Day: September 3, 2006

Letter Re: Gangs and Escaped Convict Gang Members in TEOTWAWKI

James, Please look up the Gang MS-13 who I understand are a Venezuelan controlled “Mafia” for drug running. These members don’t use guns, (for who knows what reason), they have chosen the Machete’ as their weapon of choice. In a post TEOTWAWKI situation, sizing up a danger by looking for a gun alone will not suffice. Keep your distance. All the more reason to have good firearm training. If it’s hand to hand, it’s probably too late. – The Wanderer JWR Replies: I concur that gang members will be a significant threat in a post-TEOTWAWKI “law and order vacuum” (Just …


Letter Re: The Hazards of Even Non-Recourse Loans

Just a heads-up, lots of folks in place like California where non-recourse loans are mandated by law (at least for homes) feel pretty smug, thinking that even if they get upside down on a mortgage they can walk away without repercussions. Bad news: the IRS considers the amount of the loan “forgiven” by the bank to be income. That means, to use California numbers, if you owe $500,000 on a house which sells at foreclosure for $200,000, you now owe income taxes on your $300,000 in income you just “received”. Just a quick “report from the ground”, I live in …


Re: Prussian Blue for Radioactive Isotope Exposure by P.H.

Mr. Rawles: I have always felt that Prussian Blue [as mentioned in SurvivalBlog on August 27th] should be part of one’s system of NBC protection but never had the info needed to make it happen until P.H. kindly provided important details. I checked the link that was provided to obtain the powdered Ferric Ferrocyanide and noted that their web site indicates it is “made from Ferric Ferrocyanide”. That doesn’t necessarily mean it is chemically pure. I inquired, and they indicated they cannot confirm the chemical analysis as the product was obtained over ten years ago and don’t even know the …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Rourke e-mailed us a link to a table of U.S. Metro home price changes: The level terrain before the precipice.    o o o Michael Z. Williamson sent a link to this handy reference page that gives the bullion content of older European coins. You never know what you might be offered in a Post-TEOTWAWKI, barter transaction–French “Roosters”, , British Sovereigns or perhaps even native gold nuggets… In the absence of the Internet and your local coin shop or jeweler, you must be the expert. Without this expertise, you may end up the victim of a swindle. So it is …


Jim’s Quote of the Day:

Jim’s Quote of the Day: “`Get to your places!’ shouted the Queen in a voice of thunder, and people began running about in all directions, tumbling up against each other; however, they got settled down in a minute or two, and the game began. Alice thought she had never seen such a curious croquet-ground in her life; it was all ridges and furrows; the balls were live hedgehogs, the mallets live flamingoes, and the soldiers had to double themselves up and to stand on their hands and feet, to make the arches. The chief difficulty Alice found at first was …