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Book

Book
Now available at www.lulu.com

Now you can buy my book: "Dealing With Danger -- Be Prepared, Aware and Decisive"

My Book, Dealing With Danger is now available at Lulu.com. Also available at Amazon.com price $15.95

Available from Barnes & Noble as an e-reader Nook book price $ 8.99

Available for download on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with iBooks and on your computer with iTunes as an eReader book price $8.99
'dealing with danger: be prepared, aware and decisive' is Available on the iBookstore
It's an instructional book to show people how to develop a straightforward, but comprehensive mindset or mental attitude to be aware of their surroundings, make simple but effective plans, and know when to put them into action. You can read a preview of the book online. A lot of people say that we need to develop a warrior attitude, but that just doesn't work for everyone. In my book I'll show you, regardless of age, gender, background, physical ability, and especially attitude how to be better prepared to survive the bad events in life by becoming a junkyard dog. Just click here.


Retail price is $15.95 plus shipping & handling

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Monday, December 5, 2011

al Qaida in Africa

An Associated Press report says that al-Qaida has infiltrated Africa from one end of Sahara to the other. The group seems to have used the old method of winning hearts and minds to get on friendly terms with the locals by giving them much needed medical supplies, buying food from them at high prices, and respectfully asking to drink from their wells. As the saying goes, you catch more flies with sugar than with vinegar. One result of this infiltration is that the bases they set up in countries like Mali in the eastern part of the continent are being used to kidnap wealthy tourists for ransom to raise money to fund the groups. Let's hope that western governments have a strategy for dealing with hostage negotiations.

Friday, April 1, 2011

Are You Prepared?

That's a loaded question. Nobody can be prepared for absolutely everything, nor would we want to be. There is no point in preparing for things if they simply cannot happen to you , in your particular situation. If you live in a desert, for example, then preparing to escape a forest fire isn't a good use of your time and resources.

Things that threaten our well-being can be loosely divided into two groups: Natural disaster, and man-made disaster. A natural disaster such as a flood or an earthquake is something that you may expect, depending on where you are. Certain regions of the world are more prone than others to these events, therefore, if you're standing on the banks of the Mississippi river, it's more likely that you could experience a flood; Living in California, it may be more likely you feel an earthquake (except for the rainy season, when they get floods and mudslides). Now we can fine tune our expectancy to what is the most likely threat based on where we are and what time of the year we are there. Now we know the answer before the question is asked. Answer: Earthquake; Question: what is a likely threat to your survival if you live in California?

Man-made disasters are not necessarily as predictable. They are either accidents such as the chemical tanker that crashes on the expressway, spilling a cloud of toxic gas over the local neighborhood, or it could be the deliberate acts such as violent crime or terrorism. If you live near an expressway, you know that a tanker crash is a possibility, and you probably know that of the thousands of people who drive by your neighborhood every day, eventually one of them is going to look at your neighborhood as a place where they can commit a crime and then get back on the freeway and be long gone in a short period of time.

Again, with a little thought and assessment, you can come up with some scenarios that are more likely than others.
Once you have figured out what these likely scenarios are, then you can come up with a simple plan and some steps to prepare for them. Be aware, of course, that if you go somewhere else, the situation could be completely different, and you have to assess your surroundings from the beginning.

And that could be as simple as walking through another part of your home town, some place you've never been to before, or a place you haven't visited in a long time, and it's changed, for better or worse.


The bottom line is that wherever we go, we need to be aware of our surroundings and evaluate what, realistically, are the threats to our well-being; have a simple plan, and know what event will cause us to put that plan into action.

Monday, March 7, 2011

Book Signing and Presentation

I'll be doing a book signing and a 30-minute speech titled "Dealing with Danger" at Borders Books, Flatirons Mall, Broomfield, Colorado on Saturday March 12, 20011. The book signing is from 11 am until 1 pm. The speech starts at about 2:15 pm.
Here's a link to more information about the store location
Hope to see you there!

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Always know when and how to escape

In 1977, the Beverly Hills Supper Club in Ohio burned to the ground. It was a large building, standing in its own grounds. It consisted of various ballrooms, bars and dining facilities. People held wedding receptions and other functions there. On that night in 1977, there were about three thousand people--customers and staff--in the building.

A member of the staff noticed that a small fire had begun and began to notify the staff and the customers. The building did not have the sophisticated fire alarm systems that buildings have now, and the staff had to go to each room and tell people to leave because there was a fire.

Some people left immediately, others took a little more time to leave, and (amazingly) others just sat at their tables and continued with what they were doing. Some people, it is said, even ordered another round of drinks. It may have been the last thing that some of them did.

Around 167 people died in the fire. When firefighters eventually put out the flames and walked through the wreckage, they found a few people who had died, sitting at their tables.

Why didn't they try to escape?

I think there may be a couple of reasons:

First, some people just don't believe that something bad will happen to them. You may even know somebody who, when you remind them to put on their seatbelt in the car, or to not walk home alone late at night, or to not hitch-hike, will simply dismiss your concerns and say, "It'll be OK. Don't worry." As if you're nuts to even think about the possibility of danger.

Second, there are people who have no real understanding of the concept of being aware of their surroundings and never give a thought to their own safety.

In either case, when they are confronted with a situation they cannot ignore, such as a fire in the building where they are, they are forced to go through three mental and emotional phases. First, the go into denial (this cannot possibly be happening to me!); when they finally accept that it is happening to them, they go into phase two, deliberation (what do I do now?); and finally, in phase three, they do whatever it is they decided on in phase two (action).

The problem is that this mental exersize takes time. And if they take too long to figure out what it is they should be doing, they run out of time and they die.

It is far better to have developed a simple plan before it is ever needed. In the example above, anyone who visited the supper club for the first time should have made a note of the location of the exits and been aware that in the event of a fire (or any other physical threat) they could, and should simply leave by the nearest exit as quickly as possible.

This isn't rocket science. It's just a question of being aware of your surroundings, coming up with a very simple plan to deal with whatever situation may be a possible threat, and to know what event will trigger you putting that plan into action.

For example: "I can see two ways to get out of this restaurant in addition to the way I came in. If there is a fire in the restaurant I will leave immediately by whichever exit will get me outside the quickest and easiest."

Once you have a plan, you can go ahead and enjoy your meal, knowing that you have a way out if you need it.

Monday, January 3, 2011

Armed American Radio

Last night I was a guest on Armed American Radio. This is one of the fastest growing radio shows in the country, and last night they added local stations in Illinois and California to their growing pool of listeners. The show covers topics associated with firearms ownership, legislation and crime. One interesting aspect of the show was my discussion with host Mark Walters about the murder of a Georgia police officer by a career criminal. It seems crazy that the justice system allows violent offenders to get into a cycle of being caught and released to commit another violent crime, caught and released again.

We agreed that the legal system has to be reined in to do more with repeat offenders than just put them in this revolving door system that has been a problem for decades. (Does anybody remember career criminal Willie Horton, who gained notoriety during the 1988 Bush/Dukakis presidential campaign?) Mark is going to kick off this effort with a petition to the government that will be available on the Armed American Radio website, and we'll see where it can go from there.