Notes from JWR:

A slim majority of the congresscritters voted late on a Sunday night to pass the ill-conceived socialized healthcare legislation package into law, despite a huge public outcry. (And contravening the long-established rules whereby conference committees must create identical legislation for both the House and Senate.) So they shouldn’t be surprised when We The People will find them no longer fit to represent us. I anticipate massive non-compliance with the new scheme, and routs of Democrat incumbents in the next three elections. (Not a single Republican voted for the bill.) There may be some brisk business in tar and feathers on …


Who is On Your Team?, by G.

In the last year, I have been on my latest “life journey”, wherein I have rediscovered preparedness. During my college years, my friends in engineering school and I discussed Y2K and possible outcomes. Obviously a bunch of electrical engineering students had no idea what would happen. But it did give me pause. What if the worst case situation occurred? What would my parents and I do? (I lived at home throughout college to save funds.) On a limited budget, and even less knowledge, I did recognize two primary needs: water and firearms for self defense. Working at an internship gave …


Letter Re: Semi-Anonymous Internet Access

Dear Editor: Is using a laptop with wi-fi from the library etc any better (in terms of OPSEC) than having a home Internet connection? We disconnected from our satellite ISP from home a while ago and now only go online from assorted wi-fi connections when we get to town. But is this any safer? What else should I be doing to keep a lower profile? Thanks, – Jeff T. #1 Son Replies: There are several ways that you can be identified over the Internet. First is though your IP address, and more significantly, through your Internet service provider (ISP). Information …


Letter Re: Infoworld’s Take on IT Doomsday Scenarios

James, The magazine Infoworld is a fairly trusted source in the information technology (IT) field. They recently posted an article titled, “Tech apocalypse: Five doomsday scenarios for IT”. Here is a quote: “What could happen [from a wide scale EMP attack]: Workstations? Dead. Data centers? Gone. Cell phones might still work, but the cell towers probably won’t, rendering them useless. Your car won’t start. A large enough attack will also shut down automated controls at power substations, leaving everyone in the dark. Think pre-industrial revolution days. In our scenario the New York Stock Exchange shuts down, causing shock waves to …


Letter Re: Another Experience with Stockpiling Nickels

Dear Mr. Rawles, I thought I would drop you a note on my experiences in attempting to collect a significant volume of nickels. After seeing the Coinflation.com site and some of your articles and hearing about the changes being made by the US government in what materials are allowed to be used to make nickels, I decided to take your advice and start collecting. I decided to obtain $1,000 worth to start with, so I went to my local credit union and walked up to the teller and asked what their policy was on obtaining large volumes of coins. She …


Economics and Investing:

G.G. liked this piece at The Daily Beast: America’s Debt Gets Scary Greg C. suggested this blog article that has some serious implications: The Most Important Story that the MSM, Fox News, Glenn beck, and Others Will Not Cover. Flavio sent this linkio: Retail Sales Fall. Here is a real Economic Indicator: Box makers wait for signal of economic growth (Thanks to Mike A. in Ohio for the link.) Items from The Economatrix: Stocks Fall on Worries Regarding Greek Debt Return The Four Cities that Best Weathered the Recession (As if the “recession” were in the past?) Germany and France …


Odds ‘n Sods:

More than 20 SurvivalBlog readers forwarded the link to a New York Times article on potential cyber attacks on the US power grid: Academic Paper in China Sets Off Alarms in U.S. Meanwhile, we read: Electricity disruptions a growing threat. (Thanks to Brian B. for the latter link.)    o o o Observations from the mainstream media on societal decline and collapse: In the Soviet suburbs of Hell and the blasted avenues of Mogadishu, I saw what our society could become.    o o o Smoky the Bear Big Brother: US Forest Service admits putting surveillance cameras on public lands. …



Note from JWR:

Today we present another entry for Round 27 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round will include: First Prize: A.) A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses. (Excluding those restricted for military or government teams.) Three day onPoint courses normally cost between $500 and $600, and B.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees, in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $392 value.) C.) A HAZARiD Decontamination Kit from Safecastle.com. (A $350 value.), and D.) A 500 round case of …


Building Your Kits for Survival, by Jeff M.

There are many different ways to go about preparing for tomorrow. One method that has really worked out well for me so far is kit building. Kits focus your attention on one specific area at a time, and bring into focus the strengths and weaknesses in your planning. There is something of a natural progression to it; you can start small and work up to bigger and better as you develop the means and know how. This is intended as an overview of the concept; details for specific kit building can be found all all over the web. EDC (Every …


Letter Re: Vehicle Shutdown Via Remote Control–No Longer Just a Remote Possibility

Dear JWR: I hope that you are well. I thought that the following news report may be of interest to your blog. Not to get too “tinfoil-hat” here, but many of your readers may not appreciate the vulnerabilities their vehicles’ computers expose them to. See: Hacker Disables More Than 100 Cars Remotely. The article begins: “More than 100 drivers in Austin, Texas found their cars disabled or the horns honking out of control, after an intruder ran amok in a web-based vehicle-immobilization system normally used to get the attention of consumers delinquent in their auto payments.” In this case the …


Letter Re: Package Delivery OPSEC

Hi Jim, I am constantly making efforts to prepare for an uncertain future and I thought I was practicing good OPSEC. I do not discuss my efforts except with fellow preppers and my wife, I do not have anything outside my house that says “prepared”, and I generally stay low profile. One of my friends just decided to make a purchase of 50 food grade buckets with me so we could share the shipping charges. I was shocked when one of my neighbors just called me to say, “Scott: What the heck are you preparing for?” I raced home to …


Economics and Investing:

Veteran analyst Jim Rogers talks about the world’s financial woe: Another recession ahead. It was nice of him to use the more kind term for it. From Chad S.: Food prices push Indian inflation up to 9.9 percent Also from Chad: China’s Wen pushes back against yuan rise calls. This quote from the article doesn’t bode well: “We are very concerned about the lack of stability in the U.S. dollar. If I said I was worried last year, I must say I am still worried this year.” G.G. liked this commentary from Richard Daughty (aka The Mogambo Guru): US Economic …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Rufus sent us this: San Diego Searches For Ways To Deal With Hoarders. No, not the sort of” hoarders” we usually think of, but just leave it to the vagaries of government to someday soon misapply such laws to to people that prudently build up larders.    o o o Rourke sent us this YouTube music clip: Meet You At Menards – Original Apocalyptic Ukulele Song. Rourke described it as “So cheesy that it’s actually funny.”    o o o Rebellion in America heats up as fifth state exempts guns. We also read in The New York Times: States’ Rights …