Day: March 12, 2010

Notes from JWR:

I will be a guest on Lan Lamphere’s Overnight A.M. talk radio show this evening, for two hours. If you have the time, please listen in. — Welcome aboard! Greetings to the thousands of new SurvivalBlog readers who found the blog after hearing my recent three-hour interview on Coast-to-Coast AM. For those that missed it, you can find an audio link to the interview here. It is also archived for free streaming download–but just for the next week–at KSFO’s web site. (You’ll need to select Thursday 10 to midnight and Friday from midnight to 1 a.m.) I recommend that folks …


It is All About the Means of Production, by Mark. B.

From the beginning of time, ownership and control of quality farm land and raw materials have been closely associated with wealth creation and prosperity. What can you grow or raise? What resources and commodities do you own and control? How much metal, stone, glass, and wood do you own? Do you have the means, knowledge, tools and skills to produce valuable items from this land and these raw materials? As America was settled, the pioneers knew very well the fundamentals of non-electric, independence away from the city and just how critical natural resources were to survival. If a parcel did …


Letter Re: Confronting Kleptocracy–Identifying the Looter Mentality

Dear Mr. Rawles, I would like to make a few comments on your post titled “Confronting Kleptocracy – Identifying the Looter Mentality”. Although my education and profession are in medicine, I have been long interested in social anthropology particularly as it applies to the average “citizen” confronted with a breakdown in modern society. As you are well aware, our society exists by means of a fragile web of precisely balanced interconnected dependencies. This web was not created overnight but has developed over several generations. At present we enjoy life at a time where the poorest people in our modern culture …


Economics and Investing:

Over at Zero Hedge, Tyler Durden asks: Is The Federal Reserve Insolvent? (He’s warning that monetization is the logical next step. So beware of inflation ahead!) Ben in Tennessee sent us this from The Market Oracle: The Coming Dark Ages. GG suggested this one: Bernanke’s Dilemma: Hyperinflation and the U.S. Dollar. Also from GG: Doug Casey on Surviving Financial Apocalypse Now Items from The Economatrix: Are Unemployment Benefits No Longer Temporary? Jobs Outlook May Be Too Optimistic Public Pension Funds are “Going to Vegas” National Debt to be Higher than White House Forecast, Says CBO Senate To Pass Jobless Aid, …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Marjory of BackyardFoodProduction.com is co-hosting a “Sustainable Living Meetup” in southeastern Idaho on Thursday March 18th. This is a chance for preppers to to meet, network, and share resources. (If you attend any event of this nature, of course all the usual OPSEC provisos apply. For example, I wouldn’t recommend mentioning your surname to strangers.) The meeting will be held at the Aurasoma Conference Center in Lava Hot Springs, Idaho, starting at 6:30 pm. Marjory says: “Bring a potluck item that you have grown, or just like to eat.” For further details, contact Marjory through her web site.    o …


Jim’s Quote of the Day:

"What our generation has forgotten is that the system of private property is the most important guarantee of freedom, not only for those who own property, but scarcely less for those who do not. It is only because the control of the means of production is divided among many people acting independently that nobody has complete power over us, that we as individuals can decide what to do with ourselves. If all it be nominally that of ‘society’ as a whole of that of a dictator, whoever exercises this control has complete power over us." – Friedrich A. Hayek