Notes from JWR:

Today (Wednesday, July 3, 2013) is the last day of Freeze Dry Guy’s 25% Off Special All Mountain House #10 Cans. And meanwhile, Camping Survival has started their own 25% off sale, which runs until July 7th. — Today we present another entry for Round 47 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include: First Prize: A.) Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate, good for any one, two, or three course. (A $1,195 value.) B.) A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses. (Excluding those …


Teaching Opportunities, by J.L. in Pennsylvania

My story begins as another closet prepper.  As many of you, I did not have the support of my spouse for my new found drive to prepare for the unknown. Often I would attempt to sneak items that I planned to lay up long-term into the grocery bill without her noticing. I would even have online purchases delivered to a neighbor claiming to him that it was for her birthday or our anniversary. Needless to say, I usually (always) got caught, which would lead to long discussions about me “wasting money.”  As fate and the good lord would have it, …


Letter Re: Why Precious Metals?

James, I think that you are off base when it comes to buying guns and precious metals. Both could go down in price. The same for ammo. And it has a shelf life. So why not buy stock in companies that that do well in both good and bad times? People always buy booze, and cigarettes and Pampers and Cheerios. So why not invest in the companies that make those? What is so [deleted] special about “tangibles”? Thanks For Your Time, – G.D.C. JWR Replies: First, I must mention that ammunition has a shelf life of at least 60 years, …


Economics and Investing:

The “Cyprus Model” Is Gaining Traction. (Thanks to F.J. for the link.) G.G. suggested this piece: 76% of Americans are living paycheck-to-paycheck Not Darkest Africa, but Darkest Nigeria – 120 Million Without Electricity Reader B.C. sent: The Eight Least Expensive States to Live in the U.S. Items from The Economatrix: Consumers To Factories Point To Durable US Expansion Dr. Doom:  A Lot Of Problems Are Coming … Revolution … Social Strife Bank Bailout:  Germany Requires Compulsory Levy of 8% To Savers


Odds ‘n Sods:

Reader Lee M. sent: Take a Look Inside the Hidden 100 Year Old Caverns Underneath Kansas One Man Says Could Save Humanity    o o o I just noticed that someone updated a list of my quotations at the Wikiquotes page. Thanks!    o o o Calgary, Oil Capital of Canada, Could be without Power for Months.    o o o Some good commentary over at Ryan and The Other Ryan’s blog: How Much Is Enough?    o o o D.S. wrote to recommend: The Trash Can EMP Shield.    o o o The FBI has pulled a ‘most wanted …


Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“The federal government was not intended to be a charity, nor an insurance or retirement agency, nor doctor, pharmacist or health advisor, champion of the poor or rich, changer of foreign regimes, protector of the planet, educator, space explorer, diet and nutrition czar, arbiter of interest rates or prices or wages, nor trafficker in currency unsecured by gold or silver. As legally constituted it may neither promote nor restrict transfats, sugar, tobacco, alcohol, coal, gasoline, drugs, salt or food of any kind; nor may it enact legislation favoring or victimizing or exempting any gender, race or ethnicity. In short, those …


Notes from JWR:

The “Rawles Gets You Ready Preparedness Course” has had surprisingly strong sales now that it is priced at less that $20. You’ll get immediate delivery, via digital download. — Today we present a guest post from Mac Slavo, that first appeared in his SHTFPlan blog.


How Horrific Will It Be For The Non-Prepper?, by Be Informed

Editor’s Note: You have no doubt had your own set of issues dealing with friends and family members that simply don’t see the writing on the wall. The following article may serve to assist you in convincing those who simply don’t know, don’t want to know, don’t care, or have never even thought to contemplate. Some of the scenarios outlined below may be frightening, as they should be, because when it hits the fan millions of people will be thrown into desperation with no hope of a solution. Be Informed provides a variety of point-by-point details that may (and hopefully …


Letter Re: Lessons Learned from the Black Forest, Colorado Fire

Dear JWR; There is nothing like a real emergency to get you checked out in a quick way for your evacuation plan. During the Black Forest Fire, which began on June 11, 2013, at least 511 homeowners completely lost their homes, many more were damaged and are uninhabitable, two people and countless animals perished in the fire. Our family and business were in the direct path of the fire, but a major wind shift the first night, along with hard-working first responders saved us. Sitting at the office ready for our afternoon of work, a friend walked in and sid, …


Letter Re: What is Money When the System Collapses?

Mr. R.: I just came across a passage that perfectly illustrates what “money” or rather “currency” is, the issue having been nicely framed in Mac Slavo’s recent article. It comes from an unlikely source, “News From Tartary” by Peter Fleming, about an overland journey from Peking to Kashmir in 1935. Fleming states: “There was another thing that the camels carried, and that was various forms of currency. The currency problem was an important one. Through that admirable institution, the Chinese Post Office, I had been able to transfer the bulk of our capital from Peking to points west by simply …


Two Letters Re: The K9 Question

Jim, The ‘information’ provided to you by Jennifer is false.  Please consider these:   The Pit Bull (a combination of four breeds: American pit bull terrier, American Staffordshire terrier, Staffordshire bull terrier, American bulldog and any other pure bred or mixed breed dog that is a combination of these dogs) has it’s reputation as a dangerous breed for a reason.  Since 1851 there has not been any decade in which pit bulls did not account for at least 50% of dog related human fatalities.  For the past 30 years pit bulls have account for 65% of human maulings and deaths, fairly consistently, even though pit …


News From The American Redoubt:

Bill Jasper of The New American reports: Victory (Temporarily) in Round 1 for Property Rights in Kootenai County, Idaho    o o o Dissent Festers in States That Obama Seems to Have Forgotten. (Note the high correlation with the map of the American Redoubt. Yes, BHO has visited Oregon and Washington, but as I recall only to a few big cities in their populous western halves.)    o o o J.M. wrote to mention that it is not just Weld County, Colorado that is seeking statehood. “Weld, Morgan, Logan, Sedgwick, Philips, Yuma, Kit Carson Washington are all seeking partition.. A …


Economics and Investing:

California’s already high taxes on gasoline will go even higher, as of today. The combined state and Federal taxes will be a whopping 71.9 cents per gallon. (Only 18.4 cents of that is Federal.) Yet another reason to flee California! Just as I’ve been warning you for the past seven years: Multiple Government Agencies Are Keeping Records Of Your Credit Card Transactions More Negative U.S. Bitcoin Developments. Things Could Get Ugly If U.S. Treasury Bonds Keep Rising Getting Physical: Gold price falls fuel ‘record’ bullion sales Items from The Economatrix: The $441 Trillion Interest Rate Derivatives Time Bomb US Consumer …


Odds ‘n Sods:

I was disappointed to learn that Trijicon is no longer providing any repair or refurbishment services for their older-generation 1″ tube scopes. (These scopes had bee sourced in Japan and then they added their tritium elements.) One of my original scopes–a Trijicon “3-9×40 Wide” with three color elements I had bought around 1993–finally had its radioactive elements fade out past the point of usefulness. (The half-life of tritium is 11.2 years.) Sadly, Trijicon no longer replaces the elements for these scopes, even for a fee. To rectify this, they did offer me a 50% discount on a new scope, so …