Here’s a very good podcast on why you should carry a concealed weapon, even at home, by Jack Spirko. Women will find it particularly informative.

The podcaster is Jack Spirko. He discusses all manner of subjects day after day in a clear, straightforward way. I find myself listening to his Survival Podcast more and more.

This is what’s so great about the Internet, and why it is so important for the future of freedom. It brings smart guys like Spirko into public view so they can discuss good ideas engagingly. The Internet tends to multiply people like him and magazines like BHM into the freedom revolution that is now taking hold in America. We are essentially another part of the whole “tea party” phenomenon that is growing a freedom movement from the bottom up.

Annie, by the way, is doing great.

Doctors delayed Annie’s transfer from the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) for a day, but she was transferred to the regular hospital ward late this afternoon. I think, but am not sure, she will be released tomorrow. She looks great, is breathing well, and all monitors and doctors’ experience indicate the baby has weathered this interlude in his mother’s life like it was just another day at the beach.

Did I say his? We actually have no idea, but Olga has been hoping out loud for another brother and the baby has a rapid heart rate indicating a boy  … I think … but I’m not as up to speed as I should be on Old Wives Tales.

Erik flew in this aftrnoon just barely before the onset of the big Pacific storm we are now experiencing so Grandma and I gave over the grandkids to him. Annie and the grandkids were obviosuly happy to see him. Erik’c main problem now is explaining to 6-year-old Olga that Daddy is not home for good. “That’s what Daddy told me when he was home before,” she said. “The next time I’m home I’ll be home for good.” Lenie and I tried to explain to her that this visit is just an “emergency leave to help mommy,” but Olga was insistent: “No, Daddy said that the next time he was home it would be for good!”

Kids are very intriguing. Just as Olga can’t quite grasp that Daddy is home only temporarily to help Mommy through being sick, she catches on to the nuances. When Lenie was putting her to bed last night, she asked her, “Is the baby getting enough oxygen?” She must have overheard us talking and it began a process of worry in her little mind.  She’s very precocious … reminds me of her mom when she was that age.

But everything is fine now. Daddy has the next 13 days to explain what is going on.

My daughter, Annie, the managing editor of BHM, was admitted to the hospital today with pneumonia. She and her 4-year-old son Gavin had been sick for a week, then yesterday Lenie and I decided to take her whole family back to our house to nurse them back to health. I ended up taking Annie to the Sutter Coast Hospital ER in Crescent City, Calif., at 5:30 this morning. I’m with her in the ICU now, and her husband, Erik, is flying back from the Marine Corps base in North Carolina. She’s resting fairly comfortably with intravenous-fed fluids and antibiotics, plus an oxygen tube to help her breathe.

She’s one of several people sick in my circle. Son Jake just got over being sick for a week, son Sam just came down sick a couple of days ago, and John Silveira has been sick at least a week. Gavin appears to be recovering nicely. Annie has asthma and is five months pregnant, so the doctors are watching her closely. Her baby appears to be doing fine.

We’re just about set to send the 15th and 16th year anthologies out to the printer. Annie and Lenie are making the final manipulations to the files now. Meanwhile we were running out of the Best of the First Two Years, the 6th Year Anthology, and the 9th Year Anthology so had them reprinted. In fact, I had about a thousand-book printing overrun on each of these three anthologies that wouldn’t fit into our main storeooom. So the extras are taking up the space we need to stack the 15th and 16 years.

What to do, what to do! Why not package them as a three-anthology special, someone said, and sell them at a steep discount, like about all three for $36. That will at least get them out of our way. So I have, and the ad for it is here.

If you don’t have these older anthologies, or you want to give some to friends, this is a good time to buy them. They normally sell for $21.95 each. The Best of the First Two Years is our biggest anthology at 484 pages (vice 360 pages for the others) and it is our all-time best seller.