Our personal and state financial health are critically important issues with regards to proper preparedness.  If our taxes are increased, we obviously have fewer funds available for our own preps.  If the state is forced to cut programs to ensure we have a state Constitutionally-mandated balanced budget, critical state preparedness budgets might be slashed.

It seems like once a year, I have done a post on wasteful spending by our California legislators.  My focus isn't on improper perks our legislators grant themselves as much as it is on entire departments we must fund.  It can be truly maddening.

I'm of a libertarian bent - I believe in conservative fiscal principles and liberal social freedoms.  Personal, individual responsibility!  In general, I think our state government should focus our limited resources on:

1. Provide for an economic environment which encourages business growth.
2. Provide for state-wide infrastructure projects, such as roads, levies, water, power, etc.
3. Laws and enforcement: Courts, AG, State police agencies
4. Basic legislature duties
5. Basic Executive duties
6. Regulate (not operate) business practices that an average layperson could not reasonably be expected to understand AND using those services could result in permanent harm or death (medical boards, etc.). This does not include telling us what kinds of foods we can buy and eat, where (and if) we can smoke cigarettes, etc.
7. 100% of state education funds should be in the form of vouchers. Competition among schools and teachers will result in a better "product" being produced.

The bottom line is, if it isn't involved in the day-to-day or long-term operations of the state, or designed to  promote and enhance the state's economy, stay away from it!

That all being said, I'd like you to take a look at this site. It lists every single state department which we fund. I caution you to medicate yourself as you see fit to help counter to spike in your blood pressure you will likely experience!

Some questions I have after looking at this list:

1. Why would the state WE be paying for any ethnic or cultural museum, commission or caucus?  Are not these things the domain of private ethnic or cultural organizations?  What could possibly be the justification for taking our tax dollars to pay for these things?  If YOU want to visit a certain type of museum, go right ahead.  Just be sure you bring the cash to get in.  It is not the state's job to ensure you are culturally aware or exposed to the arts.
2. Why do we pay for all of these political caucus'?  The state assembly and senate each has a Democrat and a Republican caucus.  I'm sure each of these caucus' has it's own paid director, staff and researchers.  Why?  If the either party wants to look into or promote some issue, feel free to do so ON YOUR OWN DIME.
3. The California Commission on the Status of Women?  Really?  Their 2009-2010 legislative agenda says they've been around for FOUR DECADES!  Why would we have a state-financed agency that ADVOCATES for one particular gender (or race or religion or IQ or hobby or anything)?  If the state is taking money from all of us, they need to only do things that benefit all of us.
4. How's this for a double-edged sword?  We have the Bureau of Electronic and Appliance Repair, Home Furnishings and Thermal Insulation.  On the good side, it used to be two separate departments, and now it's only one.  On the bad side, why do we have this at all? Their website says, "At the Bureau, we strive to protect consumers, work with and educate businesses so we can be mutually successful in today's challenging marketplace." How about we let businesses and individuals be responsible for their own success? That's not government's job.

There are dozens and dozens of these types of departments.  Let's cut them first, then let's cut down the legislator's staff, THEN we can consider cutting some of the critical services.

Until we get serious in cutting non-essential services, and not worrying about stepping on politically sensitive toes, we're not going to get our state back on course.  Like our federal government, we are drowning in debt.  We simply must spend within our means.

You may have seen some department that you have some special connection with - we all do - but our funding is not unlimited.  We must make choices.  I choose to save critical services.
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You can contact Chief Instructor by visiting Accept The Challenge.

Security Alert for those traveling to Mexico. This is right in line Chief Instructors post below. As I mentioned, I signed up for the e-mail service a few months ago and picked my county for the notifications. The link to the alert is as follows;

http://www.emergencyemail.org/newsemergency/anmviewer.asp?a=488&z=43

It is a must have. Also, along the same lines, click on the link below. It all ties in to us living in California, although, the effects vary from local to local. Here on the central coast, especially north county, we are pretty immune to the border clashes and the residue effects of our open border policy.

http://americanpatrol.com/

Loco Gato
Be safe, be free

This is a reprint from Accept The Challenge.  Considering all of the harsh weather we've been having (well, harsh for us Californians!), I thought I'd start off with this post.


I personally use the EDIS-by-Email service, and it has already come in VERY handy on two occasions.  The first was for a tornado that touched down in my SF Bay Area town (!), and the second time was for a Shelter-In-Place alert we got as the police were looking for a shooting suspect that was in our area.


BTW, I have the alerts go to my email address in full-text mode, and just the headlines go to my cell phone (to save memory space).
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Most states and localities  have some sort of Emergency Alert System.  It may be a tornado siren or a TV or radio alert that interrupts your regular programming.

California has a system that goes a bit further.  It is called the Emergency Digital Information System (EDIS).  It is a system where you can receive an alert via an email message.  What is nice, is that you can get an alert sent to your cell phone as well.

The system allows you to select the specific county for which you want alerts - in some cases, allowing you to choose specific cities.  You can also select the type and severity of emergency about which you're notified.

For instance, you can choose to receive an alert that occurs in any of the 9 Bay Area counties for a chemical, meteorological or transportation emergency.  You can decide if you want to know if it is of an Extreme, Severe, Moderate, Minor or Unknown severity.  You can select one or all of them.

Having these alerts sent to your cell phone will allow you to know about emergencies that happen while you are away from home.  These alerts could be life-savers.
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Emergencies don't always occur when we're safely inside of our homes.  Getting as much advanced notice of an emergency that may affect you or a family member can be crucially important.

Start with a Google search of your area's emergency alert system.  I had the best results when starting on the county basis - doing a Google search of 'Contra Costa County emergency alerts'.  Drill down to find out which ways you can receive notification.

If your area does not appear to have a program, search for your local CERT - Community Emergency Response Team (national site with state links here).  Let them know you think an alert program would be a good idea.  Send them a link to the California system as an example of what can work.
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You can contact Chief Instructor by visiting the Accept The Challenge blog and following the links.

I'm very excited and honored to have been asked to contribute to the California Preppers Network.  I figure that the more people we can all reach with our message of self-reliance, the better off we'll all be.

A little about me and what I do:

I'm a native Californian.  I've spent my entire life, so far, in Northern Cal - with the exception of one year in the Los Angeles area.   I own a company, Bison Risk Management Associates where we teach various self-reliance workshops.  Everything from emergency preparedness for individuals and businesses, to safety awareness, pepper spray and stun gun usage, and firearms training from beginner to advanced.

I've been involved with Emergency Preparedness and Disaster Recovery for more than 30 years.  Many moons ago, I worked for a bank with a Stagecoach theme (hint, hint), and had some basic training and understanding of  emergency preps.

I was able to put much of what I learned into practice when I was transferred to Southern California in 1983 to help build the bank's emergency contingency plans to deal with the 1984 Summer Olympics.  I learned a great deal about what works and what won't.

It crossed all disciplines - civil unrest, terrorism, food and water shortages, transportation issues, data storage and protection, financial preps - EVERYTHING.

And being in California, we were well grounded in earthquake, wild fire, mud slide and other natural disasters.

Fast forward to 1998.  By that time, I was the CIO of a community bank in San Francisco, and was tasked with the Y2K preps.  What I learned there was how to do more with less.  We didn't have the deep pockets of a national bank.  Every dime that was spent had to be justified.

It was all steak and no sizzle!

It was that Y2K experience that really helped to form my philosophy on emergency preps.  You can spin your wheels making up plans for hundred of possible contingencies - earthquakes, tornadoes, EMPs, terrorist attacks, mud slides, job loss, hyper-inflation, food shortages, water contamination, etc.

But when you compare your plans, you'll start to notice patterns.  The same impacts pop up, again and again.  For instance, it doesn't matter if you lose your electrical power because of an EMP, or because a drunk hit a power pole, or because a terrorist bombed a power station.  You have no power, and you need to deal with THAT!

There are 12 Impacts you, as an individual, should consider.

I'll be talking about those impacts, how to determine how they will affect your life (possibly VERY differently from how it will affect others) and all kinds of self-reliance topics.  From grains to guns!

For instance, I'm in the middle of a bunch of experiments on malting my own grains.  I've been an avid home brewer since 1980, and don't want to give it up if there were a sudden loss of malted grains.

One of the side benefits of getting the sugars out of grains (mashing and lautering for you non-brewing geeks!) is that this sweet liquid doesn't just have to be fermented into alcohol.  It can also be processed into a syrup, for instance.

Anyways, I'll be doing posts on a variety of topics here on a regular basis.  I invite you all to visit my Accept The Challenge blog for my daily posts as well.   Anyone who wishes to contact me directly, can send an email to info@BisonRMA.com

 Just got this alert in my e-mail.

Check it out at;


http://www.emergencyemail.org/newsemergency/anmviewer.asp?a=489&z=43

A huge hat tip to Chief Instructor, who has a blog called " Accept the Challenge"at
http://bisonrma.blogspot.com/. 

He has agreed to take time from his busy life to help out here with an article or 2 as time permits. I let him fill you in as to his background and such.
Hopefully you will gain some more insight to prepping from a different angle.

Thanks again Chief Instructor!

Loco Gato
Be safe, be free

3%4Freedom R.I.P.

Well the tidal wave came and went with no notice. That is except for a few Coast Guard type that saw the bouys lean a bit more that usual. That was it. No problem and the warning has been lifted.
Stay tune for a featured guest writer.
Be safe, be free