Notes for Monday – April 24, 2017

April 24th is the birthday of Carolyn Cole(born 1961), a well-known staff photographer for the Los Angeles Times. For a few years in the late 1960s, the Cole family lived next door to JWR’s parents’ house in Livermore, California. That little girl with whom he played hide-and-seek would grow up to earn a Pulitzer Prize, two World Press Photo awards, and be named Photojournalist Of The Year. Congrats and Happy Birthday, Carolyn! This is also the Remembrance Day of the 1915 Armenian Genocide, where Ottoman (Turkey) Muslims slaughtered 1.5 million of their Christian neighbors, intellectuals, and community leaders. The Ottoman …




Canik- 55 TP9SF, by Pat Cascio

As usual, I like to remind our readers that I’m a real stickler when it comes to buying just about anything. If what I’m looking at is a steal-of-a-deal, I have to pass on it. My finances demand that I spend every penny as wisely as I can, all the time. I certainly appreciate some custom firearms or very expensive guns, and I’ve owned a few over the years. I didn’t have the cash to buy them, but I worked deals, trades, or barter. While I think we all can agree that there is a certain amount of pride in …




Recipe of the Week: Bobotie, by K.R.

Here is my recipe for Bobotie (a South African sweet meat dish) Ingredients: 2 pounds ground beef 2 onions, chopped 2 Tablespoons oil 2 Tablespoons curry powder 4 eggs 12 almonds or any nut you like, chopped or 1 Tablespoon pumpkin seeds 4 dried apricots, finely sliced 1 1/2 Tablespoons fennel seed 1 Tablespoon apricot jam 1 1/2 teaspoon turmeric Lemon juice to taste 6 lemon leaves 1 1/3 cup milk (fresh or prepared powdered) Directions: Preheat oven to 325 degrees F, then 300 degrees F later. Soak bread in a little milk until soft, then mash with a fork. …




Letter Re: The Counter War on Credit Cards

Hugh, It seems that at least several times a week there’s a link on SurvivalBlog to a story about the war on cash. Several years ago my city’s water utility department stopped sending preaddressed envelopes in my monthly statement. I assumed this was an effort to get me to quit sending them my payment by check and pay online with a credit/debit card. Today as I was writing my check, a flyer in the statement announced changes to their credit card policy which surprised me since I thought they wanted credit card payments. It started by saying how they were …




Economics and Investing:

Yet another take on the future of cash: Cash Is King No More – O.M. o o o Has The OPEC Deal Been A Success? While the prospect of a production cut extension seems good, OPEC’s decision will ultimately depend on whether or not the members view the cut as a success. o o o Gold Consolidating As French Vote Goes As Expected o o o The epic retirement crisis for older Americans: The median family of retirement age has $12,000 in savings. o o o SurvivalBlog and its editors are not paid investment counselors or advisers. Please see our …




Odds ‘n Sods:

We’ve recently updated and expanded our Amazon Store. Keep in mind that if you follow any of those links and order ANY Amazon product that we will earn a small commission that will help support SurvivalBlog. Thanks! o o o Some fascinating reading over at Commander Zero’s blog: Harder Homes & Gardens – Volume I: Harry Bennett’s castle and cabins o o o SurvivalBlog cannot endorse this form of testing. Please don’t do this at home yourself: This veterans shoots himself while wearing Infidel Body Armor. That’s a high level of confidence in your body armor. o o o This …










Lessons From the First TEOTWAWKI- Part 1, by Sarah Latimer

Basics of the First “TEOTWAWKI” The first “end of the world as we know it” event that mankind experienced was initiated by a woman, and while there are plenty of reasons to finger-point at men in our world today over the problems it faces I want to focus primarily on the women in this article and their responsibility for some of the problems we face and discuss how we can correct these to create a better world, if only in our own homes and communities. I am talking to my “gender sisters” in this article. Yes, I know there are …




Letter Re: Taking Out the Trash: Secure Deletion

HJL, Technically, short of physically destroying flash media, there is no way to insure that something is securely erased. This applies to USB drives, SD cards of all sizes, and even SSD disk drives. It applies less so to magnetic hard drives. Hard drives can drift so there can be a thin shadow of old data, but that is something only someone with very deep pockets can recover, and it would be hit and miss. With flash drives, data is eventually erased, but what normally happens is the prior place the data was stored is mapped as “obsolete, erase when …




Economics and Investing:

Lee Adler: Warning Signs a Stock Market Crash Is Coming o o o Advice from Jeff Miller: Stock Exchange: How to Trade an Overbought Market o o o Over at Zero Hedge: How Heavy Is This? o o o Brick-and-Mortar Stores Are Shuttering at a Record Pace – G.G. o o o Congress Considers Taxing 401(K) Contributions – B.B. o o o SurvivalBlog and its editors are not paid investment counselors or advisers. Please see our Provisos page for details.




Odds ‘n Sods:

The recent terrorist attack on the Champs Élysées with an AK-pattern rifle has the French on edge, right on the eve of a national election. Joe Dassin is doubtless rolling in his grave. Some pundits suggest that this might sweep Madame Le Pen into office. – JWR o o o $128 ticket stands for Roseville man who left car running in driveway. JWR’s Comment: That decision would be considered absurd here in The American Redoubt. It is common practice here in the winter to leave unattended cars idling in post office parking lots. Oh, and having a “remote start” system …







Notes for Saturday – April 22, 2017

Today is the birthday of the late Charles Rankin Bond, Jr, who was born in Dallas on April 22, 1915. He was one of the last of the AVG Flying Tiger pilots. o o o Please remember that Saturday, April 22, 2017 has been named an international day of prayer for peace and harmony in South Africa. Please pray fervently that the current wave of criminal and genocidal violence will end!