Odds ‘n Sods:

Michael G. sent this great link: The The King of Scrounge and His Castle    o o o Erik mentioned that US military personnel with proper identification can shop at Sam’s Club without a membership for two days in December. The company will also waive its 10 percent non-member service fee. The military open houses will be held Monday, Dec. 1 and Monday, Dec. 15 at 598 Sam’s Club locations in the U.S., during regular club hours. This is a good opportunity to stock up! BTW, if you need to know exactly what food products, hygiene items and sundries to …




The MOAB Keeps Growing, and Growing

Last Winter, when I first started writing about the Mother of All Bailouts (MOAB), I predicted that the cost of the bailout would grow inexorably. Sadly, I was all too right. In fact, the scope of the MOAB is now much larger than I had predicted, early in 2008. The latest tally thusfar is an almost incomprehensible $4.28 trillion US Dollars. But wait, it gets worse. In addition to bailing out bankers and insurance companies, more and more entities from outside the financial sector are lining up to the Federal trough. The TARP bailout set a dangerous precedent. There is …


Letter Re: Finding Abandoned Properties, Post-TEOTWAWKI?

Dear Mr. Rawles, I recently became a fan of your blog and wanted to commend you for your work in educating the masses. While I don’t have a retreat, I’m using a different strategy and hope for your input. I live in western Maryland. Historically we are fairly disaster-proof from natural disasters enjoy all four seasons. My plan is to prepare (as best we can here) and after a disaster, claim a better vacant property. Two other thoughts: I recently purchased David Blume’s book “Alcohol Can Be a Gas” and intend to fuel my own flex fuel vehicles and have …


Letter Re: UCLA’s Eye-Opening Colloquium on the Worldwide Financial and Economic Crisis

Hi Jim, I’m responding to Tuesday’s article Letter Re: UCLA’s Eye-Opening Colloquium on the Worldwide Financial and Economic Crisis in which the general cause of the crisis was ascribed to too much economic freedom. The following articles make the opposite case, that it was actually caused by government interference in the markets: The Government Did It The Myth that Laissez Faire Is Responsible for Our Financial Crisis Alan Greenspan vs. Ayn Rand and Freedom Stable Money is the Key to Recovery As pointed out in the article Stable Money is the Key to Recovery, “…some three-quarters of the massive derivatives …


Odds ‘n Sods:

More than 20 readers sent us links to various articles about Gerald Celente’s recently very gloomy predictions, including this one: Celente Predicts Revolution, Food Riots, Tax Rebellions By 2012    o o o Eric flagged this one: Root cellars thrive as food prices rise. Oh, and BTW, count this as yet another greenie that doesn’t mind giving an exact location to reporters. How incredibly naive! (“Don’t forget to mention the nearest cross-street!”)    o o o From Cheryl, our Economic Editor, comes another big batch of news and commentary. It is noteworthy that the most incisive reporting on the US …



Note from JWR:

The high bid in the SurvivalBlog Benefit Auction is now at $710. The auction is for a large mixed lot that includes: A.) 15 brand new 30 round M16/M4/AR-15 magazines from JWR‘s personal collection. These include four scarce and desirable brand new HK steel “Maritime Finish” magazines, and 11 new USGI alloy magazines made by Center Industries. (Note that most of these were made during the 1994-2004 Federal ban, most of them have restriction markings, but those became null and void after the ban sunsetted.) Even if you don’t own an AR-15, these magazines are great to keep on hand …


Letter Re: UCLA’s Eye-Opening Colloquium on the Worldwide Financial and Economic Crisis

Hi, Yesterday [Friday. November 14, 2008] I attended the Marschak Colloquium on Mathematics in the Behavioral Sciences at UCLA {University of California, Los Angeles] . This thing is attended by lots of UCLA and USC [University of Southern California] economics professors, including many retired faculty members and other local luminaries. (Two seats to my right was author Alvin Toffler of “Future Shock” fame.) The main speakers presented for an hour, and then the whole group asked questions and discussed the topic. Here is the brief abstract that announced the talk: “The current worldwide financial and economic crisis is the greatest …


Letter Re: Where to Find the Funds for Your Preparations

Dear Jim, So many people are struggling to find ways to make ends meet, much less have any extra money to make purchases for their preparedness plan. There are a lot of things people can do within their own means. 1. Make a budget. Income minus expenses. Is there anything left over? You are ahead of the game. If not, now is the time to: 2. Trim the budget. Distinguish needs versus wants. Eliminate anything that is not needed. 3. If after trimming the budget, you still cannot find extra money, get a second job, have a yard sale, etc. …


Two Letters Re: Procuring Reliable Workhorse Bikes — Take Advantage of the Single Speed Fad

James I am a daily multi-modal commuter taking an armored bus into Jerusalem and then cycling from the bus station to my kollel. Before my move to Israel, I only drove my 4×4 truck several times a month and did about 50-to-70 miles a week by pedal power. I did once try using Slime in my tubes but this makes for a difficult ride, wasting immense amounts of effort due to the natural imbalance of slimed tires. I also found that it is also impossible to patch slimed tires. My advice is to get a good tire like the Kevlar …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Reader “Arclight” mentioned that here is a DEA newsletter, formerly restricted to Law Enforcement, called “The Microgram.” Arclight’s comment: While some of it dry and technical, there are some fascinating stories of how drug operations are hidden, items are smuggled through customs, etc. The Microgram and the newsletters also available on the site give a fascinating look into who is running this trade and how. Good intel reading for the good guys.”    o o o I recently updated my M14 / M1A Magazine FAQ, to include a link to the set of excellent Counterfeit USGI M14 Magazine Detecting Flowcharts …



Note from JWR:

Two additional items have been generously added to the already large mixed lot in the SurvivalBlog Benefit Auction that started yesterday: A NukAlert radiation detector donated by at KI4U.com (a $160 retail value). and, A case of 24 cans of canned storage butter, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $110 retail value). The high bid is now at $350. The auction ends on December 15th . Please e-mail us your bid.