Notes for Saturday – February 27, 2016

February 27th is the birthday of actor Adam Baldwin (born 1962), who is often remembered for his roles as Animal Mother in Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket and as the irrepressible Jayne Cobb in the television series Firefly—  as well as in the shiny spinoff film Serenity. More recently, he has played Executive Officer Mike Slattery in The Last Ship. Note that Adam Baldwin is a “small government libertarian conservative” and is no relation to the notoriously liberal Hollywood actors who share the Baldwin surname.) This is also the birthday of Kelly Johnson, a deservedly famous American aircraft designer and …


SSL On Your Web Server – A Certificate is Just the Start, by Peter S.

If you are running a web server for your business and taking orders from customers, then you have probably acquired a certificate to encrypt the network traffic between your customers’ web browsers and your web server. However, how well are you really doing it? The SSL Labs website offers a free service to test how well your web server is configured for this goal. Someone may have already run the test and made a decision about your business just based on the results. Remember, if your web server is exposed to the Internet, then anyone can run this test. You …


Letter: EMP Effect and Pacemakers

Hugh, I have an implanted cardiac device (a pacemaker and defibrillator) and, after reading the letter about possible effects of electromagnetic pulse (EMP) on batteries, became curious as to how an EMP or maybe a strong solar flare could affect my device. I searched SurvivalBlog’s archives and saw that such an event could possibly damage the implanted cardiadefibrillator (ICD). Is there any firm evidence as to what may actually happen to an ICD or similar device in the human body and anything that can be done to counter the effects? It seems it will be a bleak future for the …


Letter Re: Passports

Dear Editors: Regarding RM’s question about keeping passports current, here is a Wikipedia link that includes information on which countries allow entry to American citizens without the need to obtain a visa in advance.   That provides some interesting reading.  – JustCallMeAnn


Economics and Investing:

Frequent content contributor B.B. suggested this: More Than 30 Blocks of Fiscal Irresponsibility o o o 45% of Americans pay no federal income tax. (Thanks to RBS for the link.) o o o Items from Professor Preponomics: US News Student Debt Apocalypse: Median Wages Up 1.6% Over Last 25 Years While Median Student Debt is Up 163.8% (My Budget 360) Excerpt: “This idea of high tuition with low wages isn’t some made up propaganda to distract you.  This is reality.” Student Debt and Retirement Saving Don’t Add Up(CBS Money Watch) Study: Millennials’ Lack of Financial Knowledge Could Be a Big …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Peter in Switzerland mentioned that the latest updated model of the previously-mentioned County Comm GP-5 SSB multi-band handheld scanner is now available. o o o Reader D.S.V. sent this: Colorado Bill Would Require Reporting Of Non-Vaccinated Children o o o B.B. suggested this article at Threat Post: Judge Confirms DoD Funded Research to Decloak Tor Users o o o Uncertainties, still, for asteroid 2013 TX68. (Thanks to Andre for the link.)


Hugh’s Quote of the Day:

“And it came to pass at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that Elijah the prophet came near, and said, Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel, and that I am thy servant, and that I have done all these things at thy word. Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that thou art the Lord God, and that thou hast turned their heart back again. Then the fire of the Lord fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the …


More About the Coming Forced Digital Currency Swap

The many recent headlines about doing away with the 500 Euro Bill and the $100 Federal Reserve Note, serve as confirmation of my January 28th Essay: Digital Currency: The Key Tool of 21st Century Monolithic Nanny State Tyranny. The Powers That Be are pushing to go cashless sooner rather than later. In this new era of negative interest rates, there is no point in leaving funds in a bank. However, this could create a shortage of physical cash, and since less than 1% of the money supply is in physical bills (the rest is just electronic ledger entries) there is …


Red List, Blue List, Black List, You List

There has been a lot of conjecture in the past 40 years in patriot circles about the existence of government “round up lists”. Large-scale disaster and war planning exercises, like REX-84 (Readiness Exercise-1984) and Jade Helm 2015, have stimulated endless discourse about whether or not the government maintains a so-called “red list” and “blue list” of people that they deem to be dissidents who they might target for harassment, travel restrictions, or even detention without due process of law. Because any such lists would presumably be developed and updated under the wraps of a security classification and the Need To …


Hillary Rodham Clinton: The Queen of Codeword Compromise–America’s #1 Unprosecuted Felon

Recent news reports on the Clinton Servergate scandal have made it clear that Hillary Rodham Clinton (HRC) does not deserve a term in the White House. Rather, she deserves a term in prison, a long term. On January 19th, Fox News published an exclusively-obtained, unclassified letter written by I. Charles McCullough III, the Intelligence Community Inspector General for the Director of Central Intelligence (DCI). His letter summarized the findings of a recent comprehensive review by intelligence agencies that identified “several dozen” previously unreported classified e-mails stored on Clinton’s “secret” (yet unsecure) server that until 2013 was managed by Justin Cooper, …


Persevering Through the Panic of 2016

The first two weeks of 2016 have been disastrous for both the commodities markets and the equities markets. Looking at the DJIA and the S&P indexes, more than $3.5 trillion has been lost on paper in just two weeks. Crude oil has dropped to around $29 per barrel. There seems to be no end in sight for the bad economic news. I expect to see further deep market declines, intraday “circuit breaker” market interventions, and perhaps even full-day trading suspensions and bank holidays. I must remind you that I’m writing this on a three-day holiday weekend. (Martin Luther King Jr. …


Observations on the December 2nd California Terror Attack

The tragic events yesterday in California’s Inland Empire deserve attention. I’ll just stick to the facts: The primary shooter, Sayeed Rizwan Farook, age 28, was American-born to parents who were from Karachi, Pakistan, and was described as “a very devout Muslim”. He recently traveled to Saudi Arabia. According to The Daily Mail, “Farook graduated from California State University, San Bernardino with a degree in environmental health in 2009.” The second shooter killed in the shootout was Farook’s wife Tashfeen Malik, a pharmacist, age 27, born in Pakistan but more recently a resident of Saudi Arabia, who had married Farook two …


Establishing Your Preparedness Library, by James Wesley, Rawles

Anyone who is serious about family preparedness recognizes the importance of having hard copy (EMP-proof) references on hand. In addition to the binders of reference articles, recipes, and technical manuals that I often mention in SurvivalBlog, I strongly recommend that you buy some particularly useful published reference books. These books include: First Aid — (American Red Cross Handbook) Responding To Emergencies Strategic Relocation–North American Guide to Safe Places by Joel and Andrew Skousen Where There Is No Doctor: A Village Health Care Handbook by David Werner Where There Is No Dentist by Murray Dickson The Encyclopedia of Country Living (Tenth …


Notes for Wednesday – October 14, 2015

Safecastle (one of our loyal advertisers) is running a 35% to 51%-off sale on Lindon Farms Foods, until October 16th. o o o Today, we present another entry for Round 61 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The nearly $12,000 worth of prizes for this round include: First Prize: A Tactical Self-Contained 2-Series Solar Power Generator system from Always Empowered. This compact starter power system is packaged in a wheeled O.D. green EMP-shielded Pelican hard case–a $1,700 value. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate, good for any one, two, or three day course (a $1,195 value), A course certificate …