Day: December 16, 2006

Note From JWR:

We were recently invited to a friend’s Christmas party. The hosts have a nice sturdy log house, heated entirely by a wood stove and lit entirely by propane mantle lamps. When some of the refreshments were accidentally spilled on the carpet, one of the host’s kids went outside to power up the generator so that they could run the vacuum cleaner. I gather that their generator is reserved only for such “emergencies.” Something tells me that if and when TEOTWAWKI occurs, it won’t be much of a life-changing event for that family.


Letter Re: Robert A. Heinlein Didn’t Just Talk and Write About Preparedness

Dear Jim, I’m not sure if you have covered Robert A. Heinlein’s shelter that featured in his novel, “Farnham’s Freehold.” This site describes the house that Heinlein built in Colorado Springs before NORAD moved into the area And here’s an archived link of the shelter underneath, which included both air bottles and ventilation, escape routes, and antenna mounts.- Michael Z. Williamson


Letter Re: Total Tax Burdens of States as a Determining Factor in Relocation

James: I noted the snippet [from the recently released book Rawles on Retreat and Relocation] about tax burden by state recently on SurvivalBlog. This is a topic that has always confused me. You can find this kind of information in several places online, but it is often contradictory and it is very difficult to figure out how they come up with the numbers. I have lived most of my life in New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming. In Wyoming, we had no state income tax, limited sales tax (5% state and a max of 1% local, if I recall correctly), and …


Two Letters Re: Some More Good Things Prompted By SurvivalBlog

Jim, For a few months now, I’ve been thinking about sending you a note along the lines of Redmist’s recent post. His post inspired me to get off my hands and start typing. I discovered SurvivalBlog in September of 2005–just a week or two after Katrina knocked the stew out of the Gulf coast. Around the same time I was blessed to work at a relief distribution center in Gulf Port, Mississippi for five days. In March of this year, my wife and I accompanied my son on another five-day trip with the church youth group to do reconstructive work …


Odds ‘n Sods:

The true deficit in the Bush administration’s 2006 federal budget is now thought to be an astounding $3.5 trillion in the red, not $248.2 billion as previously reported. Hmmm. That doesn’t sound very “credit worthy” to me. Nay. In fact, it sounds like Uncle Sam needs some credit counseling.    o o o Mike the Blacksmith pointed us to this interesting article: Scientists from Los Alamos national laboratory are out on the road, giving lectures on H5N1 Asian Avian Influenza    o o o Reader S.H. flagged this one: Recent action by the U.S. Mint to outlaw the melting down …