Year: 2015

Notes for Tuesday – May 19, 2015

Ready Made Resourcesis currently running their 25-40% off Mountain House sale. It’s a good time to stock up! o o o Today, we present another entry for Round 58 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The $12,000+ worth of prizes for this round include: First Prize: A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate, good for any one, two, or three course (a $1,195 value), 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, DRD Tactical …


An Introduction to Gangs – Part 1, by T.N.

The Threat Unfortunately our American justice (or in-justice) system has utterly failed to curtail certain groups and organizations from threatening the safety of the American public. I am warning you that just beneath the super-thin veneer of American civil society lurks a dark and deadly threat. It’s a threat so insidious that it kills young children often times for sport and so powerful it has purchased politicians at both state and federal levels of government. Most people see very little of this threat, only catching glimpses of it as it burns through the thin layer of civility and boils over …


Letter Re: Reverse Mortgages

HJL, If I really needed to get a reverse mortgage, I would swallow hard and do it, but….I wanted to add my bit of information on what I discovered on reverse mortgages. Most of what is said is glossy sales pamphlet type info; there’s not much substance. So I started asking questions and pressing for a straight answer. Reverse mortgages give you money based on a percentage of what they think your house is worth. You can either take the money as a lump sum or take payments. My question to them was how is the interest calculated. The answer …


News From The American Redoubt:

Idaho House Approves Child Support Measure, 49-21, (Submitting Idaho to International Law). The bill now heads to the senate in a special session. – J.J. Update: The bill has now passed the senate and is headed to the governor’s desk o o o Montana boy shoots through window, kills friend trying to wake him o o o Wyoming city rallies to remove graffiti after soldier’s home is vandalized o o o Washington Governor declares statewide drought emergency o o o Rancher dies in plane crash in Eastern Oregon’s Malheur County


Economics and Investing:

Fed Rate-Hike To Trigger ‘Next Crash’ In 2016? o o o Once Cash Is Banned They Will Be Able To Force You To Buy Products: “Just Tax Their Excess Account Balance”. – B.B. o o o Items from Mr. Econocobas: David Stockman Interview——-Kick-The-Can Economics Is Entering The End Game Traders Watch for More Signs of Economic Stall in Week Ahead Bond-Market Crash Has Wall Street Divided on What’s Next – some in the main stream pushing off from the September rate hike theory. At some point even the Lemmings have to start to realize it’s all a show.. US Gas …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Fighting Entropy – The survival of civilization. – S.G. o o o Video: Five ways to hide something in plain sight o o o SurvivalBlog reader T.S. notes that anti-virus firm AVG has recently acquired Privax, the parent company of HideMyAss. The following is from an AVG license agreement, according to Wikipedia: “The AVG license agreement includes a clause (Section 9) authorizing AVG to collect, from your computer, any Non-Personally Identifiable Information they desire and to share it with their business partners anywhere in the world. It also authorizes AVG to track your computer usage.” AVG is also controversial in …




Scot’s Product Review: Century Arms C39V2 AK 47

This review is something of an exploration of the AK platform by one with limited familiarity to it as well as a review of the Century Arms C39V2, a U.S. made AK. I should first explain that the reason I have little AK time is that I am something of a gun snob. I have always thought that the United States, a nation founded upon riflemen and being unique in having the Second Amendment, was first among gun makers, so most of my shooting is with American arms. Folks like John Moses Browning, Horace Smith, Daniel Wesson, Eugene Stoner, and …


Pat Cascio’s Product Review: Benchmade’s Impel Automatic Folder

If ever there was a true gentleman, that person would be my friend– the late Grandmaster of American Kenpo Karate, John McSweeney. McSweeney was responsible for introducing American Kenpo Karate to Ireland many years ago. To be sure, McSweeney, was one of Ed Parker’s Black Belts, and if you don’t know who Ed Parker was, Google him. He was the Grandmaster of Kenpo Karate. Even Elvis Presley was one of Parker’s Black Belts. However, what I’m discussing here is a true gentleman, and John McSweeney was certainly at the top of the list, in my book. John knew how to …


Recipe of the Week: A Prepper’s Pierogi Casserole, by Mags

This recipe can be made with fresh ingredients, leftovers, or with freeze-dried/canned ingredients. There are lots of options for personalizing it, too. You can use whatever meat you prefer– beef, bacon, ham, turkey, venison, or even chopped jerky that’s left over after a hunting or camping trip (if it’s even possible to have leftover jerky). Ingredients: 9 lasagna noodles, uncooked 4 cups of mashed potatoes, hot or reheated (or use about 1 1/2 cups of potato flakes mixed into about 3 1/2 cups of hot water) 4 ounces of herb & garlic cream cheese (or use reconstituted powdered cream cheese …


Letter Re: Digital Security

HJL, Where TrueCrypt left off, VeraCrypt has picked up the baton. (It has the exact same interface, same features with improvements made behind the scenes.) The TrueCrypt letter specifically said that there “May still be unresolved security issues…” They didn’t say it wasn’t secure. They were quite vague. They were in the middle of an audit and quit before the results came out. VeraCrypt takes the results of the audit and appeared to correct some of the very minor issues. I was impressed by how few they are (i.e., increasing some iterations from a few thousand to hundreds of thousands), …


Economics and Investing:

America’s Shadowy Energy Partnership With Azerbaijan o o o For citizens of the U.S., their way of life depends on those dollars in their pockets, but they fail to understand what determines the strength (value) of those dollars. This video should be a wake up call. o o o U.S. Nearing Recession, Dollar Falling Hard o o o Is This Why Greek ATMs Are Empty?. – H.L.


Odds ‘n Sods:

Something is rotten in Albany… o o o I just ran across this interesting post at my old friend Commander Zero’s blog: See the red button? Push the red button. – JWR o o o Mike Williamson, SurvivalBlog’s Editor At Large pointed out a review of the Ruger SR1911. o o o Looks like things just took a turn for the worse in Mexico: The Rising. – M.S. o o o Education Secretary Sets The Stage For ‘Public Boarding Schools’. As scary as the thought of this is, you will find parents in favor of it. Hey, it’s free babysitting. …