregnant woman to get an abortion, and through a very round about way, comes to the conclusion that Christians are a threat to the public health. Considering the late date of this post, I can only find articles about the lawsuit that followed (BTW, if you have articles stating otherwise, please send them to me as I would like the truth behind anything), but the story that I've gathered is that this was a woman who wanted the ambulance to take her to have an abortion, and an EMT said no on the grounds that it went against her moral beliefs. She was fired on the spot and another EMT took her place.

The author makes a case concerning a law that should have protected her from being fired which says something along the lines of, if you have a moral or religious objection concerning aiding a person, you do not have to aid them. He then has this to say:

According to Manion's reading of Illinois' "conscience clause," it really wouldn’t matter if the abortion were an emergency, would it? If Stephanie Adamson had a moral objection to transporting someone for an abortion, it wouldn't matter if the abortion were purely elective or absolutely necessary to save the woman's life — a moral objection is sufficient to allow her to refuse to lift a finger to save the woman's life. Questioning whether the abortion was an "emergency" strikes me as little more than an attempt to cast aspersions on the motives of the woman who was, he acknowledges, in pain and thus in need of medical treatment.

Even if we ignore this, though, the question is pretty easy to answer: not all hospitals offer abortion services and, even if they do, there might be someone else better qualified to either perform an abortion or to perform an abortion on women in particular medical circumstances. There are plenty of good medical reasons for why it might be necessary to transport a woman in pain from a hospital to a clinic where she can get an abortion. There are few, if any, good medical reasons for an EMT to refuse to transport a woman in such a situation. There are no good reasons — medical or moral — to give EMTs the right to let a woman die rather than drive her to where her life can be saved.

What I am gathering from this, is that he would like EMTs to be good little sheep following the herd, and doing whatever, without question. While 99% of the time, this is ok, you still have to watch out for that 1% of the time when there's something wrong and stopping it means going against the grain. Never mind my views on abortion, never mind my morals, making EMTs prosecutable by law for not giving a treatment ties their hands, makes them second guess themselves, and in general, turns people away from getting into this field to help others.

The EMT did not wish to assist in the murder of an innocent child. The author takes this, and turns it into, "Christian EMT workers allowed to let pregnant women die?" as he titled his post.

As for the abortion, is it denial of a womans right over her body to not let her abort? Well, if you are with the world, then yes. A world without God sees this and says, it is the woman's body, and it is the woman's life. She should be allowed to make the decisions about them both. From a biblical stand point, abortion is evil, no matter the circumstances. God doesn't make mistakes. Since before time, He planned what we would do, from birth to the grave. That means, even in cases of incest or rape, though they are pure evil, it is not right to abort. God can take an evil situation, like rape, and turn it into something beautiful, like a child. If someone decides to take the life of their unborn child, they are, without a doubt, committing murder.

Even our own society realizes that unborn children have value! If a person punches a pregnant woman in the stomach, and she miscarries, the person will (and should) be convicted of murder. However, there is a double standard. If a woman decides that she is not ready to have a child, she can go to a clinic, and have the baby burned alive with acid, and essentially suffocate to kill it. No matter what grounds they say, it is still evil. "It was the humane thing to do, I couldn't support it." "The baby was going to be missing a limb, I couldn't give it a life like that." God still created that child, why is it up to you, to decide whether or not the baby should live? The Lord has a plan for everyone, even those that society views as worthless. It is not up to us to make the decision of who lives, and who dies; especially when they cannot defend themselves.

Life's tough, being a parent's tougher, but with the Lord's help, you can do it. God will not give you a challenge you cannot face. Now, He will almost certainly give you challenges that you cannot face alone. That's what is so great about our God, He is always good, but He is not safe. He wants what is best for us, and He is willing to give us difficult, painful times to make us love Him more, and to make us grow. Nothing worth while will ever be easy. Following God is a constant battle. Battles are not easy, but I can tell you this, the battle is worth it. Looking back on my short life so far, I have seen times where I wanted something, and God didn't let me have it. Looking back, His plan was perfect. He brought me through, and was with me every step the way, with my best interest at heart.

With a God that good, how can we try and say that it would be better to not bring a child into the world who God has a plan for? No matter what the circumstances, God still has a plan, and though you may not see it (and normally you wont), it is heading towards something beautiful and great.

Quote of the day

The Anti-Gunners (let's call them anti-self defensers shall we?) freak out when they see large amounts of firearms in the hands of civilians. Why would we ever need them? Are we planning on fighting a war? We must be terrorists!

Well, the fact that it is an inalienable right should be enough, let's give a few more reasons. The 2nd Amendment was set up to guarantee that we are governed, not ruled. Like wise, it was set up to guarantee the right of the people to defend themselves against all enemies, both foreign and domestic.

With that, I give you the quote of the day:

"You cannot invade mainland America. There would be a rifle behind every blade of grass." -Isoroku Yamamoto, Japanese Admiral

The Japaneses came close to finding out that that was true, but fortunately, they didn't. The question is, does that still hold true today? If an enemy force invaded, would there be a rifle behind every blade of grass, or just another sheep cowering, waiting for the slaughter? Something to ponder.

The difference between Terrorism and Militia

Saw this on MSNBC today:

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

The video states that a "Christian Militia" plotted attacks on the US government in order to bring about the ruin of the government. One such attack involved killing a police officer, then bombing the funeral. This, my friends, is terrorism. A militia provides for the common defense, this seems to be an offense against fellow citizens. The group hides behind a religious front claiming they are preparing for the anti-Christ. This may, or may not be true, but judging by their plan of action against US citizens, I would have to say this is an extremist anarchy group.

The press eats this up, because it is everything they claim we are. A bunch of knuckle dragging, anti-government, gun clinging, bible thumping, flag waving, extremists. Only they seem to have their own flag that they fight under, and the only mention of Christianity is preparing to defend against the anti-Christ. I do not know their heart, so I cannot judge, but this seems extremely cultish.

Be wary of these sorts of things. Though we may not agree with our leaders, God has still placed them over us. There may be a time when we have to fight with arms, to defend our rights, to be free to worship, etc; but as of now, we can fight it in the courts and congress. God is still in control, He has placed people in authority over us, and therefore, we should obey them, until their orders contradict the orders of God. We should pay taxes, give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's. Though it may seem bad and chaotic, in time, it will all make sense. During WWII, I doubt that it seemed to be making sense what was happening, and why things were going the way they were going; however, looking back, it all comes together. Everything happened in just the right way for evil to be stopped, at least for a while. Israel was created once again, and a nation of Israel was set up, so that the prophecies in Revelation could be fulfilled.

Should we fear the anti-Christ? No, we have salvation in Jesus. Who can stand against the awesome power of Christ? Our sins are forgiven, they are washed away, we have been made clean. We are children of God now, not the devil; sin and death have lost their power. Nothing of this world can have affect. Our God is an awesome God, He rescues His people out of darkness. We yearn for the day we can be united with Him in heaven, but until that day, we carry out His work.

Should we prepare? Yes. Hard times are ahead, I believe. Real persecution, like that which is in other countries. Our freedom has granted us an easy life thus far, we are free to worship, we are free to pray, we are not killed by the government for our faith. But that may change. I believe it will, personally. Prepare for that. Memorize scripture, know what you know is true. You must be sure of your faith, you must be sure of who Christ is, you must be sure of your forgiveness from sin. At one time, you might be faced with a choice, deny Christ or die. Remember, to live is Christ, to die is gain. Let the world despise and leave us, they have left our savior too. Let them destroy the body, let them take away the very air we breath, our God is mighty to save, and they cannot harm the soul. I do not believe we can fully prepare for that time of suffering, but I pray that I will have the courage to say "Yes, I do believe in Christ."

Recognizing and dealing with deception

Lies surround us. The very core of evil is lying. Every sin is a lie in some way. When you sin, you are lying to yourself that God doesn't care about you, or know what is best for you, and therefore, you must take care of yourself. Look out for number one. We are told that the world will bring us pleasure. That the world is all we need. That there is no God. That we are all that is. That the world is what it is all about.


For those of you who claim to be Christians, if someone came up to you and said, "There is no God," you would be in total opposition to them. So, the world comes at us in different wording. "Can't we all just agree? You believe what you believe, I'll believe what I'll believe. Don't ram Christianity down my throat. Get Christianity out of the schools. Get God off our money. Get God off our monuments. Don't post the ten commandments." In effect, they are making God irrelevant. Unfortunately we didn't fight it. We don't fight it. So they make God irrelevant in their lives, and ultimately in everyone else's lives. Basically they are saying "God does not exist."


One of our biggest mistakes, in my opinion is buying into the lie that America is a Christian nation. That Christianity is the majority in America. America is a country. America is run by humans. We are, or at least were started, as a republic. A republic is ruled by law, which is better than a democracy which is ruled by majority vote, but the best system is a theocracy which is ruled by God. Our country has since turned into, I believe, a democracy. Instead of being ruled by law, we are ruled by popular opinion. Instead of wishing justice we look for loopholes to get around the law. Our country is secular. The world hates Christians. Whether they admit it or not, Christianity is offensive. God is offensive to the evil. 


What is evil anyway? Evil is the absence of God. When the world buys into lies, they reject God. Everyone is born separate from God, and is therefore evil. Those that have been called out of darkness have begun a transformation. We are to be imitators of Christ, and therefore are offensive to the evil. Sure, they mask it as other things, but ultimately, the world hates Christians. Christianity is the hard way out. The world wants nothing better than to write God off as some irrelevant, not caring, being without power, or existence. Therefore, they will do everything they can to oppose Christians and draw them astray.

So, the American people truly are attempting to destroy God. There will come a time when we will be shown real persecution. On that day let us not fall away, but embrace it. Ready to suffer for Christ. To suffer for Christ is greater than anything we could ever do. Let the world despise and leave us. They have left our savior too.

The world is full of wolves, ready to devour the unwary sheep. They twist scripture and the definitions of words. They quote verses so close to the original, that it sparks just the smallest memory, and we begin to question if that was in fact what the verse said. They choose their words wisely, making their message sound friendly, when in reality, it is dripping with death. The new believer, or the one unsure in his belief, fall victim to this trap and start believing lies. Once a lie is believed, it is very difficult to change that belief to the truth. 


We must be grounded in the word. We must memorize and meditate on scripture. We must ask God to guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. When people come at us with false doctrines, we must recognize it for what it is, and not let our brothers or sisters be lead astray. This is a battle. The battle is spiritual. We must understand that it is a battle, that we are at war 24/7, know our enemy, and know how to fight it. We must know the truth. We must be sure of our faith. We must be sure we have forgiveness, that God exists, that we need him, etc. 


Our enemy is not the world, though we are theirs. Our enemy is evil. We should view the world as prisoners of war, for we were once dead in our sins, but God didn't give up on us. When He called, we ran and hid. Not only that, we actively opposed Him. We hated Him. We didn't want Him. We wanted to destroy Him. But He rescued us. He loved us enough to not give us what we wanted, death, but gave us eternal life. Therefore, when the world hates us, show them the love shown to us. Let our life song sing to Christ, so that when the world looks at us, they see Christ at work in us. If we believed the way we claim we believe, and the way we should believe, we should be on our knees begging unbelievers to come to know Christ.


We have many hard times ahead. The way of Christ is most certainly not the easy way out. The world will hate us and reject us. We will be persecuted. We may even be beaten, tortured, or killed. But this world is not our home. I consider myself a patriot, and am very proud of this country, but this nation is not ours. I love this country, I am willing to die for it, for freedom, and for my fellow Americans. But no matter how patriotic we are, understand that it is a nation of the world, and therefore we should not give our ultimate loyalty to it. Our loyalty lies with Christ and his kingdom. There will be a time when this great nation turns against us. It has already turned against God. We must figure out now, where our loyalties lie. Do we follow America when we know that it would be sin to do so? It was one of my hardest decisions to make, but in the end, God is the ultimate authority. We must follow his commands first. 


Take care my dear readers.


~Sheepdog

A government big enough to give you everything you want...

...Is big enough to take away everything you have.


The history of the world and its nations seems to repeat itself. Each great nation seemed to follow this cycle: 


From bondage to spiritual faith;
From spiritual faith to great courage;
From courage to liberty;
From liberty to abundance;
From abundance to complacency;
From complacency to apathy;
From apathy to dependence
From dependence back into bondage.

This cycle takes, on average, 200 years to complete. You can see most of it has been completed in America. The founding fathers had great spiritual faith, and that was why they came to America, to avoid persecution. They gained great courage in the belief that they should be free from england. That courage then lead to fighting a war, and ultimately, liberty. That liberty lead to an abundance, by God's good grace. But with abundance, came a lack of remembrance of where the country had come out of. That lead to complacency with certain freedoms being taken away to please a certain group of people. The allowance of this, lead to apathy towards encroachment on more rights. Finally we get to where we are.

I believe we are between apathy and dependence stages. This health care bill will make us totally dependent on the government, and it is just a short skip and a hop back into bondage. Currently, I see it taking no longer than 10 years.

It doesnt have to be that way though. We can have a spiritual awakening in this country. We can create great courage. We can make a move for liberty. Our for fathers fought with arms. I believe this situation calls for a fight with votes. All those who voted for the bill must go, that is certain, no grey area there. The tricky part will be voting people in that will completely repeal the bill. There is no half way here, it must be totally removed. We do not have much time, every year brings us closer to a dictatorship.

Every year, government grows bigger. At the end, there will be no options to vote for, and then the only thing left to do would be to fight with arms. On that day, however, I believe we will find no arms to fight with, and no where to stand. The 2nd Amendment was put into the constitution to keep the government in check. Therefore, if the government wants to totally put us into bondage, they will have to remove the arms. This will not come all at once, that, I hope, would be impossible. No, they will take it away, little by little, bill by bill, "common sense" law by "common sense" law; until there is nothing left.

Remember, ignore your rights, and they will go away. Fight every bill that will remove yours or someone else's right in even the smallest way possible. Even if you don't agree with the 2nd Amendment, it is there to protect the others. Remove it, and the others will disappear, guaranteed.

We live in dark times, my friends. Keep your ears up, and your eyes alert.

~Sheepdog

Ignorance

Some say ignorance is bliss. There is truth to that. You are happy when everything seems right in the world, even when its about to come crashing down. Some would say it is better to die happily in ignorance than to live, struggling every day with the knowledge that you know, and fighting to make things right instead of wrong.

I prefer struggling every day to make something right, over ignoring that there is a problem. Once you understand that there is something not right, how can you not fix it? How can you go about doing what you did before? How can you not change? The sheep can ignore the wolf, but in the end, the sheep dies, and while the wolf happily devours him. Ignorance is only temporary bliss. Weather you ignore it or not, the problem still exists.

If Christ has begun a work within you, can you really stay the way you were before? Can you really continue doing what you know is wrong? Can you stay ignorant of how what you do affects others? I'd say you cannot. If your life is changed by Christ, how can you go back? Yes, we fail. We are human, but because of Christ we are forgiven, and because of Christ we can stand. Because of Christ, we can help those around us, we can be a light to a world of darkness. Is it possible to be a child of God, and not do differently?

I would say no, there is no way. A person who has been changed by Christ, who has been saved from their sin and their mistakes, who has been shown forgiveness and grace, cannot continue in ignorance. It would be impossible. Not only would they change for the better, they would also wish that others would find the amazing love they have been shown. How could they hold such a great gift back? How could they stay quiet?

My friends, we live in dark times. We are heading for the end times, perhaps, we have already arrived. We must do as our Lord commanded. We must be lights to a world of darkness. We should not do it because we have to, but because it is impossible for us not to. Our lives should reflect Christ. Our very thoughts should be thought to the glory of Him who sent us.

Let the Lord use you in ways you cannot even imagine. Keep your mind open to how He is using you for His will. You may be surprised how He has used you to bless others, I was. It's amazing what He does. Our God is an awesome God.

Here am I, send me.

-Sheepdog

Health care

Health care has passed:

 It will provide coverage to tens of millions of uninsured Americans, prevent the worst insurance company abuses, and begin to wrestle with relentlessly rising costs — while slightly reducing future deficits.

 Sounds peachy right? What they don't tell you is how it is paid for. By taxing the other 300 million of Americans. They make it "Equal" (except of course, the senators and congressmen are more equal so they get to have better care) by pulling the average and making them like the below average.

But even still, what's wrong with giving everyone health care? Well, lets look at what government run health care means, because that really is what this is about. When the government is paying for your health, they control everything. Everything is related to health in some way. What you eat, what you drink, how much sleep you get, where you work, what you drive, where you live, what you own, your political views, your religious views, it can all be lumped into health in one way or another. Government wants power, and unfortunately, they have it.

But it's their job to take care of you, isn't it? No, it should be governments job to make sure its citizens do not trample on the rights of other citizens. Government nowadays is focused more on making citizens live lives that they (government) deems they should. They believe that they are the only ones that can think straight, and must therefore regulate the citizens for their own good. This, my dear reader, is socialism.

But in the end, wont this do more good than harm? Well, let's look at that. There is no way in the world that the government can research and develop at the same rate as the free market. The reason the free market works is because people are free to try an idea out, and risk failing on that idea. The good ideas remain, the bad ideas are weeded out. Everyone is trying something new, and the idea keeps improving as time goes on. There is no way that the government can do that.

Another problem is government will have the monopoly on health care. Health insurance is a business. The company has a product, and the consumer can choose weather or not he wants it or not. This creates a competitive field to always be changing to fit the needs of the consumer. That means competition for better benefits, better prices, etc. When you have a monopoly, there is no incentive to improve, everyone has to come through you anyway, you will be payed the same weather you do well or not.

Yet another problem is, government cannot pay for everyone to have the top care. This means that they will have to discern who they can help and who they cannot afford. It's called triage, and we do it all the time with search and rescue. You can not save everyone, those that will use up to many supplies that can be used to save the lives of others, will be left to die. Same thing with government. However, if you have options, like we currently do, you can go to a clinic, and if you have the money, you can pay for that risky expensive procedure. Maybe you don't have the money, but at least you had the option do choose weather to have it or not.

Another one is personnel. Doctors and nurses are not magically formed. They have to go through school, get a degree, find a job, and then get paid for that job, enough to live on. Perhaps more importantly, they need to want that job. If government cant pay them what they can make elsewhere, why should they stick around as a doctor? And if government pays them hire, guess who's really paying for that? The citizenry.

It all comes down to this, government control is a poor substitute for a competitive, free market. It hasn't worked, it doesn't work, and it will never work. It sounds like a great idea, but it is still only an idea. Ideas are not reality. No idea is too great to not work. There comes a time when you must face the facts, and accept reality. Trying the same thing, just harder is insanity.

So, now how do we fix this? Well, that's a hard one. Once a bill becomes law, it is very difficult to reverse. The first step is vote every last person who voted for this unconstitutional bill out of office. The second would be vote people into office that are against big government. Currently, both republicans and democrats operate under the idea that government is the answer to problems. We must discern who is trustworthy enough to do what is good for the people and not for the government.

Now, there are two things we can do about the law. A, there could be a bill put forth to revoke the health care bill, but that has a very small chance of working. B, the next congress can just withhold funds from the program. The program cannot work without funds, but the problem is, it is still on the books for whoever at a later date wishes to start it up. We must figure out a way to remove the law completely, and take back the country. We must be a people whose standard for the law of the land is the constitution, and whose will is to do what is right.

As Christians, remember, this world is not our home. As much as it pains me to say, I believe we have lost our country. I will not give up hope that we can take it back, but for now, it doesn't look promising. Remember, God is in control. America might need to fall for His perfect will to be accomplished. I just pray that He will use me to accomplish it, and that I may live to see it completed. Perhaps this is His way of setting up the world for the end times, I don't know, but it would make sense from where I stand. Remember, however, we only see a small part of a stroke of a brush, God sees the whole painting. He knows what he is doing.

May the Lord bless you all,
~Sheepdog.

On Sheep, Wolves, and Sheepdogs.

 LTC (Retired) Dave Grossman talks about sheep, wolves, and sheepdogs.

Here is how the sheep and the sheepdog think differently. The sheep pretend the wolf will never come, but the sheepdog lives for that day. After the attacks on September 11, 2001, most of the sheep, that is, most citizens in America said, "Thank God I wasn't on one of those planes." The sheepdogs, the warriors, said, "Dear God, I wish I could have been on one of those planes. Maybe I could have made a difference." When you are truly transformed into a warrior and have truly invested yourself into "warriorhood", you want to be there. You want to be able to make a difference. There is nothing morally superior about the sheepdog, the warrior, but he does have one real advantage. Only one. And that is that he is able to survive and thrive in an environment that destroys 98 percent of the population. 

Read it, its very good.

Human rights.

A friend posted this on facebook:

Couple of things. 

I am not Republican, I am not Democrat. I am a Juris Naturalist. I believe in higher law, set forth by Almighty God. There are two parts of Higher Law, Do what you say you will do and Do not encroach on other persons or their property. That is, do not rape, murder, steal, etc. If these laws are widely followed, there is prosperity. If not, there is misery. 

I believe that government should not be involved unless it is to stop one persons rights from being trampled on. That is, to protect the rights of its citizens in a way that does not destroy the rights of another. This is done by taking those who have committed an offense, and trying them in a court of justice. Notice that I did not say a court of law. Any jury, any court should be trying to find what justice is, and how to apply it to the situation. Justice, you see, is not created; justice is found.

Throughout history, man has shown their lust for control. The people with the biggest stick won, and trampled the rights of those weaker. That is why we have the 2nd Amendment. If the people have the biggest stick, the government must respect their rights. The people have a right to live peaceably. When someone decides to disrupt a persons peaceful life, that person has a right to defend themselves and property, to bring about justice. It is human instinct to stay alive and survive. 

To save a life

So me and my family went and saw To Save a Life today. It was very good, and very earth shattering. It opened my eyes and I'm sure many others to how great our God is; and this barely scratched the surface. It was very humbling, and I am extremely happy to have seen it. I recommend it to everyone. Everyone needs to see this.

Wimps and studs

What do you think of when you think survivor? The tracks star that always did things the hard way, and tried to impress everyone with their mad skills; or the wimps that always looked for the easier way to do things, and concentrated more on mind than muscle. It may come as a shock, but most survivors are what we consider wimps. If you try and do everything the "manly" way, then your going to basically kill yourself. A long term survival situation (long term meaning anything that would endure longer than say 30 minutes) is the time to slow down and think. Think smarter not harder. Take, for example, a hill. Your job is to get to the top. The side you are on is very steep, but your physical ability will allow you to run up it in about a minute. Around the back there is a trail you can practically walk up, but it will take ten minutes. The smarter move is to go around the back because you will save strength, however there is the downside of loosing time. It's a balance of time and energy. If you are going for long term, it is better to save your energy for later. 

There is an old phrase: He who fights and runs away, lives to fight another day. 

This holds true, and I know it sounds like the cowards way out, and thats because it is. But if your goal is to stay alive, you can't be killed if your not there to be killed. There may be times when you have to stay and fight while others get away, but at that point, your goal is not to live, it is that others may live. Now, weather you stay or fight is up to you. No one has to stay behind and stop the aggressors from advancing, that's why those who do are called heroes. Heroes very often die because they ignored their basic instinct of survival and  went against their better judgement to save others.

Just some thoughts.

~Sheepdog

Ok then...

I can't tell if this guys joking or not...

Tell me, is this guy for real?

An alternative to lockdown is immediate exodus via announcement. Although this removes potential hostages and makes it nearly impossible for the shooter to acquire preselected targets, it unfairly rewards resourceful children who move to safety off-site more shrewdly and efficiently than others.

Mmmkay....so...your saying its unfair to those children who didn't make it to safety that others got away? That those who got away didn't get shot? Am I hearing you right?

But as a progressive, I would sooner lay my child to rest than succumb to the belief that the use of a gun for self-defense is somehow not in itself a gun crime.

 Glad I aint your child. I'd rather have Mr. Rapist dead and 6 feet under.

The stupidity of some people amazes me.

Internet Security

More specifically Facebook. Facebook is a wonderful way to stay connected. You can find old buddies from high school, or the service who you've long since forgotten. It's a great way to share information. The problem comes when you start sharing that information with the wrong people. Therefore, I give you these rules:

Don't make your account public: There is a setting where people do not need to add you to view everything about you. This means anything you post is up for viewing. Depending on what you post, someone could find, cell number, home number, address, birth date, name, family members, favorite music, favorite activities, home city, current city, religious preference, political denomination, and more. And those are just off the top of my head.

Don't add people you don't know and trust: This goes back to the previous rule. If you don't know em, or trust 'em, there's no reason for them to view your information. It's dangerous in fact. The chances could be one in a million that someone wants to do something, but all it takes is that one. The more information you put out, the more dangerous it becomes. The smallest thing can give away something important.


Don't give out more information than is necessary: Cell phone numbers, addresses, siblings, etc. These are not necessary, and they give  out far more information than you can imagine. At least go into your settings and control who sees that information.


Make your profile picture and friends list private to anyone you have not "friended": The thing about friends lists, they tell a lot about where you live. By looking at what your friends networks are, you can normally narrow down where someone is to at least the city. Not to mention your friends may not be as discerning as you, and give away little nuggets of information. Profile picture can give other things away. For example, if you are in a uniform, someone could trace your unit patches, name, etc. Also if it was at a local restaurant, landmark etc. I know this sounds like a pain in the butt, and that's because it is. Information is way to easy to get a hold of these days.


Thats it for now, more to follow. Stay safe. God Bless.

~Sheepdog

The Shepherd

So, we have sheep, wolves and sheepdogs. What about a shepherd? Well, as you may have guessed, the shepherd is the Good Shepherd who is Jesus. The sheepdog is merely a servant of him. While the sheepdog may fail, the Shepherd never will. The Shepherd cares about the safety of the flock. He will always look out for whats best. The Shepherd keeps away the wolves, guides the sheep to water, leads the sheep to pastures to graze. Wherever the flock goes, the sheepdog goes with them. The Shepherd is the one guiding however. The sheepdog, at times, might follow the herd. The Shepherd, however, guides the herd back. The wolves fear the Shepherd like nothing else. The Shepherd is always ready, always watching, and always looking out for the good of the sheep (and sheepdog).

Rule number 6

Rule number 6 of Sheepdog's rules of life states: Know how to turn anything into a weapon.


Ok, great Sheepdog, now what. Now train with anything. It does you very little good to know how to turn it into a weapon of your not willing to use it as one, or haven't trained with it. A book is a great weapon, but it also opens up complications to use. If you do not understand these complications before hand, your first real life use of it as a weapon will be a rude awakening. You obviously cannot train with every possible weapon, because everything is a possible weapon. But, the more you train with, the better you are. 


In a fight, you must improvise or die. Being able to think outside the box is a necessity. "But Sheepdog! What if there are some people who just can't do that?" Life aint fair, no one ever said it would be. You can't improvise? Your what we call the walking dead. I understand some people can't do whats necessary to live, but they have to help themselves, or be lucky enough to have a sheepdog around to defend them. In this society, we focus on everyone being equal. Thats a good thing, but some people take that to mean they are entitled. Problem is, nature doesn't see it that way. In nature, you either have it or you don't. If you don't, to bad, pick up your darwin awards on the way out. Same thing with a fight. It doesn't matter weather its fair or not, it just is. Sometimes you can have the greatest amount of training out there, but if you don't have whats necessary for the fight, your done. You could be Jason Bourne, but sometimes, its still not enough. The best you can do is get the training to give you the greatest chance of survival. 


Also, never expect a fight to go the same way. Ever. Experience is learning from your mistakes, but you will never have two fights that go the same way. They will always be different, and always you will be surprised at some point in it. Your job is to recover faster than the attacker can recover from the surprises you throw at him. 


Stay light on your feet, and get out there and train. Training breads some experience, the rest has to be earned. Its a cruel road, but one that makes you stronger.


Stay safe, and God bless.

Improvise under stress

When things go south, they go south fast. The question is not if, but when. No plan survives the enemy on first contact, so be ready to improvise. The simpler the plan the better, but remember, have a back up for the back up for the back up plan. And when all those plans fail, have another. Expect nothing to work ever. Never assume that your weapon of choice will work. Expect your glock to jam, your magazine to not feed, your back up magazine ( you do carry a back up right?) to fall apart, your knife to break, your pepper spray to be broken, and in effect everything you carry to not go the way its supposed to. What then? Are you willing to kill with your bare hands? Have you trained to fight on the ground? Can you break someones knees or hyper extend their arm? Are you willing to cause them the greatest pain imaginable to stay alive? Decide now, because finding out in a fight is to late. Train with medium range, to close for comfort, and ground fighting.

Train under stress. Yelling, time limits, low light, rapid engagement, these all cause stress. One drill that I like is have someone suddenly yell to start and then count off three seconds. From start through those three seconds, you must unholster your weapon, rack the slide, safety off, then fire 3 rounds through the target (preferably the size of a head). This provides stress.

Another way is to do hand to hand combat blind folded. This opens up your other senses so you can "sense" what the attacker will do before they do it. Start off with just grappling or judo, but when you get better, move on to blocking strikes while blind folded. Mind you, this requires several years of experience

There are 4 modes to travel at:

White: Not paying attention, totally oblivious to the world. Basically they are prey, and will be surprised by anything that goes wrong.

Yellow: Paying attention, constantly scanning to know whats around, very contentious of their surroundings. Waiting to step up to the next threat level.

Orange: People at orange are aware of a threat that has just emerged. They are on a heightened level of awareness, ready to be attacked. At this stage, they have a weapon ready, though not visible. This is when verbal confrontation is a good idea, but from a distance. example: "Thats close enough, what do you want."

Red: Threat to life and limb is imminent, at red your body starts pumping adrenalin through your system. The weapons come into play, and it is now a physical confrontation.

Rule 4: Travel at yellow.

Traveling at yellow allows you to be aware of whats around you, and not be surprised when things go south. Traveling at white is suicide as far as I'm concerned, but much happier for the sheep. Basically its sticking your head in the sand.

The less surprise, the less stress in a fight. Being aware of whats going on also allows you to make those plans. When you have a plan, you have confidence. When you have confidence, you react faster and better. When you react faster and better, the attacker has to react to you. When the attacker reacts to you, he loses confidence. When he loses confidence, he loses the will to fight. When he loses the will to fight, he loses.

In conclusion, train under stress, train like its the real thing, have a plan, have a back up for the back up for the back up plan, and travel at yellow.

God bless.

Self defense

Brigid had her own encounter this weekend: http://mausersandmuffins.blogspot.com/2009/11/when-it-gets-close-to-home.html

Read it, learn it, do it.

Your funny of the day

Found this on Cold Steel:

Are You a Republican, Democrat, or Southerner?
The answer can be found by answering the following question:

You're walking down a deserted street with your wife and two small children.
Suddenly, an Islamic Terrorist with a huge knife comes around the corner, locks eyes with you, screams obscenities, praises Allah, raises the knife, and charges at you. You are carrying a Glock .40 caliber, and you are an expert shot. You have mere seconds before he reaches you and your family.
What do you do?

Democrat's Answer:
Well, that's not enough information to answer the question!
Does the man look poor or oppressed?
Have I ever done anything to him that would inspire him to attack?
Could we run away?
What does my wife think?
What about the kids?
Could I possibly swing the gun like a club and knock the knife out of his hand?
What does the law say about this situation?
Does the Glock have appropriate safety built into it?
Why am I carrying a loaded gun anyway, and what kind of message does this send to society and to my children?
Is it possible he'd be happy with just killing me?
Does he definitely want to kill me, or would he be content just to wound me?
If I were to grab his knees and hold on, could my family get away while he was stabbing me?
Should I call 9-1-1?
Why is this street so deserted?
We need to raise taxes, have paint and weed day and make this happier, healthier street that would discourage such behavior.
This is all so confusing! I need to debate this with some friends for a few days and try to come to a consensus.

Republican's Answer:
BANG!

Southerner's Answer:
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! Click..... (Sounds of reloading)
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
BANG! Click "Damn! I'm out!"
Daughter: "Nice pattern Daddy! Were those the Silver Tips, black talons, or them new Hollow Points?"
Son: "Can I shoot the next one Daddy?"
Wife: "You ain't takin' THAT to no Taxidermist!"

Loyalty

Loyalty is obeying rule number 29. "Forsake not, your country, your mission, your comrades your duty." It seems we have fallen away from loyalty in the past few years of this country. I for one am opposite the mindset of "look out for number one" or "worry about yourself first, then help others." My friends mean to much to let them fall. Evil is to great to let it succeed.

Hope and pray that you never need me, but rest assured I will not let you down. Its like the saying goes, "plan for the worst, pray for the best." It is in the worst times that the wolves, the sheep and the sheepdogs are most apparent. But as I stated before, the sheep forget that they will need the sheepdogs. They view the wolves and sheepdogs as the same, so they regulate. But I tell you, the sheepdogs will save the sheep weather they want saving or not.

If I die in the process of fighting evil, so be it. I am not afraid of death, I know where I'm going. When evil comes, I will rise to the occasion gladly. Ready to lay down my life for my country, mission, comrades, and duty.