Poll Results –What are the Best Items to Store for Barter and Charity?

Here is the second increment of responses to our barter/charity items poll.  Please keep them coming, and I will post subsequent increments in the days to come.  Many thanks! Teresa suggests: Having recently survived in central Louisiana (the place where all the Katrina and Rita people evacuated too) I have paid attention to what items disappeared from store shelves first. This is a list from my area… Baby formula Baby Food Diapers Gas Cans Ammo and guns –the Wal-Marts in the area refused to sell any guns or ammo once the levees broke. This freaked everyone out so the hunting …




Poll Results –What are the Best Items to Store for Barter and Charity?

Here is the first increment of responses to our barter/charity items poll. These have been received in just the first 24 hours of the poll. BTW, please keep them coming, and I will post subsequent increments in the days to come.  Many thanks!  There are some real gems here, so read closely: B.A. suggests: Sealed bags / canisters of handi-wipes Matches / lighters Knives [think Mora skinners here] 2-cycle oil and chainsaw files and chains Kerosene and wicks Watch-caps / stocking caps New socks and underwear [especially for children] Common caliber ammo [.22LR being tops] Small bolt-action .22LR rifles [CZ …




Another Letter from John in Iraq–Re: RPGs and the Recent Iraqi Elections

Hi Sir, Sorry I haven’t been writing much. Since the elections my schedule’s been a bit out of kilter. Speaking of the elections… My platoon was guarding a polling place the week leading up to the big day. I hear it was a success elsewhere, but here in scenic Ar Ramadi it was a bust. My polling station received three voters, one of whom was disqualified as a raving lunatic who just wandered in. AFAIK ~200 people voted here, with ~190 of ’em being the Shiite poll workers who don’t live here. This city just loves Saddam. I hope they …




Letter from Daniel Ward in Afghanistan Re: Operation Christmas Stocking

Hi to all: We at Camp Eggers are embarking on a bold mission for Combined Forces Command – Afghanistan (CFC-A), Office of Security Cooperation – Afghanistan (OSC-A), and Task Force Phoenix – all of which are located in the capital city of Kabul, Afghanistan.   Please help us meet our goal to put a Christmas Stocking in the hands of each military service member and civilian attached to the military forces in Kabul, Afghanistan this Christmas. There are approximately 1,200 personnel in the three commands listed above. We are asking for small donations (money orders) to be sent by November …




Poll: What are the Best Items to Store for Barter and Charity?

Everyone seems to have their own opinions about what are the best items to keep on hand for post-TEOTWAWKI bartering. I did mention a large variety of barter items in the Barter Faire chapter of my novel Patriots  (The chapter titled: “For an Ounce of Gold.”) Of course many of the same items are important to keep on hand to dispense as charity. Since two heads are better than one, and by extension 5,000 heads are better than two, I’m taking a poll:  Please e-mail me your lists of preferred barter and charity items, and I will gladly post them. My …




Another Letter from Iraq

Hi Sir, Just wanted to drop you a brief line about a couple of things you might find interesting. Iraq has been a surprise to me. Accommodations are nicer than expected, with running water indoors for showers and urinals (gravity fed from tanks 😉 electricity (albeit 220 VAC rather than 110 VAC ) etc. However, I’m terribly disappointed in the way we fight. It’s been, for lack of a better term, garrisonized. “Higher” cares more about whether you have holes in your cammies than if you can fight, they expend more manpower building walkways with sandbags than reinforcing the buildings, …




Letter Re: MotoMail for Deployed Service Members

Hello sir. My name is John [Surname deleted for OPSEC], and I’m an 0351 in the U.S. Marine Corps. I’m about to deploy with [unit designation deleted for OPSEC] to Ar Ramadi, and I wanted to open a line of communication before going. I read Patriots several years ago, and it truly changed my life. I only recently became aware of your blog, and having a lot of training [going on] and limited access to the Internet I was unable to contact you. However, I do wish to thank you. It introduced me to an entirely new mindset, and has …




From David in Israel: Charity and Tithing (Tzedaka) Law in Israel

Since it is a major focus of your blog, I thought you would like to see a few of the Jewish laws regarding Tzedaka. All things in this world are created by Hashem, the only thing we can claim is our ability to choose good or evil. To remind us that he is the owner (among other reasons) he requires we contribute 10% of all our produce from the field (plus another 10% to the Levim and another 2-3% to the Cohenim (aka, the Priests and their assistants) We extend the 10% of Tzedaka to all income almost like a …




Dispensing Charity–Our Christian Duty

I intentionally emphasize the theme of Christian charity in my writings. I strongly encourage charitable giving both the present day and post-TEOTWAWKI. It is important to keep far more storage food on hand than you expect to consume. If all that you have is the bare minimum to supply your own family or retreat group, you won’t be in any position to dispense charity. If times get really hard and there is a breakdown of law and order, it might become dangerous to dispense charity to strangers on your own property. I described in ny novel Patriots how to dispense …




A Letter From Afghanistan

Here is a letter that I just received from one of the troops to whom I sent an Any Soldier care package: Greetings from Afghanistan  I have been quite busy and failed to write you as soon as I wanted to. I am finally making time. First, I wanted to thank you for the package you sent. Having already owned the movie Red Dawn, I gave it to another Soldier here. I am in the process of reading the book [Patriots] now. I don’t know if it was providential or what, but I was the perfect person to send your book …