Our Government Is Violating Our Privacy

It is accurate to say that the number one most important thing to understand about Americans is probably their devotion to "individualism."

Only second to the value and importance that an American places on individualism, is the importance Americans assign to their privacy.

Yes, the right to privacy is an ideal that runs deep in our American culture. It’s something to be both respected and defended, and is considered fundamental to a free society.

We carry this right like a shield, and while often very warm and welcoming hosts, the home is considered a bastion of privacy. What is "ours" is OURS!

Our privacy is considered important to us for many reason, but mostly because it has to do with our concept of freedom and liberty - and security. In many cases, our privacy has everything to do with our safety and security.

Since I've received a lot of e-mail asking me about our American Cultural Values, I figure it may be time to do a talk about this.

The Bill of Rights reflects the concern of our founders for protecting specific aspects of privacy, such as the privacy of beliefs (1st Amendment), privacy of the home against demands that it be used to house soldiers (3rd Amendment), privacy of the person and possessions as against unreasonable searches (4th Amendment), and the 5th Amendment's privilege against self-incrimination, which provides protection for the privacy of personal information. 

Yes, while Americans might frown on someone asking their age or how much money they have in the bank, to which most if not all will answer "It's none of your business," a violation of our privacy is seen as a violation of our liberty as a free people - not slave nor peasant to be ruled over by a totalitarian government. 

If our privacy is assaulted, our freedom is under direct attack. 

Allow me to note something that many of my younger readers are probably unaware of. By law, our Social Security numbers were initially forbidden to be used as identification numbers by anyone - government or civilian. 

Social Security cards printed from January 1946 until January 1972 expressly stated the number and card were not to be used for identification purposes.

But, since nearly everyone in the United States now has a number, it became convenient to use it anyway and the message was removed. 

The SSN card is still not suitable for primary identification as it has no photograph, no physical description and no birth date. All it does is confirm that a particular number has been issued to a particular name.

Social Security numbers have become de facto national identification numbers. Although some people do not have an SSN assigned to them, it is becoming increasingly difficult to engage in legitimate financial activities such as applying for a loan or a bank account without one. 

While the government cannot require an individual to disclose his SSN without a legal basis, companies may refuse to provide service to an individual who does not provide a SSN.

The Social Security Act was drafted during Franklin Delano Roosevelt's first term by the President's Committee on Economic Security, and passed by Congress as part of the Second New Deal.

The act was an attempt to limit what were seen as dangers in the modern American life, including old age, poverty, unemployment, and the burdens of widows and fatherless children.

By signing this act on August 14, 1935, President Roosevelt became the first president to advocate federal numbering of our citizens.

When the Social Security Protection Act of 2010 became law, President Obama was supposedly aiming at reducing identity theft by limiting the Government's use of and access to social security numbers.

The bill, which passed the Democrat controlled House and Senate at the time, supposedly prohibits government agencies from printing social security numbers on checks and from allowing prison inmates from getting access to Social Security numbers.

The problem is that with our Social Security numbers, the government knows all about us and keeps our private information on file. Because of that, the government makes null and void our right to privacy because it makes that information to anyone who wants it.   

The federal government is a giant collector of information of every sort on all of us. And yes, the Obama administration is responsible for violating our privacy in many ways

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Recently, the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) has acknowledges releasing personal details on farmers and ranchers.

The Environmental Protection Agency acknowledged last week Tuesday that it released personal information on potentially thousands of farmers and ranchers to radical environmental groups, following concerns from congressional Republicans and agriculture groups that the release could endanger their safety.

The EPA said "some of the personal information that could have been protected … was released."

Though the EPA has already sent out the documents, the agency now says it has since redacted sensitive details and "asked" the environmental groups to “return the information.”

But Sen. John Thune, who originally complained about the release, slammed the EPA for trying to retroactively recover the sensitive data.

"It is inexcusable for the EPA to release the personal information of American families and then call for it back, knowing full well that the erroneously released information will never be fully returned," he said in a statement to FoxNews.com.

"While EPA acknowledging that it erred is a first step, more must be done to protect the personal information of our farmers and ranchers now and in the future. I will continue to demand answers from the EPA on how this information was collected and why it is still being distributed to extreme environmental groups to the detriment of our farm and ranch families."

The information on livestock and produce farmers was sought through a Freedom of Information Act request by the groups Earth Justice, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Pew Charitable Trust.

The groups, which have not commented on whether they plan to return the documents, were originally given information on roughly 80,000 farmers and ranchers - subsequently putting them at risk of harm.

The agency acknowledged the information included individual names, email addresses, phone numbers and personal addresses.

Sen. Thune, of South Dakota, where 500 farmers and ranchers had their information made public, sent a letter to the EPA requesting the agency answer a list of questions - including whether agency officials reviewed the information to see whether the release complied with the federal Privacy Act of 1974.

“The EPA has threatened the health and safety of agriculture producers and their families and has damaged the security of our food system,” Sen Thune said.

“There is a growing gap of trust between America’s farm and ranch families and the EPA. Much of this lack of trust is due to EPA’s aggressive regulatory agenda.”

Other concerns expressed by Sen.Thune, farm bureaus and others include whether the EPA first consulted with the departments of Agriculture and Homeland Security, which had already advised against compiling a public database with similar information and whether the EPA still intends to create such a record.

“Does the EPA intend to gather any more personal information on livestock producers?” Senator Thune asked in his letter to agency Acting Administrator Bob Perciasepe.

Critics have characterized Earth Justice and the organizations as being "Extremist groups" and "Eco Terrorists" and say the released information included data on family farmers who feed fewer than 1,000 animals, which excludes them from having to comply with the Act.

"This information details my family’s home address," J.D. Alexander, a Nebraska cattle farmer and former president of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, told FarmFuture.com.

"The only thing it doesn’t do is chauffeur these extremists to my house."

The Obama administration has had its EPA work hand in hand with these radical Environmentalist groups, yet they do no understand the worry on the part of the farmer and the rancher out there.

The information they furnished to those extremists may facilitate criminal acts against facilities and people at those facilities. If my name were among those released, I would be worried. 

The EPA said the majority of the data was already publicly available through state databases, web sites and federal and state permits, or is required to be released under federal or state law - as if that justifies there actions.

In response to privacy concerns raised by agricultural groups, the EPA supposedly redacted sections of information from 10 of the 29 states that contained some personal data.

So if you're reading this and think it's only farmers and ranchers who should worry about what the Obama administration is doing with you private information, think again! 

Because of ObamaCare, you are now owned by the state. 

You see the IRS is set to take a significant role in the new health care law. That significant part of the ObamaCare plan continues to worry many who have little faith in government efficiency in taking care of the privacy of millions of Americans involved in the system.

Many security experts fear that Americans' patient information will be vulnerable to unauthorized access and distribution with perpetrators being outside hackers or IRS insiders.

Today's the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) relies extensively on computerized systems to carry out its demanding responsibilities to collect taxes, process tax returns, and enforce the nation's tax laws.

Add the new responsibilities of taxing health care under the guise of levying fines on those who violate ObamaCare provisions as well as record keeping, and there now exists a greater likelihood of patient information being unlawfully accessed or accidentally released to third parties.

Effective information security controls are essential to protect financial and taxpayer information from inadvertent or deliberate misuse, improper disclosure, or destruction. Having a person's medical records along with other personal employment, financial, banking, and tax information is a responsibility that the federal government wants to take - but we are still at risk.

So will your private information be guarded by the IRS? Who knows!

Besides, the bigger question is, who guards us from the IRS?

Yes, our government is violating our privacy like never before.

In fact, the Internal Revenue Service believes it doesn’t need permission to root through your emails, texts or other forms of electronic correspondence. This is according to recently released internal IRS agency documents.

The IRS documents, which were obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request by the American Civil Liberties Union, reveal that IRS agents have been operating under the assumption that they can bypass court orders and warrants to search your private correspondence.

The ACLU, who I never thought I'd agree with, claims that the action on the part of the IRS in turn violates the Fourth Amendment.

According to a 2009 IRS employee handbook, though, the tax agency said the Fourth Amendment does not protect emails because Internet users don’t "have a reasonable expectation of privacy in such communications."

The current online version of the IRS manual says that no warrant is required for emails that are stored by an Internet storage provider for more than 180 days.

"This is an affront not only to our system of checks and balances, but also to our fundamental right to privacy," Colorado Democrat Sen. Mark Udall said in a statement, adding that he wants Congress to overhaul the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA).

The ECPA is the federal law that governs law enforcement access to emails, and draws on what some say is an outdated distinction between email stored on a server for 180 days or less and email that has been opened.

Opened emailed and email older than six months does not require a warrant. Email that hasn’t been opened or is less than six months old does.

Last year, the ACLU looked into allegations that the IRS was reading people’s emails and checking their Facebook postings without permission.

Privacy advocate groups, like the ACLU, say the government must obtain a search warrant based on probable cause but the IRS told agents in its criminal division they didn’t need to.

The wishful thinking on this is that the IRS is going to stop on its own. Fact is, with the passage of ObamaCare, your medical, financial, tax, and banking records, your privacy will be violated.

Like it or not, ObamaCare mandates everyone purchase "qualified" health insurance or pay a fine called a "shared responsibility payment."

To assess who gets fined, the IRS is authorized to look through your private information.

Since liberty equals privacy, our liberty is at stake here.


Story by Tom Correa

Annette Funicello, "America's Sweetheart" Dies at 70

I just read that the Walt Disney Co. announced that Annette Funicello has died at age 70.

For you who never had the privilege of watching the original Mickey Mouse Club while growing up, you missed a great deal. And of the things you missed, you missed a very talented Annette Funicello.

She went from a 13 year-old Mouseketeer to a Beach Party movie icon, film star, wife and mother. Like millions of others, I grew up with Annette Funicello watching her on the original "The Mickey Mouse Club" on television, and later in the Beach Party movies.

Annette Funicello became the dark-haired darling of TV's "The Mickey Mouse Club" in the 1950s. She cemented her status as an American pop-culture icon in the 1960s by teaming up with actor/singer Frankie Avalon in the popular Beach Party movies.

Annette was diagnosed with MS, multiple sclerosis, in 1987 and became a spokeswoman for treatment of the chronic, often-debilitating disease of the central nervous system. That's what finally took her when she died at Mercy Southwest Hospital in Bakersfield, California.

Bob Iger, Disney’s chairman and chief executive, said, "Annette was and always will be a cherished member of the Disney family, synonymous with the word 'Mousketeer,' and a true Disney legend. She will forever hold a place in our hearts as one of Walt Disney’s brightest stars, delighting an entire generation of baby boomers with her jubilant personality and endless talent. Annette was well known for being as beautiful inside as she was on the outside, and she faced her physical challenges with dignity, bravery and grace. All of us at Disney join with family, friends, and fans around the world in celebrating her extraordinary life."

Annette Joanne Funicello was born on October 22nd, 1942, and was only 12 years old, a dance-school student performing the lead role in “Swan Lake” at her dance-school's year-end recital at the Starlight Bowl in Burbank in the spring of 1955, when Walt Disney saw her.

She joined a group of other talented young performers hired to become Mouseketeers on “The Mickey Mouse Club."

It was a children's variety show that debuted on ABC in October 1955 and quickly became a daily late-afternoon ritual for millions of young Americans. My brothers and I were part of those millions of kids who wouldn't miss a single show. 

Like her fellow female Mouseketeers, Annette Funicello wore a mouse-eared beanie, a blue pleated skirt, and a white, short-sleeved turtleneck sweater with her name emblazoned in block letters across her chest.

There was something special about the Mouseketeer with the curly black hair that unexpectedly turned her into the Mouse Club's biggest star.

Annette made her acting debut on "The Mickey Mouse Club" serial "Adventure in Dairyland." She also appeared in two of the popular "Spin and Marty" serials about a Western dude ranch for boys, with Tim Considine and David Stollery in the title roles.

She gained fame on Walt Disney's "Mickey Mouse Club," which for you who are too young to have enjoyed such innocents was an amalgamation of stories, songs, and dance routines that ran from 1955 to 1959.

There were no pyrotechnics, no loud music blaring to disguise the voices of the singers. The voices were great, the skids were outstanding, and nothing was violent. It was just a lot of fun.

Annette soon began receiving 8,000 fan letters a month, 10 times more than any of the 23 other young performers.

And yes, in 1958, Walt Disney showcased his prized Mouseketeer in her own show called "Annette" which was a serial withing the show.

Mr. Disney, as Funicello always called her boss, also licensed Annette lunch boxes, Colorforms dolls, coloring books, comic books and even mystery novels featuring her in fictionalized adventures.

"The Mickey Mouse Club" ended production in 1959 and went into reruns, that's how most of us still watched it for years.

By then, 15-year-old Annette was the only Mouseketeer to remain under exclusive contract to the Disney studio.

She made her feature-film debut in "The Shaggy Dog," a 1959 comedy starring Fred MacMurray. It was the first of four Disney feature films she appeared in over the next six years, including "Babes in Toyland," "The Misadventures of Merlin Jones" and "The Monkey's Uncle."

Also, since she remained under contract with Disney, she did television roles in Zorro, Elfego Baca, and The Horsemasters.

For Zorro, she played Anita Campillo in a three-episode storyline about a teen-aged girl who arrives in Los Angeles to visit a father who does not seem to exist. This role was reportedly a birthday present from Walt Disney, and the first of two different characters played opposite Guy Williams as Zorro.

Although uncomfortable being thought of as a singer, Annette had a number of pop record hits in the late 1950s and early 1960s, including: "Tall Paul," "First Name Initial," "O Dio Mio," "Train of Love" (written by Paul Anka) and "Pineapple Princess."

They were released by Disney's Buena Vista label. Annette also recorded "It's Really Love" in 1959, a reworking of an earlier Paul Anka song called "Toot Sweet"; Anka reworked the song for a third time in 1962 as "Johnny's Theme" and it opened The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson on television for the next three decades.

Paul Anka was noted to have a crush on her, however, Walt Disney overprotected Annette, which broke Paul's heart. This resulted in his song "Puppy Love", which was inspired by his hopeless romantic crush on Annette.

Walt Disney was reportedly a fan of 1950s pop star Teresa Brewer and tried to pattern Annette's singing in the same style.

Annette credits "the Annette sound" to her record producer, Tutti Camarata, who worked for Disney in that era. Camarata had her double-track her vocals, matching her first track as closely as possible on the second recording to achieve a fuller sound.

Annette became a teen idol after she receiving a big career boost from Walt Disney who agreed to loan her out to American International Pictures to make "Beach Party" movies with actor/singer Frankie Avalon.

In the wake of the huge success of "Beach Party" (1963), Annette and Frankie co-starred in "Muscle Beach Party" (1964), "Bikini Beach" (1964), "Pajama Party" (1964), "Beach Blanket Bingo" (1965) and "How to Stuff a Wild Bikini" (1965). They were mostly low-budget comedy/musicals, all a lot of fun.

In 1979 Funicello began starring in a series of television commercials for Skippy peanut butter.

She and Frankie became iconic as "beach picture" stars and were re-united in 1987 for the Paramount film "Back to the Beach," parodying their own surf-and-sand films two decades earlier. They toured the country as a singing act. It was then that she began to suffer from dizzy spells, but she kept her failing health from her friends and family.

Then, in 1992, Annette absolutely stunned fans and friends around the world when she announced that she was suffering from multiple sclerosis.

She had kept her condition a secret for many years, but felt it necessary to go public to combat the nasty and hateful rumors being spread that her impaired ability to walk was the result of "alcoholism."

Yes, even a person as sweet and giving as Annette Funicello are attacked without reason. For me, I can only hope those spreading such nasty rumors enjoy their horrible lives.

In 1993, she opened the Annette Funicello Fund for Neurological Disorders at the California Community Foundation.

Her autobiography, dictated to Patricia Romanowski and published in 1994, was "A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes: My Story."

The title was taken from a song from the Disney movie Cinderella. A made-for-TV movie based on the book, A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes: The Annette Funicello Story, was made in 1995.

In the final scene, the actress Eva LaRue portraying Annette riding in a wheelchair, turns away from the camera — turning back, it is Annette Funicello herself who delivered a message to a group of children.

During this period, she produced a line of teddy bears for the Annette Funicello Collectible Bear Company. The last collection in the series was made in 2004. She also had her own fragrance called "Cello, by Annette".

Annette Funicello was married to her first husband, Jack Gilardi who was 12 years older than her. They were married from 1965 until 1981. They had three children: Gina (b. 1966), Jack, Jr. (b. 1970), and Jason (b. 1974).

In 1986, she married California harness racing horse breeder/trainer Glen Holt. The couple were frequently seen at Los Alamitos Race Course and at Fairplex in Pomona in the 1980s and 1990s attending harness horse races.

In March 2011, her Encino, California home caught fire. She suffered smoke inhalation, but was otherwise unharmed. After the fire, Annette and her husband Glen began living full time at the modest ranch that they purchased decades earlier, located just south of Shafter, California, which is just north of Bakersfield.

That remained her primary residence until she passed away today at Mercy Southwest Hospital in Bakersfield, California..

I've read where she was a wonderful person, a great mom and wife, and a tireless spokeswoman for MS. It is said that she remained cheerful and upbeat, even while fighting her illness. She is said to have had a courage that inspired many around her.   

I pray that God has a special place for one who gave so much to others.

For us who grew up watching "The Mickey Mouse Club," Annette was the pretty dark-haired "older" Mouseketeer. At 13 years old, she was America's Sweetheart. We all loved her.

I've said a small prayer for her today. May God bless her and her family at this time.

Story by Tom Correa

What has America become?

Every once in a while I get something sent to me that is really well done. The "letter to the editor" below sums up things really well.

The author, a man by the name of Ken Huber spells out the problems we face while not pulling his punches.

"What has America become?" was written by Ken Huber of Tawas City, Michigan. It was originally printed in the Iosco County News Herald on June 9, 2010, published in the Opinion column. 

It contains a series of comparisons and contrasts which causes one to think about the double-standards and conditions under which we now live here in America. It is short and worth the read.  

Reprinted (for folks like me who need bigger print):

Editor,

Has America become the land of special interest and home of the double standard?

Lets see: if we lie to the Congress, it's a felony and if the Congress lies to us its just politics; if we dislike a black person, we're racist and if a black person dislikes whites, its their 1st Amendment right; the government spends millions to rehabilitate criminals and they do almost nothing for the victims; in public schools you can teach that homosexuality is OK, but you better not use the word God in the process; you can kill an unborn child, but it is wrong to execute a mass murderer; we don't burn books in America, we now rewrite them; we got rid of communist and socialist threats by renaming them progressive; we are unable to close our border with Mexico, but have no problem protecting the 38th parallel in Korea; if you protest against President Obama's policies you're a terrorist, but if you burned an American flag or George Bush in effigy it was your 1st Amendment right.

You can have pornography on TV or the Internet, but you better not put a nativity scene in a public park during Christmas; we have eliminated all criminals in America, they are now called sick people; we can use a human fetus for medical research, but it is wrong to use an animal.

We take money from those who work hard for it and give it to those who don't want to work; we all support the Constitution, but only when it supports our political ideology; we still have freedom of speech, but only if we are being politically correct; parenting has been replaced with Ritalin and video games; the land of opportunity is now the land of hand outs; the similarity between Hurricane Katrina and the gulf oil spill is that neither president did anything to help.

And how do we handle a major crisis today? The government appoints a committee to determine who's at fault, then threatens them, passes a law, raises our taxes; tells us the problem is solved so they can get back to their reelection campaign.

What has happened to the land of the free and home of the brave?

- Ken Huber
Tawas City

If we were writing this today, just a few years later, we can add:

Today it is just fine for the Federal Government to give billions of dollars to Foreign Countries not friendly to the United States, and have Homeland Security purchase 7,000 M-16 rifles for "personal use," buy 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition enough rounds to fight a war for 20 years, and buy 2,717 MRAP tanks for no reason nor justification, yet at the very same time say the government does not have enough money for FDA Meat Inspectors, FAA Air Traffic Control towers, or to open the White House to tours by taxpayers.

Today it is OK to suspend a child for making a "pop-tart" into what only a the child would consider a gun, or for wearing a patriotic t-shirt to school, yet it is OK for the Democrat Party's top donors in Hollywood to come out with more and more of the most ultra-violent movies ever made, and unrealistically graphic video games, without any consequences for their actions.

Today it is OK for the Federal Government to give a billion-dollar corporation Planned Parenthood millions of dollars in taxpayer funds, yet no one in government seems concerned that Abortion in America has turned into a billion-dollar Industry onto itself. An industry that is taxpayer funded and is responsible for killing millions of babies, not for reasons such as rape or incest or because the patient is at some sort of life-threatening medical condition, but instead as merely a birth-control method.

Today a student who spends $3000.00 for birth control over a 3 year period can go before a Senate committee to ask for more money, and then become a speaker at the Democrat National Convention, instead of being seen as a person with a psychological problem and referred to counseling for sex addiction.

Today Liberal politicians take offense and call her detractors "sexists" when that same woman from Georgetown University is called a "whore," all while at the same time they practice discrimination when they attempt to disarm women who have been rape victims and use guns for self-defense.

Today the government wants legal gun owners to register all of their guns with the government, yet child rapists, murderers, arsonist, and Muslim terrorists don't have to be registered.

Today we have teachers who demand that Christian students write the word "Jesus" on a piece of paper, place it on the floor and stomp on it, yet Muslims are protected from any sort of discrimination.

Today it is OK for white Liberals and Democrats to attack African-American Conservatives with impunity, yet anyone or group such as the Tea Party who disagrees with President Obama's policies are automatically called "Racists" and "Bigots."

Today, unlike years ago when Television News broadcasts were basically politically neutral, the major mainstream News outlets ABC, NBC, CBS, and CNN and the Associated Press are unabashedly biased and make no effort to hide their Liberal beliefs or ties to the Democrat Party, all at the same time calling Fox News biased because Fox doesn't go along with their ideology or their political ties.

Today the EPA and USDA over regulates farmers and ranchers to the point of putting them out of business, yet nothing is said about the huge amounts of food that are now being brought into the United States from countries that have little to no environmental regulations on how their crops are grown - thus bringing harmful vegetables and meats into the United States for American consumers to eat. And yes, with no warnings attached to those foods.

Today it is OK for homosexual terrorist groups throw blood on Catholic practitioners coming out of church, yet those church goers are the ones called names like "homophobes" for not accepting their strange lifestyle.

Today it is OK for liberal groups to take out ads calling for the government to take control of your children, saying that you parents should have no say over what is good for your children, that the government knows what is best, that parents should hand over their children to the "collective" so that the child can be indoctrinated their way of thinking, all while at the same time the mainstream media denounces the teaching of children Christian beliefs and American patriotism - calling it conservative brainwashing.

There are more examples of double-standards and queer conditions under which we now live by here in America. The problem is that there are way too many to list here.

Preppers - Fallout Shelters - Part Two

A little history about Fallout Shelters.

When I was a kid, my grandfather didn't call them "fallout shelters," he called them "air-raid" or "bomb shelters."

They were structures built to protect the civil population as well as military personnel against enemy attacks such as bombings or air-raids. They are similar to bunkers in many regards, although they are not designed to defend against ground attack. But then again, fact is that many have been successfully used as defensive structures in such situations.

Prior to World War II, in May 1924, an Air Raid Precautions Committee was set up in the United Kingdom.

For years, little progress was made with shelters because of the apparently irreconcilable conflict between the need to send the public underground for shelter and the need to keep them above ground for protection against gas attacks.

In February 1936 the Home Secretary appointed a technical Committee on Structural Precautions against Air Attack.

By November 1937, there had only been slow progress, because of a serious lack of data on which to base any design recommendations, and the Committee proposed that the Home Office should have its own department for research into structural precautions, rather than relying on research work done by the Bombing Test Committee to support the development of bomb design and strategy.

This proposal was eventually implemented in January 1939.

Air raid shelters were built specifically to serve as protection against enemy air raids. However, pre-existing structures designed for other functions, such as Underground stations (tube or subway stations), tunnels, cellars in houses or basements in larger establishments, and railway arches, above ground, were suitable for safeguarding people during air raids.

As a result, thousands of lives were saved during World War II when England was under relentless attack from Nazi Germany.

Later during the Cold War, many countries built "fallout shelters" for high-ranking government officials and crucial military facilities, such as Project Greek Island and Cheyenne Mountain in the United States and Canada's Emergency Government Headquarters.

Plans were made, however, to use existing buildings with sturdy below-ground-level basements as makeshift fallout shelters. These buildings were usually placarded with the yellow and black trefoil sign.

The National Emergency Alarm Repeater (N.E.A.R.) program was developed in 1956 during the Cold War to supplement the existing siren warning systems and radio broadcasts in the event of a nuclear attack.

The N.E.A.R. civilian alarm device was engineered and tested but the program was not viable and went defunct about 1966.

In the U.S. in September 1961, under the direction of Steuart L. Pittman, the federal government started the Community Fallout Shelter Program. A letter from President Kennedy advising the use of fallout shelters appeared in the September 1961 issue of Life magazine.

In November 1961 in Fortune magazine, an article by Gilbert Burck appeared that outlined the plans of Nelson Rockefeller, Edward Teller, Herman Kahn, and Chet Holifield for an enormous network of concrete lined underground fallout shelters throughout the United States sufficient to shelter millions of people to serve as a refuge in case of nuclear war.

American fallout shelters in the early 1960s were sometimes funded in conjunction with funding for other federal programs, such as urban renewal projects of the Federal Housing Authority, examples being Barrington Plaza, and other development projects of Los Angeles County Civil Defense and Disaster Commissioner, Louis Lesser, and were designed for large numbers of citizens.

While interest in fallout shelters has dropped some, as the perceived threat of global nuclear war has been reduced some after the end of the Cold War, please don't think they have gone away.

Fact is, if you think bomb shelters, or air-raid shelters, are a thing of the past, you would be wrong. Terrorism and the concern about nuclear weapons in the hands of terrorist have made the threat of a horrible event all too real.

Many Swiss houses and apartment blocks still have concrete doors around 40 cm (16 in) thick that are deep in the basement. Inside these shelters, air supply systems can be found.

In many cases, these structures are the most secure part of a house, because of the shelter's thick concrete ceiling.

These shelters also provide a haven from natural disasters such as tornadoes and hurricanes, although Switzerland is rarely subject to such natural phenomena.

While it it said that in Switzerland, most residential shelters are no longer stocked with the food and water required for prolonged habitation and a large number have been converted by the owners to other uses (e.g., wine cellars, ski rooms, gyms), that might not really be the case.

Fact is, Switzerland built an extensive network of fallout shelters, not only through extra hardening of government buildings such as schools, but also through a building regulation that ensured that all residential building built after 1978 contained a nuclear shelter able to withstand a blast from a 12 megaton explosion at a distance of 700 metres.

In addition, the Swiss government maintains large communal shelters, including the Sonnenberg Tunnel, stocked with over four months of food and fuel.

The reference Nuclear War Survival Skills declared that, as of 1986, "Switzerland has the best civil defense system, one that already includes blast shelters for over 85 percent of all its citizens."

Similar projects have been undertaken in Finland, which requires all buildings with area over 600 m² to have an NBC shelter, and Norway, which requires all buildings with an area over 1000 m² to have a shelter.

Finland has over 40,000 air-raid shelters which can house 3.8 million people (71% of the population).

Private homes rarely have them, but houses over 600 m2 (6,500 sq ft) are obliged to build them.

Fire inspectors check the shelters every ten years and flaws have to be repaired or corrected as soon as possible. The law requires that inhabitants of apartment blocks can clear the shelters and put them into action in less than 72 hours. Half of the air-raid shelter has to be ready to use in two hours.

Their types of shelters are: K, which is a small shelter for a small apartment house; S1, which is the usual shelter for an apartment house; S3, which is a lightweight shelter in solid rock or heavyweight shelter of ferro-concrete; S6, are big shelters in solid rock that have to take the pressure-wave of 6 bar.

All shelters in Finland must have an electric and hand-operated air-conditioning system, that can protect from biological and chemical weapons and radioactive particles, a radiometer, dry toilets, fixed-line interface, spare exit, water tanks, and a first aid kit.

Besides Switzerland and Finland, there are other countries that have kept air-raid shelters intact, in ready condition, or are bringing them back due to global uncertainty.

The former Soviet Union and former Eastern Bloc countries often designed their underground mass-transit and subway tunnels to serve as bomb and fallout shelters in the event of an attack. And yes, from reports out of Russia, a renewed interest in public bomb and fallout shelters is taking place there right now.

Of course for obvious reasons, such as the threat from Muslim crazies and insane neighboring countries, the nation of Israel requires all buildings to have access to air raid shelters, and all new flats possess access to a Merkhav Mugan.

In Hebrew, a Merkhav Mugan means a protected space.

Popularly known as a "mamad," it is a reinforced security room required in all new buildings by Israeli law.  A Merkhav Mugan is deemed preferable to a bomb shelter when the warning time is too short for residents to reach a shelter, which may be located some distance away. It also offers protection against high impact projectiles and chemical weapons.

As of 2010, in Israel, all medical and educational facilities are prepared for CRBN attacks. As an example, each surgery room is built to take a direct missile hit.

Some are built to have closed-air systems and prepared to be gas isolated for short periods of time; in addition all must include chemical air filtering systems. The public air-raid shelters are commonly employed as game rooms so that the children will be comfortable to enter them at a time of need, and will not be frightened.

Since 1998, Singapore has required all new houses and flats have a shelter built to certain specifications.

The Singapore Civil Defence Force rationalizes building such shelters in high-rise buildings by noting that weapon effects tend to be localized, and are unlikely to cause an entire building to collapse.

Believe it or not, whether its shelters against natural disasters or fallout shelters themselves, they feature prominently in much of culture today.

For example: In 1999 the film Blast from the Past was released. It is a romantic comedy film about a nuclear physicist, his wife, and son that enter a well-equipped, spacious fallout shelter during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

They do not emerge until 35 years later, in 1997. The film shows their reaction to contemporary society.

The Fallout series of computer games depicts the remains of human civilization after an immensely destructive nuclear war; the United States of America had built underground vaults to protect itself against a nuclear attack.

Paranoia, a role-playing game, takes place in a form of fallout shelter, which was become overrun by an insane computer.

The Metro 2033 book series by Russian author Dmitry Glukhovsky depicts survivors' life in the subway systems below Moscow and Saint-Petersburg after a global nuclear holocaust.

Cormac McCarthy's book The Road and the accompanying movie has its main characters finding a shelter (bomb or fallout) with uneaten rations.

And yes, there is the television show Doomsday Preppers.

Doomsday Preppers is an American reality television series that airs on the National Geographic Channel.

The program profiles various survivalists, or "preppers," preparing for terrorist attacks, nuclear dirty bombs, natural disasters, and so on.

No, its not about the end of civilization. It is about surviving turmoil while civilization gets its act together during some sort of horrible event.

The series interviews people who are preparing to survive the various circumstances through which life as we know it might come to an end, including economic collapse, societal collapse, electromagnetic pulse, terrorist acts, nuclear incidents, fuel shortages, war, pandemics, geomagnetic reversal, and so on.

The interviews detail the actions that the preppers have taken, and end with an expert analysis and recommendations for improvements.

The program has been a ratings bonanza for the National Geographic Channel with a 60-percent male audience at an average age of 44.

Today, Doomsday Preppers is the network's most-watched series, and Brooklyn Bagwell, casting director for the second season, has claimed "It’s the highest-rated show” in the history of the National Geographic Channel.

One "prepper" has said of the show, "We don’t make it an obsession like some folks but we do spend a fair amount of time and money on it. ...You can’t always rely on the government or society to help you. The more people that are prepping minded, the better off we’ll all do."

With that, I can say that that is probably why I received a lot of e-mail asking me about Fallout Shelters and prepping in general.

Whether its surviving events like Hurricane Katrina, or caring for a horse that has colic, or helping lower their cholesterol, people want to know how to take care of problems on their own.

It may be to save money as in the case of not wanting to call a Vet when there are things that they can do on their own to care for horses, or it may be an extreme like having to be ready to survive a hurricane or tornado without having to rely on the government for help.

Whatever the case, people want information.

Information means self-reliance, and self-reliance means independence. And yes, independence is at the heart of the American spirit.

Story by Tom Correa