Month: September 2008

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“…anyone who has been dragging his feet and has still got the bulk of his savings in the banking system, particularly the U.S. banking system, it’s getting almost too late to act. You need to move very quickly to get the bulk of your savings out of the weaker banks…ideally…you should own U.S. Treasuries directly in a money market fund…don’t sit around until it’s too late…finding yourself at the back of the line in front of your bank.” – Robert Prechter, quoted in Once in 100 Year Crisis?


Notes from JWR:

Today we are pleased to welcome our newest advertiser, Hardened Shelters. Be sure to visit their web site and check out their amazing engineering, architectural, and construction management expertise. They design and oversee the construction of blast shelters, fallout shelters, safe rooms, panic rooms, vaults, storm shelters, photovoltaic power systems, shelter ventilation systems, and more. The Memsahib will be at the hospital again starting this week for further treatment. Please pray for a miracle for her. (She’d appreciate your prayers upon Psalm 20:1-5)


Letter Re: Hurricane Gustav–Learning From Mistakes

Jim, A friend first introduced me to your blog, and I have begun to seriously consider many of the suggestions made by you and others for preparedness. One of the biggest indicators of a person’s level of preparedness is an actual or potential disaster event My wife and I have lived in Northwestern Louisiana for a little over two years. On the eve of Hurricane Gustav, we realized how unprepared we were for lack of power, water, let alone social breakdown. I certainly didn’t expect a major disaster, and we didn’t have one, but it is better to be prepared …


Letter Re: How Much Ammo to Carry?

Hello Mr. Rawles, You are a great man for what you do! You have shaped my life in many ways and most certainly opened my eyes to many things, and for that thank you. I have recently started my own small TEOTWAWKI preparedness group of like-minded Christians. We have standardized our gear but I have no idea how much ammo we should carry on our web gear, and if we should have a combo of rifle and pistol ammo. We have a lot of ammo stockpiled but we are wondering about patrols and other times when we would need to …


Letter Re: Is a Little Ice Age Approaching?

Hi Jim, Thought you might find this article interesting: Sun Makes History: First Spotless Month in a Century As a scientist (Oceanography) I have been astounded with scientists who can not see the forest through the trees when it comes to global warming. The ocean temperatures have been dropping over the last 1-to-2 years (as well as the overall temperature on Mars). Correlate the ocean temperature with sun spot activity and you do not need any more “proof” as this will show the direct cause-effect relationship of the sun to the temperature of the oceans. Note that if we do …


Odds ‘n Sods:

I noticed that the spot price of silver dipped below $12.70 per ounce for the first time in many moons. Given the pitiful intrinsic value of the US Dollar, in my opinion silver priced anywhere south of $13.50 is a bargain. Buy on the dips!    o o o Reader “MGB” flagged a web site that illustrate which countries to avoid for offshore banking: This US IRS page shows the countries that have “transparency” via tax treaties And MGB recommend the Sovereign Society web site as a resource for comparing banking privacy of various nations.    o o o Naish …


Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“The amount of gold in existence is finite. It cannot be increased any faster than by 1.6% per annum (the rate at which mines are producing gold). Whereas the amount of money in circulation is currently expanding at double-digit levels, on a worldwide basis, the U.S. M3 money supply back in 1980 was 1.8 trillion dollars. Today, according to economist John Williams, the U.S. M3 money supply has ballooned to almost 15 trillion dollars. Some of that extra money has the potential to move into gold.” – Peter Degraaf, in Is the Price of Gold Artificially Depressed?


Notes 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. Today we present another entry for Round 18 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction …


Survival Medicine and Ditch Medicine, by Josh in Montana

There may come a time when we are no longer afforded the luxury of dialing 911 to receive prompt emergency medical care within minutes. You yourself may be faced with a sick or injured loved one, having nobody to turn to but you and your skills as well as inventory of supplies to provide critical interventions. My lively hood is emergency pre-hospital medicine. Having earned a degree in Paramedicine in 2002, I have worked and currently still work as a full time paramedic for a department that sees over 4500 runs a year. I myself serve as lead medic or, …


Letter Re: Some Storage SNAFUs

Jim: Why do the incredibly robust “cheap” imported AKs have chrome lined bores , yet some of the expensive and finicky American-made ARs not chrome lined? Well, if you live in a humid climate, it makes a difference. I made the classic error of storing my guns in gun cases. In fact, that’s the worst way to store them as the humidity accumulates inside. One of them had nearly rusted solid in three years. Thanks to the ministrations of another firearm enthusiast, all my guns are being de-rusted, dipped in preservative oil and mylar bagged along with oxygen absorbents, rust …


Odds ‘n Sods:

KAF recommended this: Documentary shows tough reality of doctors in war. (Warning: Not for children or for the squeamish!)    o o o Cheryl N. sent us yet another raft of economic news and commentary: Stagflation Becoming Economic Reality, FDIC Admits Short-Term Loans Might Be Needed, The Building Storm: Gold, the Dollar and Inflation, WAMU The Killer Bank, US Thrifts Lost $5.4bn in 2Q, Second Largest Ever, Bankruptcy Filings Near 1M in Past 12 Months; Up Almost 30%, Economic Depression: Who Will Suffer Least?, Credit Crunch: It’s Just The Beginning Of The End, Private Foreign Investors Dump US Debt, and …


Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“Depression, especially in a highly leveraged world that is accustomed to prosperity, would likely result in serious civil strife. Politically, it must be avoided no matter what the economic or financial costs. Despite ‘spin-talk’ to the effect that the Fed is pursuing a dual mandate to both fight inflation and promote growth, in reality they are simply trying to promote growth pure and simple. This is the reality that few market analysts or journalists dare to mention.” – John Browne


Notes from JWR:

It appears that tropical storm Gustav may be gaining force to hurricane strength, and is aimed at the coast of Louisiana. I trust that SurvivalBlog readers are well prepared and will be able to help out any friends or relatives, and even strangers that are displaced. As a Christian, I believe that charity is not just an arbitrary option depending on our moods. It is our duty. The folks over at The Oil Drum, have posted some speculation: Hurricane Gustav, Energy Infrastructure, and Updated Damage Models. If there is indeed damage to the oil industry, we can expect a spike …


Letter Re: The Shenandoah Valley as a Retreat Locale?

James: “Doug Carlton” makes many salient points for those currently searching for retreat locations. Might I add a couple more that helped me in finding our place in southwest Virginia. For every region of interest to me, I gathered a century worth of census data, available online. If you want to get a good picture of a community, this is an excellent place to start. Second, I read Mark Monmonier’s “Cartographies of Danger.” Monmonier is a bit of an odd duck in the professorial geography/mapping community. I have no idea of his world view, but everything he writes is engaging …


Letter Re: Night Operations

James: Regarding Pete C.’s article on night operations: The great (but now sadly defunct) magazine “Coevolution Quarterly” had a great article about night vision development sometime in the 1980s (I’ve got a copy of it hanging around here somewhere, if only I was organized enough to lay my hands on it) that gave a brilliant method for training night sight via peripheral vision. The technique involved taking something like a lightweight brazing rod and attaching it [off-center] to the bill of a baseball cap. On the end of the rod, you attached a small white ball or disc, which you …