Month: February 2011

Notes from JWR:

A Beta Glitch. 🙁 We’ve discovered that some of the 47 beta testers of the SurvivalBlog 2005-2010 Archive CD-ROM may have been accidentally mailed blank CD-ROMs by the publisher. Yikes! If your v0.5 Beta CD-ROM was blank, then please e-mail our archival guru, and we will put you on the list to get a free replacement copy. Our apologies! We are hoping to have the Version 1.0 CD-ROM orderable by everyone on or before March 10th. Thanks for your patience. — Today we present another entry for Round 33 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round …


Review of the USSA Tactical Shotgun Course, by Bubba Man

Here is my review of the USSA Tactical Shotgun #220 course, conducted in December, 2010. I started out with about 850 rounds of #7 bird shot, 150 rounds of 9 pellet 00 Buck and 50 slugs. I should have brought more slugs as I wound up borrowing about 10 from one of the other students. When I was done, I had about 200 rounds of #7 birdshot and 50 rounds of 00 Buck and no slugs. First let me get this out of the way; Those of you who know me, know that I am currently a fat, out-of-shape, somewhat …


Letter Re: Preparedness on a Tight Budget

Mrs. R.J., I rejoice to read of your plans to prepare. It’s good to know you’re in Arkansas. The Christians at Ark Haven believe that is a protected area for many reasons, physical and spiritual. Three generations on one piece of property is definitely getting back to the old ways. Two acres is great — focus on compact crops and animals; Jeavons lists crops by square foot yield and calorie count so you can be sure you’re getting the correct amount in his book “How To Grow More Vegetables” (read it free here). (And yes, it appears this free book is …


Two Letters Re: Investing in Nickels, in Quantity

Jim, Thanks for the blog. I’m a huge fan, and your blog is literally a rock-solid anchor for me and my family during all this turmoil. I took “Rick in Kentucky’s” claim that he could get $190 worth of nickels into an ammo can as a challenge. My ammo is flat green can has yellow paint on it which reads as follows: “200 CARTRIDGES, 7.62 MM, NATO 0 M80…” I took out a full can that I have where the coins are arranged laying down, dumped out the rolls, and started stacking vertically as described by Rick. It was quite …


Economics and Investing:

Loyal reader “OSOM” (“Out of Sight, Out of Mind”) pointed us to an eloquent piece by Bill Bonner (of The Daily Reckoning) titled: “Where to Be When Black Swans Appear” OSOM’s comment: “This is a great introductory article for those folks who don’t yet read SurvivalBlog.” Daniel H. flagged this evidence of flight from the U.S. Dollar: China sells $34.2bn of US treasury bonds. Jon R. mentioned this at The Daily Reckoning: The Food Crisis is a Dollar Crisis The latest FDIC Friday Follies: Regulators shut two small banks in Georgia; makes 20 US bank failures this year. (Thanks to …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Reader Lynn G. sent a link to a web page on nuclear EMP.    o o o Attention SurvivalBlog readers in Colorado: Reader James A. just alerted me that Classic Mustangs in Denver, Colorado recently bought 100 U.S. Army surplus CUCV diesel pickups and Blazers at auction. (I assume these came from Fort Carson, Colorado.) They are offering them either semi-restored (with custom paint jobs and engine block heaters) or essentially “as-is” with their original CARC paint..    o o o John B. sent this: NRA-ILA :: Senator Grassley Presses BATFE On Project Gunrunner    o o o Reader Pierre …



Note from JWR:

Today we present an article by Dr. Cynthia J. Koelker. Regular SurvivalBlog readers will recognize her as a frequent contributor to SurvivalBlog and the editor of ArmageddonMedicine.net. She was also just named SurvivalBlog’s Medical Editor.


Seven Antibiotics to Stockpile and Why, by Cynthia J. Koelker, MD

Assuming your personal physician will help you stockpile antibiotics for TEOTWAWKI, which should you request?  Is there a logical reason to have amoxicillin on hand rather than doxycycline?  Here’s what I would suggest and why. No antibiotic is effective against every type of microbe.  Certain ones will kill aerobic bacteria, others are used for anaerobic bacteria, still others are effective against resistant strains, and certain people are allergic to or intolerant of various antibiotics.  The following are all generics, running about $10 for about a month’s treatment.  Amoxicillin is the old standby for most respiratory infections (probably most of which …


Letter Re: Food, Nickels, Silver and Gold

Mr. Rawles:   Like the ridiculous commercials touting Internet stock trading in the recent past, today the sheeple are treated to commercials extolling the wisdom of investing in gold, all the while the economic world is apparently heading for a meltdown of epic proportion.  As an ardent fan of your novel “Patriots” and a daily reader of your site, I must question the wisdom of investing in either physical gold or rolls of nickels as one will not be able to eat either. And frankly, if someone appears at most doorsteps offering either as payment for goods or services after the …


Letter Re: Gauging Government Over-Spending

Dear Mr. Rawles, Thank you for your hard work on the blog. I did some thinking and research today concerning the Federal budget and want to share what I found with you. How much does the Federal government spend and how do we put this into context? There are several ways to look at this data. First, one can compare the dollars spent today versus those spent in 1962. Using the data from supportingevidence.com, I found: The government spent $106,821,000,000.00 in 1962 (106 billion dollars) according to http://federal-budget.findthebest.com/detail/64/1962. However, adjusted for inflation this would be about 700 billion dollars. The …


Economics and Investing:

Brett G. sent this: John Hussman: Stocks Too Expensive, Correction Due Frequent content contributor John R. recommended this analysis by Monty Pelerin: Faking Our Way to Sovereign Bankruptcy Karl Denninger reports on the collapse of the MERS house of cards: MERS Caves Items from The Economatrix: Dim View of Housing Market Weighs on Economy A Tipping Point is Nearing Oil Prices Fall on Economy, Supply Concerns   Bartering, Inflation & Growing A Garden


Inflation Watch:

The latest from Gonzalo Lira: Ballsy or Crazy? Where are We on Inflation and Hyperinflation. (Be forewarned that Mr. Lira uses some crude language.) Reader Brett G. sent us a snippet from an e-mail that he received from a friend who lives in Alaska: “[Rapid price inflation is] really happening up here [in Alaska], overnight: $3.91 [per gallon] for gas $4.89 [per pound] for butter and that was with it ‘on sale’. Milk is $3.89 [per gallon]. It had been $2.99 [per gallon] until this week. Plant seeds! Get ready. Tomatoes will be $7.75 per pound soon, but people just …


Odds ‘n Sods:

I’m scheduled for a one hour interview on EMPact Radio on Wednesday, February 23, 2011. Please feel free to call in to the show if you have any preparedness questions that would be of interest to the majority of listeners. If you miss hearing the show, it will be available post facto as a downloadable podcast.    o o o Reader Troy H. mentioned a fascinating Wikipedia page that is presented in tabular form: List of countries by real population density (based on food growing capacity). That table is food for thought for anyone that is considering emigrating. Notice how …


Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“The people don’t like to be conquered, sir, and so they will not be. Free men cannot start a war, but once it is started, they can fight on in defeat. Herd men, followers of a leader, cannot do that, and so it is always the herd men who win battles and the free men who win wars. You will find that is so, sir.” – John Steinbeck, The Moon Is Down