Good morning, friends! I hope that your week has been wonderful.

I'm off to a later-than-usual start this morning and I blame it all on the weather. As the days and nights get cooler, I sleep so much better than I do during the warmer parts of the year. There's something so unbelievably cozy about snuggling under a big pile of blankets while a chilled breeze drifts in through my open window. As a chronic insomniac, this change-of-season sleepfest is always one of the highlights of autumn for me.

It looks like there was quite a bit of violence in Brooklyn, NY last night as pro-Palestine protestors fought with police after shutting down a city street. Many of them were not just pro-Palestine but carrying signs that were actively pro-Hamas, which I find mindblowing. It got pretty bad there last night, arrests were made, cops were caught on film punching protestors, and protesters were also attacking cops.

In Detroit, a woman who was the president of her local synagogue was stabbed to death. According to CNN, "police are searching for a motive." Last week, a little boy who was Palestinian American was stabbed to death by his parents' landlord. This was immediately attributed to the child being Muslim. Both crimes are truly horrifying and should never have happened.

In the UK, there was a report of a "terror attack," but it was quite strange. Nobody is reporting what the attack was, who perpetrated it, or who the victims were. All that was really reported was that it was a migrant who did it "for Palestine."

What's clear is that the media is up to its usual shenanigans of double standards and agreed-upon narratives. We aren't being provided with information "for our own good" unless that information aligns with the agenda of the outlet.

Even here in suburbia where I live, things have gotten kind of dicey. I live in a small apartment in a home in a nice neighborhood with extremely low crime. Over the past week, I've had two occasions to hear gunfire. Now, I've lived out in the boondocks where folks shoot stumps filled with thermite for a fun little lawn-clearing event, so I'm no stranger to the sound of firearms. But here in suburban North Carolina, it's not a sound we hear on a regular basis. One night, there were multiple shots and I could distinctly hear two different guns, soon followed by a chorus of sirens. I visited neighborhood watch pages and the local police blotter and haven't been able to find any information on what happened that night.

The point I'm making is that safety risks are becoming more elevated. Unfortunately, it's a trend I expect to continue. Not only are folks broke, but add to that the tensions about the Middle East, which are being stoked by the media.

Last week I was in the midst of upgrading my security and making some plans regarding safety and it occurred to me that this is something we might all need to focus on right now. It inspired me to compile the anthology I'm offering for sale this weekend, How to Survive During Dangerous Times.

I went through the thousands of articles available on OP that related to home security, personal safety, violence, OPSEC, and mental preparedness and put them into one 661-page PDF document in the style of the food anthology I did a few months ago. I'm keeping it as affordable as possible. You can pay as little as $2 for it or you can take this opportunity to help out the OP and donate a higher amount in exchange for the book. Go here and name your price for this product. Your purchase, no matter the size of it, helps us immensely!

I think that you'll really like having all this important content together. I felt much better as I reread all the things I included and took steps to put some added security preparations in action.

Whatever you do, please work hard on increasing your awareness. Pay attention when you're out, and try to be more situationally aware. Work with your family members so that they do the same. Even if you live in the hinterboonies, take care to lock your doors and secure your windows. Take small steps to be safer and more prepared so that if something big happens, you're ready. America is on high alert right now for potential terror attacks, and you should be too. While problems are more likely in bigger cities, no town is too small to be targeted during times like these. Don't allow situational bias that your area is safe cause you to be caught off-guard.