In today’s episode David interviews Josh Bashioum of the Homeland Advisory Group. Josh has been in Emergency Management for over 10 years.
First, he started out as a volunteer in Los Angeles. Mr. Bashioum quickly became a leading instructor for one of Los Angeles Emergency Programs. Additionally, Mr. Bashioum continues to teach CERT at a major metropolitan fire department.
Moreover, He is the CEO and founding partner of Homeland Advisory Group.
For that reason, Josh and David discuss how emergency management can mash with personal preparedness. Specifically, how the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) can be of benefit to prepper. Finally, they lay out how governmental emergency management can work with preppers.
Josh runs the Homeland Advisory Group and works on various consulting projects. Furthermore, he is uniquely qualified to talk about emergency management and preppers.
The show is scheduled for Monday at 10pm central time at this link.
If you cannot listen on Monday, you can always download the podcast for listening at your own leisure.
When looking at deadly force the trend tends to be looking at hardware, and having the best tools for the job, but hardware is not the most important. Training is more important than the gear. But what is more important than either is the proper mindset.
Quite often when talking with new shooters or people that don’t understand the martial mindset I hear people talk about how they are not sure if they could use a firearm to actually shoot someone.
I have put a lot of time into thinking about this, its entirely possible that I have thought more about when, if, and what would cause me to shoot someone than the how, and with what questions.
Mental Trigger Points
If my mental trigger points that would cause me to believe it was time to fight for my life then the gun I have at that time is irrelevant, I am going to use what I have, and if I am somewhere that my firearm is prohibited I am going to fight with whatever I have at hand, be it a stapler, a chair, or my teeth. A gun just makes me more effective and have a better chance of surviving without becoming seriously injured.
I cannot tell you what your trigger points should be, because I am not the one to live with the consequences of your actions. But I can tell you what my thought process is, and encourage you to spend some very serious time thinking the process through.
Moral Implications
The first thing I think about is the moral implications. As a religious person I do not want to win my life and lose my soul. I realize that the Bible was not written in English, so what I read is a translation. Some translations say “You should not kill”, others say “Thou shalt not commit murder”. Those are two entirely different meanings. Based upon the context, and looking at other passages in both the New and the Old Testaments, I believe don’t commit murder is a closer translation to the intended meaning.
When I pick up my gun it is because I want to ensure the safety of my family and myself. I pray that I don’t have to ever use it. If attacked my only concern is to protect my family and myself from that attack, I did not choose the situation, and would much rather retreat to safety than stand and fight (if tactically possible). The only person that choose to fight, who decided that someone would be hurt, is the criminal – so I feel it only fair that is SOMEONE has to be hurt, it should be the one that caused the fight.
I love everybody, but I love my family more. I have chosen the stance that if someone is trying to harm my family, I will do my best to stop them using whatever means possible. That is my number one trigger point. Its also pretty much the only reason I would ever actually shoot someone.
Stuff Can be Replaced. Life Cannot
I have made the decision, (which is also happens to be the law in my state) that I won’t shoot somebody over “stuff”. If you want my wallet, or want my car, or my shoes – whatever, I will probably give them to you, but if I feel that your going to harm me no matter what then it is not about the wallet anymore…
It is very clear in our law that in order to be legally justified to use deadly force you have to be in immediate danger from someone with the ability to kill you and you have to believe they are going to kill you. Anything less, and my buddies over at the prison will serve you 3 meals a day and count you 8 times, you will very quickly tire at seeing their ugly faces, so don’t go to jail for being stupid.
Morality and legality are separate, but related topics. If you are going to own a defensive firearm then you have a duty to understand both equally well, and to decide upfront how far you are willing to go to protect yourself and your loved ones.
This is all very personal, and very serious. There is room for interpretation in many situations, and that is why the law contains the concept of reasonableness. I do not expect anyone to agree with me 100%, and I welcome other points of view. However, the decisions I have made in this area work the best for my family, and I expect respect for those decisions.
A normal Parmesan cheese lid will fit on a regular mason jar. This will turn a mason jar into a cheese shaker jar at zero cost.
Hopefully you can find all sorts of uses for this, we now have a directive not to throw away the lids.
Not really what else I can say about this mason jar tip – but I do find all manner of uses for it. Heck I find that you can even use it to help sprout wheat if needed.
I use this for my homemade garlic powder, and all manner of homemade spice mixes. Especially my taco seasoning.
It works well for little bits of hardware like brads for my bee frames or tiny little nuts.
I use this quite a bit around the house. This is a simple tip, the lid works better than two piece mason jar lids, I have lots of jars, and we use a bunch of Parmesan cheese.
Maybe this is just a weird melding of a bunch of unrelated things that makes this particular tip useful to me, but I would be willing to bet that there are some of you that could also get some use out of this.
This tip is a little more sturdy than some of the other jar lid tips I have shown in the past. Like the one for the salt lids.
Garlic is a powerful antioxidant with antimicrobial, antiviral and antibiotic properties.
I have also found that as a Garlic Cold Remedy, it provides decongestant and expectorant effects when I have a cold.
I am not a doctor, obviously. Additionally, Science has not isolated the components of garlic responsible for medicinal effects. However, I have had good experience that garlic does a great job at preventing and remedying colds.
I would have to say, that even if it is only psychosomatic, the vitamin C, enzymes, and minerals such as sulfur and selenium, definitely help my body.
Allicin is the Active Ingredient
Allicin is the powerful antibacterial agent found in garlic. Since Allicin is only present shortly after garlic is crushed and before it is heated. Eating fresh garlic is best for treating a cold or flu.
As I mention in the video some experts even recommend eating a clove or two every couple of hours until the bug is entirely gone.
However, this may play havoc on your social schedule. Later in the video I share a tip to help that. However, the main purpose is to show how to make a cough syrup that makes the garlic a little easier to swallow.
Basically all I did was to blend garlic with apple cider vinegar, strain, and bottle. In the video I also added some other ingredients for taste and to add to the tincture’s effectiveness.
This is something that works well for me. I believe garlic belongs in every prepper’s garden as it is a powerful anti-bacteria, as well as a much needed seasoning agent.
Why Have a Prepper Mindset is the PowerPoint I presented today at the National Preparedness Expo in Nashville, TN.
The National Preppers and Survivalists Expo was a 2 day event focusing on the preparedness, self reliance, supplies and survival skills that are crucial when a catastrophe strikes.
In this PowerPoint I combined concepts from the prepper and emergency management cultures.
In includes discussions on mindset, the planning and mitigation process, the benefits of prepping, and the bane of all preppers – how to deal with the comment “If anything like that happens, I will just come to YOUR house!”
Why Have a Prepper Mindset deals in part with the gap between emergency managers in preppers. This gap is troublesome and the reason for postings on professional EM sites like the infamous “Preppers are Social Selfish”
I would hope that all people have, or are working to acquire a mindset that involves self reliance and resiliency. Being a prepper is more than just storing up goods. Being a prepper is about taking responsibility for yourself, using reason to determine threats, and invoking self-discipline to deal with those threats.
Having a preparedness mindset is healthy, both individually and as a society.
Why Have a Prepper Mindset is the PowerPoint I presented today at the National Preparedness Expo in Nashville, TN.