Category: Current Events & Politics

Two Letters Re: National Animal Identification System (NAIS)

Memsahib: There was a good article and a great editorial in the December issue of “Acres USA” (Best farm magazine in America:  http://www.acresusa.com/magazines/magazine.htm ) on NAIS. I know one employee of the Idaho Dept. of Agriculture who is very skeptical about NAIS. I found the Acres article, “Tagging Terrorist Chickens” at: http://www.freetennessee.org/NAIS_proposal_overview.html. I still recommend reading the editorial in the magazine. Also, see Mary Zanoni’s writing: http://www.warmwell.com/05sept30regsoppose.html The NAIS has been discussed on Timebomb 2K over the past year but not in much depth. There is now a Stop Animal ID Message Board: http://stopanimalid.org/forum/index.php I hope this helps some. Regards, …


Rourke’s Reply (to JWR’s Original Comments)

You are going for an entire community then, in which case I would recommend you actually form a Village and have self-government. (City is too complex). Now Disney in Florida even made its own county, but I doubt that will happen again. Still, a Village can be very powerful if you can do all the development up front. Set up police, fire, even schools, and public buildings and systems with survival in mind. What an opportunity. However, as it grows, the survival mindset of those started it is likely to be diluted, and that will show up in elections over …


Zimbabwe’s Slow Slide Continues

Mismanaged for many years by a horrendously corrupt and inept communist government, Zimbabwe’s economy is sliding into deeper Schumer. SurvivalBlog reader Lyn recommended this article: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/printpage/0,5942,17457835,00.html The Australian newspaper reports that the mass inflation continues: “A US dollar now costs $Z61,000 at official rates and $Z85,000 on the black market.” The economy continues to decline, along with farm production. Now starvation is a real threat in a country that once fed much of sub-Saharan Africa. To make matters worse, the infrastructure is crumbling–including sewage treatment plants. The Australian reports that there is the risk of disease–with cholera and amoebic dysentery …


Meanwhile, in Liberia…

For some tragicomic relief, SurvivalBlog reader M.Z. recommended this pictorial article: http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=1&f=5&t=414704&page=1 showing the civil war in Liberia. I surmise that a few squads of soldiers that was trained to aim and use fire discipline could clear the city of this riffraff in short order.


Letter Re: Former FEMA Director Michael Brown is Now Consulting

Mr. Rawles: Here is a link to the jaw-droppingly absurd, but true. CNN ran a story about Michael Brown getting fired from FEMA only to go into the Emergency Planning “consulting” business. See: http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/11/24/brown.consultant.ap/index.html We can all sleep better now knowing that America is once again safe. Regards, -B. Adams


The Great Debate–Puru Saxena Explains the Fed’s Interest Rate Hikes

Don’t miss the article titled The Great Debate by Puru Saxena which recently ran in The Daily Reckoning. In it, Saxena refutes the widespread belief is that the Federal Reserve is currently increasing interest-rates to “control” inflation. Here is an excerpt from his excellent article: “The grim reality is that the modern day central banking IS inflation…and the quicker we get used to this idea, the better. The deflation scare is nothing more than a decoy, which the central banks use in order to continue with their money-printing (inflationary) program. Still not convinced? Then, consider the greatest fabrication, the Japanese …


Letter Re: South African 155mm Shells in Iraq–The Gerald Bull Connection

Jim: The South African arms industry was supplied shells and technology to produce the advanced 155mm during the Angolan Wars, by Space Research Corporation (SRC) of Canada/USA. This landed Gerald Bull in prison for illegal export.(The PBS Frontline episode on same, or less-so the “Doomsday Gun” has some pretty general information on the subject.  See:  http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/programs/transcripts/911.html They got technology to produce Bull’s more up-to-date gun too (and produced two types: one a 155mm, the other a 210mm). It wasn’t necessary to have to use Bull’s 155mm base-bleed shells in his GC-45 as they could also be used to great effect …


Letter Re: America at the Crossroads

Perhaps it was the camping and outdoor adventures of my youth that led to a desire to be self-sufficient and ultimately to my own “survivalist” attitude, but it’s been more a change in society that has formed the current “survivalist” movement than any of our own individual experiences. Modern society has reached it’s pinnacle, and we are now in a very awkward period when society as we know it will spit and sputter and flare up before it burns out entirely, at least society as we know it. The time of great  achievement has passed and society is now working …


The French Intifada–“Brûlure de bébé, de brûlure!”

In 1965 in Watts, they shouted “Burn baby, burn!” In France, I suppose that the North African teenagers are shouting “Brûlure de bébé, de brûlure!” (Pardon my French.) More than 1,400 cars burned on Sunday night alone. The rioting has spread to 300 cities, and now there are concerns that the rioting could spread to Germany and other countries with large Arab immigrant populations. It remains to be seen if the motivation for this French Intifada is purely economic, or if radical Islam is partly to blame. See: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4414684.stm and: http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/11/07/D8DNMVOO3.html France went through the traumatic civil war in Algeria …


Letter From Argentina Re: Post-Collapse Political Turmoil, Health Care, and Gambling

Mr. Rawles. I read your book and I found it both entertaining and full of information as many others did. I live Argentina, South America where things have been hard after the 2001 economical collapse we suffered. We changed five presidents in one week, if you can believe that, and well… we are struggling to get back on our feet, though it sometimes it seems that it’s impossible. “When it finally seems as if we hit bottom, someone starts to shovel.” I started reading your letters on Survivalblog.com and find them, again full of valuable insight. There are a couple …


Letter Re: Pandemics–Winners and Losers

Jim, I think your estimations on the results of a pandemic are … incomplete. Say the worst case scenario happens…say 1/3 of the population of the US dies. That is 100-million or so people, out of 300 million or so.We really don’t know what segments of the population H5N1 will attack. In Asia, it’s attacking the very young mostly but they’re also the ones that have the most contact with the infected fowl. The 1918 Spanish Influenza killed mainly young to middle aged, very healthy people, but that was from secondary infection that couldn’t be treated (today we have antibiotics …


Letter from “The Army Aviator” Re: Suspension of Posse Comitatus and The Asian Avian Flu

Jim: Trying a little “out of the box” perambulation. I disremember but seem to recall that this was your bailiwick back when. I noticed the President is publicly talking about getting congress to authorize the use of military troops should bird flu, et al occur. It seems to me that particular authority already exists. So I ponder. If he already has the authority, why ask for it again? Is it to make a public statement that he asked, as part of good planning, before it happened and we should be grateful and pleased? Does he know that “massive plague (or …


Letter Re: Armored Window Shutters, Ayn Rand, U.S. Military Organizational Structure

Dear Mr. Rawles, My copy of your book [Patriots] has been read by so many people that the binding is falling apart. I’ve read it three times myself. Are there photo examples of the retreat doors and shutters? Sorry, I cannot post pictures, due to OPSEC. I did my best to describe the shutter and door ballistic upgrades in detail in the novel. (In narrative form.) If you want to construct something similar, just be sure to take the weight into account when sizing the hinges, and remember that the hinges need to be attached to some substantial framing or …


Letter Re: Watch Out for Martial Law

Hi Jim, Thanks for doing a great job on SurvivalBlog… very informative, easy to follow and obviously attracting some pretty bright folks. Having spent nearly 40 years “working” for Uncle Sam in a variety of military and civilian posts (I retired as a senior IRS field agent), I have a deep-seated mistrust of the feds. We, The People, are one episode away from martial law and the end of the United States Constitution. As retired General Tommy Franks put it… “the worst thing that could happen” is if terrorists acquire and then use a biological, chemical or nuclear weapon that …


Letter from a New Yorker Re: Two-Faced Politicians

Jim, I get a chuckle out of your terms “When the Schumer Hits the Fan” and “Schumeresque.” I am unfortunately, stuck with ol’ Chuckie [Schumer] as a Senator. The biggest laugh is, as you may know, we have a CCW permit system here [in New York.] Schumer is very anti-gun. A state trooper told me years ago, he was accessing the permit log and found that Schumer himself has a permit, and there were, at the time, two guns listed on it. He couldn’t say what [models] they were, but there were two. Probably more, by now!!