Day: February 13, 2013

Notes from JWR:

The big 25% to 35% off sales for Mountain House canned long term storage foods with free shipping and further bonuses are continuing at both Ready Made Resources and Safecastle. (Both companies are long-time SurvivalBlog advertisers and highly recommended. The overlap in their sales was a coincidence.) Be sure to place your order before these sales end! — Today is the birthday of two notable men: Robert Charles “R.C.” Sproul (born 1939), a well-respected American Calvinist theologian and, General Chuck Yeager (born, 1923), the first man to break the sound barrier. — Today we present another entry for Round 45 …


Do-It-Yourself Prepping, by L.J.D.

In the past year, prepping has gone from an interesting concept to a way of life for us. There are countless resources for information, products and equipment available to the person who has an open calendar and a bottomless bank account. Unfortunately for the rest of us, even if we can carve out enough time to fully devote ourselves to prepping, we tend to find a large portion of supplies to be out of the realm of our current budget. And, with the economy in crisis, it doesn’t seem probable that the budget will be increasing anytime soon. In our …


Letter Re: Low Sulfur Diesel and Refinery Shutdowns

Dear Jim, I wanted to provide a technical article to explain to your readers why refineries have to shut down more often than they used to. There’s a good reason for this, and its not greed.   A few years ago I went to welding school. I wanted a post-oil survival skill that would make me money and have real value. During the course of my education I learned how to weld stainless steel, and one of the key components of welding stainless is something called the Heat Affected Zone. It turns out that when welding stainless steel you can …


Two Letters Re: Plan B: Key Phrases to Memorize for Citizens’ Reservation of Rights

JWR, I am a 14-year veteran of one of the “top 10 by size” police departments in the US. My whole career has been within this department so my perception of this issue is only that of a large urban city department. I want to comment on your article “Plan B: Key Phrases to Memorize for Citizens’ Reservation of Rights.” In my earlier days I can unfortunately admit I probably may have been one of these officers that would try to find something to turn a civil violation traffic stop into a felony arrest. I will add though that I …


Letter Re: Report on the Dulles Gun Show

James, The recent letter from a reader about about the gun show had some comments about pricing so I thought it would be helpful to remind readers some basic economic principles.  Prices are a natural function of supply and demand and higher prices, especially during periods of high demand, perform the needed function of allocating scarce resources to the optimum number of customers. For example, a dealer at a gun show receives a limited number of cases of ammo.  If he were to sell it at historical prices people would buy 2-3 cases each.  Now we have higher prices due …


Economics and Investing:

B.B. suggested an excellent presentation by Stefan Molyneux: There Will Be No Economic Recovery. Prepare Yourself Accordingly. The charts he shows and the statistics he cites are staggering! Show This To Anyone Who Believes That “Things Are Getting Better” In America Biggest Bubbles In History-Stocks, Bonds, Dollars-Paul Craig Roberts Items from The Economatrix: Watch The Financial Markets In Europe Do Wall Street Insiders Expect Something Really BIG To Happen Soon? John Williams of Shadowstats:  How To Survive The Illusion Of Recovery World Currency System Moving Towards Catastrophe


Odds ‘n Sods:

Bob B. sent a link to a NOAA web page that calculates updated map magnetic declinations. If your topographic maps are more than two years old, then you should check! (In my region, the magnetic declination has changed about 6 degrees, since 1950.)    o o o One of the members of my local shooting club recently received a large order from the cleverly-named vendor United Nations Ammunition, in Arizona. He was very happy with his order, summing it up: “Great ammo and competitive prices, with fast shipping and quite friendly service.” My friend bought the linked USGI .308 ammunition …


Jim’s Quote of the Day:

"A standing military force, with an overgrown Executive will not long be safe companions to liberty. The means of defence against foreign danger, have been always the instruments of tyranny at home. Among the Romans it was a standing maxim to excite a war, whenever a revolt was apprehended. " James Madison, June 29th. 1787, Debates in Federal Convention