5. The Freedom Outlaw's Handbook

The Freedom Outlaw's Handbook: 179 things to Do 'Til the Revolution - Claire Wolfe

I must say right up front that I do think this book is geared toward people that are far more "outlawish" than I am.

I say that because there were times where the author defended David Koresh and the Waco garbage. She would say that the government was thuggish going against a few kind people for failing to pay taxes on a couple little guns. There was more involved with the Waco situation that not paying a few taxes.

Then she took the side of the guy who hid in the mountains for a while evading the cops on gun charges...I forget his name.

Then she said stuff about how the Unabomber wasn't caught by millions of dollars and man hours, but by his own brother turning him in.

She even made some statements about the Oklahoma City domestic terrorist attacks that casted doubt upon it even being a terrorist and maybe was our own government creating problems to help itself.

That kind of stuff is just crackpot bullshit and I discounted much of what the author had to say because I am not an extremist, can't support extremist tactics, and don't have much respect for people that go as far as the above mentioned individuals went...even if their point was to protect their constitutional rights.

That being said, this book did have a few little tidbits of information that I can and will use in my life. There are some interesting points of view that I had not thought about before.


"If the government issued permits for free speech, would you get in line for one? If your local sheriff was willing to grant permission to practice your religion - after you passed certain tests, gave your fingerprints and let yourself be photographed, would you apply? If your state allowed you to hold a political meeting, but only if you obtained the proper license and consented to having your name entered in a government database, would you lay your money down?

The proper answer is, "We don't need no stinking permits!" Right?

Then you don't need no stinking permit to exercise your right to own and carry firearms either"

I found that section to be interesting. The rights being spoken of are guaranteed by the Constitution. If one has been limited, why not the others? Actually, the others have been limited in small ways also. It is just to say that we are not as "free" as we like to run around shouting about to the rest of the world. We used to be, but we no longer are.


And then there was this...which is exactly how I feel about limited federal government:

"Fear is the most potent weapon of power-mongers. They spook us with some threat - which may be real or illusory. Then they promise to save us from it - as long as we just give up a few more billion dollars, a few rights, a little of our privacy, a lot of our independence, and ultimately all of our freedom.

They'll "save" us from foreign terrorists, drug users, abusive spouses, global warming, foreign invaders, foreign diseases, flag burners, left-wing radicals, right-wing reactionaries, immigrants, domestic terrorists, bad parents, racists, date-rapists, unfair employers, fast food, poverty, herbal supplements, imported drugs, deadbeat dads, people whose opinions hurt our feelings, unAmerican activities, obesity, crooked corporations, high medical bills, pollution, our own stupidity, and our neighbor's stupidity. They'll save us from "hate crimes", discrimination, immorality, gay-bashing, inequality, "gun violence", hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes, and the consequences of everybody's bad choices.

Except that somehow they never do. And after all the trillions of dollars spent and giant (often heavily armed) bureaucracies erected to save us from every single other thing in the entire world including, I kid you not, excess caffeine drinking and kids who sass their parents, the government is big enough that who's going to save us from it?

It's hard not to feel fear these days, especially when we're sitting in front of the TV set or getting our daily dose of bad news from the net.

But it's crucial not to let that fear overmaster us. If we let it freeze us, then we've already lost."

So, this book is full of suggestions for people to do to protect their rights from the big evil government while we are all waiting around for it to get bad enough for the population to revolt.
While much of it is just too far out there for any mainstream society member to do, some of it is actually quite useful to even us "normal" people.

Here are some of the chapters:
-Don't give your Social Security Number...she means to anyone, ever. Burn the card and make up something or just refuse to answer. There is a lot more to it that that, but it was based in good practice and taken too far.

-Don't get all goo-goo about cops and soldiers. Yes, she is right. They are no better than anyone else. Some good. Some bad. Once again though, she took it too far.

Ahhh, ya know what? I don't feel like typing them out any more. It is kind of stupid to attempt to explain this book without having to explain where I stand of every single issue she brought up.

If you are into the whole extremist-survivalist thing (burying weapons stockpiles, etc) then you should check it out. Otherwise, it is a lot of over-the-top BS just to get to some very good nuggets of wisdom.