Odds ‘n Sods:

To follow up on a post I made on Monday, I mentioned this article: Justice Department Pays Linkedin $500,000 For Unlimited Access To Your Personal Information, wherein I noted that the company name: “Carahsoft” sounded suspicious, since “Carah” is an anagram for “Hacar” which of could be spoken “Hacker.” On Tuesday a reader wrote to mention that the company’s founder first named his daughter Carah. (Like the company, Carah Abod is now in her early 20s,) It is noteworthy that Carah (with a trailing “h”) is an extremely rare name–both as a given name and as a surname. So this …



Annual Reminder: The Ten Cent Challenge

Not counting editorial salaries, SurvivalBlog has more than $22,000 per year in annual operating costs including our fully redundant servers in Colorado and Sweden. We need this redundancy because we’ve been attacked (DDOS ping flooding) by malicious hackers, on several occasions. Unlike most publications, our subscriptions are 100% voluntary. And we only make one annual post every January to remind our readers to subscribe or renew, and this is it. We are not like other organizations on the Internet that are endlessly begging, so you hear this this just once a year. We don’t want to pester anyone. Here is …


Seven Ways to Save Money Under Obamacare, by Cynthia J. Koelker, MD

With 2014 and the enactment of Obamacare only days away, we’re all wondering what this so-called Affordable Care Act will really cost us.  Will your premiums be higher?  Or your deductible?  Will you lose employer-based coverage?  Will your doctor simply give up and retire?  But Obamacare is not all bad.  I view it as a wake-up call.  In fact, I wouldn’t be writing this article nor teaching people survival medicine skills if not for our current president.  People tend to blame Obamacare for all the upcoming health care woes, but many of the looming hassles (from a doctor’s point of …


Pat’s Product Review: Benchmade’s 810BK Contego Folder

I love pocket knives! I carry one or two on my person every single day. A pocket knife gets used almost daily, whereas, my handgun on my right hip, is there for when really bad things happen. I couldn’t get along with some kind of folding knife in my pocket – UPS, FedEx and USPS bring packages to me almost daily, and a good sharp knife does the job of opening the boxes in short order. I honestly can’t remember a time when I didn’t carry some kind of pocket knife – even as a kid back in Chicago, as …


Pat’s Product Review: Leatherman Surge – Improved

If you don’t know about Leatherman multi-tools, you must have had your head in the sand for a lot of years. Today, we’re taking a look at the improved Surge  multi-tool. To be sure, if you are serious about Prepping, Survival, hunting or working around your homestead – you absolutely, should have a multi-tool on-hand. My “Blast” Leatherman (sadly, now discontinued) is on my belt every single day, right there, next to my spare magazine, for whatever handgun I’m packing. And, it goes without saying, the multi-tool is used a lot more than my handgun is. The Leatherman “Surge” is …


Bangladesh Troubles Continue, by Michael Z. Williamson

The current situation in Bangladesh bears mention. Here is a recent news headline: The Economist terms JS polls ‘electoral farce’ The majority of “uncontested”seats were appointed by the current Prime Minister, per my correspondent.  The largest opposition party is being harassed and restricted, the party head is under house arrest though the government claims the barricades and trucks are “for her protection.” The second largest is terrorist-connected Jemaat Islamiya, who may be less violent than the government. For further reading: NDTV, Ajkal journos fail to meet Khaleda ‘Action against saboteurs after polls’ I’m under house arrest: Khaleda – Michael Z. …


Letter Re: A Inexpensive Source for Israeli Battle Dressings

Good morning! Yesterday I received an order for Israeli bandages, ordered direct [from Israel], from: IsraeliFirstAid.com. I placed the order on 12/6/13 and received it 1/3/13. Not bad considering it was in international order/shipment. The bandages are well packaged, dated, vacuum sealed. I applied my own labels to them as these packages are in Hebrew and English, and would be a little hard to quickly decipher, particularly in a stressful situation. The prices are good and shipping was only $4 (see below). I ordered the following: 4″ Israeli Bandage with Pressure Bar 1    $5.79 USD    $5.79 USD 6″ Israeli …


Recipe of the Week

Debra P.’s Homestead Beans With the shorter and colder days of winter, our thoughts here out in the country turn to making sausage, preparing for deer camp, readying the barns for winter & finishing the fall harvest.  One recipe that we like uses the last bits from the garden, allows us to use some of our food storage items and makes use of whatever meat leftovers we might have at hand. This is a great item to practice using your cast iron dutch oven or any large heavy pot.   You will use both the cooktop and the oven or bury …


Economics and Investing:

Niels Jensen: Are equity markets in a massive bubble? Doug Casey: “We’re Really Close To The Edge of The Precipice” Uncle Sam’s New Year’s Binge: Borrows $1,088 Per Household in 1 Day Items from The Economatrix: World Manufacturing Ends 2013 On A Strong Note Manufacturers Ramp Up Hiring; Housing Strengthens Cramer:  First Day Decline: An Omen Of Trouble?


Odds ‘n Sods:

Mountain House just introduced a new Breakfast Bucket which is now being offered by Directive 21. The introductory sale price of $79.99 with free shipping ends on January 10th, so order soon.    o o o Luke D. was the first of more than two dozen readers who sent this: The Congressman Who Went Off the Grid: Roscoe Bartlett spent 20 years on Capitol Hill. Now he lives in a remote cabin in the woods, prepping for doomsday.    o o o Detroit police chief: Legal gun owners can deter crime. (Thanks to Peter S. for the link.)    o …



Notes from JWR:

January 5th is the birthday of the late John Pugsley (born 1934, died April 8, 2011) a well-respected libertarian and economics author. Pugsley was well-known in preparedness circles as the author of The Alpha Strategy. (The book is out of print, but a PDF is available for free download.) This is also the birthday of General Courtney Hodges (born 1887, died January 16, 1966.) After he was kicked out of West Point for low math scores, he enlisted as a Private but soon became a maverick officer and went on to a distinguished career. — Today we present another entry …


Letter Re: Connecticut Corralled: The Slippery Slope of Gun Registration

Jim,   The article forwarded by J.B.G. re: the Connecticut gun registration photo/article for ARs and high capacity magazines (‘Looks Like Weimar Germany’: The Viral Photo Out of Connecticut That’s Giving Some Gun Owners Chills) is really just the tip of the iceberg. This legislation was really designed to ultimately refine and maintain the firearm registry in the state that is already in existence for all firearms. The State police have been collecting and storing all firearms transactions for many years here. The Federal Government by law must destroy all the data gained from background checks for firearm  purchasing. The Connecticut state police have no …


Economics and Investing:

Martin Armstrong Warns Europeans Of The Coming Expropriation Of 10% Of Everyone’s Accounts. (Thanks to James W. for the link.) The Historic Gold-Oil Ratio Forecasts A Much Higher Price For Gold Items from The Economatrix: Market Crash In the Works: “A Canary May Have Just Keeled Over” Is America About To Reach A Breaking Point? Anger Grows As Unemployment Benefits Get Cut Why Don’t the Jobless Get the Same Tapering Touch as Banks? Economists say the U.S. will turn a corner in 2014