Two Letters Re: Skip Watching The Movie “Contagion”

Mr. Rawles, I’d like to offer a different review of “Contagion” from the one posted by Matt H. First off, I don’t believe it would be wise to look for serious survival information in any [Hollywood] movie. We are talking about Hollyweird after all. Nevertheless there were parts of the film that examined what would happen in such a widespread crisis. One character alone witnessed a home invasion, looted businesses, sealed state borders and a local food riot. Another character, a health care professional, was kidnapped and held for a ransom of vaccine. A woman was trampled by stampeding people …


Letter Re: Bed Bunker Gun Vaults

Jim, The Bed Bunker gun vaults that you just reviewed can exceed the structural capabilities of most standard wood frame houses. By the time you combine the weights of a king or queen size safe, two adults, the mattress, the bed frame, the linens, and the contents of the safe, you could very quickly exceed one ton of weight or ~60 pounds per square foot for a queen bed (add another 10 to 14 pounds per square foot for the structure of the building). Most wood frame construction is designed for 40 pounds per square foot and allows for 25 …


Economics and Investing:

Three article links courtesy of loyal content contributor K.A.F.: German minister raises ‘orderly default’ for Greece Greek default jitters hammer French banks, euro Greek tax, customs workers and taxis on strike Rhonda T. flagged this: The Fed’s options are futile without Congress C.D.V. sent this: S&P Could Fall 20%, 2-Year Treasury Hit 0%: Analyst Items from The Economatrix: John Galt:  The September Calendar of Potential Doom and Disaster by Date and Event Commodities Look Set to Rocket Higher Analysis:  Pension Funds in New Crisis as Deficit Hole Grows Regulators Close Small Florida Bank; 2011 Total is 71 World Biggest Economies …


Odds ‘n Sods:

The excellent five-minute ultralight flight “Patriots” locales video that I mentioned debuted last week has already had more than 3,600 views. It is available free, via YouTube. As I mentioned before, this gent’s well-edited footage really captures the look and feel of some of the key locales in my novel. And in it you can see how pretty the Palouse Hills region is at harvest time. It is a High Definition (HD) video, so be sure to watch it at “full screen” size. Dan Fong lives!    o o o A reader in Gallup, New Mexico wrote to ask what …



Jim’s Product Review: Bed Bunker Gun Vaults

One of my consulting clients recently bought several Bed Bunker gun vaults and I had the chance to examine them. This product is an unusual horizontal home gun vault design that replaces your bed’s box springs. These vaults have two major advantages: 1.) They don’t take up any more floor space than your current furniture, and 2.) They will probably be overlooked by most burglars that are in a hurry. (And statistics show that most burglars are in a hurry. Typically, they are in a house for less than five minutes. The bad guys can’t attack a safe if they …


Letter Re: Job Opportunities in Northwestern Montana

For those looking to relocate to the American Redoubt, I just got word of some job opportunities at a family-owned and operated woodstove company in Troy, Montana: Are you looking for a way out of city life but can’t find a well paying job in a remote area? Montana based Obadiah’s Woodstoves has openings for secretary, bookkeeper, web site design, SEO maintenance and possibly inside sales. We are also looking for a future manager to oversee operations. If your looking to live and work near beautiful Glacier National Park in Northwestern Montana, for a honest rapidly growing company focused on …


Letter Re: Skip Watching The Movie “Contagion”

Jim and SurvivalBloggers: If you are looking for some hard hitting survival techniques skip the recently-released movie Contagion. There are no real disasters is this disaster movie. The real message here is wash your hands, wash your hands, wash your hands, and they drone on and on how the virus spreads. A good half of the movie is finding the source. I found myself envying the test monkeys because they were dropping dead and no longer had to watch this stinker. The power, water, Internet and cell all stayed on throughout the story, why they even had a dance. They …


Letter Re: Anthrax Review for TEOTW

Dear Mr. Rawles,  I have just one brief addition to Dr. Bob’s excellent synopsis of the dangers of anthrax regarding treatment/prevention with antibiotics. First, I must commend Dr. Bob on all of his important advice, and for his courage to offer a much needed service (the prescribing of antibiotics in advance of need) in this highly litigious society.   Understanding that in TEOTWAWKI our current risk:benefit analysis will be drastically changed, and short-course antibiotic therapy may be all that is available to us, I felt compelled to mention the current CDC recommendations regarding duration of therapy. Antibiotic use in inhaled …


Economics and Investing:

A reader in New Hampshire wrote to ask for my near-term economic predictions. Here they are, in a nutshell: Major turmoil in global credit markets will continue. Greece will require a huge, painful bailout.The credit pool is presently near collapse, and desperate attempts will be made to re-liquify the system. This means Trillions of new dollars, again created out of thin air, by Ben Bernanke’s legerdemain. The job and real estate markets will continue to deteriorate. Taxes and “fees” will be squeezed out of us turnips, by clever new artifices. Currency inflation will become an all to obvious (and popular) …


Odds ‘n Sods:

K.A.F. flagged this: Antique Apples Getting a New Life.    o o o For those living in or near Denver, there is a Self Reliance Expo scheduled for September 16th and 17th. They will have a lot of great exhibitors. SurvivalBlog will have a staffer there walking the show floor, to do a write-up. One of the exhibitors at the expo will be a new company called Pantry Paratus. Their web store will soon be launched. They have a great line of preparedness products, with an emphasis on do-it-yourself food processing and storage. Their broad line of products includes a …



Notes from JWR:

Today marks 10th anniversary of 9-11-2001. We have not forgotten the nearly 3,000 lives that were taken by Islamic terrorists. Please remember the families of the victims in your prayers.. Soon after 9/11/01 our nation launched what some have dubbed the Global War On a Noun. We can never win a war against a tactic. We need to have a defined enemy. Unfortunately, too few in Washington D.C. have the requisite fortitude to close our borders to radical Islamists and to expel those of them who are already here. Sadly, I believe that won’t happen until after a couple of …


Protecting You and Yours During a Mass Casualty Incident, by Officer Tackleberry

Unfortunately, mass casualty incidents have become more and more frequent both worldwide and here in the U.S.  A mass casualty incident takes on several names with suicide bombing, active shooter, and multi-prong attacks being the most common.  The primary goal of all of these incidents is the same: kill and maim as many people as possible while maximizing fear and chaos. Before I go in to the details of this article, I need to provide a precursor.  I will be providing details on how you can respond as well as awareness to avoid and/or prevent being a victim of such …


Letter Re: SKS Rifles in Canada

Dear JWR: Fearing confiscations of the more “controversial” VZ-58 clones that have hit the Canadian market, I recently sold one and am actively trying to sell another.  Not wanting to sell the thousands of rounds of 7.62×39 Czech surplus ammunition I have for them, I have been giving very serious consideration to procuring one (or several) SKSs as a replacement. To be clear, I don’t think the SKS is the best choice for a primary rifle.  For me personally, that honour belongs to the AR-15 in .223 (even if, as required by Canadian law, mags must be pinned to 5 …