Three Letters Re: Questions on the Pickup Truck as a Multi-Purpose Retreat Vehicle

Dear Jim and Survival Blog: I’m sure the question of the best truck for a survival retreat will generate a large response. By trade, I am an engineer; however, I currently am working as a maintenance person for a large camping facility in upstate New York. In my experience with equipment and vehicles, I would have to say anything with a Cummins 6B or 4B diesel power plant will earn the owners respect for the amount of work it will do and the long life you can expect from the unit. I live next to a medium size farm operation …


Odds ‘n Sods:

From Lew Rockwell’s site: Why Bush Will Nuke Iran, by Paul Craig Roberts    o o o Reader C.M. sent a link to a news story about a power failure in Bangladesh. C.M.’s comment: “Less than two days without electricity and a mob has formed to burn institutions. Fascinating how quickly it can all come apart.”    o o o As I predicted, silver and gold are starting to recover from their dips earlier in the month. Buy on the dips!



The Real Estate Bubble Bust — Where and When is the Bottom?

Here is your daily dose of Doom und Gloom (DUG)TM: I was recently asked by a consulting client where and when the U.S. real estate market will likely bottom. Clearly, the market has until recently been frothy, with all the signs of a speculative bubble. Lots of people that had no business doing so bought “spec” houses. Many of these buyers were under-qualified, often stretching the truth on their mortgage applications when they described their assets and incomes. Many houses were bought with interest only loans. They purchased second, third, or even fourth homes with the goal of flipping them …


Letter Re: Deciphering MRE Date Codes

My thanks to R.E.M. for his hard-earned experience on rotating food stocks. Perhaps I can ease his frustration a bit about not reading the packing date of USGI MREs – there is indeed a numbered code packing date on every MRE case, the outside of the newer USGI MRE retort packages and best of all, every individual item in each MRE package. You can go to the www.mreinfo.com web site for the whole story, but to condense the code for you, say you have a four-digit or longer number on the outside of the package – take the first number …


Letter Re: Rethinking Global Oil Reserves

Michael Z. Williamson is correct that folk don’t think about all the uses of oil in the products we buy. The sustainability of our growing population is dependent upon massive amounts of oil used in pesticides and fertilizers in order to obtain spectacularly large crop yields per acre, not to mention the harvesting, transportation, and transportation of food. Shortages of oil could have a severe impact on food production, and last year even the “moderately high” price of fuel caused a few farmers to not be able to harvest their crops. One problem with the oil picture is that not …


Odds ‘n Sods:

The Rabid One mentioned that there is an interesting thread of conversation over at The FALFiles Survival/Preparedness Forum about fallout meters and the small “personal” detectors such as Nuk-Alert.    o o o SurvivalBlog reader Stephen mentioned that there is some interesting commentary on derivatives down near the end of The Mogambo Guru’s latest posting.    o o o Reader Ben L. mentioned this article about more Nanny State encroachment: Breed Specific Dog Bans


Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“Being a lover of freedom, when the [Nazi] revolution came, I looked to the universities to defend it [freedom], knowing that they had always boasted of their devotion to the cause of truth; but no, the universities were immediately silenced. Then I looked to the great editors of the newspapers, whose flaming editorials in days gone by had proclaimed their love of freedom; but they, like the universities, were silenced in a few short weeks…Only the Church stood squarely across the path of Hitler’s campaign for suppressing truth. I never had any special interest in the Church before, but now …



From David in Israel: Chevron’s Deep Oil Strike in the Gulf of Mexico

There is a big problem with counting the Chevron Oil strike in the Gulf of Mexico because of its depth. This hit that is estimated to be large is also inaccessible using current equipment. Chevron and two other companies had to go 7,000 feet below the warm water layer of the Gulf of Mexico, and then drill miles below the sea floor for a total depth of 28,175 feet. For comparison this is cruising altitude for an airliner, compare that depth to the 69 foot depth of the first commercial oil well in the USA. We need to first design …


Letter Re: American Citizenry Preparedness — Columbia University Study

Jim- I sent a preparedness study [from Columbia University] to your attention a few weeks ago; I could not find the online source document. Since it showed up in my media scanning again today, I tried to track it down a little better. I have below some associated links, and the home page (which has a great deal of additional info on it: Preparedness Study News Article Columbia University Projects Web Page Columbia University Research Page Columbia University Index Page As a side note, I purchased Arbogast’s “Rawles Gets You Ready” preparedness course.; it has much well thought out content. …


Letter Re: DAK Canned Ham Storage Life and Date Codes

DAK hams were mentioned in a recent article as a good canned meat to store. I agree with this 110%….I’ve actually called and talked to the supervisor of DAK hams in the USA. His name is Ole he is very nice and wonderful to talk too I recommend it… Ole has told me repeatedly that DAK hams will store for at least 5 years at normal room temperatures. Ole also told me how to read the date code on the can. its format is XXXX H or generally that way the first 2 digits are the DAY of the year …


Letter Re: Swords and Bows for that Dreaded Multigenerational Scenario

Dear Jim, I concur on a gladius (which is the same size as a Celtic leaf blade, Greek hoplite, Swiss baselard or 18th century artillery short sword) as a good choice in swords. It’s about the length of one joint of the arm, so it becomes an almost perfect extension and usable fairly instinctively. It works better with a shield–1/2 to 3/4 plywood. A basic one can be cut from thin leaf spring stock (1/4″ or 3/16″) or riding mower blades. It works best in formation, but that’s unlikely to be a scenario in the future. Swordsmithing more than bladesmithing …


Odds ‘n Sods:

In a recent newsletter article, economist Dr. Gary North commented: “We are at the cusp of Bernanke’s experiment: to reverse Greenspan’s era of monetary expansion without toppling the bubbles that this expansion led to. Can he do it? If he can, and if he does, then he is a wizard much more gifted than Greenspan. Anyone can inflate the money supply. The trick is to stabilize it without tanking the economy after the policy of inflation is a decade old. Paul Volcker could not do it, 1979-81. Greenspan never tried. For those of you who don’t remember January, 1980, gold …


Jim’s Quote of the Day:

"The rifle is a weapon. Let there be no mistake about that. It is a tool of power, and thus dependent completely upon the moral stature of its user. It is equally useful in securing meat for the table, destroying group enemies on the battlefield, and resisting tyranny. In fact, it is the only means of resisting tyranny, since a citizenry armed with rifles simply cannot be tyrannized. The rifle itself has no moral stature, since it has no will of its own. Naturally, it may be used by evil men for evil purposes, but there are more good men …