Mom of Idaho rape victim: ‘We’re being treated as criminals’ – RBS
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A Fleet of M&M-Shooting Drones Is the Black-Footed Ferret’s Last Hope – T.J.
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Boise fire chief wants to change ‘crazy’ fireworks law in Idaho
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Concealed guns are now legal without a permit in Idaho starting this last week! – M2
Silver Prices – What Next? “Silver spiked to 19 times above its exponential trend in 1980 during the silver bubble. Silver crashed to 30% of its trend in 2001, and 40% of its trend in late 2015, and the April 2011 high was less than two times its exponential trend.”
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CONDITION RED: Important Silver Threshold Line Broken… What Next?? – RBS
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The Lessons of the 1920–21 Depression
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Financial stability should not become Fed’s third mandate: Mester
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SurvivalBlog and its editors are not paid investment counselors or advisers. Please see our Provisos page for details.
St. Paul Police Officer’s Spine Fractured as rioting thugs drop large concrete block on his head “Authorities say during the course of the protests on 94 and later, on Grand and Dale, 21 officers from multiple agencies suffered injuries. The injuries were primarily caused by fireworks, rocks, bricks, glass bottles and chunks of concrete that were directed at officers, some hitting them in the head. St. Paul Police said someone threw a Molotov cocktail at officers, as well.” – W.C.
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WSJ Op-Ed: After 20 Years Of Teaching, I Am Banning Laptops In My Law School Classroom – PLC
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Slate Columnist Admits Unborn Are People, But…
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Readers in the USA who have a drone or who are concerned about drones invading their privacy should be aware of some forthcoming FAA regulations. This link represents the likely rules to be implemented in approximately August, 2016. The FAA is the sole government agency regulating airspace over the USA and people operating drones for commercial purposes will need to comply with multiple regulations.
The regulations for recreational use of drones are less restrictive. Still, be aware of the following:
For readers in the USA concerned about privacy over their home or land, the forthcoming FAA regulations probably won’t restrict drone operations in the airspace over you. I know many will not be happy about this. However, be aware of the likely recreational restrictions I mentioned above (and use them to your advantage if necessary). If a drone operator is of concern then try to document illegal or unsafe operations, and then contact the FAA. They will want to hear about it. Think twice before shooting down a drone since you may be forced to legally defend yourself. – P.S.
“Cage of freedom
That’s our prison
Where the jailer and captive combine
Cage of freedom
Cast in power
All the trappings of our own design
Blind ambition
Steals our reason
We’re soon behind those invisible bars
On the inside Looking outside
To make it safer we double the guard
Cage of freedom
There’s no escaping
We fabricated a world of our own
Cage of freedom, growing smaller
‘Til every wall now touches the skin
Cage of freedom, filled with treason
Changing sides as the losses begin
Our suspicion tries escaping
But they step up the security
There’s no exit–there’s no entrance
Remember how we swallowed the key?
Cage of freedom, that’s our prison
We fabricated this world on our own.”
– Cage of Freedom. (Excerpted from the lyrics by Jon Anderson, from the soundtrack to Metropolis.)
July 11th is the birthday of John Quincy Adams. He was born in 1767 and died in 1848. Not to be confused with his father– John Adams– the younger Adams also served as a diplomat, congressman, and as president.
As I mentioned in a previous article, some SurvivalBlog readers have asked me to do some articles on good ol’ fashioned revolvers, so here’s another to consider. Many people mistakenly believe that a revolver is outdated or not of any use in survival. However, it depends on what you consider outdated and what type of survival we are talking about. Many people believe that “survival” means living off the land in the mountains or woods. Well, I guess that’s one type of survival. However, they are many other situations that can be considered survival. To many, it just means getting through the day without anything serious happening to them. Survival can take on many different characters, if you ask me.
I was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, where I lived for 27 years before I moved away. Due to unforeseen circumstances, I was forced to move back there for another two years. Now, for anyone who lives in a big and dangerous city, survival takes on a whole different aspect in their lives. I had more than my fair share of run-ins, dangerous run-ins, when I lived in Chicago, and I survived! So, to a city dweller, survival might mean not getting killed on any given day.
There has been a “thing” in Chicago with many who owns guns for self defense, and I don’t know where it started. Many gun owners there own either a little .25 ACP pistol or a .38 Special snubby for self defense. Believe me, I know a lot of people who fall into owning one or both of these types of guns. To my way of thinking, a .25 ACP handgun isn’t a good choice, ever! I knew a fellow, who worked at a gas station and was robbed. The perp shot him in the mouth with a .25 ACP handgun, and it only chipped my friend’s tooth! Take it for what it’s worth. However, I will admit, in my much younger days, I did on occasion carry a little .25 ACP of some type.
Now, with the above said, the little .38 Special snubby revolver is still a good choice for a self-defense handgun. I can hear the cries now with folks saying, “It doesn’t carry enough ammo.” Well, what are your goals when carrying a handgun for self defense on a daily basis? My first goal is to avoid trouble, if at all possible. Secondly, if forced, I will use deadly force to defend myself and those in my care. If I know I’m going to face a terrorist attack, I would most certainly strap on something more than a 5-shot revolver. Still, if I were only carrying a 5-shot .38 Spl revolver, I’d have at least two speed reloaders on-hand. And, if 15-rounds of ammo doesn’t get me out of trouble, then I don’t know what will. I’m no longer a police officer, so I don’t feel the need to carry four or more spare magazines with me on a daily basis.
There is still a thriving market for .38 Special snubby revolvers, and the gun under review today is the S&W .38 Spl. Bodyguard. This is a neat little 5-shot revolver with a 1.9” Bbl, and the gun is super light weight at just a mere 14.36 ounces. The gun has a fixed rear sight and a fixed blade front sight. The barrel is stainless steel enclosed in an aluminum shroud. The frame is mostly aluminum with some polymer material as well, which is a rather unusual combination, but it works. The gun is also rated to handle +P ammo, but you won’t want to take a box of +P out and shoot it during one range session. There is also a rubber grip, to help absorb recoil.
The unique aspect of the S&W Bodyguard snubby is the attached laser on the rear of the frame. (See the pics!) Mine has a laser manufactured by Insights, and some of the guns have a laser from Crimson Trace. I don’t know why the difference or the change, but both are effective lasers. The laser is switched on by pressing a little button on the top of it. It isn’t “instinctive” where you grab the gun and the laser turns on, like many of the Crimson Trace lasers do. They have pressure points or small on/off buttons that you don’t hardly notice. Just grip the gun and the laser comes on. Still, this is a nice laser setup, and it allows you to carry the gun in just about any style of holster. (Some laser setups don’t allow this.)
The Bodyguard has a nice, black subdued finish on it that seems to help repel the elements, too. As mentioned, there is a stainless steel barrel, but it is inside of a shroud made out of aluminum. This keeps the weight of the gun down a bit. Many S&W snubby revolvers have a barrel that is 1.8” long. This one is 1.9” long. The rubber grips on the gun are nice for absorbing recoil, but they’re not nearly as soft as those made by Hogue or other aftermarket grip makers. Still, it is better than hard wooden grips.
I’ll admit that for a lot of years I was a huge S&W fan but not any more for a lot of reasons. However, this little Bodyguard is one dandy concealed carry handgun. I don’t carry it a lot, and it is not my main carry gun. I carry it in an ankle holster from Blackhawk Products, and the gun rides nicely on the inside of my left ankle/leg. I don’t even know it’s there, mainly because I’ve carried a backup this way for many years. I don’t carry a reload for the Bodyguard, because it is my backup. However, I do carry a spare mag for my main carry gun.
I had a good selection of .38 Spl ammo to run through the little Bodyguard. From Black Hills Ammunition, I had their 125-gr JHP +P load, their 148-gr Match HBWC, and their 158-gr CNL Cowboy load. From Buffalo Bore Ammunition, I had their 110-gr Barnes TAC-XP all-copper hollow point and the same load in +P that was designed for short-barreled revolvers, 158-gr Hard Cast Outdoorsman load, and their 125-gr Low Velocity JHP +P –, designed to expand at lower speeds. From Double Tap Ammunition, I had their 148-gr Match Wad Cutter. So, I had a good sampling of ammo to run those this little snubby.
There is some contention, and I’m not going to settle the dispute here, as to how effective any +P ammo is in a little snubby revolver. However, I will say this; when I carry a snubby of any sort, I stoke it with +P ammo, period! I believe the little bit added velocity will help those bullets expand better and penetrate a bit deeper to get the job done.
There were no malfunctions with the Bodyguard, other than the laser batteries went dead on me and, of course, in bright sunlight a red dot laser is hard to see at best. Still, I like the intimidation factor of a laser, and it is great for low-light shooting. In all, I fired 300 rounds during my shooting sessions. Firing for accuracy was done at seven yards, which is a fair enough test for this little short barreled revolver. I didn’t use any sort of rest but just fired two-handed. I was able to keep all my shots around the 3-inch mark, and that’s good enough for the intended purpose of this little gun, which is self defense.
I can’t say any of the ammo I tested was really more accurate than any of the other brands or types I tested, not at that short range. I will say though that the Black Hills 158-gr CNL Cowboy load printed a tad bit tighter groups. It was not a big difference, but it was measurable. The Bodyguard was really a lot of fun to shoot, although the +P loads do get your attention after firing several cylinders full. However, in real life, you won’t even notice the recoil because your adrenaline will be pumping.
So, if you think that the revolver is dead, think again. It isn’t! There are a lot of different makes and models of revolvers out there that are still good sellers, and they will get the job done. Many women prefer a revolver over a semiauto handgun, for the simplicity of aim and pull the trigger with no safeties to fumble with, no slide to pull back; you just aim and fire, and that is not a bad thing. So, next time you’re in the market for a new handgun, take a close look at some of the revolvers at your local gun shop.
– Senior Product Review Editor, Pat Cascio
Makes 4 servings.
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Do you have a favorite recipe that would be of interest to SurvivalBlog readers? Please send it via e-mail. Thanks!
HJL,
A recent contributor had a great letter about their move to rural Alaska. I wish them the best of luck.
Living in rural Alaska myself, though off the road system, I can only hope they fair well here. My family are in the process of doing the reverse move from Alaska to the Redoubt. Interestingly enough, I had a letter posted on Survivalblog about eight years ago about my move from the city to rural off-road system Alaska.
Alaska has some distinct advantages, mainly the lack of people outside cities and available subsistence in some areas. But everything else is expensive and logistically challenging.
For example, the writer mentioned buying a chain saw for firewood. Unless you are near somewhere to buy parts at a moment’s notice, everyone up here takes two saws into the woods. Parts take days to get and cost more in postage than they are worth. Get used to paying double for stuff.
A recent freighter into the port of Anchorage was a week late due to a longshoreman strike in Washington. All the store shelves across Alaska were looking pretty ragged by the 7-10 day mark. Imagine if they stopped coming. My shelves were stocked, but I get tired of salmon pretty quick any more.
Also mentioned was shipping guns. One option to think about for someone moving either way is to use the Alaska Marine Highway Ferry system. A ride from Whitter AK to Bellingham WA is fairly expensive to take a car, but you never have a border crossing to deal with. So your guns can stay safely packed away and generate no paper trail.
A short look at Alaska news headlines will tell you all about the money problems the state is having with the decline in oil prices. The state has no money. The oil companies are laying off right and left, so a lot of formerly well off people have no money and lots of bills. Things are getting down right tight up here. Fine if you want to disappear and just live off the land, but that’s much, much harder to do than one thinks up here. It take years to get setup right, and even then, you’d better like fish and rhubarb, working long hours with the bugs in the summers, and keeping sane during the other eight months.
Bryan B in AK
Brexit Shows Why Central Planning Won’t Work
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Ex-Barclays traders sentenced to up to six-and-a-half years for Libor rigging. Excerpt: “The sentences come four years after Barclays became the first of 11 powerful banks and brokerages to be slapped with a hefty fine for their role in the rate fixing scandal, sparking a political backlash that forced out former CEO Bob Diamond, an overhaul of Libor rules and the criminal inquiry.”
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An economic riddle: Where are all the construction workers?
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DANGER: The World Is Now On The Verge Of The Largest Destruction Of Wealth In History
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Recent credit card hack is worse than you thought – DSV
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SurvivalBlog and its editors are not paid investment counselors or advisers. Please see our Provisos page for details.
Amateur radio – HF go box – P.S.
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They just don’t get it: TIME Suggests Another 9/11 Is Necessary to Re-direct American Anger
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Video commentary from an older Brit on the chaos: We Saved Our Democracy
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The Law Is Dying because Morality Is Dying Technically, morality is what we do, and ethics is what we ought to do, but you get the idea. – B.B.
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Americans urged to ‘buy a gun, get trained, carry it always’ (Note: unrelated auto-starting video on the page.) – W.C.
“Tolerance and apathy are the last virtues of a dying society” – Aristotle (384-322 BC)
July 10th is the birthday of British novelist John Wyndham. (His full name was John Wyndham Parkes Lucas Beynon Harris, but Harris shortened that to just John Wyndham for his pen name.) He was born in 1903 and died March 11, 1969. Harris was a good friend of fellow novelist Samuel Youd (1922-2012), who wrote under several pen names, including John Christopher. Both men were famous for writing what are often called “cosy catastrophies”. Several of Wyndham’s novels and short stories have been adapted to film, with varying degrees of success. One of the best of these was a parallel universe story called Random Quest.
Let me start off by saying that I am not a Certified Public Accountant, lawyer, stock broker, licensed financial planner, or banker. I have no licenses or certificates that enable me to give special advice or guidance regarding your finances. I am also not an ordained minister, though I have attended seminary. What I am writing below comes from personal experience combined with a business degree and both business and home management experience along with my understanding of the Word given to us from YHWH– the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. (I believe it is necessary in these days to define which god one is referring to.) Mainly the following comes from the school of hard knocks, where I have learned through my own mistakes and successes as well as those of my friends and family and from the study of Scripture. So, please read and learn what might help you, but prayerfully make your own decisions, seek professional counsel where it is needed, and consider that my situation and those described here may not apply to you. Each of us is responsible for our own choices and the consequences of our actions, whether these actions have to do with working to obtain property, defending our property, or making property sale/purchase decisions.
To me, money is a tool. It is merely a means of substitutionary value for something of real or perceived value. Oxford dictionary defines it as “A current medium of exchange in the form of coins and banknotes”. However, we are learning that the government is making it more difficult to use tangible coins and banknotes and is pressing for electronic money use rather than paper or coins so that they can track all of our spending. I think it is a good thing for us to track how our money is used but not a good thing for the government or others to know exactly how we spend our money. I use it to buy beans, Band-aids, and much more, but the list of all the things I buy from various vendors is for me to know and no one else. That’s very personal and private information!
On multiple occasions, I have heard a pastor or speaker say, “Show me your checkbook and I’ll tell you who is your god.” While there is something to that saying about the checkbook revealing our priorities, how we spend our money is between us and God. I do believe we will have to answer for our financial choices, along with all of our actions on that judgment day, and we need to take our financial decisions a lot more seriously, but our purchase history should be private.
A wiser man said, “Don’t tell me who your god is. Let me see what you do and then I will tell you who your god is.” People are watching us to see who our god is. If we make a promise to pay for something or to pay someone for the work and benefit we’ve received from their effort, we should be people of our word and pay them what was agreed in advance. Our Savior tells us, in Matthew 5:37: “But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.” Either we are truthful people of integrity or not. Our God keeps His promises and so should we, at least to the best of our ability. Given this, we should be cautious about the promises we make, whether in regards to money or anything so that our “yes” can be yes and our “no” can truly be no. We must very thoughtfully and prayerfully enter into agreements, including purchase or sales transactions. Letting emotions rule our finances is no better than letting our emotions rule our tongues or our fists. It can get us into a lot of trouble and debt!
Money is a dirty word to some people, while it is a god to others. At times, some have considered me to be rich, though only those outside the U.S. would likely say that about me now. My life choices, directed by a loving God, have brought me to a humble lifestyle, where I am far more content and truly happy than when I lived a more worldly and luxurious suburban lifestyle with the large, multistory four bedroom home with a manicured yard and sprinkler system on a cul-de-sac in a neighborhood that included million dollar homes and when I drove a Lexus and a Corvette. That was not the goal in my life and did not bring satisfaction! “Stuff” does not bring lasting happiness to anyone. My goal, which has brought joy and deep happiness, even in what seemed to be difficult circumstances, is peace with God, worshiping Him, and obeying Him. It is my hope that others will be drawn to Him and find the peace “that passeth understanding” and the truly abundant life He offers through belief in His Son, obedience to His Spirit, and Words of Instruction about spiritual, relational, and physical matters. By following God’s ways, we are able to find deep joy and contentment on this earth. It is not in the attainment of money that we find happiness or in its absence that we find sorrow. In fact the love of money opens doors for many problems in our lives. The apostle Paul wrote in his first epistle to Timothy:
“If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness; he is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself. But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment let us be therewith content. But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness.” 1 Timothy 6:3
Now, I am not saying that money in itself is evil. Oh, no! It is the love and obsession over money that leads to evil. When our eyes focus on money and the objects it will buy instead of our God and families, friends, and service to others, then we have derailed. We grasp for what rusts, breaks, decays, and dies instead of what has eternal benefit and provides deep fulfillment. Money is not required to produce a smile or generate laughter. We don’t have to buy a hug. These things have an intrinsic value that cannot be bought. While a purchased object may generate a smile, so can a joke, magic trick, a wink, or tickling. There are often non-monetary options that produce equally, or greater, valued results than what is purchased. Not everything is about money! Money is just a tool, and it is not bad when it is used as a resource rather than the focus of our attention.
When I hear of families having a difficult time managing on an annual income of $250,000 or more, I know there is something wrong, because most American families can get by just fine on a small fraction of this amount! Certainly, our economy is taking a toll and I have sticker shock at the stores myself, but there are too many things considered “necessities” that just are not. What I see is a lack of self discipline and budgeting in the lives of most Americans, just as it has been the case in my own life in the past. I can confidently say this is the problem for most families because of the enormous rate of indebtedness that exists in the U.S. It is astounding! It is not only our government’s indebtedness that has caused our nation’s weak economic situation either. In 2015, the average household credit card debt was over $15,000. Because that is an average, this means that there are many households was far more than $15,000 of credit card debt. That’s crazy! This does not consider the enormous additional debt from mortgages, college loans, car loans, and other types of debt; this is just credit cards. I shudder to think how people can carry so much debt. I shudder to recall how much debt burden I once carried, too.
Proverbs 22:7 tells us: “The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.” Debt is a heavy burden, and the lender may be a tyrant, changing the terms, confiscating property, or even evicting your family from your home. We have all heard of folks losing their homes to mortgage foreclosures. Now, we have also heard of cars, homes, bank accounts, furniture, and personal property being seized by the government because of college loan payment default.
I think that most people have given into the myriad of commercials and messages telling them that they need this item or that to be “acceptable”. Everyone wants to live in a home that looks like a model home, drive a new car, dress in the latest fashions, have their children in the trendy neighborhood or private school, and have the biggest flat screen t.v. on the block. None of that matters! Not any of this makes one bit of difference to who you are and whether you will survive TEOTWAWKI or how God will judge your heart. It doesn’t speak of who your god is either. In fact, the more luxury you have the less likely you are to point to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Sure, Abraham was a wealthy man, but he was also a hospitable and generous man, too. He gave his nephew, Lot, the first choice of the lands and remained very humble. God blessed him in spite of him getting the lesser quality lands. Even though Lot took the better lands and got into trouble, Abraham pleaded with God on Lot’s behalf. In Abraham’s maturity, his business actions spoke volumes about who he was and who his God was, too.
In Part 2 of this series, I will talk about the income portion of your budget, which includes all of the financial resources that comes into the household, and we will talk about expanding it.
Hugh,
Your notice of Kevin Bacon’s birthday reminded me of a movie he was in that many people haven’t seen. Taking Chance is about the voluntary escort of a fallen Marine back to the hometown of the escort and the fallen Marine. It’s a sobering look at the price we pay. – S.G.
A staggering percentage of Americans are too poor to shop – G.G.
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Here We Go Again: An August 2007 Redux
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Is The BIS Setting Up The World For Another Meltdown?
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SurvivalBlog and its editors are not paid investment counselors or advisers. Please see our Provisos page for details.
