Year: 2008

Letter Re: Cemeteries as G.O.O.D. Overnight Bivouacs?

Mr. Rawles, I completed reading your novel “Patriots”, I just finished reading “Rawles On Retreats and Relocation“, I’m about to read the “SurvivalBlog: The Best of the Blog” book and I’m going to order the “Rawles Gets You Ready” preparedness course. I do have a couple of questions: When one would be Bugging Out, or in route to a retreat, I was thinking about having a cemetery to rest in, they are generally isolated, either on the edge of town or even in the countryside. There is plenty of good cover there like hiding behind headstones and maybe taking shelter …


Don’t Confuse the COMEX Spot Prices with Retail Reality–Bullion Coin Supplies are Tight!

I was recently chided by one of my readers for being “dead wrong” about the direction in the spot price of silver. I had to laugh about that. The COMEX spot price of both silver and gold have indeed been pushed down in recent weeks. But this is an artifice. This has been attributed to some massive and well-orchestrated short selling in the futures market. The spot market typically echoes moves in the futures market. This short selling has distorted the COMEX spot price significantly. This distortion has become so pronounced that at this point the official COMEX prices do …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Conservative commentator Glenn Beck has followed up his recent economic analysis with this: What Can I Do to Prepare? He stops short of suggesting full-scale survivalist preparedness, but he definitely goes far beyond FEMA‘s “buy a flashlight and three days of food” claptrap, or the standard Nanny-Stater’s “Hold hands, sing Kumbaya, and dial 911 if there is trouble” approach.    o o o Steve Quayle had a link to this important London Telegraph article: Europe stuns with €1.5 trillion bank rescue, as France plays role of saviour. Steve also had a link to this blog commentary: The Next Derivatives Bloodbath: …


Jim’s Quote of the Day:

"… By calling attention to a well-regulated militia for the security of the Nation, and the right of each citizen to keep and bear arms, our founding fathers recognized the essentially civilian nature of our economy. Although it is extremely unlikely that the fear of governmental tyranny, which gave rise to the 2nd amendment, will ever be a major danger to our Nation, the amendment still remains an important declaration of our basic military-civilian relationship, in which every citizen must be ready to participate in the defense of his country. For that reason I believe the 2nd Amendment will always …


Note from JWR:

Congratulations to Dr. H., the high bidder in the monthly SurvivalBlog Benefit Auction that ended last night. Today we are starting a new auction for a mixed lot that includes: 1.) A huge lot of DVDs, CD-ROMs and hard copy nuclear survival/self-sufficiency references (a $300+ value) donated by Richard Fleetwood of www.SurvivalCD.com 2.) A custom-made, fully-stocked EMS Medic Bag from Cajun Safety and Survival (a $212 retail value) 3.) A NukAlert radiation detector donated by at KI4U.com (a $160 retail value) 4.) A case (6 cans, 96 ounces each) of Mountain House freeze dried foods in #10 cans, donated by …


Letter Re: Hope and Preparedness–A Budget Prepper’s Observations

James, The sheeple‘s fear is now electric. You can feel it bristle on your skin whenever you are in a public space. It is on the lips and in the hearts of any news-watching human. What about our retirement fund? How will we afford our regular bills? How will we feed and clothe the kids? There is a little warm spot inside me. The part of me that feels confident in our preparations. Tucked in every nook of our tiny, modest house, an ATM, a grocery store, pharmacy, garden supply plus clothing, shoe, sporting goods stores and all around trading …


Letter Re: What Happened, and What Should We Watch For?

Jim, Thanks for the awesome blog. I consider it essential reading every day, especially now considering the terrible situation we find ourselves in. You keep speaking of mass inflation yet we see oil and other commodities falling in price along with, sadly, our home values. In a recent post you also mentioned being able to buy classic cars at rock bottom prices, closely followed by hyperinflation. Can you explain for all of us how this can come to pass and some of the warning signs? Thanks, – DZ in Louisiana. JWR Replies: To clarify, I mentioned buying older, fuel-inefficient vehicles …


Letter Re: An Apology About Recommending Silver?

JWR:: Your repeated bullish calls on silver have been dead wrong. Do you plan on apologizing to your readers? – Jim G. Jim: An apology for what? For making people money? You aren’t looking at the big picture if you are only looking at the past few months. If you had invested in silver back in February of 2001 when I went on record and accurately called the bottom of the silver market, then you would have more than doubled your money, even with the recent sag in the market. I made that call within 36 cents of the absolute …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Paul C. spotted this article: Birmingham on the brink (of bankruptcy). Do you remember my warnings starting in January of 2008 about municipal bonds?    o o o John and Abigail Adams sent us the URL for a site on North American Indian Recipes.    o o o Does this word from the mainstream analysts sound familiar? This is from MarketWatch e-Newsletter (on October 14th): “Gold prices could hit $1,500 as global plans to rescue the financial industry are set to increase inflation pressures, according to analysts led by Francisco Blanch at Merrill Lynch. “The unintended consequence of the ongoing …


Jim’s Quote of the Day:

"The economic statistics put out by the U.S. government are propaganda, pure and simple. Issued by the government and the financial community, and reported by the mass media, the information we get has been manipulated to mold a public understanding favorable to the agenda of the powers that be." – Peter Schiff, "Crash Proof"


Note from JWR:

Today is the last day of bidding in the SurvivalBlog Benefit Auction is now at $770. The auction for a large mixed lot that includes: A Special Mixed Vegetable Case-Six #10 Dehydrated Food Cans (Retail Price $105.95) This special Mixed Vegetable Case contains six #10 (96-ounce) cans–one can of each of the following: Mixed Vegetable Blend, Green Beans, Sweet Garden Peas, Mixed Peppers, Potato Dices, and Sweet Potatoes and a EZ-Towels 10 Pack Combos (10 bags of 50 towels. Retail value: $99.95). These items were donated by Jan at Healthy Harvest Foods. An assortment of world class loose leaf teas, …


Letter Re: Some Observations on Registered Class 3 Guns and Suppressors

Mr. Rawles: To suppress or not to suppress: there is no question. (A hat tip to The Bard.) Many in the preparedness community are apprehensive about the acquisition of [“Class 3”] National Firearms Act (NFA) items. [These include machineguns, short-barreled rifles (SBRs), short-barreled shotguns (SBSs), and sound suppressors. There is a background check, fingerprinting, paperwork required, and a $200 tax per transfer.] There are reams of writings about “remaining under the radar”. I do not share those misgivings. Neither do tens of thousands of other legitimate gun owners. A caveat: under no circumstances should anyone build/construct/ any NFA style weapon …


Letter Re: Advice on Storage Food–Quantities, Shelf Lives, and Sources

Mr. Rawles; I’m chagrined to say that I found your blog rather late in the game–just two weeks ago, when a friend at church mentioned it. (We had been talking about the banking panic.) Your blog was a real eye-opener. So now I’m just plain overwhelmed and definitely feeling “behind the power curve.” I have a lot of catching up to do. How can I get smart on preparedness in a great hurry, especially about [storing] food? Will food from the grocery supermarket do? Do I need special containers? One of those vacuum sealing things? What about mice? I’m a …


Letter Re: A SurvivalBlog Reader’s Relocation to the Interior of Alaska

Dear Jim – Thank you for the note and I think its the least we can do to support such a worthy web information source. I’ve learned a great deal reading your archives and I’m doing my best to try and promote a self-sufficient lifestyle for our family. We have chosen to live in interior Alaska for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is a steady job, but not without serious consideration. We are very well aware that we’re at the end of the food chain up here and things are a bit more expensive (and can …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Reader FFF found this for us: Great Depression holds lessons for surviving tough economy    o o o Several new retreat properties have recently been added to our spin-off site: SurvivalRealty.com.    o o o Susan Z. recommended this piece of commentary by Adrian Douglas: Bond market collapse is imminent. My own opinion is a bit different: I think that bonds will hold up for several more months, since so much money is presently being yanked out of the equities market by both individual and institutional investors. They need to re-invest that money somewhere. In the long run, however, bonds …