Category: Current Events & Politics

Letter Re: Iowa Becomes a Shall-Issue CCW State

Mr. Rawles,   One of the drawbacks of Iowa as a possible retreat location has been restrictive gun laws. It will be somewhat better as of January 1, 2011 when the state becomes a  “Shall Issue” instead of a discretionary “May Issue” state for carrying concealed weapons (CCW) permits.   I think that the rural areas of Iowa offer good possibilities for retreats. The farm land is some of the best in the world. Water and rainfall are less of a problem than they are in some of the more western plains states. The people in most of the state …


More Legal Troubles for Mayor Bloomberg’s Gun Grabbers

I’d hate to be accused of Schadenfreude during the holidays, but I feel I must mention five recent news articles that tie in with my previous mentions of Mayor Bloomberg’s Mayors Against Illegal Guns civilian disarmament pressure group: Port St. Lucie Mayor arrested for misappropriation of campaign funds Ex-Morristown Mayor Cresitello will pay state $11K over alleged campaign finance violations. White Plains Mayor Adam Bradley Convicted of Attempted Assault and Other Crimes Mayor accused of ethics lapses Inglewood Mayor Dorn pleads guilty to conflict of interest, resigns The number of mayors in Bloomberg’s group that are facing felony and lesser …


Letter Re: Port St. Lucie Florida’s Ex-Mayor

JWR: You mentioned the mayor of Port St. Lucie, Florida in your commentary on the dog attack article. I need to make a correction: Patricia Christensen is the former mayor.  She was forced to resign last September for falsification of campaign records.  Yes, another one of Bloomberg’s illegal mayors ends up either in jail or out office for cause.   – T.T. in Port St. Lucie, Florida


Letter Re: Observations on a Major Midwest Snow Storm

Hello JWR,   I would like to post a brief observation from the most recent snow storm here in Minneapolis this past weekend as it relates to the “Golden Horde“.  A very large storm system that started Friday evening and ended up dumping 18 inches of snow till Saturday evening.  It will go down on record as the fifth largest in the history and as you probably know it caused the Metrodome’s roof to collapse.  I am a daily reader of SurvivalBlog and have been for some time now.  I have been making my preps for a few years now after finally …


Letter Re: Evidence that Physical Silver is in Short Supply

James,   An interesting trend to make note of: Here in the Great White North, ScotiaBank (one of our Big Five banks) sells physical bullion through it’s investing arm: ScotiaMocatta.   I simply walk to the main branch in my municipality, make an order at the bullion desk, pay cash, and walk out with a number of 1 ounce silver bars (or whatever precious metal suits your tastes. I find gold too cumbersome at $1,420 per ounce to be useful for trade/barter WTSHTF…)   As of last week, the 100 ounce silver bars were no longer available either online, or …


Letter Re: Cold Weather Inbound for Eastern United States

Jim,   Hope all is well!  Hopefully everyone reading your blog will already be prepped for what is inbound….but in case some are not aware, AccuWeather is predicting incredible cold for much of the East and Southeastern US…all the way to Florida.   Everyone needs to be sure to have water, warm clothes, boots, blankets in their vehicles…especially for those transporting children.  Batteries and water pumps often fail in cold weather and to have such a failure in extreme cold can be life threatening if one is not prepared for the event!    Water in the fuel lines of vehicles …


Letter Re: Municipalities Raising Revenue by Stepping Up Traffic Violations

Many of your readers have been sending links to articles explaining how bad the economy has been and how much worse it may get.  Some of us have little recourse but to bite the bullet and make do, do without or downsize.  Municipalities across the U.S. also face hard economic times but they have a recourse you and I do not have.  They can raise revenues by fees and fines.  Cities across the country have been increasing fines for such things as traffic violations and many have decided to enforce laws on the books to raise revenue.    In my …


A “Loophole” to a Statist Few is a Birthright to the Majority

I’m tired of hearing hoplophobic whiners in their endless prattle about “the gun show loophole.” Just what is this “loophole” they are talking about? It is in fact perfectly legal commerce between private citizens of the same state. This not a “loophole”. Rather, it is merely the exercise of free trade in used household goods between sovereign citizens within their own states. Gun shows are a time-honored tradition–not some sort dodgy maneuvering. The leftist whiners are again begging congress to apply the Interstate Commerce Clause to restrict intrastate sales. That is just plain extra-jurisdictional and hence absolutely unconstitutional. (Does the …


Letter Re: Just In Time Consumers

James Wesley,   Thank you for all that you do and the wonderful, informative web site.  I have been active for about a year and am working on my introduction and first contribution to Survival Blog.  Ironically I have basically been employed all of my life in one of the industries, consumer package goods, which is one of the key industries so tied to technology that if TEOTWAWKI hits would be significantly impacted.  Earlier today I came across an article in The Wall Street Journal which emphasizes the needs for preppers to be more prepared and to also know what your …


Letter Re: A Strange Assortment of Weapons in Rio

Dear Editor: In a 28 November post in Survival Blog, you observed: “Rio de Janeiro shaken by fresh gang violence. There were 15 deaths in one day. Notice that one of the photographs shows a policeman carrying a scoped FN-FAL. Things must be serious. Please pray for the city’s residents.” As a journalist I encountered a wide variety of weapons in use by the Rio de Janeiro Policia, including Imbel FALs, Ruger Mini-14s, various M16/M4 family weapons, Kalashnikovs and many examples of handguns. If the equipment–including tracked and wheeled armoured vehicles–tactics and appearance of the policia appears to be that of …


The Wikileaks Backchannel Fiasco

It will be years before the full implications are felt from the unauthorized release of 251,287 U.S. State Department cables. (Of these, 15,652 of the cables were classified Secret or Secret/NOFORN.) In the end, the Wikileaks fiasco might even destabilize a number of governments, including those in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Bahrain, the U.A.E., Egypt, and Turkey. The most immediate effect may be seen in Saudi Arabia. Starting in the 1930s, a status quo developed there through tacit agreements between the House of Saud, its rival princes, and the Wahabbist clerics. In essence, King Abdulah ibn Abdul Aziz’s ruling faction is …


America’s Terrorism Problem Isn’t Domestic

SurvivalBlog reader R.F.J. sent me a link to a recent news account about the would-be Portland, Oregon bomber, Mohamud Osman Mohamed. Reading that article confirmed something that has been very clear to me for more than 20 years: America’s terrorism problem isn’t domestic. As others have already pointed out, the purveyors of terrorism in America and elsewhere are mostly Islamic Middle Eastern Men, predominately ages 18 to 30. All the leftist hand-wringers whine on endlessly about “fairness”, and decry that horrid “profiling.” But the latest incident in Portland is just another in a long, long, string of Islamic Middle Eastern …


Letter Re: Bernanke’s Absurd Quantitative Easing Jobs Claims

JWR,   You can’t make this stuff up.  Seriously.  Ben Bernanke claims that the $600 billion QE2 will create 700,000 jobs.  Even if he’s right, that’s $857,142.86 per job created.  Even if you believe the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS, more appropriately called the “BBS”) thei figure of 14.8 million currently unemployed Americans, that means that the U.S. would need to have just over 20 more infusions of $600 billion to employ all of our unemployed.  20 x $600,000,000,000… (drumroll, please)… $12 Trillion!   I think that it’s doable.  Let’s get QE3-to-QE22 underway.  Maybe SurvivalBlog readers could start a grassroots movement to get this …


Letter Re: Retreating: A Minority Perspective

Hello Jim, Blessings to you and your family. Here are my comments regarding the article Retreating: A Minority Perspective, by Alex B. The Aryan Nations group has been forced out of North Idaho.  Not only did they lose the lawsuit that took away their “compound”.  The new owners allowed local fire department to train on site when the buildings were torched. Their leader, Richard Butler, died a few years later and the rest of the bugs left for parts unknown. This small group was good at making themselves look bigger by holding an annual camp-out at the compound and marching …


Letter Re: A Closer Look at Bank Closures–Failed Banks Without Buyers

James Wesley, You recently posted this article: Seven banks closed in Fla., Ga., Ill., Kan. Remember something we’ve been trying to focus on? Watch closely for banks for which the FDIC cannot find a buyer. Read closely… in that article there were a couple banks that were only partially purchased by other banks. The FDIC held on to some of the liabilities of some of the banks. The real zinger is the First Arizona Savings bank – completely shut down, no buyer, no more bank. The FDIC is sending checks to those customers (hope you didn’t have more than $250,000 …