On the one hand, the Center for Disease Control would really like you to be ready to handle your family’s continued health and wellbeing during natural disasters or regional/national emergencies, to the point of even fully embracing the zombie meme. This makes all kinds of sense, simply because the federal, state, and local government cannot take care of every single person in a disaster zone – transportation is a bear, getting the materials to the scene is sometimes impossible, finding people to volunteer to help can be hard, finding the people who need the assistance is literally like looking for a needle in a haystack, and the raw expenditure of money is just mind-boggling. A little bit of preparation on our part, as private, independent, self-reliant citizens would do great things towards keeping ourselves and others safe and happy.
I cannot say as though I agree with their entire list (specifically, they seem to have omitted more than a few things), but the CDC’s ideas are a good starting place:
•Water—one gallon per person, per day (3day supply for evacuation, 2week supply for home)
•Food—nonperishable, easytoprepare items (3day supply for evacuation, 2week supply for home)
•Flashlight
•Batterypowered or handcrank radio (NOAA Weather Radio, if possible)
•Extra batteries
•First aid kit
•Medications (7day supply) and medical items
•Multipurpose tool
•Sanitation and personal hygiene items
•Copies of personal documents (medication list and pertinent medical information, proof of address, deed/lease to home, passports, birth certificates, insurance policies)
•Cell phone with chargers
•Family and emergency contact information
•Extra cash
•Emergency blanket
•Map(s) of the area
•Medical supplies (hearing aids with extra batteries, glasses, contact lenses, syringes, cane)
•Baby supplies (bottles, formula, baby food, diapers)
•Games and activities for children
•Pet supplies (collar, leash, ID, food, carrier, bowl)
•Twoway radios
•Extra set of car keys and house keys
•Manual can opener
•Whistle
•N95 or surgical masks
•Matches
•Rain gear
•Towels
•Work gloves
•Tools/supplies for securing your home
•Extra clothing, hat and sturdy shoes
•Plastic sheeting
•Duct tape
•Scissors
•Household liquid bleach
•Entertainment items
•Blankets or sleeping bags
On the other hand, the Federal Bureau of Investigation Denver Joint Terrorism Task Force wants your fellow citizens to turn you in as a "potential terrorist" for following the CDC’s advice. No, seriously:
Potential Indicators of Terrorist Activities Related to Military Surplus Stores
What Should I Consider Suspicious?
People or Groups Who:
[...]
Make bulk purchases of items to include:
- Weatherproofed ammunition or match containers
- Meals Ready To Eat
- Night Vision Devices; night flashlights; gas masks
- High capacity magazines
- Bi-pods or tri-pods for rifles
Ignore, for a second, the sheer inanity of getting one’s panties in a bundle over people buying basic hunting gear (the bipods) or evil normal-capacity magazines (at least they called them "magazines"), and likewise ignore the fact that "bulk" typically means "cheaper", assuming you are able to work out that kind of deal with the shop owner, and instead focus on how the two above lists correlate.
Ammo cans? Well, you are going to need something to put all that stuff into that the CDC wants you to buy, and it needs to be something that will keep moisture and air out (oxygen and water will destroy most long-term storage foods and supplies faster than almost anything else… barring mice), and they do happen to be cheap, easy to use, and modular.
MREs? Sure, they taste about as good as the cardboard they come packaged in (honestly, they have gotten a lot better), but with one of them being able to keep an average person running for about day (assuming light exertion, at most), it becomes an easy, space-saving way to feed your family in an emergency. And assuming an average 3-4 person family, with a 2-week recommended supply, buying "in bulk" makes a damned lot of sense.
Night vision devices? I guess it is safe to say that the FBI has never heard of hog hunting, or seen the positively absurd prices for newer NVGs out there… Surplus stores and beat-up equipment are about the only way some folks can afford toys like that.
Flashlights? Seriously? The FBI has nothing better to do with its time than get angsty over flashlights? Coming from the background of an Electrical Engineering Officer onboard a US Navy warship, I know just how disabling and disorienting darkness can be, and it is only a matter of time until I have a cheap, durable flashlight
in every room in my house (or, if I keep buying EDC lights, an expensive, durable flashlight…), but if I were to buy those all at once, that would put me on some list somewhere? Screw that noise.
Gas masks? Yes, because no metropolitan area has ever been subjected to a chemical attack, and no terrorist have ever tried to use chemical weapons.
So, basically, if you follow the CDC, the FBI would like your neighbors to turn you in* as a "potential terrorist". Good to know.
Even more hilariously, the FBI would like surplus store owners to consider people who "insist on paying with cash" as "potential terrorists". Uh, Mr. FBI Agent, is American currency legal tender for all debts, public and private, or not? Well, it may not be for long, but that is not the point…
*shakes head* I wonder if this has anything to do with the general devaluation of words and concepts we are engaged in… For the past few decades, everyone has been "special", and everyone "wins", so now no one is and no one does. More and more people are "victims" even though they have never been victimized by anything more dastardly than your average mosquito. And now the government is going out of its way to create "terrorists" out of thin air**.
Once everyone is a "terrorist", what then?
(* – And do not even get me started on the patently disgusting, 1984/Fahrenheit 451-esque tactic of citizens spying on and reporting on one another – that ranks right up there with "ethnic balkanization" as a "Surefire Way to Destroy a Country".
** – No, I am not alleging collusion between the CDC and FBI; I am merely amused by the coincidence. I do firmly believe, however, that this new push by the FBI is going to create "terrorists" where there never were ones to begin with.)
(Courtesy of Say Uncle.)
I should be okay since I stocked up on the less ubiquitous solar powered “day flashlights”. They work great when the Sun is shining and keep me off terrorist watch lists. [snark].
Seriously though, what we’re seeing here from the FBI, and what we’ve already seen from Homeland Security and the TSA is a government amplified version of the Brady Bunch. It’s too dangerous and too much work to go after the real bad guys and criminals, so why not just pick on the law abiding. We’re numerous, easy targets, and by definition low danger level. And next year Johnny FBI will be able to justify his 500% budget increase due to all the new “terrorists” he has identified…
Man, if they’re wetting their panties over basic supplies, I wonder what stockpiling, say, body armor would add to their pants?
Just sayin, ya’ll. Just sayin.
Remember when Prohibition ended and they had to find something for all those revenue agents to do? I’m betting something similar, cynic that I am. One agency sets them up, another knocks them down.
@ CAshane: I think your last sentence might be the most accurate – budgets are tight all around, and agencies are having to fight for pretty much every dollar they get. I would imagine the BATFE / FBI / CIA / etc. all have some pretty high operating costs, and are going to do their damnest to sustain them… which means proving your worth to the folks with the purse strings.
And nothing says “keep funding our task force” than catching “terrorists” you created by declaring certain things to be “bad”…
@ the Dude: If Jose Guerena is any indication, such activities may cause the emptying of other things in your direction…
@ The Freeholder: I really do doubt there was any sort of coordination between the agencies, but I would not put it past the FBI to notice that the CDC recommended X, and, when painted in the right light, X could sound kind of “scary-ish”…
Of course I asked the http://www.ready.gov site about the lack of firearms in their recommended items. A valid question given FEMA could not get to a disaster site in under two days.
Guess whose door is going to get kicked down tonight at 2 AM?
I tire of being treated like a terrorist when I just want to be left alone by the government.
I’m with CAshane. No “terrorists” = “no funding”. That’s the bottom line here folks. The government/bureaucratic thought process says, “I haven’t made a decision in a while so I need to justify my government appointed position” and “Let’s blow our budget so we get an increase and then scare them into inflating that number with the ‘ole National Security routine”.
Like Freeholder, I also noticed that the CDC and others don’t “suggest” having a firearm in your “go bag”. GOD forbid, we be able to defend ourselves and family/friends, band together to fend off a common foe, or at the very least be able to forage for food should we have need. OR are they too afraid that we see too much correlation between them and the zombies? I wonder why? Mindless, lemmings who are attracted to the closest trough in which to feed to the point of Sloth and then demand more without so much as a semi-cognitive thought. Brains? Tax Dollars? The odd thing is I could understand them demanding brains considering there isn’t one to be had between all of them. On the other hand, they have more than enough of our tax dollars. They can’t have my brains. I already know they would use them the same way as my tax dollars… with reckless abandon.
And the very notion that I be labled a terrorist because I lean to the right, and served my country with honor in the US Army, or because I intend to survive what ANY entity, including our government, throws at me is a personal affront to my Right to Life. Much less because I purchased some plastic and a flashlight!
Yes, I happen to be a right leaning, white male, with military service. Yes I want to survive and help my family and friends do the same. That, absolutely does NOT make me a terrorist! However, this (and other) administration(s) isn’t interested in Citizens so much as they are interested in Subjects. They will scare as many as they can into falling in line. The others will have to be eliminated in some way in order for them to succeed.
I swore an oath to this country and to myself to defend the Constitution, not the administration. I swore that oath before GOD ALMIGHTY. I personally don’t care who else witnessed it. How does that make ANY of us terrorists?
Rant Over…
Tac
I think you hit it right on the head with the Rand quote. They want to be able to control us. And it fits into the narrative of people who want the .gov to fuck off being terrorists.
They do have a point (though their hair style, if thick enough on the top, sometimes hides it…
).
After all, can you think of anyone more terrifying to a Regressive than someone who not only believes that we need to return to something resembling government limited to Constitutionally-enumerated powers, but also prepares to live through disasters without relying on the Federal government for help? Even without bringing effective self-defense into the mix, the mere idea of someone who might not passively wait for Uncle Sugar to take care of him/her/it in an emergency is enough to cause epic levels of PSH in a Regressive.
@ Braden Lynch: Unfortunately, to the government, wanting to be left alone is a terroristic action… at least to the same degree as wanting a sound fiscal policy…
@ Tac: Any time you want your rants to get a little more exposure (namely, on the front page), you let me know…
‘Course, I hear you might have a more… local… option in the near future.
But, yeah, you will get no disagreement from me… our society demands co-dependence, our government demands dependence (even though it is more dependent on us than we will ever be on it, whether people realize it or not), and damned if anyone is willing to buck the trend. “Normalcy” is all now, and anyone who refuses to be such is an extremist.
Yay for extremism.
@ jetaz: Government is control. And they hate having things they cannot control.
@ AuricTech: To which I would point out that there is no shortage of countries in this great world of ours who would be more than willing to cater to their particular breed of dependency, and they are more than welcome to head out there and be as co-dependent as their little hearts desire.
This is one of the last places on our globe where we can get away with doing what we do, and I will be damned if I will let it be turned into Europe-Light.
This just doesn’t surprise me. We’re talking about the bloated dinosaur that is the fed.gov, after all.
Apparently, the insanity is contagious. One retarded lesbian has infected all other govt. alphabet agencies.
BTW, if the FBI has the resources to dedicate to this, this gestapo unit is way over funded.
@ Sarah: Has to keep itself shambling along somehow…
@ hellferbreakfast: Yup, you lost me with your first comment…
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