Notes for Tuesday – December 15, 2015

December 15th is Bill of Rights Day. (The Bill of Rights became law on this day in 1791, following ratification by the state of Virginia.) We encourage our American readers to gather publicly and read the Bill of Rights aloud. The 15th of December, 1923, was the birth day of Uziel “Uzi” Gal (born Gotthard Glas). According to Wikipedia, he was “…born in Weimar, Germany. When the Nazis came to power in 1933 he moved first to England and later, in 1936, to Kibbutz Yagur in the British Mandate of Palestine where he changed his name to Uziel Gal. In …


Letter: Federal Watch Lists

Good afternoon Hugh/JWR, With the recent fervor arising over federal lists (airline travel, passport revocations, gun purchases, et cetera), I thought I would share a short story with the readership… I am a professional pilot for a U.S. airline. I began flying in the 1980’s and have been feeding my family with my airman certificate for thirty years. Obviously, pilots are subject to rigorous background checks (more so since 9/11), but screening was in place in the 80’s when I began flying. In 2008 I received a letter from the Airport Police Office that has jurisdiction at the airport I …



Economics and Investing:

The American Dream Is Over o o o G.G. sent in a link showing what happens when you keep kicking the can down the road: Stocks are more overvalued now than at 2000 and 2007 peaks o o o Items from Professor Preponomics: U.S. News The Dreary Utopia of the Socialists (Mises Institute) Report: Government Wastes Billions as National Debt Approaches $19T (Judicial Watch) Excerpt: “The federal government spent more than $65,000 to study what happens if someone turns on a light at night in a rural area. Anyone raised in a rural area can attest that one way to …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Elon Musk launches $1 Billion fund to save world from Artificial Intelligence o o o The water crisis worsens… California in Overdraft: Dry Wells and Sinking Ground as State Struggles with Ground Water Crisis. …and California is not alone. It’s happening in Kansas too. Pumped Beyond Limits, Many U.S. Aquifers in Decline. – Sent in by T.A. o o o Self Defense Prep interviewed JWR over his new book Land of Promise and has the link posted. Survival skills and the learning curve for those skills are also a topic of discussion. o o o D.S. sent in this link: …



Notes for Monday – December 14, 2015

December 14th is the birthday of the late John Warren Wadleigh (born 1927, died September 24, 2013). Wadleigh was better known to many SurvivalBlog readers by his pen name– Oliver Lange. He was the author of the best-selling resistance warfare novel Vandenberg. This is also the birthday of Air Force General James H. “Jimmy” Doolittle, who died September 27, 1993.


Sig Sauer P226 Scorpion, by Pat Cascio

My first exposure to any Sig Sauer firearm came in 1980, shortly after I was married and I opened a gun shop in my home. Later, I moved to a regular store front location. A customer asked me to order him a Browning BDA .45 ACP handgun. I readily admit, that back then, I had no idea what the BDA was. I knew the Browning name but wasn’t familiar with the BDA (Browning Double Action) model. After some research, I found out that the “Browning” BDA was manufactured by Sig and imported into the USA by Browning. I was impressed …


Recipe of the Week: Stuffed Green Peppers

Ingredients: 5 to 6 green peppers 1/2 lb. lean ground beef 1/4 cup finely chopped onion 1 Tbsp. chopped pimiento 1 tsp. salt 1 (12 oz) can whole kernel corn, drained 1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce 1 tsp. prepared mustard 1 (10 3/4 oz) can condensed cream of tomato soup Directions: Cut a slice off the top of each pepper and remove the core seeds and white membrane. In a small bowl, combine beef, onion, pimiento, salt, and corn. Spoon beef mixture into hollowed out peppers. Stand peppers up in a slow-cooking pot. Add Worcestershire sauce and mustard to soup. Pour …


Two Letters Re: The 9mm Parabellum vs the .40 Smith and Wesson vs the .45 ACP, by B.F.

Hugh, I enjoyed BF’s “The 9mm Parabellum vs the .40 Smith and Wesson vs the .45 ACP”. It brought back some great memories of my police days and the El Presidente drill we conducted at the end of our range sessions every year. I can attest to his results. When I came on the job in the 1980s, we were issued Ruger .357 Magnum handguns and carried .38 +P rounds. In the early 90s, we went to 9mm because “the criminals are outgunning us with their semi-autos”! In the early 2000s, we went to S&W .40 because “the 9mm doesn’t …


Economics and Investing:

Peter Schiff Exposes The Real Problem Facing The Fed – Link sent in by B.B. o o o Millennials will not save the housing market: 50 percent of Millennials have less than $1,000 in savings. A large number are mired in student debt. o o o Items from Professor Preponomics: U.S. News High Impact Market Possibilities After First Federal Reserve Rate Hike (24/7 Wall Street) Article Quote: “One very good thing about history is it is always there when you need to review how an economic event could play out against the existing landscape for investing.” A Top JP Morgan …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Our SurvivalRealty spin-off site gets some very unusual retreat property listings, but this new one on Hawaii’s Big Island is incredible: Private Cave Bordering Forest Reserve in Tropical Paradise o o o SurvivalBlog reader R.H. wrote in response to Five Intelligence Essentials for Preparedness and Community Security, by Samuel Culper with a link to an article describing how to turn a computer and a TV tuning dongle into a police scanner capable of receiving trunked radio traffic. o o o J.N. writes in: “Gun haters point to recent mass shooting and froth at the mouth demanding new anti-gun legislation to …




Guest Article: Five Intelligence Essentials for Preparedness and Community Security, by Samuel Culper

Intelligence is a poorly covered topic in our the preparedness community, largely because there just aren’t enough former intel guys willing to teach on the topic. Although the work of intelligence can consume your life while preparing for SHTF, there are several small things you can do today in order to become more prepared. If you’re spending hundreds, thousands, or tens of thousands of dollars on things but aren’t studying the threats in your area, then there’s a good chance that you will suffer from strategic shock; in other words, you may be exploited in a way that you hadn’t …