Letter Re: Converting Precious Metals ETFs to Physical Metals

Dear CPT Rawles, To follow up on the recent thread about cashing out of precious metals ETFs: Long ago, I took your advice and got out of stocks for my IRA and switched to a Gold IRA with Swiss America . It’s done quite well and I was fortunate to read your advice several years ago. [Since then, most stocks went down substantially. Meanwhile gold has appreciated substantially, at least when denominated in US Dollars.] My question and I’m sure I’m not the only one, is this: I will soon be 59-1/2 years old. Should I continue to keep my …


Six Letters Re: Oral Rehydration Solutions

Jim, During my many travels in Asia and Central America I never brought along medications to stop diarrhea, only to prevent it. Diarrhea is natures way of getting rid of something your body doesn’t want in it. Preventing that can lead to serious problems. Water and food born bugs (bacteria, not parasites) can be dealt with by taking Doxycycline Hyclate as a prophylactic. Prior to the likely encountering of suspect food and water, such as a bug out situation, a pill a day will keep you reasonably safe. You should be able to talk your doctor into proscribing for emergency …


Letter Re: Parabolic Dish Shoutcasting

Mr. Rawles, Regarding Skyrat’s and other SurvivalBlog.com readers that may be interested in obtaining large C-Band dishes for Shoutcasting, I have a potential free source: I work in the satellite industry and often receive calls requesting that decommissioned and obsolete C-Band dishes be removed from the roofs or ground mounts of hotels throughout the country. When the hotel management receives the estimated cost for the removal, more often than not, they reluctantly decline to have the eye-sores removed. Some enterprising readers may be able to negotiate a deal with a local hotel manager to remove a dish at no charge …


Economics and Investing:

Jesse sent this: Short-Term Economic Boost from Fiscal Stimulus Outweighed by Long-Term Output Loss Also from Jesse: Why the Stock Market Should Crash From reader HPD: Bank Regulators “Reign of Terror” on Small Business Loans Items from The Economatrix: Stimulus Watch: Did the White House downplay errors in rush to take credit for job data? Stronger Dollar, Weak Economic Data Pummels Stocks Dollar Gains as Homeowners, Job Seekers Struggle Weak Jobless Claims, Future Economic Activity Data Foreclosures Hitting More People with Good Credit AOL Offers Buyouts to 2,500 (33% of their workforce) Treasury to Sell Warrants as Three Banks Exit …


Odds ‘n Sods:

We’ve had a tough deer and elk season here at the Rawles Ranch. Thusfar, we’ve filled just two deer tags, and haven’t yet got an elk. The season has been difficult because there have been two hard winters in succession with deep snow that have taken their toll on the herds. The local wolf population seems to be increasing as well, and their depredations have been obvious. (And so are their big piles of scat that we see all-too frequently when we are out in the woods!) After they’ve cleaned out the deer, I suspect they’ll move on to consuming …


Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“The new danger was that when the peasants finally refused to deliver produce to the towns, the towns would go and fetch it. It had happened in Austria during the blockade. It had happened in the Ruhr and the Rhineland under the provocation of French militarism and enforced idleness. Now there were reports from Saxony -unoccupied Germany — that bands of several hundred townspeople at a time had taken to riding out into the countryside on bicycles to confiscate what they needed. Anna Eisenmenger’s diary included a first-hand account of the plunder of Linz and its neighbourhood in Austria — …


Letter Re: Oral Rehydration Solutions

Sir: My recent trip to the library and skimming through a few books on diseases led me to the conclusion that some of the secondary or follow-on effects are often bigger killers that the diseases themselves. I’m talking about pneumonia and diarrhea. Respiratory bugs often develop co-infections like pneumonia. And stomach bugs often cause diarrhea, which can cause such severe dehydration, that the patient dies. Obviously, [some forms of] pneumonia can be avoided by getting a pneumovax innoculation. So how do we deal with diarrhea? It can be controlled with over the counter (OTC) medicines. According to FamiliyDoctor.org, some of …


Seven Letters Re: Getting a Christian Wife Involved With Preparedness

Dear Mr. Rawles, I just came across a post that might give some more ideas to the gentleman who wrote in about getting his wife “on board” with preparedness efforts. It’s titled “All Aboard” and was posted over on Kathy Harrison’s The Just In Case Book Blog. (As may be obvious, Kathy is also the author of the [nonfiction preparedness] book entitled Just in Case.) As a side note, my husband and I “came together” on our preps about two years ago while watching the television show Jericho. We had seen some episodes in passing earlier in our marriage, but …


Influenza Pandemic Update:

Radio Nederland reports: Ukraine paralysed by “superflu” Receptor Binding Domain Change D225G Confirmed in Ukraine H1N1 Receptor Binding Jumps in China, Australia Raise Concerns In rough translation: Forensic Physician Told UNIAN, From What People Are Dying Ukraine Dead Increase to 315, Still No Sequences. Poland now reporting fatalities, Belarus also reporting severe cases Record Number of H1N1 Pediatric Deaths in US Swine Flu: Previous Infection Could Offer Some Immunity


Economics and Investing:

Tom B suggested this from WorldNetDaily: $120 Trillion in Derivatives. “They are privatizing the profits and socializing the losses.” Evi recommended this: Glenn Beck comments on a dollar collapse and global government. Items from The Economatrix: Stock Market Falls as Home Construction Slows Where Are Stocks, Economy Headed? Even Pros Disagree Goldman Says “Sorry” and the World Moves On Gold is Getting Frothy US Wants China to Buy Into Its Small Banks Gold at $5,000 an Ounce? Don’t Discount it Speculators Accused of Forcing Up Fuel Prices Core US Deflation Continues to Gather Pace AIG $85 Billion Bailout was Botched, …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Reader Chris B. wrote to mention that a software update glitch caused him to lose all of the address book data on his Blackberry. He wanted to remind folks to periodically write down (or upload and print out) all of the phone numbers, addresses, and e-mail addresses that you keep stored on hand-held devices. Chris wrote: “I felt pretty sheepish, using my laptop to e-mail everyone for their cell phone numbers because I don’t know them and didn’t have the foresight to write them down.” Nothing beats a hard copy backup!    o o o Gun Sales Shoot Up Amid …



Letter Re: Getting a Christian Wife Involved With Preparedness

Mr. Rawles, I’ve been into the survivalist genre since I first read [the novel] Alas, Babylon [by Pat Frank] about 10 years ago. Since then i’ve read just about every book on the subject I can get hold of. I ran across your novel “Patriots” about six months ago and it has really lit a fire under me. When discussing the subject with my wife, I was surprised when she asked me, “why?”. She said that if our great country collapsed, what would be the point of surviving? Why keep struggling to go on when our Father in Heaven is …


Letter Re: Parabolic Dish Shoutcasting

Mr. Rawles: I had thought I had seen mention of it on Survivalblog, but have been unable to find it. “It” is a commo system for line of sight communications, which could be employed between adjacent homesteads. The technique is to situate two dish type antennae, as in the “C” or “Ku” band (roughly 1.5-2 meter) earth station antennae used for rural satellite television reception, pointing at each other. With gain on the order of 30-35 dbi, they provide roughly 8 to 10 fold amplification of the signal inputted into it. Now, if I were to face the dish, pointing …


Letter Re: HF Radios and “Shoutcasting” Parabolic Dish Communications

Dish Communications Jim: [In response to an earlier letter,] a HF network is a good idea. A local network also has its merits. There are lots of methods and frequencies for local area usage. Some use military surplus equipment, some CBs, some ham, some TA-1 field phones with wire, some use Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) access points (a great idea if you’ve planned ahead for electricity and it actually works.). Shoutcasting I know three people in Colorado who use old solid [metal-coated fiberglass or sheet metal–not expanded metal mesh ]satellite dishes to be able to stand on their hills and talk …