Letter Re: Private Gated Communities May Not be Gated After All

Dear Mr. Rawles, I read Brad S.’s letter with interest today. About ten years ago I was working in property management for an apartment community in Lakewood, Washington. Not exactly a low-crime area, to say the least. One of our selling points was the gates at each entrance of the community. My manager and I took over the property not knowing the sort of people the previous management team had rented to. Over the course of four months, we evicted dozens of tenants for being months behind on rent, among other things. When this process began, we noticed that we …


Letter: Full Capacity Magazine Price Inflation and Scarcity

James, I too purchased a PTR-91 [HK91 clone] rifle and ordered 50 magazines from PTR 91 Inc. The shipping was reasonable and when I received them, there were [actually some free “bonus”, for a total of] 55 magazines. They ranged from good to like new condition and had dates all the way from 1963 thru early 1990s. For $107 delivered, I got 55 magazines and a very big smile on my face. – M.E.K .


Economics and Investing:

HPD sent this: Citi, Morgan Stanley look to sidestep bonus caps: report. (Your tax dollars at work.) HPD also sent: Paul O’Neill: Banks must show U.S. the money Laura H. mentioned: this WorldNetDaily piece: Montana considers return to gold, silver dollars, Proposed bill slams Fed, allows payments in precious metals Items from The Economatrix: Investors Restart Wall Street Rally GM CEO Says Bankruptcy Would Force Liquidation Congress Looking at Huge Taxes on AIG Bonuses Housing Starts Surge, Wholesale Prices Edge Up Completed Foreclosures Hit New High in February Corporate Meltdown Leaves Renters in Limbo US Mint Suspends More Production of …


Odds ‘n Sods:

 Last year, I featured a link to the captivating website of a retiree that had custom-built a horse-drawn “RV”. I just heard that he had an unfortunate accident. Prayers, please.    o o o From Cheryl: Many People are Raising Their Own Food to Save    o o o Our friend Bob in Tennessee mentioned a piece at the WRSA site, titled: Peggy Noonan Goes Doomer. The article references this article in The Wall Street Journal: There’s No Pill for This Kind of Depression    o o o Skip flagged this: Gun Advocates Ready for Battle on Federal Assault Weapons …


Jim’s Quote of the Day:

"Morals—all correct moral rules—derive from the instinct to survive; moral behavior is survival behavior above the individual level…. Man is what he is, a wild animal with the will to survive, and (so far) the ability, against all competition. Unless one accepts that, anything one says about morals, war, politics—you name it—is nonsense. Correct morals arise from knowing what Man is—not what do-gooders and well-meaning old Aunt Nellies would like him to be." – Robert A Heinlein, Starship Troopers 1959


Note from JWR:

Today we present another entry for Round 21 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The contest prizes include: First Prize: Two transferable Front Sight  “Gray” Four Day Training Course Certificates. This is an up to $4,000 value! Second Prize: A three day course certificate from OnPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses. Third Prize: A copy of my “Rawles Gets You Ready” preparedness course, from Arbogast Publishing Round 21 ends on March 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that articles that relate practical “how to” skills for …


Cold and Dark–An Account of an Ice Storm, by Steve S.

Preparations In January, 2008, the outlook for people in the United States appeared bleak. I told my wife that we needed to stock-up on food because I felt that the supply lines were thin and vulnerable. I began my preparations by Internet search. I found JWR’s SurvivalBlog and I bought a copy of his novel. In the meantime, I started buying cases of canned goods. I bought food that we generally ate. I looked at the expiration dates of every purchase. I tried to buy what would last through 2011. Not much would, so I bought with the idea of …


Letter Re: Private Gated Communities May Not be Gated After All

Hi Jim, Due to the real estate slump and the poor economy, my wife and I are trying to unravel our mess of real estate investments. One thing we did, was to abandoned our McMansion in a rural area near Seattle, Washington. It was a new four thousand square foot custom home in a gated community. All the other houses were as large and some significantly larger. We had abandoned the house about a year ago after failing to sell it for what we owed, and have not made any house payments since then. We also chose not to pay …


Letter: Full Capacity Magazine Price Inflation and Scarcity

Greetings – Just wanted to say “thank you” for suggesting the PTR-91 as a battle rifle option. I will freely admit to getting caught up in the AR-15 hysteria but I have come to my senses and saved money thanks to SurvivalBlog. German surplus G3 alloy military surplus magazines in good to excellent condition are easily available in quantity for $3-to-$4 each. Contrast that with AR-15 mags at $15+ each, and that’s a 5:1 ratio. Or, for the same $90 folks are paying for a single AR-10 mag, they can get more than 25 surplus G3 mags, shipped! In addition, …


Economics and Investing:

Shrike sent this: The Size of Derivatives Bubble = $190,000 Per Person on Planet. Shrike’s comments: “Jim, you were uncomfortably prophetic in your September, 2006 article, predicting that derivatives would be a major problem. Until your article, I’d never even heard of the term, at least in terms of financing and markets. Not surprisingly, we still hear very little from mainstream media about them.” Reader “Parsley” mentioned an London Telegraph article that does not bode well: IMF poised to print billions of dollars in ‘global quantitative easing’. Consumer price inflation on a grand scale is a likely result Get out …


Odds ‘n Sods:

I had this piece from Cheryl slated for the Economics section, but I decided to move it down to Odds ‘n Sods since it is related to practical preparedness: Dollars From Dirt: Economy Spurs Home Garden Boom    o o o From Paul in Kentucky: World Demand for Safe Drinking Water is Rising, U.N. Warns    o o o The Los Angeles Times profiles Neil Strauss, the author of a new book on preparedness: What’s new now: He’s ready for emergencies.    o o o Several readers forwarded me the link to this article on the erosion of free speech


Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“Pangloss is admired, and Cassandra is despised and ignored. But as the Trojans were to learn to their sorrow, Cassandra was right, and had she been heeded, the toil of appropriate preparation for the coming adversity would have been insignificant measured against the devastation that followed a brief season of blissful and ignorant optimism.” – Ernest Partridge: Perilous Optimism


Notes from JWR:

In addition to books and DVDs, we now sell a wide variety of preparedness gear through Amazon.com. But please patronize our paying advertisers first. If they don’t have what you are looking for, you can order using the links at our Amazon Preparedness Gear Page. By using the provided links, you’ll help support SurvivalBlog, with sales commissions. Thanks! — Congrats to K.B., the high bidder in our most recent benefit auction. Today we are beginning a new auction. This one is for another large mixed lot that includes 1.) A “be ready to barter” box of 26 full-capacity firearms magazines, …


Letter Re: Wealth Destruction–Real Wealth or Just On-Paper Wealth?

Sir: I followed the link in Thursday’s blog to this I followed this news story: 45 percent of world’s wealth destroyed: Blackstone CEO. It stated: “Between 40 and 45 percent of the world’s wealth has been destroyed in little less than a year and a half.” I don’t see how Schwarzman can be right about that. The factories are still there. the farms are still there. The houses are still there. And there are still warehouses full of everything from Machinery and bar stock to Sponge Bob Squarepants toys.So what has been destroyed are just “on paper” profits, not any …


Letter Re: A Technique for Crossing Barbed-Wire Fences

Mr. Rawles, On foot crossing a barbed wire livestock fence that is stretched tight can be a problem. Stretching the fence with the hands makes a small space. Hanging gear and loose clothing seem to always find a barb to catch. The trick is to make a pair of fence stretcher/stabilizers. Any material can work but light weight metal is the best. The stretching sticks or bars only need to be strong enough to not bend in the middle while under tension. I recommend using two pieces of lightweight metal bar stock about 14 to 16 inches long. Notch each …