All right, now that you have decluttered your bathroom, it's time to get your first aid kit (or kits) organized.
Here's a handy page about building first aid kits for your home. (Sorry about the overbearing nationalistic imagery, folks).
Pull together all your various medical emergency supplies. See what you have already for the kit and start a shopping list for what you need to add.
You may find you have more than you need of some things (little bandages are a common culprit here), so separate things out and start kits for your office and/or car. Here's a guide to making a portable first aid kit.
Alternatively, buy a good kit from the Red Cross and, after you get it, donate all this jumble of stuff to your local shelter (except what you'll use to restock the kit for regular home use, e.g. bandaids in your favorite sizes).
Discardia 
OMG.
“Overbearing nationalistic imagery”????
It’s one freaking American flag, because, well,it’s a website from the American government!
Get the fuck over yourself.
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“Non-prescription drugs:
Aspirin or nonaspirin pain reliever
Anti-diarrhea medication
Anti-acid
Laxative”
“(Sorry about the overbearing nationalistic imagery, folks!)”
It’s ok. Take one of the medications listed above. All will help you get over it. Or use another country’s website so you don’t have to look at that mean old overbearing nationalistic imagery. It’s only allowing you to post what you do anyway. Something symbolizing freedom. I can see where that’s offensive. /sarcastic/
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I was actually referring to the verbal imagery, more than the flag.
It’s a site about being prepared for all kinds of disasters, but it bugs me that it’s so focused on terrorist threats and America being threatened by the outside world. Really, we have much more to be concerned about with natural disasters – surely Katrina taught us that, right? – and we share those risks with people around the world.
Since my site is read by people who aren’t Americans as well as those who are, my point was to look past the “this is for Americans”-ness of ready.gov and get to the good information it can provide for anyone.
By the way, there are lots of other countries in the world which have freedom of speech. There are lots of other countries which don’t. Yes, I’m very glad to live in one which does.
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Yes, and we also have the same freedom of speach as you do..Thanks to that “overbearing nationalistic imagery” we like to call our flag! Some of us are just a bit more grateful for the people that gave us that freedom..
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“It’s a site about being prepared for all kinds of disasters, but it bugs me that it’s so focused on terrorist threats and America being threatened by the outside world. Really, we have much more to be concerned about with natural disasters – surely Katrina taught us that, right? – and we share those risks with people around the world. ”
Tell me why you would need a laxative in a natural disaster?
Katrina hit us once. The terrorists hit us how many times? And each time was worse than the last. It is a very real possibility we are going to get hit again. If you live in Washington, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, or New York you will know that it is real. Daily there are terror threats. Have you been in a terror inhouse evacuation? How about running for your life because someone said there was a bomb in a nearby building? How about letters laced with a white powder or garbage cans that throw up a white powder where a hazmat team is called in? Or a group of people suddenly getting sick on a train underground? There is no warning, there is no preparedness. Just a gut wrenching feeling that you need to get out and get out now. Sometimes you don’t even know what you’re running or staying indoors from. It’s real.
Katrina was catatrophic as was Rita. I agree that we need to learn from them. But don’t be so quick to blow off that one is worse than the other or any less of a threat. That’s an insult to the many men and women fighting for us to be safe and the many people trying to make this place safer. Like the site you visited.
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You’re the one who chose to link to that site. Did you notice that the site’s URL is READY.GOV??? Notice that it said that it’s a site from Homeland Security????
So, you choose to link it and then complain?
Why didn’t you use another site for your first aid link???
I used this thing called a “search engine” and found four sites in just a few minutes. None of them had icky “nationalistic imagery.”
But don’t worry, I won’t post the links. Wouldn’t want pictures of band aids to offend…
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“overbearing nationalistic imagery”????
Wow, your level of maturity and your unappreciation of what this great country provides you are both ridiculous. It was a link to the Dept. of Homeland Security. I suggest that if you can’t support them and all the work that brave and noble people do to protect the freedom of speech of people like you, leave. Perhaps you’d enjoy living under Castro in Cuba. You won’r have to worry about the “overbearing nationalistic imagery” or the concept of homeland security there.
Grow up and learn a little about responsibility when you speak.
God Bless America.
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Speaking of Cuba!!
http://www.cuba-junky.com/cuba/what-to-bring.html
There you go!! A link about first aid kits, with a pic of Che and everything!!!
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Hey folks, I don’t seek out your site and try to patrol your politics. All I’m saying is I found the flag-waving a little bit over-the-top. (The retro “Why don’t you go to Cuba” stuff was pretty cute though. So 1950’s!)
I linked to Ready.gov because they have good information. That I had a slightly negative reaction to some of the uber-patriotism doesn’t mean I don’t love my country anymore than “That house has really gone overboard with the giant glow-in-the-dark creche” means I don’t respect Christmas.
L, Mary and Proud American, if you don’t like my site, why are you reading it? Did you find me through a search on Google or something?
I notice you haven’t commented on any other posts, so it seems like you aren’t really wanting to talk about what this site is about and are instead fixated on an offhand comment.
You might want to start your own sites to exercise your freedom of speech. There are lots of good tools out there. You can publish anonymously as you have here or stand up behind your own name as I do.
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I’m guessing the comments were either made by the same person or a couple of buddies but perhaps your logs will show differently.
Whomever they are, despite knowing I’m feeding a troll, I’d like to point out that the flag itself does not give us our freedom of speech and also that the country has been hit with natural disasters other than Hurricane Katrina and in total they have caused far more damage than any terrorists could hope to accomplish.
Anyway. Thanks for Discardian, I’m loving the tip a day. I really need to remember this particular entry as we currently don’t have anything close to a first aid kit in our house and that is definitely one thing that we do need taking up space in our bathroom.
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Excellent, Charity – thanks for the visit!
Check out that ready.gov site; not only do they have good safety tips, they also have inspiring patrotic photos of concerned people standing in front of U.S. flags.
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Ditto, Charity. I can’t say it better than that. Dinah, thanks so much for the site, for the frequent good advice.
If I were you I would have deleted those comments, but I think you handled it all very gracefully.
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“..they also have inspiring patrotic photos of concerned people standing in front of U.S. flags”
That cracked me up.
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Okay, as a non-American who is fed up with the hypocrisy mass-fed to American people, and as a recent commenter on another post, now I can say I became kind of fan. (You don’t know how refreshing it is to read an American not making readers awkward with fake patriotism on their nose.) (Yes, it’s long time ago but I don’t notice this changing much.)
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