“Economics is haunted by more fallacies than any other study known to man. This is no accident. The inherent difficulties of the subject would be great enough in any case, but they are multiplied a thousandfold by a factor that is insignificant in, say, physics, mathematics or medicine – the special pleading of selfish interests.” – Henry Hazlitt, Economics In One Lesson
February 14th is the birthday of Medal of Honor recipient Jack Lucas (born 1928, died June 5, 2008). During the Iwo Jima campaign this 17 year-old won the Medal of Honor “for unhesitatingly hurling himself over his comrades upon one grenade and for pulling another one under himself. One of the grenades exploded, and Lucas absorbed the entire blasting force of it with his own body.” PFC Lucas was the youngest Marine ever to receive the Medal of Honor. (He was just just 13 when he forged his mother’s signature, to enlist.) — Now a bit long in the tooth …
I laughed my way through the entertaining and informative (even for me – I had no theoretical knowledge of waxing skis whatsoever, just did “what the other kids did”) recent article on the “exotic Norwegian” cross country skis. So I thought that maybe a couple of other Norwegian experiences might be of interest to survivalblog-readers: Having lived the first 30 years of my life in Norway and had ample experience with both skiing and offgrid living as a part of everyday life, I have some personal tips on not just surviving offgrid, but actually having a good time even though: …
In my recent (and now notorious) Burn Barrel essay on civil disobedience, I made reference to a legal summary in the 2d edition of American Jurisprudence. But at the time I didn’t have access to the important case citation footnotes. SurvivalBlog reader and legal scholar S.G. very kindly sent me an extract with full case cite footnotes, from American Jurisprudence 2d. This was from Volume 16 (Conflict of Laws to Constitutional Law 1-359). This came from the latest edition, so it cites cases as recent at 2009. Here it is: § 195 Generally The general rule is that an unconstitutional …
Mr. Rawles, The article written by Z.T. was spot on. As I write this, I have been five days caffeine free. For the past several months I have intentionally been cutting back on coffee. I was a chronic coffee drinker and had been for about 20 years. As many as four pots of coffee a day by myself. I loved coffee. Many years ago I spent several months in the woods camping and was stuck with no coffee. I learned first hand how debilitating ‘minor’ addictions can be. For the first two weeks I was useless. Couldn’t do anything but …
Some more “Voting with our feet” news: State taxes and the Great Income Migration. The Kindle book cited in the article (How Money Walks – How $2 Trillion Moved Between the States, and Why It Matters) has all the details. (Thanks to Mark A. for the link.) Prosecuting the Messenger: Chief Greek Statistician Threatened with Jail. (Thanks to Peter S. for the link.) And speaking of “slaying the messenger”: Federal, State Governments to Sue S&P Over Mortgage-Bond Ratings Items from The Economatrix: The Economy Is Much Worse Than The Data Show Central Bankers One Wild: What Can Investors Do? Marc …
Reader Ken D. suggested this over at Instructables: Stylish Two Drawer Faraday Cage o o o The 25% to 35% off sales for Mountain House canned long term storage foods with free shipping and bonuses will end soon at both Ready Made Resources and Safecastle. Be sure to place your order before these sales end! o o o Rick D. sent us an article that provides a microcosm of urban high rise housing in a grid-down collapse: Carpets soaked in urine, sewage running down walls and onion sandwiches for dinner: Passengers reveal dire conditions of US cruise ship …
"The very purpose of a Bill of Rights was to withdraw certain subjects from the vicissitudes of political controversy, to place them beyond the reach of majorities and officials and to establish them as legal principles to be applied by the courts." – Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackston, W. Virginia Board of Education v. Burnette, 1943
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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
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 …