Day: June 24, 2010

Note from JWR:

Today we present another entry for Round 29 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round will include: First Prize: A.) A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses. (Excluding those restricted for military or government teams.) Three day onPoint courses normally cost between $500 and $600, and B.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees, in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $392 value.) C.) A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $275 value), D.) A 500 round case of …


How to Create a Risk Mitigation Plan for Hard Times, by J.A.

We are a family of five living in Houston, Texas. Within the past several years, we have faced several dangerous situations where we were caught blindsided. Among those where several hurricane evacuations, and most recently, we experienced a forced evacuation from our home, after a chemical plant leaked and exploded nearby. Prior to these incidents, we had no thoughts of survival skills, prepping or preparing for disaster. While these experiences were very unpleasant, we are actually thankful for them because they served as a huge wake up call for our family to prepare. One of the most important things we …


Letter Re: Learning From an OPSEC Failure

Dear Mr. Rawles, I read your site daily and am very appreciative of your work and that it is from a Christian perspective. Thank you so much. I wanted to relay a personal operational security (OPSEC) failure that happened last week that your readers may learn from. My Husband is gone on an extended business trip and before hand I had convinced him to allow me to “prep” for his being gone. We have several young children and I didn’t want to have to go shopping regularly. While my Husband is not a prepper, he is slowly listening to me …


Three Letters Re: Surviving With Pets

Mr. Rawles, Alex’s post on dogs in a post-SHTF world was very informative but I think he dismissed cats far too easily. I’ve been both a dog and cat owner my entire life and though my dogs throughout my lifetime have been wonderful hunters, protectors, and companions none have been quite as useful as my cats in keeping the mouse, squirrel, and roach (especially important having a retreat property in the deep south) population down to a minimum. Not to mention cats have a far lower daily consumption of food and water and take up less room in a bug …


Economics and Investing:

G.G. suggested this: Niall Ferguson: Two year time horizon for US fiscal crisis Andrew H. spotted this piece over at Jesse’s Café Américain: Silver leaving the COMEX. Andrew asks: “[I]s there a reason why some of these well-heeled investors suddenly want their silver, and are either going in person to get it or arranging for armored car delivery? It makes one wonder what might be coming our way in the coming weeks.” Brian B. sent this: The Associated Press: Canada’s economy is suddenly the envy of the world Thanks to Brett G. for flagging this: NIA Releases 2010 U.S. Inflation …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Jerry E. sent this item: Belarus president halts gas flow. [JWR Adds: I guess that from now on, they’ll be calling him “President MasterBlaster“.]    o o o Jonesy, in Alberta, Canada highlighted this: Eat up – we may soon witness the decline and fall of a food empire    o o o EMB mentioned this at Frugal Living: Coupons Sources You May Not Have Thought Of


Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“We should do well to remember that, since time immemorial, gold has successfully acted as the ultimate extinguisher of debt — until it was forcibly removed from the international monetary system in 1971. Since 1971 governments have pretended that paying debt in U.S. dollars extinguished it, too. But in fact it did not. Debt was merely transferred from the debtor to the U.S. government and kept accumulating. Debt accumulation has a natural limit. This limit has now been reached.” – Dr. Antal Fekete, What You Always Wanted to Know About Gold