Note from JWR:

The high bid is now at $250 in the current SurvivalBlog benefit auction for a brand new Schecter “Warthog” Electric Guitar. This is an awesome guitar from Schecter’s Tempest series is decorated in a military aviation motif. It was kindly donated by Schecter Guitar Research. (Where there are some SurvivalBlog fans.) This guitar has a $729 retail value. Please tell any of your friends that are guitarists about this auction, which ends March 15th. Just e-mail me your bid. Thanks!




Poll Results: Best Occupations for Both Before and After TEOTWAWKI

In no particular order, the following are the first batch of responses to my poll question on the best occupations or home businesses for both before and after TEOTWAWKI: Locksmith/Home security systems installer/repairman — Beekeeping Small scale vegetable gardening. Growing herbs (medicinal) — 1) Electricity: a. Recharge batteries for folks, rebuild the bad batteries, and lots of folks don’t know squat about electricity for lighting, etc. Got several methods: Solar, miscellaneous generators powered by hand, animal, wind and even the old one lung gas engine with that darn heavy flywheel. b. Also use the above for communications when there aren’t …




Four Letters Re: One Common Caliber for Retreat Rifles and Handguns?

James: I would like to add a comment on the viability of the “same caliber pistol and rifle” concept. The .357 Magnum offers an interesting choice for a survival rifle. In a revolver, the .357 is certainly powerful enough to be considered a defense caliber by most folks. The 16″ barreled Winchester or Marlin lever action rifles can push out a 180 grain slug at close to 2000 fps with handloads, making it usable on deer out to 150 yards or so. Loading up light .38 special loads makes this rifle capable of taking small game without destroying all the …




Odds ‘n Sods:

Ralph H. pointed us to this article: Cheap solar power poised to undercut oil and gas by half   o o o Mike in Seattle recommended this “must read” piece at The Market Oracle: US Housing Market Crash to result in the Second Great Depression   o o o SurvivalBlog reader Doc Holladay notes: “A possible relocation area is the vicinity of the Big South Fork National Recreation Area in Kentucky/Tennessee. This is about as isolated as it gets east of the Big Muddy.”




Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“Without God, there is no virtue, because there’s no prompting of the conscience. Without God, we’re mired in the material, that flat world that tells us only what the senses perceive. Without God, there is a coarsening of the society. And without God, democracy will not and cannot long endure. If we ever forget that we’re one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under.” – Ronald Wilson Reagan, speaking at a prayer breakfast.




Note from JWR:

Wednesday will be the last day of my February special “support our troops” sale on copies of the new expanded 33 chapter edition my novel “Patriots” . If you place an order directly with me during February, and you have us mail it to an APO or FPO address, then the price is just $12 per copy, plus $3 postage. (That is $10.99 off of the cover price–right near my cost.) I now offer a couple of additional payment options for book orders: both AlertPay and GearPay. (I prefer AlertPay or GearPay because they don’t share PayPal’s anti-gun political agenda.) …




Letter Re: Who Needs a Hummer H1?

Jim, I was browsing around by way of “Steyr Puch” (long story) and came upon the following URLs. My oh my, I thought; “I won’t need an H1 Hummer after this.” (The topmost link has some 4×4 prices at around $10,000+). Okay, they’re gasoline/electronic ignition, but look at those those prices [versus $30,000 for a commercial HMMWV H1]. http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Steyr+Puch&btnG=Google+Search http://www.eurotruck-importers.com/pinzgauer.htm http://www.staufferclassics.com/pinzgauer.html Regards, – Ben L. JWR Replies: Even though getting spare parts for European military surplus trucks can be a problem here in the States, I’m a big believer in Pinzgauers and Unimogs. At the current surplus vehicle prices, you …




Letter Re: U.S. Dollar Collapse? I Think We are Getting Close

Sir: Over this past weekend, I began re-reading “Patriots: Surviving the Coming Collapse” . I hadn’t touched it since mid-2000. Wow! page 10 includes:…”just before the Crunch…unofficial debt topped 19 trillion dollars…” a president that didn’t let trifles life ledger sheets and statistics get in his way…the real deficit was growing…”a full scale default on US Treasuries appears imminent…” Then I look at Internet financial and economic news feeds [and see] Fleet Street (London’s Wall Street) recommending that their client firms get out of the US Dollar (USD), China, UAE, Russia and others moving out of the USD. Many estimates …




Letter Re: Kanban: America’s Ubiquitous “Just in Time” Inventory System–A Fragile House of Cards

Jim, I’ve heard many, many people bash our ‘just in time’ distribution model. but, I’ve never heard of even a single military official from any other country brag or boast of the same assertions. Our ‘just in time’ delivery of goods is one of the most survivable, re-configurable and defend-able supply chains ever in the history of mankind. It can grow to surge resources into a disaster area, it can shrink to conserve fuel, it presents fast moving small targets of no individual strategic significance, it can bypass destroyed cities, it can use improvised warehouses, it can cluster around railway …




Odds ‘n Sods:

I just had a phone conversation with my brother. He mentioned that a power surge in the local utility lines caused $220 in damage to his washing machine. It seems that microcircuits are ubiquitous in household electronics and appliances. Its not just your computer, televisions, radios, and and stereo that are at risk. Your automatic bread maker, your washing machine, and perhaps even your dishwasher use vulnerable microcircuits. His advice: Spend $100 and buy a few high quality surge-arresting power strips. Even better would be the Automatic Voltage Regulator (AVR) variety that automatically trip in the event of a brown-out. …







Note from JWR:

Today we present another article submitted for Round 9 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The writer of the best non-fiction article will win a valuable four day “gray” transferable Front Sight course certificate. (Worth up to $1,600.) Second prize is a copy of my “Rawles Gets You Ready” preparedness course, generously donated by Jake Stafford of Arbogast Publishing. I will again be sending out a few complimentary copies of my novel “Patriots” as “honorable mention” awards. If you want a chance to win the contest, start writing and e-mail us your article. Round 9 will end on March 31st. …




Wound Care: An Emergency Room Doctor’s Perspective, by E.C.W., MD

Arguably the most important factor in wound healing is the potential for infection. Ever since Semmelweis and Lister demonstrated that strict hand washing made a tremendous difference in reducing the incidence of postoperative infections and puerperal fever after childbirth, health care workers have tried to refine methods for decreasing bacterial contamination of wounds in an effort to avoid infection. Thus we have some practitioners who still soak wounds in betadine solutions lengthily even though more modern research has shown that this kills viable tissue and makes wounds less amenable to suturing. For the concerned individual who must deal with a …




Odds ‘n Sods:

Wow! Have you noticed the spot prices of silver and gold in the past few days? If you think that you’ve “missed the boat” on precious metals, you are wrong. I still predict that spot silver is heading past $40 per ounce in the next few years. I’ve said it many times, but it bears repeating: Diversify your investments into precious metals, especially silver.   o o o An alternative for those of you that live in gun-grabbing Nanny States: .50 Caliber Air Rifles. BTW, these might be a nice addition to every survival gun battery, since they will allow …