Month: August 2011

Survival Preparedness With Toddlers in Tow, by H.P.

As a former Boy Scout and long time minimalist, survival preparation is a natural fit for a “hobby” as I enter my thirties.  Of course this “hobby” is an important life decision, unlike how one might approach golf or poker.  The importance of this life decision really becomes clear when I think about my wife and our two little girls.  As anyone with small children will confirm, hobbies and social activities take a backseat to the needs of your toddlers.  My longtime interest in the outdoors, camping, and shooting have provided a sensible platform for a jump into the survivalist …


Letter Re: Physical Fitness and Trigger Time

JWR, After reading the recent MBR article by Zorro, it seems that all the amateurs still fuss over the 5.56/7.62 or 9mm/.45 debate. At our police agency here in the Southwest, we focus on increasing our trigger time via the SIRT laser training pistol, practicing fundamentals through live and dry fire, working through scenarios (lessons learned) and practicing “range fitness”. A great resource for range fitness is www.militaryathlete.com. Rob Shaul speaks of high percentage shooting positions based upon the experiences of combat veterans, as well as developing the fitness needed to put the gun in the fight.  It seems that …


Letter Re: Acquiring Hand Tools

Mr. Rawles:   Along the same line as Cadet’s recent piece about hand tools, I would like to add that this topic has been on my mind for some time.  I bought a file set from Harbor Freight just to have for light work around our retreat.  When I tried to sharpen an old Collins brand axe head with a fine file, the axe head took metal off the file!  My warning to SurvivalBlog readers: Save up a few extra bucks and buy new American made files that are actually harder than the steel that you intend to use them …


Economics and Investing:

Michael Panzner, over at his excellent Financial Armageddon blog presents some graphics with sobering statistics on personal debt in America. Chris G. suggested this photo essay on failed currencies: A Thousand Pictures Is Worth One Word R.J.K. sent: Three Reasons to Stick With Gold & Silver J.B.G. mentioned: Rhode Island’s Central Falls files for bankruptcy An interesting piece by Lorimer Wilson: July Update: Gold & Silver Warrants Index (GSWI) Several links courtesy of regular contributor John R.: When a Cut is Not a Cut (Dr. Ron Paul) Martin W. Armstrong: Uncle Sam – Dead Broke Who Can Take This Country …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Mathew R. suggested the free firearms and combat survival training videos available at the ATACS web site.    o o o A piece by Tess Pennington, by way of Lew Rockwell’s site: Vaseline: A Multipurpose Prep Item    o o o Pentagon unveils its new cyberstrategy. Well, some of it, anyway. (Thanks to John R. for the link.)    o o o Some great commentary from Tam, over at her View From The Porch blog: I’ve never seen an engineer pretend to be a lawyer…    o o o Sean M. mentioned a useful rainwater calculator map, for estimating roof …



SurvivalBlog Writing Contest – Round 35 Winners Selected

We’ve completed the judging! The winner of First Prize in Round 35 of the SurvivalBlog writing contest is R.B. for The Will to Act: Your Ultimate Bug-out Kit which was posted on July 30th. As his prizes, he will receive: 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 $795, and B.) Two cases of Alpine Aire freeze dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $400 value.) C.) A 9-Tray …


Medical Conditions That Do Not Need Antibiotics, by Dr. Bob

The subject of what not to treat comes up so often in medicine that books have literally been written about the subject both for medical and non-medical folks. I decided to break it down head to toe and try to approach it with a common sense approach. Headaches do not need antibiotics. If an infection is due to bacteria, if it causes headache alone…that would be really unusual and probably cause the person’s death. Some bacterial meningitis infections will benefit from antibiotics, but figuring this out in time and having the right antibiotics is just not realistic. Now, headaches can be caused …


Letter Re: The Will to Act: Your Ultimate Bug-Out Kit

James Wesley: In follow-up to the mention of lights and headlamps in The Will to Act: Your Ultimate Bug-out Kit by R.B., I just thought I’d add that Fenix makes an excellent head mounting system for 1″ lights. It is a quality item, very good indeed.  What plastic headlamp is going to keep up with a 200 lumen light (or two), such as their equally excellent and very stout 2xAA-powered LD20? I have a handful of high-end Petzl headlamps, and while they’re very nice items, they fall rather short in output, durability, water resistance, and ultimately versatility to this setup.  …


Economics and Investing:

Last week, just before everyone’s attention was diverted to a Mall Ninja toting a tarted-up Mini-14 in Norway, news came of $16 Trillion Dollars that was loaned by the Federal Reserve to prop up the banksters–mostly in Europe. This is an aggregate figure on loans over the course of two years, and most of it was paid back, but it is still staggering. Its a good thing that we have experts like Tim Geithner and Ben Bernanke in charge. Otherwise there might be inflation or somethun’… Oh, and meanwhile, the Congresscritters are quibbling about how they can “trim” $1 trillion …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Dilbert is a Prepper–in a cartoon that is a reminder to think OPSEC! Here is a recent Dilbert comic strip about preparedness for financial collapse that is funny, yet alarming. (Iggy was the first of several readers to send me the link.)    o o o Since when is swearing adherence to the Constitution a sign of “Rage”, “Anti-Government”, and being “Conspiracy [minded]”? Only in the eyes of the leftist ADL: Rage Grows in America: Anti-Government Conspiracies.    o o o W. in West Virginia mentioned a television news segment about underground shelter builder Radius Engineering.    o o o …


Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“We are now in the final stages of what economist Ludwig von Mises termed the “crack-up boom,” with the Fed (and other central banks abroad) printing money frantically to try to stave off the inevitable collapse and hyperinflation. We have been warning about this outcome for several years now, and it is indicative of how dire circumstances have become that the likes of Forbes magazine — not a purveyor of Austrian economics by a long shot — is now frankly acknowledging it.” – Charles Scaliger, The New American, July 26, 2011.