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Rambo First Blood
Rambo First Blood was released in 1982, stared Sylvester Stallone, Richard Crenna and Brian Dennehy and I was 14 years old. From what I witnessed in the 1980s, Rambo was released at a pivotal point in our nations history. The Vietnam conflict ended in 1975. 7 years had passed from the time the Vietnam conflict ended to when Rambo First Blood was been released. 7 long years for our nation to lick its war wounds and start to recover.
Sylvester Stallone plays the roll of John Rambo, a Special Forces Green Beret.
Brian Dennehy plays the roll of the local sheriff.
Richard Crenna plays the roll of Rambos commander from Vietnam.
In away, Rambo addresses some of the issues that all soldiers deal with – the memories, finding a job, a non-understanding public, and integration back into society.
These are the same issues that society dealt with after Vietnam, and we are dealing with now with Iraq and Afghanistan.
Having worked with some Vietnam vets in the 1980s and 1990s, it seems to me that they went through a tough time re-joining society. Vietnam Vets served this great nation, and what did they get in return? I remember one of the vets telling how when he landed back in the USA and was walking through the airport, anti-war protesters were lined up spitting on him and his war buddies. That is no way to welcome back people who served this nation.
Rambo addresses the anger and hatred surrounding the Vietnam conflict; but instead of anti-war protesters, its a small town sheriff and his deputies.
Besides addressing the difficulties of integrating back into society, John Rambo sets an example of what 1 well trained and determined man can do. Not only did he escape from a jail, but he highjacked a motorcycle, escapes into the wilderness where he survives through his training, wits and well honed survival knife.
The Rambo Survival Knife – Talk about an American icon. After the release of Rambo First Blood, survival knifes were the hot fad. There were TV commercials about hollow handled knives, they were in just about every outdoor gear magazine,,, lets just say they were the hot item of the day. Most of the Rambo Survival Knives came a survival kit, which usually consisted of a wire saw, hooks, line, maybe some matches,,,, just a bunch of small items that did not take up a lot of room.
The problem with the Rambo hollow handled survival knife, is that without a full hilt tang, the blade can bend and break off where it attaches to the handle. In other words, they look nice, but their not very strong. Just dont use it as a pry bar, and everything should be fine.
Over the past few days the AMC (American Movie Classics) channel on Dish Network has been playing Rambo First Blood almost everyday. This is not a movie that gets old or boring when its watched over and over. Its an ageless movie that never gets old. This is not a movie that is outdated in 2, 3 or even 10 years. The issues that Rambo addresses hold true whether its 1982, 1992, 2002, or 2010.
Post your comments in this forum thread about Rambo First Blood.
Tacticool is not survivalism
Tacticool is not survivalism:
Wearing woodland camo in the urban jungle does not make you a survivalist.
Bragging to your friends how you stockpile food does not make you a survivalist.
Wearing combat boots does not make you a survivalist
Trying to maintain a constant-stay-of-readiness does not make you a survivalist.
Buying a gas mask and keeping it in your car/suv does not make you a survivalist.
Having a get home bag does not make you a survivalist.
Having a bug out bag does not make you a survivalist.
Having a closet full of military gear does not make you a survivalist.
Having mud tires on your 2 wheel drive truck/suv does not make you a survivalist.
Having night vision does not make you a survivalist.
Having a Kevlar helmet does not make you a survivalist
Having a flak jacket does not make you a survivalist.
Having a bug out location does not make you a survivalist.
Read the rest of this entry »
Survival Magazines
If someone asked you to list your favorite Survival Magazines, what would you say? When my buddies and I where in high school – back in the 1980s – we would read any magazine, or mail order catalog we could get our hands on. This was back before the internet – so you had to either go to the store and actually buy a magazine, or send off an order form and wait 2 – 6 weeks for the first issue to come in. Over the past 25 years, only a hand full of magazines have risen to the top and deserve a special mention.
5 & 6. Field and Stream and Outdoor Life – both magazines offer a wide variety of hunting and outdoors information. Since both magazines offer such a wide variety of information, its difficult to say that one is better then the other. Where else can you find information about fly fishing on 1 page, and wilderness survival on the next page.
4. Backpacker – offers quality gear reviews mixed with a touch of conservation. What other magazine can you read about -20 degree sleeping bags, and about timber companies cutting virgin forest in the same issue?
3. Soldier of Fortune – no other magazine is going to cut to the heart of military history, political and military issues like Soldier of Fortune magazine. Back in the 1980s when Russia was at war in Afghanistan, and I was only a teenager, I remember reading about fund raisers to help the Afghan freedom fighters.
2. Farmers Almanac – its going to be difficult to find a more reliable source of inforamtion on gardening and farming.
1. American Survival Guide – All hail American Survival Guide, also known as ASG. If you were a survivalist in the 1990s, ASG was a must have. For those of us that did not want get on a mailing list, a trip to the local magazine stand was a monthly ritual. This magazine had it all – everything from turning 2 ALICE packs into a raft, to growing herbs, to basket weaving. My buddies and I will sometimes pull out our old ASGs and discuss the articles.
Its a shame that ASG went out of print. It was the only magazine that main stream survivalism to the masses.
So once you have a nice supply of survival magazines, what do you to with them? Personally I keep a small supply of magazines here at the house. The rest are moved to the camp. Ok, why is there a supply of survival magazines at the camp?
They make good reading material – when your sitting at the camp, its deer season, the sun went down before 6pm, its cold outside, its only an hour before bed time so you can get up at 4:30am to go get in the stand – having a variety of reading material is a good way to pass the time.
Education material – if some kind of SHTF situation occurs, having resource material at your bug out location is a wise idea. Instead of scratching your head wondering what kind of fertilizer works best for turnips greens, whip out your books on gardening and read up.
There are a lot of good magazines out there. The key is to find the ones that fit your needs, get a subscription going, build up a nice stockpile, and then distribute the magazines to your camps.
Post your comments in this forum thread about stockpiling survival related magazines.
Girl throws puppys into river
Sometimes you just have to ask yourself, what is wrong with some people. In the video, a young lady that looks like she is in her teens, throws several puppies into a river.
The video has sparked outage on forums and message boards all over the internet. Members of the popular message board 4chan are trying to figure out who the girl is, and there have already been threats of violence.
Caution the video contains graphic scenes that some people might find disturbing.
The next housing collapse
Are you ready for the next housing collapse? For several years house flippers and greedy real estate agents have driven up home prices to the point where the average working person can no longer afford to buy. With home sales and prices hitting rock bottom, when sales and prices start to go back up, there are going to be hordes of house flippers itching to get back to “business as usual.”
What I look for – as the home prices start to go back up, house flippers are going to jump in and will try to drive the market up even more. The average wage earner will not be able to afford a house, so prices will have to take a nose dive again.
This cycle will continue until people stop treating homes as a get-rich-quick scheme, and start treating them as a home – a place to raise a family.
Here is an easy test to know if your living in a bloated housing market.
What is the average home price in your area?
What is the average wage of a police officer or a teacher in your area?
If a police officer or teacher were going to buy a house in your area, could they pay the house note with 1 week of their wage? Or will it take the entire monthly wage?
In other words, if a police officer or teacher in your area makes $600 a week, their monthly house note should not be more then $550 – $600.
But instead of using a little logic – like not stretching your finances too thin – people put their financial future at risk by going into massive debt.
For married couples – could one or the other person pay all of the bills? If one person loses their job, will the family be driven into financial ruin?
Lets stop treating houses as a commodity, and start treating them as a home.
10 books written by Presidents
Last night I received an email from congress.org – I subscribe to their emails to keep up-to-date on issues. But after reading their list of 10 books written by presidents – I might have to unsubscribe.
Here is the list congress.org recommended:
1. “Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant”
2. “The Naval War of 1812″ by Theodore Roosevelt
3. “Dreams From My Father” by Barack Obama
4. “My Life” by Bill Clinton
5. “Beyond Peace” by Richard Nixon
6. “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid” by Jimmy Carter
7. “The Ordeal of Woodrow Wilson” by Herbert Hoover
8. “Congressional Government” by Woodrow Wilson
9. “A World Transformed” by George H.W. Bush and Brent Scowcroft
10. “The Autiobiography of Calvin Coolidge”
All but 1 – Ulysses S. Grant – are 20th century Presidents. Where are the books written by Monroe, Madison, Jefferson, Franklin, Washington,,,,, people that saw first hand what tyranny was like.
I could really care less about Herbert Hoover – who was President when the great depression started. He really proved his leadership skills when the nation needed him – so “why” would I want to read anything by Hoover?
Bill Clinton signed the North American Free Trade Agreement, which shipped jobs to low wage factories in Mexico. I do not care to read a single word written by Clinton.
If that is the best list they can come up with, maybe they need to spend more time in the library. I’am pretty sure that the Federalist Papers would be a more interesting read then anything on the above list.
The only 2 Presidents that showed any type of leadership skills were Ulysses S. Grant and Theodore Roosevelt. Now their books might be of interest.
Instead of books talking about freedom and fighting tyranny, we have books by presidents that signed free trade agreements, (which shipped millions of jobs overseas) and presidents that have increased our debt to the Federal Reserve.
In other words, we have books by presidents that promote tyranny, instead of how to fight tyranny.
What to take in a bug out situation
Some missionary goes to the Congo for 6 weeks to preach the salvation of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to the natives. As he boards the plane back to the good ole US of A he is not feeling to well. Its just a slight fever, nothing to worry about.
Fast forward 6 weeks, the once unknown airborne virus has wrecked havoc on mankind. With no vaccine and no natural resistance, people are dieing off like the Native Americans did to Small Pox. Which means that entire populations of towns were dieing.
You set your plans into place, but things have not worked out as planned. The daily bicycle ride to the nearest river for water is getting old. The neighbors are running out of food and have turned into beggars. Its time to put your back-up plans into effect; that includes leaving your home, and going to a friends farm.
At the farm there will be seclusion – its miles off the beaten path – there will be water from the well, fresh food out of the garden and fresh meat from the local wildlife. Who knows, there might even be fresh eggs from the chickens. And where there are chickens, there is fried chicken.
Its time to pack up the important things in life and get out of the city. The question is, what do you take?
Some of the stuff is pretty obvious – food, water, clothes, medicine, first aid supplies, sleeping bags, pillows, seeds, can opener, water filters,,,,,,.
Some things are not so obvious – family pictures, letters, bible, books, playing cards, board games, wills and property titles,,,,.
Family pictures – if there is one thing that can not be replaced, its family pictures. Your kids will never be young again, your grandparents will never come back from the grave.
Letters – any hand written letters that retain you family history. Maybe even printed emails from friends and family members.
Bible or any other religious book – for spiritual support.
Books – for education and preservation of knowledge. College grammar books are a good option, as they contain works from a wide variety of authors. Regardless of the situation, the education of children must continue.
Playing cards and board games – helps keep the mind busy and acts as a distraction.
Wills – to make sure that your property gets passed down to who you want it to, its important that everyone have a will. And if you have a will, make sure its signed by a witness upon your signature.
Property titles – ensures that you retain legal ownership of your property. Even during outbreaks of the Black Death in the middle ages, some kind of law and order was maintained.
Post your comments in this forum thread about Forgotten Items.
Trip to the deer lease August 29
Even though deer season does not start for another 2 months, my daughter and I made a trip to the lease to take a look at the feeders and stands.
The good news, all of the stands were still up. If we get some strong winds – like from a hurricane – sometimes the box stands will blow over. To get them back up, you need either 3 or 4 men, or a tractor with a boom pole on it. The last time I had to stand one of the box stands up, we had 4 men with us.
The bad news, one of the feeders had been knocked over – I guess by wild hogs – and damaged pretty bad. The motor housing has been broke off, and the plastic drum was bent. This feeder will be brought back to the camp and replaced. The legs will be taken off and put on another drum, and the motor replaced.
What happens – the hogs get tired of waiting on the feeder to throw the corn out, or the battery will go dead,,, but either way, the hogs will hit the legs of the feeder until they knock it over. When the feeder hits the ground, the lid comes off and the corn spills out. The hogs then feast on the spilled corn.
Another one of the feeders – the motor would not test. Meaning that I held the test button in for a few seconds, let go, and the motor would not spin up.
The last feeder had a bent leg, so it was not filled up with corn. The timber company had been in there cutting some trees and the leg looks like it had been bumped by a machine. Next weekend my kids and I will go back out to the lease and bring 3 pipes with us to replace the legs.
One of the stands had 2 legs pull off of it last deer season. While my daughter and I were out there, we measured the legs. Next weekend we will bring the 2 replacement legs with us. This time, instead of using just nails, I’am going to use some drywall screws as well.
This is not the first time hogs have damaged one of our feeders. Back in August of 2008 hogs knocked one of the feeders over and broke the housing where the leg attached. When the leg broke off, there was a hole in the drum 4 – 5 inches across, which ruined the drum.
Post your comments in this forum thread about feeders damaged by wild hogs.
Looking forward to deer season
With the summer heat starting to break just a little bit – the past couple of days have been around 91, 92 or 93 degrees, a couple of weeks ago day time temps were in the 97, 98 and 99 range – its time to start looking for deer season.
My daughter and I just got finished eating breakfast, and I’am getting the truck loaded up. Over the past few days I charged 5 or 6 – 6 volt batteries for the feeders. When we leave home, we are going to go by Tractor supply in Jasper, Texas and pick up something like 12 bags of deer corn. We have 6 feeders to check on, and I’am figuring 2 – 50 pound bags just to get the feeders started.
Besides the regular deer stands and feeders, there is a certain creek bottom that I want to setup a ladder stand on. Every year a buck goes through the creek bottom marking its territory. The nearest box stand is about 100 yards away on top of a hill. Instead of moving the box stand, I’am going to setup a ladder stand.
I have an old climbing stand that I could move to the creek, but over the past few years I have been using my climbing stand less and less. In my younger years using the climbing stand was fun to use, and it provided a degree of flexibility that box stands did not. If I wanted to move the climbing stand over 75 yards, it was a 15 minute job. If I wanted to move a box stand – it would take half a day.
One of the nice things about hunting in a big box stand, it provides plenty of room for you to take someone. If you want to take you son, daughter, grandkids,,, having enough room for 2 people is nice.
There does not seem to be enough young people getting into hunting. As more and more of our nations population moves into the urban jungle, fewer and fewer people want to make the drive to the woods. Combine that to more and more hunting land is being sold off to developers. Land that has used to belong to the timber companies and has been hunted for over 100 years, is being enveloped by urban sprawl.
But anyway, its time to load up the truck, and my daughter and I head out to the woods.
Recent survival gear additions
The summer of 2010 was not only a great summer that will never be forgotten (at least by me anyway), it was also the summer that a lot of new survival gear was added to my inventory.
1. Large MOLLE pack – after much debate, I figured it was time to jump on the MOLLE pack bandwagon. Instead of hauling my large ALICE pack around on camping trips, I have switched to a 4,000 cubic inch Large MOLLE. I miss the outside pockets of the ALICE pack, but that has been fixed by adding a Maxpedition clam pouch and a couple of sustainment pouches. The only thing I need now is an internal radio pouch, and everything will be good to go.
I have a lot of backpacks, but only 3 in the 4,000 cubic range – a Kelty, large ALICE pack and now the new large MOLLE pack.
2. Magellan sleeping pad – after sleeping on the ground for almost 30 years, its about time that I got a sleeping pad. The Magellan sleeping pad I got folds in half, and then rolls up about the size of a cantaloupe.
Back around 1995 or 1996 I bought a rather cheap sleeping pad, but it was big and bulky. Even though I have owned it for 14 – 15 years, its only been on maybe 6 camping trips. I wanted something that was small enough to fit inside my pack folded in half, or outside my pack not folded in half.
3. Eureka solitaire one man tent – my previous one man tent had been a Wenzel starlight biker tent. After using the biker tent for about 15 years, I figured it was time for a new tent – something that is a little more open across the top and breathable in hot weather.
The only problem I have with the Eureka solitaire, its so compact its difficult to move around in, and impossible to sit up in. Even to get a drink of water you have to twist your head around.