There Is No Such Thing As Private

   

(Sign: www.teachprivacy.com )

     Most of us know  friends who have experienced negative results as a result of an unwise posting on social media or other internet sites.  Most of us know someone who has experienced negative fallout at a job for saying something online or posting a photograph which is not in line with their professional persona.   People still have the mistaken impression that information they provide online in the privacy of their home which they needed to enter a password to post, is accessible only to those you intend. They also may have the mistaken impression than no one but the people who are supposed to care will.  Quite the opposite is actually true.


          Brandon Raub, a Chesterfield, Virginia former soldier had a Facebook page which was supposed to be limited to be viewed only by his friends and family.  He made some negative comments concerning the current US president.  He was unaware that the FBI has been asked to monitor the internet activities of former soldiers    Not long after, Chesterfield police in a joint venture with the FBI and other alphabet agencies arrested Mr. Raub and placed him in a psychiatric lock up, in state, but  hours from his family and most importantly, his attorney.   A search of Mr. Raub's home indicated that he didn't even own a gun !   It took time but eventually a judge released him stating that he "should never have been arrested in the first place".

           Too numerous to mention here are the number of people who have lost jobs because they made unwise commentaries on Facebook.  We cannot quantify the number of jobs people did not get because their name was googled, and their employer found something which placed them clearly behind other candidates who had applied.


             I know people who have announced their vacations online, and then been robbed.  Please understand that between conventional telephone directories, intelius and similar sources, and what you convey on everything from Yahoo Groups,  Amazon wish lists, Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin allows an interested party to fashion a pretty good dossier on you and on your family.  Why does this matter when it seems that everyone else you know does the same thing ?    A dossier on you formulated by someone unethical, criminal, or even insane can be used for everything from identity theft, to receiving health care on your card and your dime. Someone who uses your health card can have an irrevokable effect on your medical record, and corrections to it often absolutely cannot be made even when the data included is proven to be absolutely incorrect.  Physicians will say that it is a legal record, even when someone entered data on another patient entirely while you were in the office or the emergency room.


            The present social media frenzy is a field day and a dream for both spies and for stalkers.  These are just a few strategies that may slow down the flood gates of information.


1.  Select only the social media sites that you can watch and police for yourself.  Don't pick all of them, if you don't have the time to watch them.

2.  Only "friend" or associate with those you really know.  Law enforcement does look for online associations.  How do you know that the beautiful woman from Paris who connected with you on Linkedin isn't an ISIS operative ?    The same may be true of the attractive man from North Africa, even if he is a CEO in a company in the same business as you.

3. Use sense about your criticisms online of your government or of revealing your political views.  You can tell the truth, but always do it politely and without anger or anything that could ever be construed to be a threat.  The alphabet agencies and Secret Service has absolutely no sense of humor, and in the present world, I can't say I blame them.

4. Don't ever indicate where you will be on a certain date or time.  You open yourself to abduction, robbery, or any number of potential set ups.  The criminals and fraudsters are getting smarter, and so we will have to also.

5. Review any pictures you plan to place online over a couple of day period. The pictures of the people themselves as well as the backgrounds to those pictures give a great deal more information than you believe.
The same is true of your You Tube video postings.   As an experiment, one of my adult children found his friends new house in another city just using the exterior landmarks and the Google Search feature.  

6. Craigslist is a wonderful tool and quite a moneysaver.  However, you should always take someone with you, and if possible meet the seller at a well lit public location.  Predators use Craigslist too.

7.. Make sure that children understand that the internet is a poweful tool but that it has potential to be very dangerous. Just as ethical law enforcement agencies are finding it to be a boon in solving some crimes, criminals all over the world are finding that it opens a realm of possibilities for them also.

8. Function online as if EVERYTHING you have written to your friends in an e-mail is public knowledge, because it easily can become so.  Even internet acquaintances of mine have forwarded or even posted online a post I made which had been intended only for them, and had been marked as such.

9. This week Anthem Health Insurance revealed than eighty-million of their customers were subject to a hacking data breach.  Our names, social security numbers, street addresses, doctors names, diagnoses, medications taken and all manner of other data may be out there for black market criminals to purchase.  This may be time to consider Lifelock or a similar service.

10.  If information is very sensitive, then perhaps it has no business on your computer.  Perhaps your personal affairs portfolio, your Will, and other sensitive documents belong on paper in a file cabinet and not on a personal computer which can so easily be hacked even under present technology.

Keeping Your Hands Safe and Functional in A Protracted Emergency

       

The actual photographs of paronichaie are very graphic.  I chose to post this rendering.

 (Rendering at: www.aafp.org)

      Paronychia can be so nasty and so severe that they can, on occasion, cause sepsis, and they unquestionably can  cause uncontrolled blood sugars in diabetics.





           Recently, I posted an article on the importance of maintaining our feet and anticipating the difficulties that will occur with them during a wide variety of emergency situations when we will be using them differently than we may now.   (See: Important Thoughts Regarding Your Feet and Preparedness )

               Today, I would like to mention, the importance of our hands during emergencies or some type of collapse.  Most of us have endured a fairly minor injury of our hands or fingers and found that it was exceedingly difficult to change diapers, wash dishes, do laundry, care for animals, or even to type out an article when you have a deadline.  Today, I want to mention some things that can happen to our hands and plans we can make for them in anticipation of such difficulties.

                Some years ago now, my husband and I tired of suburban life and the "skills" our children were learning which focused on consumerism as much as anything else, by virtue of where we were living.  We wanted them to experience a bit more of some of the important rural things we had experienced growing up.  With this in mind, we bought large acreage and began to seek a builder for our first farm. Within a year we were living there and learning a number of  things, not all of them fun or pleasant !

                  I thought that as a nurse, I knew a fair bit about my own hands and how chapping could so easily occur with frequent hand washing.  However, I was a novice when it came to "farm hands" and how to treat them.  When a new farm is constructed in many places, there is an abundance of red clay.  Red clay gets on everything from children's shoes and socks to boots and everything else. Simply taking a dog for a walk on a rainy day can result in your getting red clay on your hands. This results in drying and cracking which can be resistant to simple moisturizing creams.  Cold weather and near frostbite will cause small cracks to develop, particularly on the edges of nail beds, especially thumbs.  This can be very painful, and it can be difficult to excuse yourself from your normal activities in order to allow them to heal.   Dry cracked hands can lead to infections around nail beds, which are also called paronychia (pronounced par-on-IK-ee-ah)   Most of us can treat our own paronychia to resolution, but for those taking immune suppressive medication for autoimmune disorders, for cancer, or for those who are diabetic, paronychia can be especially dangerous and should be treated by your family physician or primary health care provider.
                The hazards for hands are many.  Paronychia may occur, chapping, cuts, lacerations, and even fractures may occur.   We need to prepare in advance to avoid hand injuries in anticipation of emergencies where we might use our hands differently than we do today.


                  If we were to experience an emergency where we perhaps did not have access to our dishwashers or washing machines then many of our hands would be exposed to water and detergents more often than they are now.   Painful hands can make optimal dexterity difficult. During an emergency where you may need to do a number of things that are not well practiced for you, is the wrong time to have hand discomfort, pain or to have an infection in your hand when you need to treat a wound on someone else.

Damage to your hands in an emergency is not inevitable. These are some things you can do to help avoid some of the damage that can make optimal dexterity difficult.

www.awarenessideas.com

1.  Purchase a variety of vinyl gloves online.  (It is my experience that the best buys are online.  If you need them immediately, then Sam's Club has excellent vinyl gloves in tissue box style, for about eleven dollars a box.) They should be sized for each family member, as there are circumstances where each family member should be gloved, not simply the primary "dishwashing" member.      Most hospitals have or are completing the process of switching to all vinyl gloves.  Latex allergy is such a problem and has caused deaths among people who have simply donned a pair of latex gloves.  Latex allergy can develop at any time without warning.    Purchase vinyl gloves and sidestep this serious potential problem entirely..  The least expensive place to do this is online.  Shop around and get boxes which are sized for each family member.  Children will need to do dishes too, and they may need to do some tasks which will require gloves.  We have pink smalls for the tiny handed people here, and blue vinyl for the larger hands.  I tend to buy different colors in different sizes to avoid the frustration and confusion of trying the wrong size. If the gloves are color coded and you buy them that way, you don't need a great deal of light in the room in order to see the size of the gloves on the box.  This is useful for farm and household tasks as well as medical or veterinary clean up.

2.  If you must do a task which requires some dexterity out of doors or in Winter, wear vinyl gloves and then cotton gloves over them.  You can care for animals, change water buckets, tie and untie ropes etc, with protection for your hands from both cold and wet.  This will go a long way to protecting your hands from chapping and cracks, especially during Winter.   You can wash the cotton gloves later when necessary.
Harbour Freight sells packages of twelve pairs of cotton gloves fairly reasonably, either online or in their stores.

3. Every year at the end of Winter, Wal-Mart sells gloves for 50-75% off.   Buy a fair number of them when they are on sale. Bag them in freezer bags to prevent the potential for insects crawling up the fingers in the off season. (Yes, occasionally spiders will nest in gloves, even in heated and cooled closets in new houses.)

4. The best strategy in treatment of frostbite is simple avoidance.  Frostbite will be the subject of another post here in future.

5. Use common sense when using knives and scissors, especially in low light.  A small cut on your finger or hands can be disabling or annoying enough to limit your effectiveness in an emergency situation.  Imagine a cut in an uncomfortable position on a finger which limits your ability to rack the slide on a semi-automatic handgun when you definitely need to.

6. Don't open packages or cardboard containers with your hands and fingernails.  Papercuts and cardboard cuts often become infected. Use scissors or other implements to open packaging, and be careful doing so.

7. Stock up on a mild yet effective hand cream or lotion to be used when the gloves come off, the hands are washed, are dry and they need protection.  This simple strategy is an important way to avoid calluses, peeling skin and irritation, especially in times of heavy hand use or Winter.

8.  Take great care to avoid injuries to your hands whether these injuries occur through dishwashing, opening cardboard boxes, using a handgun, using a rifle,tearing off tin foil from a serrated box etc.   This is one time in which multi-tasking might not be so bright.

9. Stock a well organized first aid kit.  The easier it is to use and the better it is, the more likely you will be to use it. Using the kit and applying either neosporin, apinol or other germicides to a wound is more likely to prevent infection than simply ignoring a small cut on one's hand or finger.

10.  Place the vinyl gloves you bought in strategic locations in your home.  Make them easy to locate so you will actually use them. Wear vinyl gloves when washing dishes, cleaning toilets with a brush, or doing other tasks which could expose your hands to allergens, chemicals or other hazards.   I can use one pair which lasts me all morning in Winter.   In Summer, I use more of them..

11.  I don't use a great deal of machinery, but many machines can be dangerous to hands.  Make sure that you understand how the machines you are using work.  Don't rush through important work.  Don't use your hands to do things that require specialized gloves or another tool.   Don't take food out of the microwave with bare hands !

12.   The use of machines which cause continual vibration leave us particularly vulnerable to carpal tunnel syndrome.   Limit your contact with vibratory machines if you can.   Repetitive motions of other types can also irritate the carpal tunnels.   Try to split up repetitive motions with other activities.

13. Use extreme care in the workshop or when working on your car.  It's not the novices in the workshop who most often lose fingers, it's the experienced man in a rush or who gets distracted.   In a collapse or emergency, the reattaching of a finger might not be a possibility at all.

14. Don't perform difficult or dangerous tasks when you are tired or when you have taken medication which clouds your sensorium.  Even loratadine which is not supposed to cross the blood brain barrier appears to make reaction time just slightly slower than normal for that individual.   Do the work in the morning, and take the antihistamines later.


             This is a start.    Think about your hands and protecting them as we move into challenging times at home, on a farm, or at work.  Even setting up a tent has inherent hazards.   Try to practice the safest and best practices now, in advance of an emergency.

Remembering Kenji Goto

This picture shows Kenji on the left and Haruna on the right.  

 


  Today, persons claiming to be ISIS, uploaded a video of the purported decapitation/execution of Kenji Goto.

                 Kenji Goto is known to me only as a freelance journalist whose work was shown on NHK News.  He worked to show the impact that war and conflict had on children.  He has reported on blood diamonds,on HIV afflicted single mothers in Ukraine, child soldiers in Sierra Leone, the education or lack thereof for girls in Afghanistan, and poverty. He also has written an award winning children's book, and had penned four other books. He did not fear the helpless and hopeless places on Earth.   This is probably a part of why he was able to risk his own life in October of last year to try to aid his friend, 42 year old Haruna Yukawa, who had already been captured by ISIS in Syria.    Today it has been reported that both of them have been have executed by Muslim extremists.

                  Kenji Goto is one of those rare individuals who knew that our time on Earth is limited and that one man's actions can do great good. He proceeded in his work and in his life with this rare courage and pure focus. If you have a chance, please read or watch videos containing his important reports.

www.thingiverse.com

                 Kenji, 47,  had been an owner of his own media company for many years.  He is a Japanese citizen and is a father of three children. (Two children with his wife, Rinko, and a daughter from an earlier relationship.)  He converted to Christianity in 1997. Rinko understood well her husband's role in the world, and she is proud of him.

                   My family and I also send prayers to Kenji's mother, his wife, his three children and his many friends and co-workers. May they feel God with them in these difficult days.  Kenji Goto's light by virtue of all of his contributions to Earth will not be forgotten.     We also send similar condolences to the family of Haruna Yukawa, who must have been an exceptional human being in order for Kenji to make such a journey on his behalf.  We also send condolences to the Japanese people for the loss of this exceptional human being.

                    We have the power to focus and remember all the achievements, the humanity, and exceptional courage of this man which should dwarf the horrendous action of simple terrorists. Japan and the rest of the world lost a true hero yesterday.

teespring.com

 

                       In Kenji's last video to us that was not orchestrated by his captors, he asked that we not hate anyone or that we understand that whatever would befall him in his dangerous journey to rescue Haruna, that he knew he was taking the risks and not to blame the Syrian people.  Perhaps this call to "Love One Another" is what we should most remember of him.








This song, "Flowers Will Bloom" was written to remember all of those who were lost following the Great  Earthquake and Tsunami of East Japan (2011), however the songs clarity and innocence seems appropriate in remembrance of Kenji Goto as well.    Kenji was born in Sendai in Miyagi Prefecture which was hit so badly during the earthquake.

This is a link concerning the composers of the song and other information

 http://www.nhk.or.jp/japan311/flowers/about.html






The singer is Hayley Westenra of New Zealand who is also of Celtic Woman fame.







 This is an approximate English translation of the song:

"Flowers Will Bloom"

My heart goes out to you
When the winter snows give way to spring
My heart is longing now
Longing for the town where the happiness had been.
Been a place of hope and of dreaming too
Been a home when my heart always went back to you
But for now I only dream
Of the people who I loved and knew.
Someone is singing I can hear singing now
Someone is weeping I can feel their tears
Someone is smiling showing me why and how to go on living for years and years
Flowers will bloom, yes they will yes they will
For you who are here or yet to be born.
They'll bloom, yes they will and they bloom again until
There's no missing sorrow and no reason left to mourn
My heart goes out to you
Goes out to you
When the morning sun lights up the pale blue sky
The pale blue sky
My heart is heavy now
With the grief I tried so often to deny
I regret mistake that I sometimes made
But I know our love will never fade
And that you'll live on instead of me
Instead of me
And that you will have whatever love can be
Someone is thinking I can read ev'ry thought
Someone is shedding tears for all that was lost
Someone is leading you to love that they sought asking you to love all that you love the most
Flowers will bloom, yes they will yes they will
For you who are here or yet to be born.
They'll bloom, yes they will and they bloom again until
There's no missing sorrow and no reason left to mourn
Flowers will bloom, yes they will yes they will
For you who are here or yet to be born.
They'll bloom, yes they will and they bloom again until
There's no missing sorrow and no reason left to mourn

Remembering the Murder of Alexander Litvinenko

              

Alexander Litvinenko, prior to polonium poisoning.

 

              I have happy memories of my times in both Vladivostok and Moscow in Russia.  I was there for about a month after 9-11 during Winter.  I have nothing but admiration and positive things to say about the Russian people themselves.  As a general rule, they are a creative, kind, and generous people who reminded me of the way most Americans were while I was growing up.  Russia has enormous natural resources, even oil and gas aside. If they ever begin to consistently use these, they are likely to become even more of an economic power house.   We should be very careful though, not to attribute the actions of the leaders of a country to reflect the wishes of its citizens.  Just as Barack Obama does very very little with which I am in agreement, I am sure that Mr. Putin does not please all of his Russian constituency.


                    This week I was on my Linkedin when a young woman was prattling about Mr. Putin and claiming his praises along with saying that he is misunderstood.    She had never heard of Alexander Litvinenko or the sixteen others who have died under suspicious circumstances after voicing clear opposition to Mr. Putin, a former head of the former KGB.

                      In the interest of others who fancy themselves as journalists yet who don't research prior to offering an insular opinion, I thought I might tell the story as we know it, of the tragic death of Alexander Litvinenko.

                      Alexander Litvinenko was born in August of 1962 and as an adult, became a KGB officer who specialized in limiting or taking down organized crime.   The KGB in Russia, no longer exists and is now known as the Federal Security Bureau or FSB.   Litvinenko and Putin worked for the organization in both of its incarnations. From all accounts, Litvinenko is reputed to have been an honest officer.   In 1998, Litvinenko and others accused his superior of ordering the execution death of Russian tycoon Boris Bereszovky.   Litvinenko was subsequently charged with exceeding the authority of his position, and he found it necessary to flee Russia with his wife Marina and children, to London.   The British granted him asylum, and then the Russians dismissed the charges against him.  He made his living in London as a journalist and also as an intelligence consultant for British Intelligence.

                       Litvinenko wrote two books which are said to be fairly factual accounts of  some of the internal workings of Russia. One of them is:

Blowing Up Russia                     
Can be bought at this link                                 Of course, this book has been banned in Russia


There are many other books in the marketplace concerning this and related topics.

                    Litvinenko also accused Putin of being involved in the execution death of journalist Anna Politskovkaya.

                    On November 1, 2006 Litvinenko became very ill, after having tea with two Russians at a tea room in London.  He deteriorated rapidly and British doctors detected that he had been poisoned using radioactive polonium 210, a formulation used only in Russia.   Countless British citizens on the street, working in the hospital, and ultimately performing the autopsy were exposed to this isotope.  A British investigation suggested that the two men with whom Litvinenko had lunch were implicated.   Andrey Lugovoy is one of those men.  His extradition to stand trial in Britain was refused by Russia.   Lugovoy has gone on to become a member of the Russian duma and to have his own television series.   There is signifcant radioactive evidence implicating this man.   This week, some foreign news sources have announced the trial of Lugovoy and another with both of them in absentia.    This is information on Lugovoy.

Litvinenko at University College Hospital prior to his death

                      

    This is information concerning the Litvinenko investigation from the British perspective

   This is the link to the Litvinenko Justice Foundation run by his wife Marina



                I realize that all nations spy, and that all nations have chosen to vanquish what they consider to be a clear threat, sometimes by execution.   However, the execution of Litvinenko was the murder of a naturalized British subject which subjected countless British subjects, nurses and physicians, as well as Litvinenko's wife and children to high levels of radiation.   A Russian regime that would do this, would do anything in Ukraine, and almost anything anywhere else.

               Vladimir Putin is a brilliant, focused, leader who uses public relations and media very skillfully.
He is the funding arm of Russia Today, which although it is fascinating journalism, often carries a Putinesque bias.

                 We can care about our Russian friends and not embrace their current leader, just as I am grateful that they do not hold Barack Hussein Obama's actions in the world, against me.



This is an article which was printed in London and was penned by Litvinenko himself before his death as to why exactly he believes that Putin wanted him dead.

A Fatal Shooting at Home Depot

  About forty-five minutes ago, an employee of a Manhattan Home Depot entered the store on his day off, asked to see his supervisor and then shot him to death. A moment later, he turned the gun, killing himself.

    New York City is one of the most difficult places in the US to obtain a handgun legally.  Obtaining a concealed weapons permit there is almost impossible and is getting more difficult all  the time.  The fact is that making weapons illegal does not deter those who would kill or commit crimes, murders or suicides with one.  It does however, make it more difficult for people who might wish to defend themselves, their coworkers or their families from an active shooter.  There is significant evidence that when an active shooter encounters someone with a weapon, that they usually surrender or shoot themselves. The overwhelming evidence is that they stop killing others.

      It doesn't take any great mind to predict that terrorists are incoming.   Public places in the US may see active shooters in public places as ISIS and other militant Islamists, and non-Islamists decide that violence and anarchy might get their cause on the news. We need more people trained and vetted who carry concealed handguns in public places in order to defend themselves and others.

       My prayers and condolences go out to the families and the employees of Home Depot who have been impacted by today's sad events.


         Spencer Coursen is a connection of mine from Linkedin who runs a security company and has an impressive background in protection.    He makes some excellent points regarding threat assessment.

Spencer Coursen on Threat Assessment

Revisiting Why Many Foreign Citizens Do Not Understand US Gun Culture

 I first penned the following post in December of 2012.   Although it did not draw a lot of commentary of attention when it was first written, it has recently.  I have chosen to reprise it in order to disseminate a number of the points I made then, which are even more valid now.

       

My family and I have spent a great deal of time acquiring excellent skills including firearm safety.

 

   It must be really difficult for people who live in other nations to understand the United States and why we have a Constitutional Amendment which allows us to own and use guns.  When I have traveled to other nations, I was struck by how little most Americans understand about different cultures in other lands, but also how little even educated people in other lands, understand about the culture of the United States.    First of all, the United States is quite vast, and many states have vastly different populations, educational levels, climates, problems and issues.   People in Hawaii have different problems and different challenges, than people in Massachusetts. People in Florida can't fathom some of the challenges in Alaska !  California is almost it's own little country with coastal citizens living very differently than those in the agricultural areas and differently still from those in Northern California.  Puerto Rico might be joining us soon, and their inhabitants would find culture shock in Virginia, North Dakota or Wyoming.      In some ways, we share some similarities with Russia. We are home to many different cultures and in different parts of our country, things are done very differently.  For example, in Moscow, which is European Russia, motorists drive on one side of the street, and in Vladivostok, Asian Russia, motorists drive on the other.   Our Northern neighbor Canada also has such diversity.  Alberta has different challenges than Nova Scotia, for example.

                   Last time I was in London, I remember some Londoners questioning why anyone would ever have a weapon of any kind anywhere.  They forget that the Swiss and the Israelis all train in the military mandatorily, and they do retain their weapons afterward.

                   I can't hope to be anything as approaching as knowledgeable or as interesting  on the subject as Larry Correia, but I can tell you why I am a gun owner.   First, although areas like mine don't get much television airtime, there are lots of areas in the US just like my own.   Our farm is intensely rural, and then heavily forested beyond the pastured areas.  Although all of our personally owned mammals are immunized in accordance with law for rabies, wild animals are not,and in such a vast nation,  rabies is endemic here. For those of you who aren't familiar, rabies is a viral infection that is generally considered to be fatal to animals and humans 100% of the time.  In the past couple of years, a  rabid ground hog attacked a county official within a short distance to our courthouse.  My eldest son has been challenged by a rabid fox as we walked out our front door.  We do have coyotes here, and occasionally packs of wild dogs.  We presently have the largest bobcat we've ever seen (larger than many fairly large dogs) who stays pretty much on our property, that we have ever seen anywhere.  One of our vets saw a mountain lion near here, and the official word from Game and Inland Fisheries of Virginia is that "we don't have those here".  They had to rethink that stance when the local taxidermist got one from a farmer who shot one about three miles from here.  In the summer, we have aggressive large black snakes, poisonous and numerous copperheads, and the occasional rattlesnakes.   We also have no less than 17 known black bears very close to us, some of which we see with fair frequency. We coexist with these beautiful large animals, who move much more quickly and smoothly than their size would suggest.  Most of the time, we live in our home, and we care for our livestock which include dogs, rabbits, ducks, chickens and alpacas, and soon a horse.  Sometimes a dangerous animal threatens us close to our farmhouse.  Animal control personnel here handle only big issues, and cover a huge area. Many times, they are simply unavailable. Citizens are encouraged to learn to use firearms correctly and to have them properly maintained on farms.  To get an idea of the scale of things here, our own farm is larger than the entire village/town in England, outside London, where I attended school as a teen.

                 Each year, several of us make it an expedition to walk out a section of the farm and forest which we own.  We make sure that no one has come here to plant marijuana trees. (Yes, they can grow to tree size) and that no one has been altering property boundary markers, or setting up illegal hunting tree stands here.   One year we found an illegal timberer stealing valuable trees from our neighbor.  Had my son and I each not been armed, we could likely have been killed at that location, and probably never found again. The illegal timberer has been imprisoned by local authorities.  Several people from this area, have in fact, disappeared never to be seen again. It may be wild animals or it may be the two legged kind of predator.

                We have a sheriff and deputies in this county, but they handle many things including rural car accidents. There have been times over the years, like the time some citiots thought our farm road might be a nice place for a high level, high volume, drug deal, that we could not have gotten a law enforcement officer out to even take a report before next Thursday.   We have since developed working arrangements with the DEA, the State Police and we stay in touch with our sheriff and his deputies.   We were encouraged to train and receive Concealed Weapons Permits by our sheriff.  He knows that we, like most rural landowners, are good stewards to our land, the animals, our farm, and that we are trained and safe with our firearms. Many localities won't come out anymore for anything but what they call a "blood crime".    

               Several years ago, a realtor was murdered in our county. She was not armed.  In rural areas particularly, robberies, home invasions, abductions, child snatchings by known sex offenders, stalkings by the insane, all occur.  When we lived in another part of Virginia, and our youngest son Daniel was an infant, people with an out of state license plate tried to abduct him.  Like it or not, having a gun and being competent in its use, as all of our adult family members are, may be all that prevents anyone from becoming a murder or robbery statistic.  The law here allows me to shoot to stop anyone who breaks into my house.  This makes sense because anyone who walks fifty acres in to us, locates a wooded glen where a house exists, defeats a security system, in an area of farms where home invaders have been shot, is not here to have tea or get an autographed copy of my book.  They are here to rob, rape, torture, kill or maim, and I am not going to allow an invader to do that to me in front of my children.  Keep in mind, that most of the psychiatric hospitals in the US have been closed years ago due to budget cuts and a philosophy that "everyone deserves to be free" even if they have schizophrenia and a documented history of violence as well.   Although no gun proponents are fond of quoting the number of people injured or killed with guns in our huge nation, they fail to indicate that annually, many many shootings, abductions and killings are prevented by law abiding citizens holding guns, both with and without concealed weapons permits. The news does not report all of these, and so Europe doesn't hear them, and therefore lacks this perspective in a major way.

                 Lastly, here in the United States we are, and have always been mindful that the reason that our nation was freed from the English king, and the reason that the United States was a part of rescuing the world from the likes of Hitler is that all over our nation, we have perfected the ability to use firearms competently.  The second amendment which allows us to bear arms, exists so that we can prevent tyranny when it once again raises its ugly head.  George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Patrick Henry, and others all knew that to live in this land, we would have to have access to personal protection of our land, our animals and our families.

                So, in future, just as I would not tell the Russian orphanages what to do with their children with regard to forest walks as they seek to avoid being eaten by the remaining Siberian tigers, and I would not tell the British what to do with their immigration, I would appreciate the consideration of your knowing as a European that I live a very different life than you.  I have carved out a life in an intensely rural region where there is no mail delivery, because spending gas money to deliver mail daily to so few people, would be unreasonably cost ineffective.  I can't walk to a store or a police precinct.  I am fifty miles from most things.  When someone is badly hurt here, a medical helicopter is called, generally at the expense of the person who will use it.  If you can't fathom what it's like to make your own bread or to freeze store bought loaves from fifty miles away to keep through winter, how can you possibly have any understanding of the challenges with regard to independent farm living ?   If you have never been without power for three weeks after a storm then you have no conception of the challenges here.  In addition, there are many places in the US which are far more difficult and more complex in which to live than this one.

Important Thoughts Concerning Your Feet and Preparedness

              

( Rendering from: cookfootandankle.com )

            Many of us don't think much about our feet. Men buy the shoes they like or that are dictated by work, and the socks they like and then, beyond that, they don't think much about them.  Many women own shoes that actually produce challenges for their feet and legs, and they also don't give consideration to socks, tights or panty hose which actually should protect their feet from the friction of many of today's shoes. Many of the most popular shoes for men and for women, don't protect feet at all.  Man-made "plether" shoes may also exacerbate the problem.   Either sex should never wear shoes which would make running impossible.

                   If an emergency were to occur, then all of us could be faced with a situation in which we needed to walk a number of miles in which to gain safety. Remember that many of the bystanders who survived the collapse of the World Trade Center were people who were able to put distance between the building and themselves, quickly.  This leads me to my next question.  How are your feet ? Keep in mind that if you found yourself in an emergency that lasted several weeks (like a weather emergency in which your living arrangement changed drastically for a time) that your feet would endure some challenges more quickly than it could compensate for them.
            

                   Most people mistakenly think that foot callus formation is a positive thing.  They mistakenly believe that a callus will protect their foot from friction and additional discomfort.  The first group of people for whom this is absolutely not true are diabetics.  Both Type I (autoimmune/juvenile) Diabetes Mellitus patients, and Type II Diabetes Mellitus (usually acquired in adulthood) should take great care not to develop calluses on their feet.  (These as two different disorders with differing pathophysiologies and causes)  In diabetics, the callus can prevent the patients noting ulcerations and injuries below the callus. Since many diabetics don't have the foot sensitivity they should due to gradual nerve damage due to higher blood sugars, they may not realize that they have a foot ulceration which threatens their foot. This may occur during an emergency when they are least able to obtain a hospitalization and intravenous antibiotics. A blister near a callus on a diabetic individual this morning, can be an infected ulcer with red lines on it, this afternoon.   Prevention is key, especially for this particular group of people. 

                 The second group of people who may have difficulties with runaway callus formation are those with hypothyroidism.  Women in middle age who may be experiencing a decrease in thyroid function may find they have foot callus formation to a degree to which they never have previously. This is an important sign.  If you have unexplained foot callus formation and you never had this before, then you should ask your primary care physician to run a TSH on you to rule out a failing thyroid gland.   Secondly, new and severe foot callus formation is not a normal part of aging.  Please look for what has changed which is contributing to such formation.



Dr. Scholl's Product Line for Calluses
                If your need to use your feet in a manner in which you had not prior, occurred during an actual emergency, you could develop calluses rather quickly.   Calluses are hard material and as you walk or hike, they can cause pain, irritation, actual bruising, and actual injury to the fragile skin below the callus.  Cracked heels are also an important and potentially painful problem which can lead to infection.   If you and your family had to walk forty miles to get out of an area in an impending disaster, could you ?   Do each of you own the correct socks, the correct boots ?     Do you have adequate padding, gauze, moleskin etc. to treat the minor irritations which clearly would occur even with healthy feet on an impromptu but protracted hike ?

               Diabetics should have their feet inspected by a podiatrist who will give them guidelines as to how best to maintain their own feet and prevent calluses.  Some endocrinologists will do this also.     The rest of us should make sure that our feet are as smooth and as callus free as is possible.   If you do develop a foot callus, Flexitol cream might be an important investment in your emergency kit.  It should be used as a preventive measure in keeping your feet mission ready at a moment's notice.   Flexitol    ( is marketed as Flexitol heel balm ) an over the counter urea preparation which softens calluses and allows you to soak them or scrape them off over time. It is available at almost any US and Canadian pharmacy and is available at Wal-Mart and online.    Diabetics or those with resistant calluses can buy a prescription strength urea based callus cream if ordered by your general or your podiatric physician.

I receive absolutely no personal benefit from mentioning or in essence, advertising Flexitol.  It simply works when used exactly as directed.

               When using Flexitol, it is important to keep it away from faces and eyes.  I apply it using vinyl gloves to avoid irritation to my hands.  You should wash your hands after application, particularly if you could not use vinyl gloves for application.  Children should have this applied for them.  It may sting deep cracks in heels.

   Important points for your entire family:

1.  Make sure that each member of your family has ankle boots or longer types which are well fitting and comfortable enough to endure a five mile "emergency hike".  These should be in close proximity to your evacuation kit.
2. Make sure that if a tornado is imminent that each of you put on clean socks and the boots mentioned above.  Walking through broken glass with the correct footwear is very important.
3. Consider white cotton socks for everyone in your evacuation kit.  These are more likely to wick moisture away, and less likely to result in athlete's foot (a fungal infection of the feet and toes) if you had to wear your boots for a protracted period in an emergency.
4. Attend to any difficulties, calluses, corns, etc. well in advance of an emergency.  Learn to care for your feet before you have a problem.
5. Consider creating a "Foot Kit" in your emergency evacuation kit.
    It should contain:
                   A.) One or two tubes of Flexitol.
                   B.) Package of Molefoam Padding*
                   C.) Package of Molefoam Cushion*                     *All sold by Dr. Scholl's and online
                    D.) Package of Moleskin Plus Padding Roll *
 6. The formation of new calluses can be a sign of a new health problem.  Mention this to your doctor.
7. Make properly fitting comfortable shoes and socks a priority.
8. Don't surgically or semi-surgically remove calluses.  Gradual removal using Flexitol or prescription urea creams will do the job without giving you a nasty infection where you, or the scissors slipped !
9. Manage diabetes well.  The better your blood glucose levels are managed, the less of a problem this is likely to be.
10. Investigate orthotic inserts for your shoes that will help distribute weight better over your entire foot rather than selected areas which eventually form calluses.  Traditional orthotic shoe inserts are provided by podiatrists or sports medicine physicians or orthopedists.  Increasingly, partially customized orthotic inserts are available over-the-counter and these will help and awful lot of patients, not only with walking and longer term comfort in their shoes, but with reducing foor callus formation as well.


                    Your survival from certain disasters may well hinge on the health of your feet.