FC: With war afoot, a well-dressed executive needs... a parachute?

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

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Date: Thu, 13 Feb 2003 17:51:32 -0800 (PST)
From: Joseph Lorenzo Hall <jhall () astron Berkeley EDU>
To: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>
Subject: I'll take two Executive Kits please...
Message-ID: <Pine.GSO.4.44.0302131750080.7907-100000@irk>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII


Declan, this seems to be legit. if not completely absurd... or maybe
I'm the only one that is not running for the bunkers...

http://saferamerica.com/sapackages.asp?packageID=2

High Rise Kit: 1 Adult

1 Escape Parachute: Executive-Chute
1 Smoke Hood: Evac-U8
1 NBC Protective Suit: Tyvek F
1 Package of No-Rad Potassium Iodide
1 Pair of Nitrile Gloves + Booties
1 Flash Light 2 D
Duct Tape

When ordering the kit, please indicate the size of the Tyvek NBC suit.

Our price: $975.00

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From: Tim May
Subject: Something conspicuously missing from the media survival lists
To: cypherpunks
Date: Tue, 11 Feb 2003 10:44:13 -0800

Here in war-preparing America, reports are running on CNN, CNBC, CBS,
and presumably other networks about the importance of some basic
emergency supplies for all good citizen-units. This is mostly good
advice, of course.

Being a paranoid and a kind of survivalist, I already have first aid
kits, spare water, batteries, flashlights, warm clothing, duct tape and
plastic sheets, spare eyeglasses, and the other items being recommended
by the experts. In fact, I have a _lot_ more than this.

The idea is that the some attack by the Evil Doers in the Axis of Evil
may come after the U.S. begins carpet-bombing Baghdad or Tehran or
Pyongyang. Unspoken is the possibility that one of the various
powderkegs may lead to a larger war. Disruption of supply lines, even
civil disorder, could occur.

The news channels are right in spending a couple of minutes a day
talking about basic preparedness for a several day disruption. However,
there's one basic item they conspicuously neglect to mention.

That Item Whose Name May Not Be Spoken on Television: a gun.

If there's disruption, looting, a breakdown in what now passes for
civil order, a gun is just about the most important thing to have.
Probably not necessary to use it, for 99.5% of everyone, but then most
of the emergency things like plastic sheets and medical supplies
probably won't be needed, either.

But in postmodern America mentioning guns is simply NOT DONE. Not even
on the Fox Network, a more rightward network than the others. (Being
right no longer means mentioning guns, as Ashcroft and Cheney and the
like would prefer that guns be in the hands of der polizei. There's a
reason Hitler confiscated guns held privately by Germans.)


--Tim May
"The great object is that every man be armed and everyone who is able
may have a gun." --Patrick Henry
"The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they
be properly armed." --Alexander Hamilton




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