If You’re not Paranoid, You’re Crazy

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As government agencies and tech companies develop more and more intrusive means of watching and influencing people, how can we live free lives?

By Walter Kirn

I knew we’d bought walnuts at the store that week, and I wanted to add some to my oatmeal. I called to my wife and asked her where she’d put them. She was washing her face in the bathroom, running the faucet, and must not have heard me—she didn’t answer. I found the bag of nuts without her help and stirred a handful into my bowl. My phone was charging on the counter. Bored, I picked it up to check the app that wirelessly grabs data from the fitness band I’d started wearing a month earlier. I saw that I’d slept for almost eight hours the night before but had gotten a mere two hours of “deep sleep.” I saw that I’d reached exactly 30 percent of my day’s goal of 13,000 steps. And then I noticed a message in a small window reserved for miscellaneous health tips. “Walnuts,” it read. It told me to eat more walnuts.

It was probably a coincidence, a fluke. Still, it caused me to glance down at my wristband and then at my phone, a brand-new model with many unknown, untested capabilities. Had my phone picked up my words through its mic and somehow relayed them to my wristband, which then signaled the app?

Read the Remainder at The Alantic

What the CO can Learn from the Eric Frien Manhunt

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I started watching the story about Eric Frein with only casual interest at first, because I thought, this being a civilian cop killer, they would find him in no time and it would most likely end in a one-sided shootout with Frein in a bodybag and SWAT cops giving high fives. It has been over a week now and that has not happened. Now to listen to cops tell it, they are “right on his trail” and have the utmost certainty they will get him…they have been saying that since this thing started. Now I say this, not to demean the Law Enforcement’s efforts, I HOPE they catch or kill him soon; but at last count, (since they declared Frein a Federal Fugitive so they could involve the long arm of Federal Law Enforcement) there are over 20 Local, State and Federal Agencies looking for Frein with around 1,500 law enforcement personnel just on the ground alone and still no subject in custody. The State Police have even broke out the serious toys to try and tilt the odds in their favor, using a 6.5 ton “Critical Incident SWAT Armored Vehicle /Tractor” nicknamed the “Rook” that will help them negotiate “off” road areas better.

In a recent interview on ABC, one State Trooper said that Frein had actually been “spotted” with binoculars from a long distance, but by the time they would get officers to that location, he would be gone. This, at first, was a very confusing statement, for me at least, since the cops have several choppers (and drones) in the air doing repetitive grid search patterns..how could they lose sight of him? When I read between the lines and understood exactly where all this is taking place, you have to conclude that Frein planned for this contingency and is sticking to heavily wooded areas where air support would be made null and void by the forest canopy. This is a huge advantage to somebody who does not want to be found by Police. You see, a majority of the time, when cops are looking for a suspect, who has fled on foot for example, most of the time in a “deforested” urban area, typically within 30 minutes of the helicopter getting in the air, they find the perp because of FLIR thermal imaging. It does not matter if the perp is hiding under a log or a swimming pool, he is as good as caught. Frien has removed that possibility by wisely choosing the type of terrain that he has in rural Pennsylvania.

So what is it about this guy? how can he do this and be successful for this long? He is not anything special, despite what the lib-tards have told you: he is NOT some kind of RAMBO or trained assassin/mercenary. He WAS NOT in the Military and HE HAS NOT had any “Special Training” to speak of. Yes, he was in his high school marksmanship team over a decade ago and Yes, according to Frein’s father, Frein is an excellent marksman and (to the horror of the libs) owns several firearms, including an AK-47. Frein’s primary hobby however, and where he most likely honed some of his survival field-craft, was the”mil-sim” (military simulation) Airsoft competitions he participated in around the nation. Frein’s team, called “Red Alliance”, specializes in Eastern European Armies and Tactics. Frein was so obsessed with the small and minor details in the simulations, he often smoked Serbian brand cigarettes, just to stay in character, which the police have found scattered along the way in their search. Police have also found soiled “MAMPERS” or Adult Diapers used by Frien. This may sound strange and at first may bring back memories of the story of the deranged female  NASA Astronaut Lisa Nowak who while driving 1,000 miles cross-country to exact revenge on a lover, wore diapers like this to avoid those pesky bathroom stops. But make no mistake, adult diapers are commonly used by LE and Military Snipers alike so they can avoid having to make un-necessary movement during a stalk. The fact that Frien is both obsessed with minute details and is also going to great lengths to use gear like the diapers, shows a high degree of preparation and patience and also helps to explain why he has been so successful in escape and evasion thus far..the less you move, the less chance of being spotted.

So before we propose to answer the question of HOW Frein has been so successful at evading capture, let’s compare another big news event that happened last year,

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Remember the Christopher Dorner Shootings in California last year? Dorner had been a member of both the Military (Naval Reserve MIUWU) and Law Enforcement (LAPD). During his time with the Naval Reserve Mobile Underseas Warfare Unit (MIUWU), Dorner received qualification ribbons in rifle and pistol marksmanship. And although Dorner’s career with the LAPD was short, he had enough time to gain intimate knowledge of Law Enforcement tactics, response times, patterns, weapons, etc. Yet despite all of this training and knowledge, during his maniacal rampage, Dorner managed to kill 4 and wound 3 and lasted only a total of 9 days as a fugitive from the law, with the insane incident culminating in a shootout in the San Bernardino Mountains, where Dorner. in true cowardice fashion, committed suicide.  Now, considering all of these elements: The training, the knowledge, the experience, wouldn’t you have thought Dorner’s rampage would have been much worse? Now admittedly, this guy was a fruit loop and had gone off the reservation mentally, but still, historically, even with this handicap, someone of this background typically would have done much more damage. Now, please understand, I am not some sicko that wishes death upon anyone needlessly, I am just trying to qualify some points!

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Now, let’s compare Eric Frein: a civilian, with NO specialized training of any kind, military or police. The only exposure to semi-professional firearms training Frein had, had been in his high school shooting team a decade ago. After that, it was only Frein’s PERSONAL Training that gave him the marksmanship skills needed, including associated skill-sets such as combat tactics, sniper field-craft, navigation, etc. You could speculate that Frein had practiced “dry runs” for this “operation” when he participated in the re-enactment of various military battles during airsoft simulations. But yet, DESPITE the geekish and amateur appearance of all of this, Frein manages to kill one police officer and wound another seriously in an ambush and evade capture from over 1,500 armed and better equipped (not to mention pissed off cops) for over a week…How??

The answer is simple. Preparation and Personal Training. Most of the law enforcement leadership on scene estimated  Frein has been planning this engagement for at least six months to a year, maybe longer. Consider this: Frein planned his escape and evasion down to the letter. He planned where he wanted this “manhunt” to take place; He chose this AO; not the cops. That is a major tenant of Guerilla Warfare and places Frein automatically with the home field advantage. This is why Law Enforcement have had to enlist the help of local hunters and guides to show them around the area. Make no mistake, Frein wanted this confrontation to take place.  He did not extend alot of energy or effort into concealing his crime; Frein’s truck, .308 shell casings from the ambush and other pertinent evidence, were all found quite easily. All of Frein’s effort went into PREPARING  to hide and survive in the woods and eventually, I think, to FIGHT the Police. The Hiding part, as we have seen, has been exceptional. My personal opinion is that since Frien has been planning this operation for some time, he has had ample time to dig, equip and secure several underground “bunkers” and staging areas to live in and fight from if needed. Concerning the inevitable confrontation that is coming between Frien and the Police, if we strictly use similar historical incidents, where lone, cop killing gunmen attempt to “shoot it out” with large numbers of armed police…the outcome is predictable: Frein will be in a bodybag soon after he fires the first round. As a standard rule, Cop Killers are not brought in vertical, but horizontal as on a slab.

So what can the CO learn from this? That the average civilian, who takes the time to PREPARE and makes time for PERSONAL TRAINING in self-defense, tactics, firearms, field-craft, survival in the wild, etc. Stands a much better chance of surviving a BAD situation than someone who has not. Now this is not to say that I agree with what Frien did or is doing. Let me be clear. From the beginning of this blog, I have always stressed the MORAL responsibility that a CO takes on when he trains to both carry a concealed weapon and prepare himself to survive. Ultimately, HOW the CO decides to USE his skills will be the defining characteristic that makes him a TRUE WARRIOR.

The CHOICE to be that CO, as always, rest with you and you alone..no one is going to do it for you.

Stay Armed, Stay Ready and Stay Dangerous!

It’s the End of the World as I Know It….(and I feel Fine)

You know as of late, there has been ALOT of chatter on forums and in barber shops about all this unrest in the Middle East being the BEGINNING of the END. Now, this articles aim is not Religious or Political in nature, not because I am a man of unbelief or callous to US foreign affairs, but because I think folks are missing the truly big picture. You see, living as long as I have and seeing alot of the World as a whole, I have come to realize some unchanging truths about human nature. When things like this happen, inevitably there is always the same knee jerk reactions from people. I have named these folks by category for your reading pleasure.

1. “The Lazy, Ignorant or Mis-Informed”

These folks make up the majority not surprisingly, typically the first being the most predominant. I don’t think we need to expand on laziness..do we?  The ignorant are not just the idiot, but the person who does not take the time to find out the real truth on anything, but just regurgitate the talking heads on TV. The Mis-Informed are people who have bad information and just need re-direction.

2. “The Chicken Littles”

These folks are a hybrid of the Mis-Informed…At the first whiff of trouble, they break into a general panic and encourage everybody else to the same….they are the ones that head out to Wal-Mart and their local gun store and start buying batteries and ammo to prepare for another Ruby Ridge or Y2K. As a general rule, “tacticool” type stores and gun shops LOVE these types of people and market to them heavily….peruse your latest edition of Cheaper than Dirt and you will see what I mean. The sad part about these folks is they are going in the right direction, but wasting alot of time and MONEY and achieving (and learning) nothing in the process. It is kinda like the “hamster on a wheel” analogy….you know that furry little bastard thinks he is really doing something in there, and his brain is so small it virtually has no long term memory, so every time he gets on that wheel, it is a new experience. These folks never learn from past mistakes, so they repeat them over and over again.

3. The Civilian Operator

These folks through experience, training or both, have learned that the key to it all is PREPERATION. If you have your preparedness level to a certain water mark..you can act..(not react) to the situation, and be ahead of the curve. A great example of this for me personally was Hurricane Katrina/Rita. I learned through this experience where my shortcomings were..I learned from it, made a plan and acted…when Hurricane Ike hit, all we had to do as a Family was follow through with our plan (because everything was already in place and prepared) and everything (almost) went off without a hitch.

Often when people talk about being prepared, they are talking and thinking about their gear& guns only…whats worse is they spend most of their free time talking about it on forums! As I stated before, gun manufacturers and tacti-cool outlets LOVE these people..they pay for their expansions and their new houses!!

What we really need to be talking about is our PLANNING and our TRAINING, not our gear and our guns. The old saying holds water: “Amateurs talk Equipment, Professionals talk TACTICS.” The best training out there is always going to be FIGHT not WEAPON focused, because in the end, the brain is the final weapon. Having an assault rifle and 1,000 rounds of ammo solves nothing unless you have a plan to plug into it. Now, ultimately being a realist, you have to understand, a man cannot plan for EVERY possible scenario OR expect every plan to work when the poop hits the oscillating device; still, we have to PLAN and TRAIN for the WORST possible scenario imaginable and do it FREQUENTLY.

Notes to Self 

Instead of re-hashing old advice or trying to cover every aspect of being prepared, I thought I would share with you some of my notes from past experiences..take them with a grain of salt, most are common sense.

1. Water is King 

People make too big deal about storing up food…store up water..lots of it…plus have a way to filter water.  A person can survive a while without food but not 24 hrs without water. In the last Hurricane, our water supply got tainted and was out of service, luckily we had saved about 50-60 2L bottles and filled them with filtered water. We stored them in a spare refrigerator on the back porch. It was a life saver, literally. Yeah, FEMA was handing out cases of water 4 days after the hurricane hit us, but what about those “in between” times?? NEVER DEPEND ON ANYBODY BUT YOURSELF!!!!

2. Grab and Go

Plan what you are going to grab if you have to evac or fall back in a hurry..this is where packing your essentials in go-bags is KEY. I break it down like this for simplicity:

  •  Rifle and Pistol
  •  Way to Carry Mags for both (Vest, Chest Rig, Bandolier, Rifle Bag, etc.) There is no set number and you can never have enough ammo, but 8 (30 round) Mags for Rifle and 5 Hi-Cap Mags for Pistol is Solid.
  •  72 hr GO-Bag for 4 People (Medical, Food, Water, Tools, Clothes)
  • Take into consideration weight…you may have to edit ammo capacity or other things to aid in mobility..if you can only move as fast as a turtle, drop weight!

3. Vehicle/Truck– SHTF Bag

Always keep in your vehicle a bag with BASIC 72 hrs (for how ever many people in your home) of Food, Water, Medical, Clothes, Tools. This serves as a fallback bag in event you are not at home when SHTF. Some people keep weapons with these.I choose not too; weapons (at least my pistol) stay on my person. I can fight to my rifle if need to with this. Truck Guns (small, compact rifles) are great ideals, but legality and theft are big concerns.

4. Minimize and Maximize

I learned this lesson during the hurricane; when using a generator, you first have to prioritize what you are going to power: deep freeze, lamps, Window AC Unit, etc. Then you have to Minimize your space; instead of lighting or cooling the entire house, which will cost you a small fortune in gas and time filling the SOB up every 3 hours;  seal off a room of the house, say a bedroom and live/sleep there. You can run a small window AC unit to stay comfortable, dorm room size fridge for essentials, a couple lamps and a Coleman Stove and boom, you are in business. That way you can get a good 8-9 hours off a tank of gas in the generator and maximize your fuel dollars and energy spent filling the SOB up!!

5. Invest in Portable Shelter

Having a pop-up camper or RV to fall back into or take with you is smart. Often, a small pop up camper can sleep 4 fairly easily and a Generator can run everything, including the AC/Heat unit on an 8 hour tank of fuel. It is no wonder that the guy with the RV is the most popular guy in any Apocalyptic type show or movie (think of Dale in Walking Dead…the RV also served as a nice over-watch platform!)

These are just a few of my notes…more to come later.

Stay Dangerous.