Category: Current Events & Politics

Letter Re: What Happens When A Spouse Dies?

Hugh, I’m responsing to the article “What Happens When A Spouse Dies?” by JEH. The author failed to mention getting a Revocable Living Trust (RLT) to distribute your assets. When a person contacts a lawyer for their will, they ought to ask if the lawyer knows how to prepare an RLT. Each state has different requirements for an RLT, but basically the RLTs are all the same. The RLT allows your assets to be distributed to your heirs TAX FREE and without having to go through probate. It’s a simple document that works along side your will (and in some …


Letter Re: What Happens When a Spouse Dies?

Hugh: The author of this article recommends a Living Will. These documents often express a patient’s wishes not to be kept alive by artificial means. Your readers should be aware that food and water are now considered medical care in all 50 states, rather than normal care of the sick. That means that people who sign Living Wills may be unwittingly authorizing their own starvation and dehydration. It is far better to express your wishes about medical treatment to a loved one whom you trust and instead sign a Durable Power of Attorney for Healthcare. That gives your loved one …


Letter Re: Keeping Lawmen at Fishbowl Distance

JWR, I wholeheartedly agree with your prescription for law enforcement encounters, but I would add that if the lawmen persist and detain you, your first response should be to ask for an attorney. Without affirmative invocation of your right to an attorney, the questioning will drag on and on. When you request an attorney, they must immediately stop questioning you. However, do not expect an attorney to come waltzing through the door; if you are under arrest, it may take 24-48 hours for you to see one at first appearance, and even then it may be for only a moment. …


Letter Re: Lessons Learned While Living in San Francisco

HJL, After reading this article, I was terribly, terribly incensed at SFPD/OPD. I am a former law enforcement officer from Southern California, and I now work in insurance, handling claims from the Bay Area. Stories like these are unfortunately very common (except for the heroic and dynamic recovery by the author). Hit and run, non-injury accidents, vandalism, and theft from vehicles are basically ignored. My professional advise is not to bother with calling the police unless a suspect is known. The fact that I have to give that advise upsets me to no end. It’s not hard to have good …


Keeping Lawmen at Fishbowl Distance

In recent years, some members of American law enforcement have developed a knack for talking motorists into vehicle searches that would otherwise not be justifiable under the Plain View, Probable Cause, or Reasonable Suspicion doctrines. Their goal is often to smell your breath or to go on a “fishing expedition” looking for illicit drugs, in order to seize assets. My advice is to NOT talk with law enforcement officers, and NEVER consent to any searches. To simplify this, I prepared the following lines for you to print out in large bold type, on an 8-1/2″x11″ sheet of paper, that you …


Lessons Learned While Living in San Francisco, by JGD

I’m writing this as I wrap up my 18th year of living in San Francisco to outline a recent experience with crime in this city. Beneath the surface, this city has big problems. Above the surface, San Francisco is a beautiful city, and it’s a ton of fun to live here. There are thousands of things to do and amazing places to visit; you name it, and it’s here. I’ve got a great career and a beautiful, like-minded woman. I own my house and have a great sailboat and lots of friends. I could not be more blessed. Things just …


Tyranny 101, by M.T. – Part 2

In Part 1, I shared some of the history of tyranny and some of the acts of the well-organized conspirators against liberty, here in America and around the world. However, there is more that should concern us and much to do in preparation. There are other reasons to prepare wisely in a God, guns, and grub reality. Our open society is totally reliant on vulnerable technology. Consider the electrical grid, the water supply, trucking, computers, the Internet, and our food supply in general. All these, as well as many more key categories, are extremely vulnerable to mechanical malfunction, human error, …


Guest Post: Is This the End of 80% Receivers? by Timothy Priebe

While the rest of us were enjoying our own post New Year’s Day activities, BATFE Director B. Todd Jones was approving his department’s latest ruling. On January 2, 2015, ATF Ruling 2015-1 was approved. The ruling was a clarification of ATF Ruling 2010-10. That ruling advised licensed dealer-gunsmiths that they may legally perform certain firearm manufacturing activities on completed firearms if certain conditions were met. However, since that ruling in December of 2010, it appears that issues surrounding “incomplete” or “80% receivers” have moved to the forefront of the ATF’s purview. For those not familiar with “80% receivers”, “blanks”, or …


Tyranny 101, by M.T. – Part 1

This article is a fairly long read, but given the topic, it’s an extremely valuable endeavor. Tyranny is not to be taken lightly; it is as serious as a heart attack or, more aptly, a nuclear strike on our nation. Everything is on the line these days, whether it’s about you and your family or the entire free world. We must all have the courage to stand firm in the truth and the wisdom to prepare for the inevitable. You need strength to get through the truth of our reality, which is exposed in this article. Tyranny, can you define …


Letter Re: College

Hi I live in Utah. I am in my senior year of high school, and I have many choices ahead of me. I’ve been accepted to attend Utah State University to study ranch management. I am very happy about this, but I am worried if those four years of school should go toward prepping? I have been saving for most of my life and have enough money to get myself through school debt free. However, I could buy a small farm with that money and prep. What direction would you recommend for me to take? Thanks T.B. Hugh replies: This …


Watching Out For Scammers on the Ham Boards, by R.B.

I’m a Ham operator and recently got scammed. I want to share my story and to give some pointers to those less educated, concerning what to look for when buying Ham equipment from ads posted online on any of the various Ham forums. I’m not talking about buying in person; I’m talking about buying sight unseen, like non-Ebay or non-Amazon purchases. My Story I was looking for an ICOM radio amp and found one. The price was reasonable for a used amp, so I contacted the person. He said, in broken English, that it was still for sale and he …


Two Letters Re: Unified Crime Reporting

Hugh, I work in law enforcement intelligence, and my team frequently creates policy papers, reports, and so forth that focus on crime trends. It is often tempting to use Unified Crime Reporting (UCR) statistics to make a point. Our policy is to only use that source if no other information is available, due to lack of reliability. UCR data is collected from local, state, and federal law enforcement agency reporting. We find considerable variations in reporting standards, timing, and reliability. Different jurisdictions categorize crimes differently, and this variation causes serious doubts in the validity of UCR data. Researchers and your …


Rapid Prototyping and TEOTWAWKI, by PMN

If there is a breakdown in the normal manufacturing system because of TEOTWAWKI, the usual supply of parts may be unavailable to replace the broken pieces of our machines. However, 3d printing might provide a solution by allowing us to make whatever we need as we need it, but we’d need to exercise caution. There are problems of strength, accuracy, and technical ability involved in this process, and it isn’t “Beam me up Scottie” quite yet. Some of you guys/girls may have heard of rapid prototyping, which is also called 3d printing. If you haven’t, it is roughly equivalent to …


Letter Re: Self Directed IRA

The topic of self directed IRAs has been one of great popularity on SurvivalBlog– especially the LLC IRA, whereby the individual can take home delivery of precious metals owned by the IRA and/or invest in almost anything he wants without approval or oversight.   We offer this piece to provide clarification on the taxable nature of distributions as expressed in this recent letter.  It often makes sense for an individual to setup an LLC IRA to take his assets off grid, rather than take an often 50% tax hit on the entire account.  However, when retirement age is reached, how does …


Letter Re: Free Word Processing Program

Hugh! Thank you for posting RBS’s link for the free WP program. We also use Libre Office, but even more, we have completely abandoned MS in favor of Linux. A fair amount of my work involves keeping our real estate website updated, which we use Kompozer photos for which we use a free program called GIMP, maps and more, and have gone completely down the open-source route. Linux has just released Linux Mint 17.1, which is, IMHO, by far the finest Operating System out there– even better than Apple’s. It’s not for everyone, but I encourage anyone who is looking …