After reading Emergency, I watched the bleak, post-apocalyptic The Road, with Viggo Mortensen.  Bad combination for a good night’s sleep.

The Big Idea: when the shit hits the fan (WTSHTF), will you be prepared?

• LA >> NYC, since it’s too spread out and has no single building or monument that symbolizes the nation
• Most gas masks are useless against biological and nerve agents.
• Katrina demonstrated you can’t count on FEMA.
• 88% of Americans don’t own a passport.
• You can get almost anywhere in the world with a EU passport but they are difficult to obtain.
• Empires collapse when they spread themselves too thin. — The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers by Paul Kennedy
• The Passport Book describes how to get a second passport.
• PT = permanent traveler
• 3 flag system = second passport, a safe location for your assets in another country, a legal address in a tax haven, bonus: business base country and a playground country
• During most of history, almost everyone was a survivalist.  They knew how to hunt, farm, fight, and keep themselves and their families alive.
• The urban survival kit is: cell phone, ATM card, pistol. — Bruce Clayton
• You don’t rise to the occasion. You default to the level of your training.
• Twelve gauge shotgun and birdshot for indoor protection.
• A motorcycle with saddlebags and local trail maps to escape via isolated mountain roads instead of crowded highways.
• Take a CERT class for the practical training, the green vest, and the badge.
• The average person needs a gallon of water a day.  After a massive earthquake, it might take 30 days to fix the pipes.
• Plumbers, contractors, and carpenters will be your best friends.
• The sacred order of outdoor survival: shelter, water, fire, food.
• The three qualities for wilderness survival: nature awareness, physical fitness, and self-mastery.
• The three skills for wilderness survival: hand drill, debris hut, throwing stick.
• Once you learn lock-picking, the world is your oyster.
• The most likely causes of death: heart disease, cancer, stroke, chronic respiratory diseases, trauma (especially motor vehicle accidents), poisoning, falling.  Near the bottom: terrorism.