Category: Current Events & Politics

Letter Re: Obsolescence in American Coinage

Dear Mr. Rawles, I read your article about US coinage and the opportunity to save nickels.  I must admit that your post about nickels is the first thing I linked to and that it introduced me to the many other valuable and useful topics on your blog. I have two concerns about modern coinage.  The first is obvious and refers to the decreasing value of the coins themselves.  The penny is now essentially worthless and should be abolished.  We spend time making change.  We spend money creating, transporting counting and wrapping them.  Our tax dollar could be better used.  The …


The Mainstreaming of Survivalism

When a news giant like CNBC starts quoting SurvivalBlog at length, then obviously we are starting filter into the mainstream of public consciousness. Here is an article that is a case in point: Buying Coins to Hedge Against Inflation. As one reader put it: “It brings a smile to my face when we’re way ahead of the curve.” By the way, I hope you’ve already got your nickels squared away. You’ve had plenty of warning, since I first mentioned this in SurvivalBlog back in 2007. The window of opportunity for acquiring nickels before their debasement is likely to close soon. Don’t …


Review of Self-Reliance Expo, Denver, Colorado by L.K.O.

I recently spent a day at at the Denver Self-Reliance Expo. It was held September 16-17, 2011. The expo showcased a variety of friendly and enthusiastic survival, self-reliance and preparedness vendors and presenters. Several of the companies there are loyal SurvivalBlog advertisers. It was great meeting many of them in person for the first time. Just one example was meeting Dave Duffy of Backwoods Home Magazine. I had been reading his columns for many years, so it was about time! In the arena of weapons and security, vendors included 5280 Armory, Hilltop Safes, Smart Product Technology (underground security pods), On Sight …


Letter Re: SKS Rifles in Canada

Dear JWR: Fearing confiscations of the more “controversial” VZ-58 clones that have hit the Canadian market, I recently sold one and am actively trying to sell another.  Not wanting to sell the thousands of rounds of 7.62×39 Czech surplus ammunition I have for them, I have been giving very serious consideration to procuring one (or several) SKSs as a replacement. To be clear, I don’t think the SKS is the best choice for a primary rifle.  For me personally, that honour belongs to the AR-15 in .223 (even if, as required by Canadian law, mags must be pinned to 5 …


Three Letters Re: Lessons Learned From a Recent California Power Outage

Dear Jim Yesterday at about 4:00 p.m. there was a massive power outage in the southwest. All of San Diego County And other parts of Southern California were without power for almost 12 hours some still are. I learned a few very good lessons from this experience. I do consider myself a prepper but am limited to how much I can store because I live in an apartment. I had concentrated on food, water, and defense measures for the long run, but had completely ignored some more immediate short term supplies. First and foremost, I overlooked cash. I have been …


Maxine’s Myopic Economic Solution: Buy More Gum Balls!

A recent news headline caught my attention: Representative Maxine Waters Calls For A Trillion-Dollar Jobs Program. After reading that I feel obliged to make a few sarcastic comments. (A privilege that I don’t abuse through over-use, as the editor of SurvivalBlog.com): Well, gosh, Maxine, if your “spending money that we don’t have creating wonderful economic prosperity” concept is so iron-clad, then why not go whole hog by pouring even bigger buckets of slop into the public trough? Why not spend $20 trillion to create zero unemployment? There would be jobs for everyone. We could develop whole new categories of jobs! …


Book Review: Nothing To Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea

Dear Mr. Rawles, Here is my review of the book Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea, by Barbara Demick. This a book with great insights for preppers and survivalists, especially in the famine food area.  As you are aware, North Korea suffered a disastrous ten-year famine in which possibly as many as 20% of the population died of starvation and most of the rest were severely malnourished.  This book is about several families and how they did and didn’t make it through those years.  Particularly striking to me were instances where they were eating and, more-or-less, surviving on …


Letter Re: The Bias of Financial Analysts and the Mainstream Media

James: If you read the mainstream media, you;ll see how the Dow Jones average ‘soars’ when it breaks its downward spiral and posts a 2% gain – when the ‘good’ news is out of Germany and China – never mind that the market is still down 12.5% from where it was a month ago. But, in contrast Gold ‘tanks’ – ‘is at the top of a bubble’ – ‘isn’t money’ – when it pulls back 1.5% at the top of a rally that saw prices up 19% over the same time period. Paper promises of debt aren’t money, and ‘securities’ …


Letter Re: Roads and Infrastructure in Bangladesh

Dear Jim, Regarding the letter from M.Z. Williamson about water on the Bangladesh-India border leading to war (again) it is a good idea to remember that Jammu and Kashmir are fought over between Pakistan and India over water, rather than the Opium grown in Kashmir. Several rivers originate there and India has diverted at least one back across the border so they can grow grain to feed millions of people. This violates the 1960 water treaty, so fighting has resulted. Conflicts over water are very common. While the hard words between Pakistan and India are largely regarded by their populations as empty posturing, the water and …


Small World Department: Image of JWR’s Ferret Scout Car Used for Gray Propaganda

As editor of SurvivalBlog I’ve had a number of “Small World Department” coincidences occur in the past six years. Most of these have been chance meetings with blog readers and mutual acquaintances, everywhere from Reno, Nevada to as far away as Switzerland. But the latest coincidence is absolutely astounding: As you may already be aware, the Russian FSB produces some gray propaganda under the pen name “Sorcha Faal.” Their department’s most recent bit of hyperbolic dezinformatsaya was in an article over at the fairly wacky “What Does It Mean?” web site. (The web site uses the dotted quad address: 207.58.165.85 …


Michael Z. Williamson: Roads and Infrastructure in Bangladesh

One of my regular correspondents is a civil engineer with the highway department in Bangladesh. He sent me the following article links from The Daily Star [in Dhaka, Bangladesh]: RHD chief engineer quits MPs blast communications minister Impossible rides stop They are facing problems of massive corruption, infrastructure failing, and several large rivers that are dammed on the Indian side of the border, which threaten to turn fertile deltas into deserts. He’s sufficiently placed he may be able to, and “considering” emigrating to Canada or to the US.  I suggested he “consider faster” and not wait until it’s too late. …


Bitcoins: A Practical Primer, by Yishai

Bitcoins are a new anonymous peer-to-peer digital currency.  It is truly the next big thing in how we can conduct transactions over the internet without any central clearinghouse or bank or government ‘okaying’ our transactions.  I believe Bitcoins will be quite disruptive in how we all do business online.  You can pay anyone directly with Bitcoins, buy products from Amazon.com in Bitcoins (through a reseller), and even take SurvivalBlog’s’ 10-cent challenge in Bitcoins!  Bitcoins have an inherent value and as long as the internet is standing, are here to stay. As of this writing, 1 Bitcoin (or BTC) was selling …


Some Ground Truth on Intellectual Property Rights

I recently received an e-mail that perturbed me. In reply to my e-mail releasing the right to re-post an article from SurvivalBlog, a gent (who shall remain nameless) mentioned: “Personally, I don’t believe in copyrights because nobody can truly own ideas, thoughts or words…” To which, I replied: Do you really believe that?  Let me politely set you straight:  When I write a novel, that is my intellectual property.  Each book that I write represents the fruit of my intellect, and is the end result of thousands of hours of my work.  Without a limited-term copyright, strangers could rob me …


Letter Re: Expanded Gun Controls in Canada?

Mr. Rawles, The owner of CanadaAmmo.com recently posted on a public forum (Canadiangunnutz.com) that the Royal Canadian Mountain Police (RCMP) Firearms lab “is encouraging importers to hold off on new imports until the fall, when they expect the prohibited list to be ‘updated’ to reflect new models.”  Updating the prohibited list in all probability and precedent would mean sweeping confiscations of some firearms. [JWR Adds: Unlike here in the U.S., Canadian gun laws don’t have a tendency toward “grandfather” exclusion clauses.] Even though the Conservative party of Canada now holds a majority government in Parliament and the party has claimed …


Letter Re: Alabama County Provides Microcosmic Preview of a Larger Bankruptcy

Dear Mr. Rawles — Here is a link to a story in this morning’s New York Times about Jefferson County, Alabama. It seems to be a microcosm of what the whole country faces as the threat of Federal default becomes real. The reporter says, “There are lessons for everyone here, and they are all painful: lessons for those who are not concerned about the prospect of mounting debt, for those who insist that steep cuts can be relatively painless, for those who think the bill for big spending can safely be put off into the future, for those who have …