Day: February 27, 2006


Advice on Grain Mills

I’m often asked for advice on grain mills. Having stored wheat and corn necessitates having a good quality durable grain mill. Electric-only mills are not recommend because they will of course become useless ornaments once the power grid goes down. An inexpensive hand-cranked mill will such as the Back to Basics Mill  or Corona Mill might suffice for a short term disaster, but in the event of TEOTWAWKI you will want something built to last. I started out with a Corona mill in the early 1980s. It was a lot of work to use! It seemed like I burned as many calories …


Book Review: The Weapon by Michael Z. Williamson

The Weapon is a science fiction novel by Michael Z. Williamson. (481 pages. ISBN 9-781416-508946  Published by BAEN Books.) This is sort of a “intra-quel” storyline to Williamson’s novel Freehold, which I previously reviewed. (See my Sunday, February 12, 2006 post.) Like Freehold, this novel is a fast-paced Libertarian think piece. It is a tale of interplanetary colonization, set some 500 years in the future. The descriptions of the bureaucratic totalitarian central Earth government are contrasted with the “Freehold” colony planet, Grainne. The main character is a Grainne special operations soldier that is sent on a “deep cover” mission to Earth. …


Letter Re: First Hand Observations on the Post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans Bus Evacuation

James: I was a bus driver for the evacuation of the New Orleans Convention Center and figure that I should put my two cents in worth.We drove straight through from Ohio to a staging point (LaPlace) in New Orleans and were escorted to the Convention Center. This was on Saturday morning around 9 a.m. New Orleans time about a week after the dikes let go. We were lucky not to be in the first wave that came into the Super Dome earlier in the week as we heard they were still ordering parts to repair the busses that got busted …


Letter Re: Rifle Recommendations for Canada

Hello Jim, I just wanted to clarify a few points on C-68 and current Canadian gun control laws. There is a 5 round limit on box magazines for semi-automatic, centrefire long guns. There is also a 10-rd limit on magazines for handguns. No grandfathering for magazines or individuals. So that’s why the Lee-Enfield magazines are unaffected. The only exception to the rifle magazine capacity limit is for the M1 Garand. As well, I believe the wording of the law, or at least legal precedent, has it that the magazines only have to be neutered in such a way that it …