Month: December 2014

Economics and Investing:

Creator of ‘Liberty Dollar’ Sentenced to Home Detention o o o Thanksgiving weekend sales fall 11%: NRF o o o The New Depression: 5 Decades in the Making and No End in Sight o o o Items from Mr. Econocobas: The Incredible Shrinking Incomes of Young Americans – A good article, but the author (like many) clearly misunderstands this to be a real recovery and thus is puzzled by this. They also don’t understand that falling prices, because of increased production, doesn’t cause a loss of jobs if we had a true, free market economy. ‘Near Perfect’ Indicator That Precedes …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Austin Police Chief: ‘Spy on your neighbors, if they have guns turn them in’. – D.S. o o o 19 Signs That You Live In A Country That Has Gone Completely Insane. – H.L. o o o Police Video: Judge obviously fails sobriety test – (The court still drops her DUI charges.) o o o UK ‘Drifting Towards Police State’, Free Speech in Peril Says Top Cop. – G.P. o o o San Francisco passes retail worker ‘bill of rights’ . – RBS



Notes for Saturday – December 06, 2014

Book Bomb Day is December 30, 2014: Tools for Survival: What You Need to Survive When You’re on Your Own Now available for pre-ordering at Amazon.com, but I’d prefer that you wait for December 30th to order: Tools for Survival: What You Need to Survive When You’re on Your Own. This book is a guide to the selection, use, and care of tools. It will also be available as an e-book and audiobook. -JWR o o o Today, we present another entry for Round 56 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The $12,000+ worth of prizes for this round include: …


Prepping While Commuting To Work, by A Minute Man

I live on the megalopolis east coast in an old New England mill city. The large city near me is usually considered to be one of the five most expensive urban areas to live in America. I’m lucky; I have a job. My daily commute is about 15 miles from where I live, and it takes me about 40 minutes each way on a good day. This commute takes me through seven suburban cities, on the back roads as well as the main city streets. The local interstate is too gridlocked to use for the morning commute. Before you feel …


Letter Re: How To Obtain Protein From Alternative Sources Without A Firearm

Just a note about small animals: Don’t count on them for the bulk of your diet. Take for example crayfish: The calories for your effort may be very small. There are approximately 3.5 calories in a crayfish tail. (There’s more if you eat the head but not much more.) I’ve seen traps bring in around 50 crayfish on a good day. Therefore, for enough crayfish for a 350 calorie snack, you’ll need at least two traps, and that’s on a good day. Double that for average days. If you want 1/4th of your calories of a family of four to …


Economics and Investing:

JPMorgan Rushed to Hire Trader Who Suggested on His Resume That He Knew How to Game Electric Markets. – P.M. o o o The Morality and Legality of Debt Jubilee o o o Items from Mr. Econocobas: David Stockman: How The Federal Debt Went From $1 Trillion To $18 Trillion in 33 Years – Interesting since Stockman was the budget director the day we passed the $1 trillion mark. Plummeting Oil Prices Could Destroy The Banks That Are Holding Trillions In Commodity Derivatives It’s Official: America is Now No. 2


Odds ‘n Sods:

Use Enough Club: Golfer Killed by 12 foot ( 3.9m) Crocodile in South Africa Park. – T.P. o o o Ukraine Goes Full Orwell, Unleashes “Ministry Of Truth”. – H.L. o o o Birds to be trained to bring down drones?. – G.P. o o o Americans Bought More Guns Than Flat Screen TV’s On Black Friday. – B.B. o o o How police stripped ‘patriots’ of their guns and threatened them with arrest as they guarded businesses in Ferguson – but let rioters set fire to building after building. – T.P.



Notes for Friday – December 05, 2014

I’ve removed my recent post on severing ties with Northwest Territorial Mint, pending further investigation. A few details need to be unearthed before I either re-post that, or post a retraction. (It now appears that I may have been lied to by the disgruntled customer, whom I quoted.) – JWR o o o Ready Made Resources is having a Night Vision special. They are offering a Gen 2+ American made Mil-Grade Autogated monocular for $1,995. These are shock-mitigated for .308 recoil unlike the ITT unit (which is only warrantied for use with 5.56/.223.) This monocular includes a Weapons Mount, shipping …


Surviving With Electronics, by J.M.

While working in the high-tech security industry I’m frequently disheartened by people’s attitude towards electronic technology in disaster/SHTF/TEOTWAWKI situations. For example, I was down in the NJ area shortly after Sandy came through, and I noticed that many people weren’t using their cell phones. I asked some folks what was wrong with their phone, and the two most common answers were: A) the battery is dead and I can’t charge it, or B) there’s no service available. Those answers pretty much sum up most people’s attitude about electronics; power for them is something that comes out of the wall, and …


Letter Re: Cheap and Easy Ham for the Communications Novice by TSR

HJL, I am an amateur radio operator, and we have organized and trained many new “hams” in our community. We hold weekly on-air meetings for those new operators to hone emergency communication skills and develop proficiency as well as an emergency network. It has been our experience that those who start out with the low-powered BaoFeng UV-3R+ “handi-talky” (HT) become discouraged and drop interest in ham radio after a few months. Here are some reasons: The BaoFeng UV-3R+ operates at only 4 watts of power, while mobile units range from 15 to 75 watts. The BaoFeng UV-3R+ barely connects with …


Economics and Investing:

Plummeting Oil Prices Could Destroy The Banks That Are Holding Trillions In Commodity Derivatives o o o Video: Afterburner w/ Bill Whittle — Lights Out! How We Could Lose Everything. – G.G. o o o Items from Mr. Econocobas: Russia Recession Signs Mount as Central Bank Stems Ruble Losses Guess What Happened The Last Time The Price Of Oil Crashed Like This?… T. Boone Pickens Predicts Return to $100 a Barrel – T. Boon Pickens has an agenda of his own but nonetheless worth reading what he is saying.


Odds ‘n Sods:

Alarm bells toll for human civilization as world’s 12th largest mega-city to run out of water in just 60 days. – H.L. o o o Arnie is Back o o o Courtesy of Sipsey Street Irregulars: “Military-style AR-15 rifles: ‘The market is saturated’” That’s got to be rated pretty high on the all-time “epic fail” list of collectivism.. – RBS o o o The Complete Guide To Knife Blades . – J.S. o o o Very Cool: New Interactive Map Shows Lack Of Popularity In Gun Control. – G.W. As usual, the Redoubt comes off looking good!