Category: Emerging Threats

Letter Re: Asian Avian Flu is Still a Major Threat

Jim, I am a regular reader with 40+ yrs of prepping and a 10 Cent Challenge subscriber. My current career is as a Hospital Staff Respiratory Therapist. We recently had a seminar on the coming Avian Flu Pandemic that scared the heck out of me. The timeline for human to human vector is 3 to 5 years, if it follows the current rate of mutation. It will probably come out of Thailand, and with air travel, will quickly spread around the world, with entry to the US through the major international airports. With luck and area quarantines, they may be …


Letter Re: Some Results From the CDC’s Asian Avian Flu Preparedness/Education Budget

Hi Jim, I’m a regular reader and 10 Cent Challenge contributor. I just wanted to pass on a little info that struck me as very unusual. I live in Louisiana, too close to New Orleans unfortunately. In my mailbox on Saturday, I received a 32 page publication from the Louisiana Dept of Health & Hospitals. It is titled “How You Can Be Prepared for a Flu Pandemic” Individual & Family Handbook. What do they know that we don’t? The state spent $663,594.40 publishing 1,658,986 copies of this Handbook under a grant support from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). This …


Letter Re: Five Years to Just 50% of the Current U.S. Oil Supply

Dear Jim and Family, I have bad news. An analyst with an oil background did a study on the oil producing nations and found they would stop exporting 50% of their oil in around 5 years, averaging decline of 10%/year to total world oil exports. The USA is 60% dependent on imported oil, and is currently growing 7% of our needs via ethanol (corn). As we’re in the process of losing Mexico at 15% per year and will see them encounter some social breakdown in 11-17 months time due to loss of exports and tax revenue for their social services, …


Identifying the IED Threat by Steve in Iraq

The Improvised Explosive Device, or IED, is the predominant killer of US troops in Iraq today. Since the initial invasion in 2003, they have become increasingly sophisticated and deadly. If a terrorist organization ever decided to use them to any great extent in the US, the effects would be devastating. We are going to look at the fixed IED as opposed to a Vehicle Borne IED (VBIED,) simply for space and to better cover each subject individually. First off, there is one rule that will enhance your survivability tremendously: Never set a pattern! If you are able to, have at …


Letter Re: The BIS Issues a Global Economic Depression Warning, Points to China as Potential Trigger

James: UK’s Daily Telegraph has a warning from Bank of International Settlements (BIS) about danger of global economic depression. [JWR Adds: This was also featured by NewsMax in the US.] Here are some excerpts from the Daily Telegraph article: [begin quote] “The Bank for International Settlements [BIS], the world’s most prestigious financial body, has warned that years of loose monetary policy has fueled a dangerous credit bubble, leaving the global economy more vulnerable to another 1930s-style slump than generally understood… …The BIS said China may have repeated the disastrous errors made by Japan in the 1980s when Tokyo let rip …


Prudent Precious Metals Investing: Its All in the Timing

You may have noticed that on Tuesday the spot price of gold fell to a three-month low, and silver fell to a six-month low. Rather than shaking my confidence in the metals, I look at this as a buying opportunity. I am still fully confident that the metals are in a primary bull market cycle that is likely to extend for another decade. It is difficult to “time” investing in fluctuating markets, especially the metals, which tend to be volatile. However, there is a time-honored tradition of buying on dips. Tuesday’s sell-off represents a big dip in what is an …


Reverse the Public School Brainwashing and Keep Your Kids Safe, by Captain Dave

The recent school shooting at Virginia Tech demonstrates a huge underlying societal problem that many of us are either ignoring or are ignorant of. Because society has spent much of the last several decades trying to stamp violence out of schools and out of our children, we end up with kids who are made-to-order victims that will line up to be shot execution style rather than fight back. The answer to school violence is not to arm the campus police, have campus SWAT teams, or class rooms that can double as fortresses, it is to teach our children to protect …


Letter Re: Lessons Learned from Hurricane Katrina and Indiscriminate Weapons Confiscation

Dear Jim and Family, Some months ago, our president signed into law a bipartisan bill that protects Americans from gun seizure during a disaster. In theory, every emergency worker (including police and National Guard) knows they cannot take guns from citizens, period. In theory. In practice its far more likely that we can all expect: the worst case scenario. This is uncomfortable as you have no idea if the cop down the street is honest or a bully who’s taking guns because he can, or because he’s been ordered by by his boss, or a buddy on the force with …


Letter Re: Lessons Learned from Hurricane Katrina and Indiscriminate Weapons Confiscation

Dear Mr. Rawles, First off, I would like to thank you for writing the novel “Patriots” and starting SurvivalBlog. My dad sent me your book in the mail and told me to read it. Being a fan of Tom Brown-ish survival literature, I decided to give it a try. I read it in one night, starting at about 8 pm and finishing at 3 in the morning. Truly, my world view has changed. I have immediately started making preparations—getting my Bug Out Bag together, my Bug Out Routes planned and starting to practice some of the skills sets I’ve let …


Letter Re: Record Keeping for TEOTWAWKI

Mr. Rawles, Many have written on this topic and many more have mused on it. Some have even written on what I thought about, but revisiting topics and ideas allows for fresh perspective and ideas to surface and breath. 1. How Many People? – Does it take a Village?: ‘Billary’ references aside, what is the ideal size for a group of people after the Schumer hits? So many people really buy into the image of the rugged, self sufficient individual. However, if we isolate ourselves, does not that make us easier targets in the long run? Small numbers of people …


Letter Re: Convincing the Unconvinced that TEOTWAWKI is Possible

James Rawles; I enjoy your blog and wish I had more time to review [all of the content]. I plan on getting the best of the blog when my funds permit. I saw the “Convincing the Unconvinced” post and thought I would reply. I like what another reader recommended on bringing people around to preparing and hope you have a section dedicated to this subject somewhere on your blog. Pushing a lot of information too fast will be counterproductive. They need to learn and decide for themselves to be prepared, and how prepared [they want] to be. MJS could try …


Letter Re: Real Life Gunfight Experiences

Hi Jim I found the article about real gunfights, earlier this week, very interesting. I happened to run across this video of a real gun fight between quite a few law enforcement officers s and one guy with a battle rifle. I am no gun expert, but it sure taught me a few things: 1) Never take a handgun to a rifle fight 2) Take cover. These guys just walked out the door and got shot. 3) Riding on the hood of a car is not a good tactic. All the best, – Kurt


Two Letters Re: Convincing the Unconvinced that TEOTWAWKI is Possible

Good Evening JWR: I am very thankful for you site. It has catapulted our preparedness agenda, leaving 99% of our friends and family lost in a smoke screen of Utopian chatter. We have been in a preparedness state of mind and action since hurricane Andrew. Approximately 3 million had the same experience and are unmoved. Here is my problem: Many of your readers still “don’t get it”. The three primal needs are water, food, and shelter. Now I agree 100% with the ability to defend your home, and family. You will buy the ‘BIG’ gun, the intermediate rifles, the short …


Letter from FerFAL in Argentina Re: Greenspan, Gold, and the Safe Store of Value

Dear James, Regarding the letter “Letter Re: Greenspan, Gold, and the Safe Store of Value” I can assure you that gold is just as valuable before, during and after a crisis. Gold has always been valuable, its safe to say that it always will be, it’s our alma mater currency, since the beginnings of mankind. Unless you are stranded on an island, or in a plane wreck in the middle of the Andes, gold is always a cherished form of currency, and no one is going to trade you an ounce of gold for a piece of bread. Generally speaking …


Letter Re: “The Rift” by Walter J. Williams

Jim, I’ve scanned the [poll results for] favorite Survival Book entries and haven’t seen one of mine (unless I’ve missed it). It’s “The Rift” by Walter J. Williams: an edge-of-your seat novel based on the New Madrid earthquake of 1811 occurring again in our time. I highly recommend it to your readers and have enjoyed learning from them of other works that I wasn’t familiar with. Regards, – AdkNoah