Guns for the International PT Man

Posted on May 1, 2009
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In another guest post from Grandpa, author of The Invisible Investor (ByeByeBigBrother.com) Grandpa talks about the PT and expat aspects of personal guns for self defense.

Guns are all around us everywhere we go in the world. The freedom loving libertarian crowd has much in common with PTs. We share many of the same ideas and ultimate goals. Many Libertarians – especially Americans – consider the right to bear arms to be a basic freedom. They want the right to keep guns at home and carry hand guns with them at all times for self defense!

According to the National Rifle Association, millions of crimes are stopped every year when storekeepers and others simply brandish firearms at would be attackers. The average criminal or gang member has no training in firearms handling or shooting. They are scared of guns in the hands of their victims. All they know how to do is to ’spray and pray.’ They are no match for a trained marksman, experienced hunters or even someone with target shooting experience.

IS ‘PACKING HEAT’ COMPATIBLE WITH BEING A PT?

Our opinion? Yes, it can be. This chapter is about how and where you can legally own and carry guns, if guns are your thing.

Being a PT means keeping a low profile and staying out of trouble. We generally believe that if we need to have a gun for self-defence, we must be in the wrong place, the wrong business – or hanging with the wrong crowd. Either way, for this writer at least, it would be time to move on. We don’t want to live in the kind of environment where we are likely to need to use a gun. There are plenty of safe environments in the world. We choose to hoist all our PT Flags in civilized, non-violent communities.

Many of our readers (Americans in particular) want to have an arsenal of automatic weapons at home, and carry guns in their cars. The reason they usually give is that (besides preventing crime) Big Brother will think twice about bothering them if they have lethal weapons at their disposal.

The basic PT theory: if what you want to do is illegal where you are, move to a place where your ‘thing’ is legal! If smoking dope is important to you, go to Amsterdam. If carrying guns is important to you, go live in rural Texas. There you can have an armory in your home and shotguns prominently on display in the back window of your pickup truck.

In most places (outside of Texas), police are very paranoid about guns. Too many of their brother cops get shot. Having a gun in your possession makes you an immediate threat in their eyes. PTs don’t want to be considered an opponent of authority. However, there are exceptions. In certain US states, for example, cops think of people (usually private security guards) who are legally carrying concealed weapons as potential allies in a firefight. Thus, it depends on who you are, and where you are.

We heard an interesting reason not to carry a gun from a PT who lives in Papua New Guinea: “The fastest way to get shot here is to carry around a handgun! They’re hard to obtain here. Guns are a big prize for any street gang. The local kids won’t hesitate to kill you for your gun!”

WHAT IF YOU HAVE NO CHOICE?

What if you are settled in somewhere? You can’t or don’t wish to move. Crime and the threat of violence have come to your neighborhood.

One acquaintance told us this story. We retell it here because we think this is a good example of a situation where carrying heat might be compatible with being a PT.

Our friend commented: “I was once simply unable to realistically imagine a situation where I would need a firearm in self-defence. Then I got a threat one day: I was going to being beaten up and maybe shot in the knees by persons ‘representing’ a certain criminal underworld organization’s interests.”

“How did I find myself on the receiving end of such a threat?  I was the successful bidder on a real estate deal that the bad guys wanted. They did not ask me to sell to them, or make any demands. I had, by simply bidding on that property, offended some hoodlum. The ‘unknown’ people had already put my business partner in hospital with a fractured skull, broken legs and arms. Not surprisingly, he’d had a nervous breakdown after being beaten with baseball bats. Their objective, it appeared, was to show a legitimate operator that they would close us down if we dared to bid at ‘their’ public auction. There was nothing to be negotiated.

“The police told me they could not supply me or anyone with protection, but if anything beyond ‘mere threats’ happened, to report it. Sure, I needed to report the name and address of the person who shot me or broke my skull. The forces of ‘Law and Order’ were quite unable to protect me from an inevitable, possibly fatal injury.

“My reaction was that as a law abiding, tax paying member of society – with no criminal record – I should be able to carry (even concealed) a weapon to protect myself if I chose to do so.”

“As a practical matter, I did not particularly wish to walk around every day with an illegal hand gun. Yet I did want to feel that I had a chance of defending myself in my own home. Particularly at night. My world had unexpectedly become a dangerous place.”

We hope that you, dear reader, will never have to conclude that because of an absence of arms you are basically, a lamb ready for slaughter. Shouldn’t a law-abiding member of the public be allowed to defend himself? We will get back to our story in a moment.

TRAINING IN THE USE OF GUNS

This author would not like just anyone, to be able to buy guns and ammo without having at least some training! A gun owner should know how to aim and shoot with some chance of hitting the target! As bullets can be dangerous to neighbors and bystanders, we feel that gun owners should also know how to use and stow weapons safely

Still, facing an immediate direct threat most of us (like the guy in the story) would like to have the legal right to have a pistol or shotgun handy. For example, in case of a break in. How else could you confront and discourage someone (or more than one) determined to do you harm?

There is so much controversy surrounding guns, it’s easy to forget the basics – especially about handguns. They are designed to kill, but pistols are effective only at close quarters. Citizens don’t need rockets, bazookas, machine guns, tanks, or even automatic weapons.

But a handgun or shotgun is perfect as a weapon to try to keep yourself alive when if ‘baddies’ are breaking down your door.

What happened to our real-estate friend?

He figured there were several options:

1. Leave the area and disappear

2. Have himself locked up by the state – if indeed they would even take you into protective custody. {In fact, this is not even an option unless one is a witness in a high profile pending case.}

3. Be ready to defend himself, to fight and to kill his opponents. Self defence with a gun is illegal in his country (England).

As it turned out, his response was not what you would see in a movie. He just decided to leave the area with his family. This prudent course caused much economic hardship. His vacant home was burned by ‘unknown arsonists.’ The insurance company would not cover the loss because the property had been vacant for over thirty days when it was burned down. Our hero relocated in another town.

Months later, he still did not sleep soundly. He fears for himself and his family. What would you do? In England it is legal to purchase a shotgun for sport purposes. It can be kept at home. Our friend is planning to take up the sport of clay pigeon shooting. Simply having a gun handy for self-defence will give him some peace of mind. It will not really protect against an ambush or assassination by a careful professional. Our recommendation would be retreat. Move, perhaps to another country and start over. It might be more heroic or brave to single-handedly take on a criminal organization, but the odds are not good. The payoff is more likely to be personal disaster. How will the cops protect you? Not at all, thank you.

DON’T RELY ON THE STATE FOR PROTECTION

Some naïve people believe that the state will protect them. But you – and you alone – are the first, last and only line of defense against criminal or other violent attacks. To be realistic, even some crazed serial killers have been able to operate for decades before they are apprehended -if they ever are.

There really are evil thugs, crazies and criminals in the world. These germs typically prey on elderly, unarmed or otherwise helpless people. If there is an attempt to enter your premises in the wee hours of the morning and it is met with a shotgun blast, the criminals (if they escape injury) will probably move away from you and on to softer targets.

If you are retired and happen to live in Monaco where video surveillance is everywhere and there is one armed cop for every 19 residents, you won’t need a gun. Monaco exists to be a safe haven for the very rich. It protects its residents from both Big Brother and from Petty Criminals. Likewise, if you live in a gated, guarded community or high security apartment building, you are far less likely to be burglarized or assaulted. But not having the luxury of such protection leaves the majority of the world’s population – and maybe you –vulnerable.

It is up to you to protect yourself and your family. You can do that by installing alarms, heavier doors and shutters or in our opinion, last choice – by acquiring a gun. Our first choice would always be simply moving to a safer locale.

GUN POSSESSION IN THE THIRD WORLD

In the Third World, gun possession is common, but usually illegal. It is always illegal for foreigners to carry or transport any firearms without officially issued paperwork. Don’t even think of taking your guns along on vacation!

Mexican authorities, for example, are very strict on gun ownership. Some Texans decorate their pickup’s rear windows with a rack of rifles and shotguns. There have been cases of drunken Texans crossing the border unwittingly. Finding themselves on Mexican territory, they are arrested and jailed. The guns and trucks are confiscated. After a large bribe is paid, the Texans are usually released.

CONCLUSION: KEEP BELOW THE RADAR

PTs in conversation, if not in practice, often talk about activities that if acted upon could get them into serious legal trouble. The average PT is constantly challenging the status quo in his mind.

“How can I find a way of circumventing that law or regulation?”

There are also times when our younger adherents’ macho nature over-rules common sense.

“Heck, I’ll just get a gun and point it at those suckers and tell them to ‘Quit bustin’ my balls or I’ll blow your head off.’ ”

This is ‘Assault with a deadly weapon’ – a serious felony.

Sometime our goal seems best attained by crossing the line and doing something clearly illegal. Not a good idea! This impulse is to be resisted!  It contradicts what PT is all about.

But remember, the guy on the receiving end of any threat needs to prove it with at least one witness. Otherwise it is ‘his word against yours.’

The US government, as well as most other Western governments, wants its citizens to leave personal defense strictly to the authorities. They tell people ‘even if you are being robbed or burglarized, do not resist. Just give the criminals what they want.’ Numerous court decisions have held private citizens criminally and civilly liable for the injuries they cause criminals. The right of self-defence has been curtailed. At the same time the cops won’t help you if you are robbed or assaulted. It has been stated time and again that the police forces are not there to protect any individual, no matter how threatened he may feel. They might investigate only after you are dead.

Under the circumstances, retreat is the safest and most logical way to deal with a threat. If retreat is not possible, it is best to do what must be done. Protect yourself. Then stay below the radar to avoid trouble with Big Brother.

We won’t spell out exactly how to do it. We think you can figure it out. Big Brother is very good at convicting innocent people of victimless crimes, but not so good at anything else.

Flying Pigs, Tamiflu and Factory Farms

Posted on May 1, 2009
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by F. William Engdahl

If we are to believe what our trusted international media report, the world is on the brink of a global pandemic outbreak of a new deadly strain of flu, H1N1 as it has been labelled, or more popularly, Swine Flu. As the story goes, the outbreak of the deadly flu was first discovered in Mexico. According to press reports, after several days, headlines reported as many as perhaps 150 deaths in Mexico were believed caused by this virulent people-killing pig virus that has spread to humans and now is allegedly being further spread from human to human. Cases were being reported hourly from Canada to Spain and beyond. The only thing wrong with this story is that it is largely based on lies, hype and coverup of possible real causes of Mexican deaths.

One website, revealingly named Swine Flu Vaccine, reports the alarming news, ‘One out of every five residents of Mexico’s most populous city wore masks to protect themselves against the virus as Mexico City seems to be the epicenter of the outbreak. As many as 103 deaths have been attributed to the swine flu so far with many more feared to be on the horizon. The health department of Mexico said an additional 1,614 reported cases have been documented.’ We are told that the H1N1 ‘shares genetic material from human, avian and swine influenza viruses.’1

Airports around the world have installed passenger temperature scans to identify anyone with above normal body temperature as possible suspect for swine flu. Travel to Mexico has collapsed. Sales of flu drugs, above all Tamiflu from Roche Inc., have exploded in days. People have stopped buying pork fearing certain death. The World Health Organization has declared ‘a public health emergency of international concern,’ defined by them as ‘an occurrence or imminent threat of illness or health conditions caused by bioterrorism, epidemic or pandemic disease, or highly fatal infectious agents or toxins that pose serious risk to a significant number of people.’2

What are the symptoms of this purported Swine Flu? That’s not at all clear according to virologists and public health experts. They say Swine Flu symptoms are relatively general and nonspecific. ‘So many different things can cause these symptoms. it is a dilemma,’ says one doctor interviewed by CNN. ‘There is not a perfect test right now to let a doctor know that a person has the Swine Flu.’ It has been noted that most individuals with Swine Flu had an early onset of fever. Also it was common to see dizziness, body aches and vomiting in addition to the common sneezing, headache and other cold symptoms. These are symptoms so general as to say nothing.

The US Government’s Center for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta states on its official website, ‘Swine Influenza (swine flu) is a respiratory disease of pigs caused by type A influenza viruses that causes regular outbreaks in pigs. People do not normally get swine flu, but human infections can and do happen. Swine flu viruses have been reported to spread from person-to-person, but in the past, this transmission was limited and not sustained beyond three people.’ Nonetheless they add, ‘CDC has determined that this swine influenza A (H1N1) virus is contagious and is spreading from human to human. However, at this time, it is not known how easily the virus spreads between people.’3

How many media that have grabbed on the headline ‘suspected case of Swine Flu’ in recent days bother to double check with the local health authorities to ask some basic questions? For example, the number of confirmed cases of H1N1 and their location? The number of deaths confirmed to have resulted from H1N1? Dates of both? Number of suspected cases and of suspected deaths related to the Swine Flu disease?

Some known facts

According to Biosurveillance, itself part of Veratect, a US Pentagon and Government-linked epidemic reporting center, on April 6, 2009 local health officials declared a health alert due to a respiratory disease outbreak in La Gloria, Perote Municipality, Veracruz State, Mexico.

They reported, ‘Sources characterized the event as a ‘strange’ outbreak of acute respiratory infection, which led to bronchial pneumonia in some pediatric cases. According to a local resident, symptoms included fever, severe cough, and large amounts of phlegm. Health officials recorded 400 cases that sought medical treatment in the last week in La Gloria, which has a population of 3,000; officials indicated that 60% of the town’s population (approximately 1,800 cases) has been affected. No precise timeframe was provided, but sources reported that a local official had been seeking health assistance for the town since February.’ What they later say is ‘strange’ is not the form of the illness but the time of year as most flu cases occur in Mexico in the period October to February.

The report went on to note, ‘Residents claimed that three pediatric cases, all under two years of age, died from the outbreak. However, health officials stated that there was no direct link between the pediatric deaths and the outbreak; they stated the three fatal cases were “isolated” and “not related” to each other.’

Then, most revealingly, the aspect of the story which has been largely ignored by major media, they reported, ‘Residents believed the outbreak had been caused by contamination from pig breeding farms located in the area. They believed that the farms, operated by Granjas Carroll, polluted the atmosphere and local water bodies, which in turn led to the disease outbreak. According to residents, the company denied responsibility for the outbreak and attributed the cases to “flu.” However, a municipal health official stated that preliminary investigations indicated that the disease vector was a type of fly that reproduces in pig waste and that the outbreak was linked to the pig farms.’4

Since the dawn of American ‘agribusiness,’ a project initiated with funding by the Rockefeller Foundation in the 1950s to turn farming into a pure profit maximization business, US pig or hog production has been transformed into a highly efficient, mass production industrialized enterprise from birth to slaughter. Pigs are caged in what are called Factory Farms, industrial concentrations which are run with the efficiency of a Dachau or Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. They are all conceived by artificial insemination and once born, are regularly injected with antibiotics, not because of illnesses which abound in the hyper-crowded growing pens, but in order to make them grow and add weight faster. Turn around time to slaughter is a profit factor of highest priority. The entire operation is vertically integrated from conception to slaughter to transport distribution to supermarket.

Granjas Carroll de Mexico (GCM) happens to be such a Factory Farm concentration facility for hogs. In 2008 they produced almost one million factory hogs, 950,000 according to their own statistics. GCM is a joint venture operation owned 50% by the world’s largest pig producing industrial company, Smithfield Foods of Virginia.5 The pigs are grown in a tiny rural area of Mexico, a member of the North American Free Trade Agreement, and primarily trucked across the border to supermarkets in the USA, under the Smithfields’ family of labels. Most American consumers have no idea where the meat was raised.

Now the story becomes interesting.

Manure Lagoons and other playing fields

The Times of London interviewed the mother of 4-year-old Edgar Hernandez of La Gloria in Veracruz, the location of the giant Smithfield Foods hog production facility. Their local reporter notes, ‘Edgar Hernández plays among the dogs and goats that roam through the streets, seemingly unaware that the swine flu he contracted a few weeks ago — the first known case — has almost brought his country to a standstill and put the rest of the world on alert. ‘I feel great,’ the five-year-old boy said. ‘But I had a headache and a sore throat and a fever for a while. I had to lay down in bed.’’

The reporters add, ‘It was confirmed on Monday (April 27 2009-w.e.) that Edgar was the first known sufferer of swine flu, a revelation that has put La Gloria and its surrounding factory pig farms and ‘manure lagoons’ at the centre of a global race to find how this new and deadly strain of swine flu emerged.’ 6

That’s quite interesting. They speak of ‘La Gloria and its surrounding factory pig farms and ‘manure lagoons.’ Presumably the manure lagoons around the LaGloria factory pig farm of Smithfield Foods are the waste dumping place for the feces and urine waste from at least 950,000 pigs a year that pass through the facility. The Smithfield’s Mexico joint venture, Norson, states that alone they slaughter 2,300 pigs daily. That’s a lot. It gives an idea of the volumes of pig waste involved in the concentration facility at La Gloria.

Significantly, according to the Times reporters, ‘residents of La Gloria have been complaining since March that the odour from Granjas Carroll’s pig waste was causing severe respiratory infections. They held a demonstration this month at which they carried signs of pigs crossed with an X and marked with the word peligro (danger).’7 There have been calls to exhume the bodies of the children who died of pneumonia so that they could be tested. The state legislature of Veracruz has demanded that Smithfield’s Granjas Carroll release documents about its waste-handling practices. Smithfield Foods reportedly declined to comment on the request, saying that it would ‘not respond to rumours.’8

A research compilation by Ed Harris reported, ‘According to residents, the company denied responsibility for the outbreak and attributed the cases to ‘flu.’ However, a municipal health official stated that preliminary investigations indicated that the disease vector was a type of fly that reproduces in pig waste and that the outbreak was linked to the pig farms.’9 That would imply that the entire Swine Flu scare might have originated from the PR spin doctors of the world’s largest industrial pig factory farm operation, Smithfield Foods.

The Vera Cruz-based newspaper La Marcha blames Smithfield’s Granjos Carroll for the outbreak, highlighting inadequate treatment of massive quantities of animal waste from hog production.10

Understandably the company is perhaps more than a bit uncomfortable with the sudden attention. The company, which supplies the McDonald’s and Subway fast-food chains, was fined $12.3 million in the United States 1997 for violating the Clean Water Act. Perhaps they are in a remote tiny Mexican rural area enjoying a relatively lax regulatory climate where they need not worry about being cited for violations of any Clean Water Act.



Pig Factory Farm Industrial Production is a classic breeder of disease and toxins but little attention is being paid to this source

Factory Farms as toxic concentrations

At the very least the driving force for giant industrial agribusiness outsourcing of facilities to third world sites such as Veracruz, Mexico has more to do with further cost reduction and lack of health and safety scrutiny than it does with improving the health and safety quality of the food end product. It has been widely documented and subject of US Congressional reports that large-scale indoor animal production facilities such as that of Granjos Carroll are notorious breeding grounds for toxic pathogens.

A recent report by the US Pew Foundation in cooperation with the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health notes, ‘the method of producing food animals in the United States has changed from the extensive system of small and medium-sized farms owned by a single family to a system of large, intensive operations where the animals are housed in large numbers in enclosed structures that resemble industrial buildings more than they do a traditional barn. That change has happened primarily out of view of consumers but has come at a cost to the environment and a negative impact on public health, rural communities, and the health and well-being of the animals themselves.’ 11

The Pew study notes, ‘The diversified, independent, family-owned farms of 40 years ago that produced a variety of crops and a few animals are disappearing as an economic entity, replaced by much larger, and often highly leveraged, farm factories. The animals that many of these farms produce are owned by the meat packing companies from the time they are born

or hatched right through their arrival at the processing plant and from there to market.’ 12

The study emphasizes that application of ‘untreated animal waste on cropland can contribute to excessive nutrient loading, contaminate surface waters, and stimulate bacteria and algal growth and subsequent reductions in dissolved oxygen concentrations in surface waters.’13

That is where the real investigation ought to begin, with the health and sanitary dangers of the industrial factory pig farms like the one at Perote in Veracruz. The media spread of panic-mongering reports of every person in the world who happens to contract ‘symptoms’ which vaguely resemble flu or even Swine Flu and the statements to date of authorities such as WHO or CDC are far from conducive to a rational scientific investigation..

Tamiflu and Rummy

In October 2005 the Pentagon ordered vaccination of all US military personnel worldwide against what it called Avian Flu, H5N1. Scare stories filled world media. Then, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld announced he had budgeted more than $1 billion to stockpile the drug Oseltamivir, sold under the name Tamiflu. President Bush called on Congress to appropriate another $2 billion for Tamiflu stocks.

What Rumsfeld neglected to report at the time was a colossal conflict of interest. Prior to coming to Washington in January 2001, Rumsfeld had been chairman of a California pharmaceutical company, Gilead Sciences. Gilead Sciences held exclusive world patent rights to Tamiflu, a drug it had developed and whose world marketing rights were sold to the Swiss pharma giant, Roche. Rumsfeld was reportedly the largest stock holder in Gilead which got 10% of every Tamiflu dose Roche sold. 14 When it leaked out, the Pentagon issued a curt statement to the effect that Secretary Rumsfeld had decided not to sell but to retain his stock in Gilead, claiming that to sell would have indicated something to hide.’ That agonizing decision won him reported added millions as the Gilead share price soared more than 700% in weeks.

Tamiflu is no mild candy to be taken lightly. It has heavy side effects. It contains matter that could have potentially deadly consequences for a person’s breathing and often reportedly leads to nausea, dizziness and other flu-like symptoms.

Since the outbreak of Swine Flu Panic (not Swine Flu but Swine Flu Panic) sales of Tamiflu, as well as any and every possible drug marketed as flu-related, have exploded. Wall Street firms have rushed to issue ‘buy’ recommendations for the company. ‘Gimme a shot Doc, I don’t care what it is…I don’t wanna die…’

Panic and fear of death was used by the Bush Administration skilfully to promote the Avian Flu fraud. With ominous echoes of the current Swine Flu scare, Avian Flu was traced back to huge chicken factory farms in Thailand and other parts of Asia whose products were shipped across the world. Instead of a serious investigation into the sanitary conditions of those chicken factory farms, the Bush Administration and WHO blamed ‘free-roaming chickens’ on small family farms, a move that had devastating economic consequences to the farmers whose chickens were being raised in the most sanitary natural conditions. Tyson Foods of Arkansas and CG Group of Thailand reportedly smiled all the way to the bank.

Now it remains to be seen if the Obama Administration will use the scare around so-called Swine Flu to repeat the same scenario, this time with ‘flying pigs’ instead of flying birds. Already Mexican authorities have reported that the number of deaths confirmed from so-called Swine Flu is 7, not the 150 or more bandied in the media, and that most other suspected cases were ordinary flu or influenza.

(To be continued)

F. William Engdahl is author of Seeds of Destruction: The Hidden Agenda of Genetic Manipulation (Global Rersearch, 2007, see below) and A Century of War: Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order (Pluto Press). His new book, Full Spectrum Dominance: Totalitarian Democracy in the New World Order (Third Millennium Press) is due out end of May. He may be contacted through his website: www.engdahl.oilgeopolitics.net.

Notes

1 Health Advisory, accessed in http://www.swine-flu-vaccine.info/.

2 Ibid.

3 Centers for Disease Control, Swine Influenza and You, accessed in
http://www.cdc.gov/swineflu/swineflu_you.htm.

4 Biosurveillance, Swine Flu in Mexico- Timeline of Events, April 24, 2009, accessed in
http://biosurveillance.typepad.com/biosurveillance/2009/04/swine-flu-in-mexico-timeline-of-events.html.

5 Smithfield Foods website, accessed in
http://www.smithfieldfoods.com/our_company/our_family/Norson.aspx.

6] Ruth Maclean in La Gloria and Chris Ayres in Mexico City, I had a headache and fever’ says boy who survived, London Times, April 28, 2009.

7] Ibid.

8 Ibid.

9 Ed Harris, Bloggers Examine Environmental Role in Mexico Swine Flu Outbreak, April 27, 2009, accessed in
http://www.planetthoughts.org/?pg=pt/Whole&qid=2870.

10 Ibid.

11 The Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production, Putting Meat on the Table: Industrial Farm

Animal Production in America, accessed in http://www.ncifap.org/_images/PCIFAPFin.pdf.

12 Ibid.

13 Ibid.

14 F. William Engdahl, Is Avian Flu another Pentagon Hoax?, GlobalResearch, October 30, 2005.