Letter Re: Unintended Consequences of a Failure of Basic Services in a Disaster

Jim: When I was a river [rafting] guide we used toilets made of [military surplus wooden] rocket boxes.   The premise is to take a large Army rocket box (a toilet lid fits inside ) and use double lined plastic bags and plenty of powdered lime. Regular old lime for the disinfectant.   We would use on of these on extended wilderness rafting trips for 30 or 40 people.   Here’s how it works. Set up the rocket box and remove the large roll of heavy black plastic trash bags. Take TWO bags and double bag them and line the …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Iran’s president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad alternately threatens to annihilate or “liberate” Israel. With these tensions is it any wonder oil an precious metals are spiking?    o o o David Limbaugh comments on “Immigration Madness“    o o o It looks as if the short squeeze that I predicted in the silver market is starting to unfold. Look for a substantial spike in the price of spot silver in the next two weeks, as the shorts panic to cover their positions. This spike may very well be followed by some profit taking, but who knows–the stair step pattern may persist.


Jim’s Quote of the Day:

"Iran has dropped its pretense of benign intent. It has used the passing time to disperse, diversify, conceal, and protect its nuclear centers. But [the U.S.] cannot prevent this through military means—unless it is willing to commit itself to all-out war. Realism about Iran starts with throwing out any plans to bomb." — James Fallows, The Atlantic.


Note from JWR:

The first letter posted today is a thought-provoking piece directed toward fellow Christians, but the issues that it raises might be of interest to those of you that are of other faiths and even those who are not religious. I often stress charity in my writings. As a Christian, I consider charity my duty, and I feel strongly convicted to have extra food and gardening seed on hand to dispense as charity in the event of a disaster. Even for those of you that are not religious, I still recommend the practice, since it demonstrates kindness, and kindness builds trust …


Letter Re: Questions on Saving, Interest, and Preparation Versus Hoarding,

James:  I offer the following discussion (and answers, I hope) for Christians.   Proposition/assumptions: Good financial planning and even seeming ‘common sense’ dictates that we plan our income and expenditures wisely so as to have the ability to withstand a crisis.  This plan makes sense on an intuitive level, and also can be argued quite easily that as a Christian we have a duty to provide for the life and livelihood of our dependents; and that this provision includes saving money and goods for the event of hard times.  Or does it? Our Christian duty is also unquestionably to be …


Letter Re: Survive or Prevail?

Jim, I wanted to share the following with you. It really made me stop and think. I just finished reading G. Gordon Liddy’s book “When I Was A Kid, This Was A Free Country.” It is a very good read. Chapter seven is titled “Survive Or Prevail,” and in it he makes an excellent point. Do we want to survive, or prevail? The dictionary says that “to survive” means merely “to continue to live or exist.” Yet the definition of “prevail” means “to overcome; to gain the victory or superiority; to gain the advantage; to have the upper hand, or the …


Letter Re: Copper Price Galloping

Dear Mr. Rawles, I have wanted to write to you for a week or two with respect to an oddity.  An increasing number of sources are discussing the degree to which the base metal in the US penny is becoming more valuable than the penny itself.  This is odd, and www.coinflation.comis tracking it with alleged numerical precision.  If I get some spare time this week, I hope to write about the death of the penny in more detail. Best Regards, – K.A.D. JWR Replies: Silver is about 45 times more bulky than gold, (As I’m writing this, gold is $605.10 …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Chuck the Welding Wizard introduced me to an amazing publication, called the Encyclopedia of “Made it Myself ” Ideas. (30th Anniversary Edition, published by the folks at Farm Show Magazine). It has a wealth of knowledge on farm machinery modifications and outlandish inventions, some of which will doubtless prove useful at a retreat. It is available through http://www.farmshow.com. While you are at it, I recommend that you get their collection of magazine back issues on CD-ROM–less than $40 for 30 years of back issues.    o o o Former Federal Reserve Chairman Al Greenspan says that he regrets “irrational exuberance” …



Note from JWR:

We’re having some difficulties getting our continuous loop scrolling ad bar to work with Internet Explorer. 🙁 So unless you have Firefox, Safari, or Netscape, our ads may "disappear" until we get things straightened out. (Needless to say, I’ll be crediting all of our advertisers for some free days.) We may revert to non-scrolling ads for a while. Thanks for your patience.)


Letter Re: A New Breed of Feral Dogs, by Buckshot

This article raised a valid point. But I think it overstated the threat. And it conveyed a lot of negative thoughts, like “you will freeze up, your shots will go into the ground, you will be overwhelmed before you can react,” etc.     I’m a dog lover; owner of three Bull Terriers, which are basically civilized, happy Pit Bulls. No question, the strength, destructive potential and “hard to kill” factor of many dogs is true. But the author of that article overlooked a key feature of the “pack mentality.” Kill the lead dogs, and the followers probably will slink away. …


Two Letters Re: The U.S. Housing Bubble–Yea, the Pinprick Cometh

Mr. Rawles, I read the article on the housing bubble on SurvivalBlog and would like to add a bit of evidence to the claim.  I currently own a home in Orlando, Florida and haven’t sold in five months.  This is unheard of for that region, but it is just not me all the houses in the area having the same problem.  Here are a couple of quotes from my real estate agent on the Orlando market: “I just returned from a real estate conference in Tampa.  The main topic was the large amount of time listings are sitting the market …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Poll says 6 out of 10 Americans consider the income tax unfair.    o o o An interesting pre-Y2K diary at the Survival-Center web site.    o o o Commentary from market strategist Emanuel Balarie (quoted at Gold-Eagle.com): “$600 Gold: We Have Only Just Begun“    o o o I wish you all a joyous Easter, as we celebrate the resurrection of our Passover Lamb, Christ Jesus.



The U.S. Housing Bubble– Yea, the Pinprick Cometh

I am now convinced that the housing bubble in The United States is about ready to pop. Once home sellers see that “the Spring buying season” does not reappear along with hay fever this year, they will get panicky. Up to 30% of the homes that have been sold in the past two years have been sold to over-extended speculators who were hoping to “flip” them–taking advantage of the rising house market. The old saying goes “A rising tide raises all ships.” But the inverse is also true. When the flippers realize that they are on a down escalator, they …