Year: 2016


Notes for Monday – March 07, 2016

I was saddened to hear that former First Lady Nancy Reagan passed away on March 6th, at age 94. She was born Anne Frances Robbins, on July 6, 1921. She was a devoted Presbyterian Christian. Although their marriage was Ronald Reagan’s second marriage, they were inseparable. In many ways, she was a much more glamorous First Lady than Jackie Kennedy. I’d recommend avoiding Kitty Kelley’s unauthorized biography on Nancy Reagan, which was a hatchet piece.  Instead, I recommend: Reagan: The Life, by H.W. Brands. That biography includes quite a bit about Nancy Reagan. March 7, 1707 was the birthday of …


Occupy Wall Street Versus Occupy Malheur: Clear Cases of Selective Prosecution

This news headline makes it clear that the BHO Administration is widening their net:  Nevada Standoff Indictment Names Bundys, Five More.  These “add-on” indictments are quite troubling. I believe that the assessment by Brandon Smith’s (previously mentioned in SurvivalBlog) may be correct:  A Warning To The Feds On Incremental Prosecutions Of The Liberty Movement.  There may be dozens of more indictments of people who attended the Bundy Ranch protests in 2014 that filter out over a the next six to nine months. Let’s draw a comparison: There were overt and quite visible physical threats and considerable actual violence in the …


Pat Cascio’s Product Review: North American Arms .32 Auto– A Closer Look

Over the years, I’ve gotten quite a few requests for a followup article on a gun I tested either on SurvivalBlog.com or when I was writing for the printed gun magazines. I usually decline to do these articles for several reasons. First of all, it’s next to impossible to get one of the firearms printed magazines to accept a followup article. Secondly, I can’t duplicate the torture tests that most gun makers put their guns through. However, I have received quite a few requests for a followup article and report on several firearms I’ve tested for SurvivalBlog.com, and I thought …


Sarah Latimer: Unrealized Expectations – Part 2

In continuing with the idea of not relying upon others for the “sweet” wants and needs we have, here are a few more ideas that you can provide for yourself (and feel quite good about your independence in doing so!): Fresh and Dried Fruits and Vegetables– Want organic, highly nutritious fresh or dried fruits and vegetables year around, economically? Plant fruit trees and bushes and grow a garden as well as consider using a greenhouse for winter produce. Then, can, freeze, dehydrate, and/or freeze dry your excess produce for later seasonal use. We are still enjoying freeze-dried cubed tomatoes from …


Recipe of the Week: Super Lasagna, by P.L.

Ingredients: ¾ lb lean ground beef ½ lb lean ground pork 1 small onion chopped 1 clove garlic, minced 1 (16oz) can tomatoes, cut up 1 (8oz) can tomato sauce 1 beef bouillon cube, crushed 1 tbs parsley flakes 2 tsp sugar ½ tsp salt ½ tsp crushed basil 1 pt. cottage cheese (16oz) ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese ½ tsp salt ½ tsp crushed oregano 8oz lasagna noodles, cooked and drained 8oz mozzarella cheese, sliced Directions: In a large skillet or slow-cooking pot with browning unit, cook and stir beef, pork, onion, and garlic. Drain off excess fat. In …


Letter: Advice on Establishing Retreat Group SOPs

Dear Mr Rawles: I wanted to reach out. I am now reading your novel Patriots and in it the topic of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) is addressed. Do you all have a good template example to help me get started in this arena? Thanks, – Jon B. JWR Replies:  There are no “one size fits all” SOPs. Your SOPs should definitely be tailored to your particular circumstances. Military SOPs are usually a good starting point.  (These include: immediate action drills, perimeter security (including challenge and password), patrolling, field sanitation, communications CEOI procedures, OPSEC, COMSEC, et cetera.)  I don’t want to …


Letter Re: Know Your Limits

Dear Sir, Regarding the article in SurvivalBlog by “Molon Labe” titled: Know Your Limits: The thing is to also know your real personal limits.  Too many people think that if “I have this gun and this ammo then I can hit anything.”  I recently tried to talk some sense into a guy who was looking at a $3,000 .338 Lapua Magnum rifle with a $5,000 scope in a sports shop.  He was looking at it as his first firearm. I tried talking him out of it.  He insisted that he had friends who were snipers so he knew what to do. The …


Economics and Investing:

I see bubbles bursting everywhere: Top academic Vikram Mansharaman o o o Reader D.S. mentioned this troubling news, over at Forbes:  How Fiduciary Rule May Censor Financial Broadcasters Like Dave Ramsey o o o Items from Professor Preponomics: US News Fed Proposes New Limits on Big Banks’ Exposure to Each Other (Reuters) Jobs Report Reveals Lingering Long-Term Unemployment (Washington Examiner) GAO Study Documents Massive Fraud Likely in Obamacare Exchanges (Contra Corner) International News Debt “Explosion” Awaits Unless Policymakers Defuse Demographic Time Bomb, Warns IMF Chief (The Telegraph) EU’s Tusk Warnes Illegal Economic Migrants: Do Not Come Here (BBC News) Brazilian …




Notes for Sunday – March 06, 2016

March 6th was the birthday of Leroy Gordon “Gordo” Cooper Jr., (born 1927. in Shawnee, Oklahoma.) He was a US Air Force pilot and astronaut, aboard Mercury 9 and Gemini 5. Cooper had his pre-Mercury mission exploits and hijinx arewell documented in Tom Wolfe’s book The Right Stuff, and in the very entertaining film of the same name. Cooper died at age 77 of heart failure, at his home in Ventura, California, on October 4, 2004. Coincidentally, this is also the birthday of Valentina Tereshkova (born 1937), a Soviet cosmonaut and the first woman in space (aboard Vostok 6). She …


Noisy Cows and Other Animal Noise Issues, by B.O.C.

I will start this by saying my farm experience range from South Florida to Maine and in climates in between. I also have experience from hobby farming to production on a large scale. From rabbits, chickens, pigs to beef and milking animals. My tenure in these areas has encompassed about 30 years of my life in one form or another. A lot of this is some common sense as well, so forgive me if I dumb this down too much. A few days ago I read an article on this site about the farms in Venezuela and their government taking …


Letter: Solar Fence Chargers as Alternate Power Supplies

To HJL and JWR:I’m a dry land crop farmer, cattle rancher, and hog producer in Montana. Through my work I find things that make me think I could use WTSHTF. (Yes, I’ve read your books). One thing I wanted to offer up, if you haven’t tried it, is a solar powered electric fence charger. These charges cost from $170 to $500. But to charge a few small items the PV panels on the smaller $170 to $300 models are plenty large enough. The chargers work by solar powering a gel cell battery. The [battery] terminals can be changed with a …


Economics and Investing:

Watching this conversation is well worth an hour of your time:  Mike Maloney & Harry Dent – The Great Deflation (YouTube video.)  JWR’s Comments: Dent and Maloney concur with my prediction that we will see a deflation followed by mass inflation. Their discussion of personal strategies to prepare to live through a deflationary reset begin at the 21 minute mark.   Heed their advice:  Avoid debt! In the unfolding deflationary depression, cash will be king and any debt will be painful. Then, as the inevitable mass inflation follows, cash will become trash, and silver and gold will be the new royalty. …