“Do not wait for a national audience. Speak on any scale open to you, large or small—to your friends, your associates, your professional organizations, or any legitimate public forum. You can never tell when your words will reach the right mind at the right time. You will see no immediate results—but it is of such activities that public opinion is made.” – Ayn Rand
June 27th is the birthday of economist Dr. Ravi Batra. (Born 1943.) This is also the birthday of movie director J.J. Abrams (of Star Trek fame.) On this day in 1957, Hurricane Audrey made landfall, killing more than 400 people. o o o Safecastle’s big Mountain House long term storage foods sale ends on June 30th, so get your order in soon! o o o Today, we present another product review by Pat Cascio, our Senior Field Gear Editor:
Reader K.M. sent a quick and simple recipe recommendation that is great for families with both laying hens and a home dairy cow. She notes: “We are folks who often ask ourselves: ‘What are we going to do with all these eggs and this extra warm milk?’ Here is one answer.” Hot Milk Sponge Cake Ingredients: 1 Cup All-purpose flour 1 Teaspoon baking powder 2 Eggs 1 Cup of sugar 1/2 Cup milk 2 Tablespoons of butter (or margarine) Directions: Combine flour and baking powder. Then, in a bowl mix the two eggs with a hand or electric mixer set …
Dear Editor: Those buying silver and gold coins and bars need to be aware. I work in the industry at a well known coin shop in the mid-west. Time after time…week after week customers try to sell us fake items that they purchased from eBay, pawn shops, Craigslist, and elsewhere. It has become a bigger issue over the the last year and especially so in the last few months. When purchasing coins and bullion from customers we use our scales to make sure items are of proper weight, we use our calipers to check diameters, and we have the benefit of …
Dear Editor: I have some experience with dogs that were specially-trained to track living humans, and with cadaver dogs. I agree with the previous Tracking Dog posts regarding restrictive points of terrain and/or infrastructure. In any escape route, there are always certain areas of heightened vulnerability, which an experienced team of searchers will not disregard. The Texas Rangers at one time (reportedly) enjoyed an annual manhunt in the Texas Panhandle. They would seek volunteers from vetted and trusty inmates whose reward at the end of the day, would be the day’s freedom and a good meal. The inmate would be …
Over at Zero Hedge: Will Brexit Give the U.S. Negative Interest Rates? o o o Over at The Daily Bell: Brexit Vote Is Great News for Britain, but Difficult Times Ahead o o o Gold Summer Doldrums Risk o o o UK’s departure makes EU disintegration ‘irreversible’: Soros o o o 15 Euro Stocks That Lost Over 10% to 25% After Brexit Shock o o o SurvivalBlog and its editors are not paid investment counselors or advisers. Please see our Provisos page for details.
Mainstream magazine The Atlantic posits: Is Middle America Due for a Huge Earthquake? (Thanks to Peter S. for the link.) o o o Bad news from Hawaii: All registered gun owners are being added to the centralized “Rap Back” Federal crime database. o o o Truly pragmatic training: Tam (one of our favorite gun bloggers) describes learning practical pistol shooting with kids in tow. o o o Oregon standoff: Case of possible misconduct by FBI in LaVoy Finicum shooting now before grand jury
“In omnibus negotiis prius quam aggrediare, adhibenda est præparatio diligens.” (In all matters, before beginning, a diligent preparation should be made.) – Cicero, De Officiis (“On Duties”) (44 B.C.)
June 26th is the birthday of Marine Corps Lt. General Chesty Puller (born 1898, died October 11, 1971). Perhaps America’s finest-ever maverick officer, Puller was part of what I call the Even Greater Generation. – JWR
What We Store In Jars Dry, bulk goods. This category of items includes grains, dried pasta, dried potato flakes, dry beans, and rice for long-term storage. We buy these in 40- and 50-pound bags from the Mormon storehouse, Costco, and online vendors and then repackage them into the half gallon jars, which are then vacuum sealed, using our FoodSaver Jar Sealer connected to an electric vacuum pump system that Hugh installed into my kitchen. It takes less than a minute to put the lid on, vacuum seal a jar, and put the ring on. All I have to do at …
Dear James and Hugh, I was just reading the article mentioned on June 18th in SurvivalBlog regarding BHO’s refusal to mention ‘radical Islam’. There are very few things that I agree with regarding the BHO’s thought process, but I tend to agree that our problem is not with ‘radical Islam’. As Scott Ott suggests, a better term would be ‘Literal Islam’. These people wreaking terror all over the world are taking their book of faith seriously or ‘literally’. Such a shame that more of us that claim to be followers of Christ don’t take His book as seriously. If we …
HJL: I’m a both CPCU and CIC chartered senior insurance agent. I have observed that in a normal [business] year there is all sorts of business formation in the first three months. I know because they ask for insurance quotes for the pro-forma or just come in and buy insurance, to to kick off operations. That activity has declined over the last three years to the point where it just did not happen this year. In the lead up to Mr. Obama’s election, business activity oriented to expansion practically stopped. No one wanted to rent a building. Very few bought …
“Sound as a Pound?” There is now plenty of conjecture about the prospects for UK’s Pound Sterling. Will the Pound’s post-Brexit plunge in the exchange markets continue? (As of Friday evening, it had crashed to 1985 levels.) Or will there be a Pound Rebound–making the Pound a “Buy”? (Some say that the divorce from the EU might eventually put the Pound in the same category as the Swiss Franc.) In the short term the weak Pound will mean strong exports from the UK. The shares prices of England’s car makers and woolens makers are likely to gallop. Tourism in the …
Reader T.Z. flagged this: The price of LEDs is falling so fast it’s profitable to farm in a New Jersey nightclub. JWR Adds: We have a couple of 600-watt fan-cooled special plant growth spectrum Growpanel LED units here at the Rawles Ranch that we purchased from Ready Made Resources. These lights do a fantastic job of extending our vegetable growing season. They can be used indoors, or inside a greenhouse. Just one caveat: The light that these throw is very intense and has an odd purplish-pink tinge, so they can be quite distracting if operated in a bedroom or living …
“Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” – James 4:7 (KJV)