Day: September 17, 2007

Note from JWR:

The bidding is already up to $350 in the SurvivalBlog benefit auction, for a scarce pre-1899 antique Finnish M39 Mosin Nagant rifle (7.62x54R) from my personal collection. This rifle was rebarreled by Valmet during WWII, and is in excellent condition. It comes with a replica bayonet, original sling, and original muzzle cap. Since the receiver for this rifle was made in 1898, it can be mailed directly to the winning bidder’s doorstep, with no FFL paperwork! The auction ends on October 15th. Just e-mail us your bid.


One Important Implication of the Weaker U.S. Dollar

The US Dollar recently posted new lows against most currencies. Most notably it now takes $1.39 to a buy a Euro, $2 to buy a British Pound and the Canadian Dollar is at 97.16–nearing parity with the US Dollar! This weakness in the once-almighty dollar may help boost US exports, but overall the weak dollar is bad news for Americans. Most importantly for those interested in preparedness, it is making some key imported items prohibitively expensive. This includes optics from Germany, water filters from England, and spare gun parts from Austria and elsewhere. Since the Federal Reserve has opted for …


Letter Re: Comments on Polar Pure and Hawaii as a Retreat Locale

Aloha Jim & Memsahib, Per your advice in an earlier blog posting, I rushed in an order for 16 bottles of Polar Pure water purification crystals from the folks at Ready Made Resources. I placed the order on August 26th and received my shipment on September 14th. The entire shipment of 16 bottles (enough for our family of three for quite a while plus something extra for barter and/or charity) arrived via Uncle Sam’s snail mail in what I thought was a surprisingly short time. (I had been expecting something like 6 to 8 weeks from Tennessee to the islands.) …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Goldman’s “Global Alpha” Hedge Fund reportedly suffers a 22.7% Loss in One Month      o o o Alphie sent us this link: Ron Paul gets a rare chance to spotlight his views–GOP maverick: yes on gold standard, no on empire-building    o o o Reader “StealthNeighbor” suggested this article from Stratfor: The Biofuel Backlash    o o o RBS flagged this one: FEMA hijacks Midwest broadcast signals with mistaken presidential alert