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By Alan Caruba

AmmoLand Gun News

USA --(Ammoland.com)- Many people make resolutions to start the year, but I think a list of things that must be done to protect and preserve the Republic should be tallied.

1. President Obama must be defeated in 2012 and the obstructionist Democratic Party must lose power in the Senate to ensure both houses of Congress will be Republican and in a position to initiate real change.
2. The Environmental Protection Agency must be reined in with increased Congressional oversight and legislative limits on its rule-making capacity. Having fulfilled its 1970 mandate to clean the nation’s air and water, it should be scaled back to the maintenance of these functions.
3. Americans, despite the administration’s efforts to redefine and distract us, must keep clearly in mind the threat of Islam to the nation and the world. A Middle East in turmoil lays ahead for 2012.
4. To jump-start the economy, taxes and spending must be reduced across the board. A tax on consumption, rather than income would be a good start. Only 49% of Americans currently pay income taxes, the lowest in decades.
5. Obamacare must be repealed should the Supreme Court fail to rule that the Commerce Clause takes precedence over its requirement that Americans must purchase health insurance or be fined for not doing so.
6. A serious restructuring of Social Security and Medicare must be undertaken. Older Americans who have paid into the system—it is involuntary—must be ensured their benefits will be paid, but younger citizens should have the freedom and responsibility to structure their own retirement and health plans.
7. Access to the nation’s vast reserves of coal, natural gas, and oil should be increased and encouraged. Oil companies should be encouraged to build more refineries via tax credits and removal of “environmental” obstacles.
8. Congress needs to identify and fund the repair to the nation’s aging infrastructure.
9. Utilities should be encouraged via tax credits and other incentives to expand the national “grid” for the distribution of electricity.
10. Term limits for Senators and Representatives should be added to the U.S. Constitution in the same fashion the presidency is limited. Salaries, pensions, and perks should be capped. A permanent political class is a danger to citizens.
11. The Federal government should be downsized with the elimination of the Departments of Education, Labor, and Energy, along with the Environmental Protection Agency. These powers should be returned to the individual States. (10th Amendment)
12. Expand the Nation’s Military. The nation’s military which has been significantly reduced in size and structure should be expanded with attention to the upgrade and increase of its naval fleet and aircraft.
13. Congress should reject and rescind all legislation based on “global warming” or “climate change” as the former has been demonstrated to be a hoax and the latter is meaningless insofar as the climate is beyond the control of humans.
14. The United States should significantly reduce its contribution to the United Nations and refuse to ratify any of its treaties.
15. Tort reform should be instituted to reduce the costs of health care.
16. The corporate tax rate should be significantly reduced from its present rate, one of the highest in the world, to increase expansion, new jobs, and competitiveness.
17. Public service unions should be illegal. The federal government does not permit such unionization and neither should states.
18. National Public Radio should no longer be funded. The “government entities” of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should be eliminated.
19. The federal government should be restricted or significantly limited from the acquisition of more of the nation’s landmass.
20. Strenuous efforts must be undertaken to reduce the national debt and deficit. A devalued dollar impoverishes everyone.

These are just a few changes which, if implemented, would go a long way to reducing the ills associated with a federal government grown too large, subject to crony capitalism, and corruption.

As John Adams said, “Let us disappoint the men who are raising themselves upon the ruin of this Country.”

c Alan Caruba, 2011

About:
Alan Caruba’s commentaries are posted daily at “Warning Signs” his popular blog and thereafter on dozens of other websites and blogs. If you love to read, visit his monthly report on new books at Bookviews.

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Could You Fend For Yourself After A Disaster?
Expert Shares Tips From Living 10 Years Off The Grid

Apocalypse - How to Survive a Global Crisis

USA --(Ammoland.com)- Some scoff at doomsday prophecies, but this year alone, millions of people have endured catastrophes of seeming apocalyptic proportions. Consider:

• March 11 — A 9.0 magnitude earthquake violently shakes Japan, unleashing a tsunami that triggers a nuclear crisis. As of Aug. 15, Japan’s National Police Agency reported 20,364 people dead or still missing.
• May 22 — A Category 5 tornado rips through Joplin, Mo., wreaking 14 miles of havoc, including 159 lives lost and 7,000 homes destroyed. By July 23, recovery was just beginning, according to a Huffington Post report.

Those spectacularly devastating events were just two of dozens this year that left stricken survivors without the essentials of modern life: water, shelter, electricity.

Could you manage for a few days? A few months?

Author Dan Martin is confident he could — and comfortably. He and his wife, Lucia, lived off the grid for 10 years on a self-sustaining Texas ranch they built themselves. They grew, raised or trapped their food; made their own ethanol fuel and solar panels; survived on rainwater they captured and purified. Martin’s newest book, Apocalypse: How to Survive a Global Crisis (www.ApocalypseTheBook.com), details lessons gleaned from the experience with illustrated instructions on everything from finding clean water sources to performing an emergency tracheotomy.

“We have a lot of backwards to go before we can even think about going forwards again,” Martin says. “We’ve become too comfortable; too secure; too complacent with our lifestyles. I’m not saying we should abandon everything, our air conditioning, our livelihoods, our technology, and go live in a cave. But when you’re 100 percent dependent on these systems and they fail for whatever reason, most people have no idea how to cope and continue.”

A Desert Shield/Storm veteran and former Boeing aerospace technician, Martin now works as a consultant on sustainable-living initiatives through his and Lucia’s company, Agua-Luna, Inc. He says people must first get back to the basics, and there are simple ways anyone can begin now. No matter what the future holds, they’ll gain valuable skills.

“Take some hunting and fishing trips with experienced hunters and insist on cleaning the carcass of your kill yourself, so that you know what to expect,” he advises.

While “Apocalypse” includes step-by-step instructions for gutting and skinning an animal, Martin notes that hunting involves complex variables, from tracking to using your senses, that can’t be taught in a book.

“If you don’t know how to work on cars, it’s essential you learn quickly,” he says. Take a class on basic repairs at your community college, and while you’re there, sign up for welding, first aid and food preservation.

Try sleeping without pillows and blankets; going for a day or two without food; taking a cold shower. Once you’ve experienced such deprivations, they won’t come as unnerving shocks following a disaster.

While Martin’s book hinges on predictions that the world as we know it will end Dec. 21, 2012, he acknowledges other doomsday dates have come and gone uneventfully. One has only to remember the devastation in New York City following Sept. 11, 2001, he says, or the 2004 tsunami that left millions of people in 11 countries homeless, to acknowledge that some of us may one day face surviving on a dramatically changed planet.

“Stop for a moment and take a look around,” Martin writes. “The quantity and size of today’s natural disasters are rising. It’s just a matter of time before we experience a major change, be it 2012 or beyond.”

“The end of this world isn’t necessarily a bad thing; in fact, in this day and age, it could only be better for humanity. … We start anew again – better, stronger, healthier.”

About Dan Martin
Dan Martin is the author of dozens of do-it-yourself guides to self-sufficiency projects. A graduate of the University of Hawaii with a degree in environmental sciences, he also studied physics and engineering at the University of Texas, and practical skills such as mechanics at San Antonio Community College. He and his wife live on a self-sustaining Mexican hacienda, where they host people interested in learning more about sustainable lifestyles.

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