Note from JWR:

The high bid in the SurvivalBlog Benefit Auction is now at $350. The auction for a mixed lot that includes: Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried foods in #10 cans, (donated by Ready Made Resources–a $320 value), a NukAlert radiation detector, (donated by KI4U–a $160 value), a Wilson Tactical COP tool, (donated by Choate Machine and Tool Company, a $140 value), a DVD of 480 E-books on Alternative Energy (donated by WK Books–a $25 value). The auction ends on September 15, 2008. Please e-mail us your bid.




The Grand Illusion: G8 – 1 = Cold War II?

Perhaps Anatoliy Golitsyn was right. He was a high level Soviet defector that predicted the collapse of the Soviet Union, claiming that perestroika and glasnost were charades that had been planned for decades by the Soviet-era KGB leadership to strategically deceive the West into thinking that we had “won” the Cold War. Some evidence: the recent Russian invasion of Georgia, Russia’s nuclear threats against Poland, and Putin’s hints of positioning ICBMs in Cuba. (As I’ve written before, history doesn’t exactly repeat itself, but it often rhymes.) Was Golitsyn right? The West may have been the victim of the greatest dezinformatisaya …




Letter Re: Advice on Preparedness for Travelers?

Mr. Rawles, I just picked up two rugged 4GB USB memory sticks at a rather good price of $15 each. ($19.99 less a mail-in rebate of $5.) Your readers might consider them for their emergency kits to store scanned in copies of their legal documents, insurance, investments and personal records and photos. This isn’t bullets and butter but might just prove more valuable than both when trying to get a replacement social security card or passport. The 10 year warranty is awfully nice so keep your receipt. Maybe you should scan that and save it on the memory stick too! …




Odds ‘n Sods:

“Bee Prepared” sent us this article from The Guardian: Honeybee deaths reaching crisis point. One in three of UK’s honeybees did not survive winter and spring. Pollination of fruit and vegetables is at risk.    o o o From a farm bulletin, courtesy of reader MK: ShadeTreeConversions.net.    o o o Cheryl N. found this: Merrill Lynch: Credit Crisis is Broad, Deep and Global    o o o Cheryl N. also sent this, from Trident Military: World Camouflage Catalog. It makes handy reference.    o o o Also from Cheryl N.: US Home Foreclosures Increase 55% and Estimated 1,300 Houses …




Jim’s Quote of the Day:

"Almighty God…I yield thee humble and hearty thanks that thou has preserved me from the danger of the night past, and brought me to the light of the day, and the comforts thereof, a day which is consecrated to thine own service and for thine own honor. Let my heart, therefore, Gracious God, be so affected with the glory and majesty of it, that I may not do mine own works, but wait on thee, and discharge those weighty duties thou requirest of me. Give me grace to hear thee calling on me in thy word, that it may be …