Year: 2013


Notes from JWR:

Today is the birthday of Carlos Hathcock (Born 1942, died February 23, 1999.) He was a United States Marine Corps Gunnery Sergeant sniper with a service record of 93 confirmed kills. This is also the birthday of my lifelong friend, Brad C. I miss seeing you, pal.


Pat’s Product Review: Skinner Sights 10/22 Takedown Case and Sights

Some time ago, I did a review on SurvivalBlog about the Ruger 10/22 Takedown (TD) .22 LR rifle. I fell in love with my sample. I liked the idea of a .22 LR rifle, that could easily be taken apart, and put back together in a few seconds. I also liked the case that Ruger ships the rifle in – very nice, and you can carry the 10/22 Takedown rifle, with a brick or two of .22 LR ammo, half a dozen magazines, a scope and some clothes for the weekend. Not a bad combination, and whenever I travel more …


Letter Re: Late Corn Planting in the American Midwest Does Not Bode Well

Sir: As a retired corn farmer, I find it quite interesting that the Fed’s USDA is still keeping to it’s hard-and-fast immutable “projections” of 97.3 million acres of corn being planted this year. Just like building a house, call the Fed’s number the “planned” or projected blueprint idea. But now let’s look at the “as built” story. Here, where the “rubber meets the road,” or I should say “where the planter tucks in the actual corn seed,’ the “actual” or real situation is quite another story due to very late corn plantings, if at all. The surprise is that the …


Letter Re: The Many Uses of Vacuum-Sealed Bags

Hi Jim,  The reader who contributed the food saver  storage bag post gave a lot of great ideas.  I would like to add my experience with Food Saver and how I solved some serious problems with the vacuum system itself.  Nine years ago I started a serious food storage program. Life is full of trials and errors, and lots of lessons learned from other’s trials and errors.  I made the move into dehydrating foods,  primarily beef and vegetables for long term storage. I bought Cabela’s large dehydrator after researching everything out there that I could afford.  It has performed marvelously after I …


Recipe of the Week:

Chris M.’s Vegetarian Tuscan Kale and White Bean Soup I think that my Mom originally got this recipe from a Pat Robertson/CBN publication. I ate a lot of it without upsetting my blood sugar. And there was enough methane to run a small motorbike. She hit the nail on the head when she said that no matter what you do with these ingredients or similar ones, you won’t go wrong. — Vegetarian Tuscan Kale and White Bean Soup 3 tbsp. olive oil 1 cup diced onion 4 large cloves of garlic, roughly chopped 4 cups vegetable broth 4 cup packed …


Economics and Investing:

Deepcaster: Biggest Bubble About to Burst Sending up the test balloon: The Cashless Society Arrives in Africa. The “Multipurpose” Biometric National Identity Smart Card Doug Casey on Conspiracies, Gold and the Continuing ‘Greater Depression’ of the World’s Economies Items from The Economatrix: Fed’s Plosser:  We’ve Dug Ourselves A Very Large Hole World Bank Insider:  Western Power Structure Collapses Stanley Druckenmiller: Bernanke Running The Most Inappropriate Monetary Policy In History. The Commodity Situation Is Deadly, And The Aussie Dollar Will Come Down Hard. I See Storm Coming, Bigger Than 2008


Odds ‘n Sods:

There are several captivating new property listings at our SurvivalRealty.com spin-off site There is even an off-grid house in Chile’s Atacama desert. You will note that many of the former listings have been removed in the past month because of recent sales. SurvivalRealty has now had four years of proven success in bringing many retreat buyers and sellers together. The ads cost just $30 per month, and there are no sales commissions charged!    o o o Ready Made Resources has announced that anyone who buys an AN/PVS-14 night vision scope from them will not only receive the free weapons …


Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“I’ve previously pointed out that there is no longer ‘law’ as such, in the United States any more. Everything about the ‘nation’, which is no longer, properly speaking, even a nation anymore, is fraudulent, from its ‘money’ to its system of ‘justice’. Even something as simple and basic as openly fighting a ‘war’ is now beyond its bloated, cancerous make-believe structure. I wouldn’t call the present system a dictatorship myself. Dictatorships are more open and direct. It is better described as a simulatorship, which is to say, rule by pretense. It is reminiscent of the latter days of the Soviet …


Notes from JWR:

1

May 19th is the birthday of Frank Luke Jr. (born, 1897, died September 29, 1918). He was an Army Air Service fighter pilot of World War I, who was second only to Captain Eddie Rickenbacker in aerial victory scores. (18 versus Rickenbacker’s 26.) Frank Luke was the first aviator to receive the Medal of Honor. Luke Air Force Base, Arizona, is named after him. (Luke AFB is one of the locales in my novel “Survivors”.) My grandfather, Ernest E. Rawles (also born in 1897) was a friend and mountain climbing partner of Frank Luke in Arizona, before he left for …


The Many Uses of Vacuum-Sealed Bags, by L.E.

The Many Uses of Vacuum-Sealed Bags Late spring and early summer are the times to buy the Seal A Meal or Foodsaver machines. They are both made by the same parent company and can be found at any major grocery or department store in the kitchenware section-the Seal A Meal is the less expensive version that can be found for under $30 on sale, and the bags to go with it will cost you about the same again. You can make this a game or a family activity like an assembly line, just have all your items stacked in little …


Letter Re: A New Online Mapping Tool

JWR, I thought you might be interested in this new mapping tool. It is much faster than Google Earth.  Is there nowhere to hide? After opening the link to Showmystreet.com, type in the address you want slowly, letter by letter, space by space, and watch where it takes you, incrementally. It located our home in the whole world after just seven strokes of the keys. – Rip


Economics and Investing:

The Slow, Agonizing Death Of The American Worker IRS tax exemption/Obamacare exec got $103,390 in bonuses Treasury Knew of I.R.S. Inquiry in 2012, Official Says Items from The Economatrix: These 20 Charts Show That The US Jobs Market Continue To Be A Huge Mess The Price Of Copper And 11 Other Recession Indicators That Are Flashing Red Deflation Spreading Worldwide


Odds ‘n Sods:

Reader John C. recommended the wool Boreal Shirts made by Lester River Bushcraft. These are very sturdy, American-made, and in a color that blends in well in many environments.    o o Stand by for some revelations about another one of Mikey Bloomberg’s “crime-fighting” mayors: Federal investigation of Pittsburgh police reaches Ravenstahl’s office. How many dirty mayors will it take before Mayors Against Illegal Guns loses any remaining shred of credibility? Meanwhile we read: Gov. Cuomo proposes anti-corruption bill that would ban convicted bribers from state business. Gee, if they can’t stop their many corrupt mayors from taking bribes, then …


Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee: and there went out a fame of him through all the region round about. And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all. And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord [is] upon …