Odds ‘n Sods:

Meet the 19th Century American Who Warned About Big Government, Religious Liberty Assaults. – P.M. o o o Hertz installs in-car video cameras to spy on its rental customers. – T.P. o o o Obama Administration considers independent journalists to be ‘enemies of the state,’ warn reporters. – RBS o o o Putin vs. the preppies and the Ph.D.s: Outsiders, not insiders, change the world. – T.J. o o o Canadian Town Bans Spitting, Swearing And Gathering In Groups Of Three Or More. – H.L.







Notes for Saturday – March 14, 2015

Ready Made Resources is offering 12 Panasonic Eneloop batteries and a solar battery charger (a $59 value) with the purchase of their ITT upgraded PVS-14 Gen 3+ Autogated. Remember, a night vision without batteries is like a rifle without bullets, and one of the many uses of night vision is the ability to bug home or bug out at night when most people will not be able to do so. o o o Today, we present another entry for Round 57 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The $12,000+ worth of prizes for this round include: First Prize: A Gunsite …




Prepping on a Budget, by C.G. – Part 2

Weapons/Defense Now for the most contentious issue– guns. Let me preface this by saying that everyone has their pet favorite, and to them that is the only gun that will ever work and it will do everything. Being chased by a grizzly bear, someone will tell you how you can totally take that bear out with your 10/22. Want to go dove hunting? Somebody will tell you how you really need a Barrett .50 cal. to take those tough little suckers down. The reality is that the only gun you will ever need is the one in your hand when …




Letter Re: Getting Home, by D.K. Vet

HJL, I enjoyed the article by D.K. Vet on the topic of getting home while traveling away from home. I often travel for work as well, and I plan for getting home in much the same way as the author. One specific issue that has always concerned me, and I hoped would have been addressed by the author, is the challenge of getting back into one’s hotel room to access my “get home bag” in the event that a power outage happens to occur while I’m out of my room. As most of your readers likely know, nearly all modern …




Economics and Investing:

U.S. exports at risk as bird flu hits heart of poultry country. – P.M. o o o In the decades leading up to World War I, despite some barely-sane leaders running barely-functional institutions, inflation was never an issue. Money saved was wealth preserved, and global capital flowed freely. o o o Items from Mr. Econocobas: The Debt Ceiling Debate Returns and So Does the Trillion Dollar Coin Patience with Greece Running Low after Tough Week Rig Count Drops For 14th Week In A Row, Fastest Rate In 29 Years Dead-Cat-Bounce Dies (Again) – Stocks Plunge As EURUSD Breaks Below Crucial …




Odds ‘n Sods:

Bill restricting rights of citizens to videotape the police introduced in Texas House. – T.P. This is dangerous legislation, and it must be stopped. The importance of the right of American citizens to record video of our public servants carrying out their duty is explained at our spin-off web site, CFAPA.org, where we also offer press credentials to any literate adult citizen, free of charge. – JWR o o o Christian Life Church in Columbia, SC is having a one day Preparedness Conference on April 18, 2015. Please see website for details: www.leapcon.net. – M.H. o o o SurvivalBlog reader …







Notes for Friday – March 13, 2015

SurvivalBlog writing contest number 57 only has two weeks left. Make sure you get that article you have been writing finished up and entered! o o o Safecastle is moving to an “Annual Membership” model, but before they do, they want you to know that SurvivalBlog Readers can get the lifetime membership for free. Just enter “SURVIVEFREEMEM” as the coupon code and get the lifetime membership, valued at $49, and lock your benefits in now. o o o Today, we present another entry for Round 57 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The $12,000+ worth of prizes for this round …




Guest Post: Silver and Gold: Shelter From the Storm, by Gary Christenson

What storm? The stock and bond markets in the US are doing great, the media has sold the strong employment story, and all those nasty wars are far, far away. So the top few percent are doing well and are sheltered from the storm, but what about the rest of us? What storms are pounding us? Currencies are based on debt, and those dollars, yen, and euros are created every day to keep various financial bubbles inflated. Global debt is $200 Trillion and cannot be repaid except with deeply devalued currencies. Central banks are creating currencies, monetizing debt, reducing interest …




Prepping on a Budget, by C.G. – Part 1

For many people, prepping seems like something only people with a good deal of time and/or disposable income can do. Shows like NatGeo’s Doomsday Preppers and, unfortunately, some YouTube channels give the impression that if you don’t have several years of food and enough weapons and ammo to outfit a small militia stored somewhere in a mountain bunker you can’t join the prepper club. Remember that the TV show is, at least partly, scripted, staged, and creatively edited, and some of the more questionable YouTube channels are run by gear/gun snobs. There are, however, ways to prep on a budget. …




Letter Re: Storing Canned Goods in Cat Liter

HJL, Sorry to bother you, but after reading an article that you linked on Survival Blog I just can’t get this off my mind. It was the Doomsday Prepper meals article, and it said that Wayne Martin “stores canned goods in buckets of cat litter to increase the life expectancy of the product”. Is this to keep the cans from rusting as when kept in a damp basement? I can’t find any reference to that on the Internet except where the cat litter is used as a desiccant alongside of the actual food. Any comment on this would be appreciated. …




Economics and Investing:

Greece Passes Law To Plunder Pension Funds. – B.B. o o o America looks Rich. Big Cars, Big Houses, Big Military. We paid for it with BIG Debt: Credit Card Debt, Stud-loan, Mortgage, National Debt! o o o Items from Mr. Econocobas: Retail Sales in U.S. Unexpectedly Fall for Third Straight Month David Stockman -Why The Dollar Is Rising As The Global Monetary Bubble Craters Q1 GDP Expectations Are Crashing




Odds ‘n Sods:

Mutating H7N9 bird flu may pose pandemic threat, scientists warn Special Note: Down in paragraph 8, is this nugget: “By collecting and sequencing a large number of samples, they found that the H7N9 virus is mutating frequently, acquiring genetic changes that might increase its pandemic potential.” o o o World record? 100 inches of snow may have clobbered Italy in 18 hours, review pending. – P.M. o o o A very neat DIY tactical shovel that would make a great addition to a B.O.B. o o o Mysterious spy cameras collecting data at post offices. – H.L. o o o …