Note from JWR:

Today we present another two entries for Round 41 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize: A.) A gift certificate worth $1,000, courtesy of Spec Ops Brand, B.) A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses. (Excluding those restricted for military or government teams.) Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795, and C.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $350 value.) D.) a $300 gift certificate from CJL Enterprize, for any of their military surplus gear, E.) A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $300 value), and F.) A $250 gift certificate from Sunflower Ammo.

Second Prize: A.) A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training. Together, these have a retail value of $589. B.) A FloJak FP-50 stainless steel hand well pump (a $600 value), courtesy of FloJak.com. C.) A “grab bag” of preparedness gear and books from Jim’s Amazing Secret Bunker of Redundant Redundancy (JASBORR) with a retail value of at least $300, D.) A $250 gift card from Emergency Essentials, and E.) two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value) and F.) A Tactical Trauma Bag #3 from JRH Enterprises (a $200 value).

Third Prize: A.) A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21. (This filter system is a $275 value.), B.) A large handmade clothes drying rack, a washboard and a Homesteading for Beginners DVD, all courtesy of The Homestead Store, with a combined value of $206, C.) Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy. This is a $185 retail value, D.) A Commence Fire! emergency stove with three tinder refill kits. (A $160 value.), and E.) Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security.

Round 41 ends on July 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and articles that relate practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

TEOTWAWKI is Now — Prepping Drama Queen Style, by Laura H.

As a theater teacher and director I am primed for drama.  I hunger for it.  But what to do while waiting for the aliens to land, the dollar to collapse, the bombs to start flying, or Yellowstone to have its say?  I have always told my actors, don’t rehearse it, do it.  After all, preparation is important, but performing is better.  Act as if you have an audience now and do it the way you will perform it.   I am new to this “prepping” phenomenon.  It can be an overwhelming, and for some of my friends, an inexplicable thing.  So what can I share that is useful?  For those well into the process, maybe just a confirmation of things they already know and do. For those who are just starting out and wonder what to do first, I would offer the following Drama Queen version of prepping and sustainable living. 

The saying “write what you know” inspired me to use theatrical terms to outline ways I have become more prepared.   My former Navy Corpsman husband and I have made some simple but profound changes in our lifestyle.  While we may not be living the post-apocalyptic dream, we know that current conditions in this world aren’t exactly normal, and they don’t seem to be getting any better.  Crazy weather? Check. Fossil fuel?  On the way out.  Economic stability?  Um, since when?  So, it makes sense to live now the way we may be forced to live later. In a very real sense, The End Of The World As We Know It has already arrived. 

THERE ARE NO SMALL PARTS, ONLY SMALL ACTORS   Maybe you are the sort who feels “unless I can do the whole thing and do it perfectly I don’t want to do it at all.”  Rather like those who say, “unless I am cast as the lead in the play, why bother?”  Remember, like the chorus members on stage, no matter how small your efforts, they make a difference.  Even a simple change will lead to more.  Here are some baby steps for your role as Third Guard From the Left, before you take on your End of the World tour as Hamlet.  There is no limit to ingenuity, so start creating instead of tossing away.

Compost food waste   We used to just throw things out.  Now we sort items into what is recyclable or garbage, and happily compost what’s not eaten or used by us.  Our eco footprint has gone from Godzilla to Cinderella, and in such easy steps.  What’s more, we are creating soil for next year’s healthy garden from this year’s waste. 

Look at your yard with new eyes – Our back yard has a bumper crop of dandelions.  I used to curse them as noxious weeds.  Not anymore.  Why curse something that has the ability to relieve liver disorders, aid the pancreas, maintain bone health, and cure acne? What an awesome plant!  Not a weed.  Not anymore.  And if you don’t fancy the taste, then feed them to your chickens and you will have happy feathered friends and healthy eating eggs. 

Find new uses for common items – One man’s junk is another man’s treasure.  For example, make a sterno burner using tuna cans, cardboard and old candle wax.  Or transform aluminum pop cans into solar heating devices.  

Light up your life   Some call it energy conservation – I call it love light.  Candles are so much more romantic than conventional lighting.  We really enjoy candlelight dinners, and choosing to use electricity less not only saves money, but reminds us of the need to look to other sources for our energy needs.  Remember, TEOTWAWKI is now.  What happens if the power goes out permanently?  You’ll need a lot of candles…so here is a crazy way of extending candlelight – not romantic, but very practical: One tub of Crisco, one candlewick, 45 days of candlelight. 

JOIN A GREAT CAST OF PLAYERS Being a jack of all trades is useful, but exhausting.  Plays have multiple characters for a reason; and it takes the onstage and the backstage crew to succeed.  Being with like-minded people in a community is so much easier than doing it alone.  TEOTWAWKI isn’t a one man or one woman show – this is a huge production.    Here are ways to find cast members for your local production:

Join a community garden – Take 30 strangers, put them in a room and tell them to start planning a garden.   I thought it would be more like our current political process –a lot of talk, not a lot of progress.  Wrong.  We planned, we plotted, we laughed, and disagreed, and then kept working to make things right.  A perfect example of what can work in the democratic process as well as a wonderful way to learn more about gardening.  We know and grow with a variety of people; some are experienced gardeners, others are beginners who kill off their first three tries at tomatoes.   We also have refugee families who are starting new lives and have knowledge to share.   Find a local group of your own – there are opportunities everywhere.

Get to know your neighbors – That crazy guy down the street?  The charming lady across the way?  They may be the ones who help you most if the fertilizer hits the fan.  Also, a group of watchful neighbors are less likely to fall victim to mob mentality, and it is far better to know who is right next door in a catastrophe. 

Make friends with those who work or shop at places that give you knowledge and help  When you find an excellent source  of products for your home, your garden, or anything else,  chances are the people who shop or work there are just as valuable as the items purchased, often even more so.   We have learned from others’ mistakes without having to make them.   When in doubt, ask.  Better to look stupid now, than stupid later.  Wish we’d thought of that before we tried storing potatoes in a freezing cold shed….

DON’T JUST STUDY THE SCRIPT – GET MEMORIZED   Old school knowledge is out there – and Google won’t be around in a catastrophe, so having written as well as practical knowledge is critical. Here are some remarkably useful scripts for your prepping role:

 Making It: Radical Home Ec for a Post-Consumer World by Kelly Coyne & Eric Knutzen. If the authors can do what they do on a 1/12th of an acre plot in the heart of Los Angeles, what’s your excuse?  Want to make your own soap?  Transform your backyard into a haven of healthy foods?  From the minuscule to the mighty, Making It takes you from easy day to day projects to yearly concepts that will free you from manufactured dependency.  The ultimate guide for a homemade life.  We’ve made our own tooth paste, soaps, and conditioner. We’ve brewed beer, made wine from our grapes, and are looking for more and more ways to produce instead of consume.

 The Original King Arthur Flour Cookbook The Holy Grail of Cookbooks.  I kid you not.  King Arthur and his knights would have gone on a quest for this one and come back to happy castles.  Over 600 pages of recipes – and just with flour. Breads, cakes, cookies, biscuits, muffins, scones, etc, etc, etc,.  But the value in this book is far beyond the fantastic recipes.  There is history, and not just 40 years ago history, but the history of hundreds of years of working with glorious grain.  There are fascinating stories about why the recipes came about and what to do to amend them to make them your own.  I learned more about breads and cooking with this one book than any other.  Now I can make Braveheart-worthy scones, our whole wheat banana bread begs bananas to go brown, and the list of deliciousness goes on and on…   By the way, the company is as cool as their compilation.  Top quality healthy flour for over 200 years, King Arthur Flour is a company our country can be proud of.  www.kingarthurflour.com 

The Vegetable Gardener’s Bible by Edward C Smith   My husband and I both come from families that garden – but we hadn’t planted anything since we were kids.  It was daunting to start our garden last year out of the tangled mess of weeds that was the back yard.  We planted peas too late and corn in bad soil.  But the things that worked were amazing.  All summer and into the fall we had the joy of harvesting beans, lettuce, cabbage, tomatoes and potatoes that were all our own.  Every time we wondered anything about any type of veggie we grabbed the Bible.  And it came to pass that our vegetables grew.  And lo, they were delicious to the taste, and were very plentiful.  And we looked upon our garden and said, yea verily, this is heaven!

Crisis Preparedness Handbook: A Comprehensive Guide to Home Storage and Physical Survival by Jack A. Spigarelli Where to start with food storage? This book has lists for what you need and instructions on what to do with your stockpile written in a practical and understandable way.  It details not only crisis options but day to day food production and preservation tips. We now have our year’s worth of food storage, which came together bit by bit, rather like learning lines for Shakespeare.  You don’t get it all in one sitting, just take it one line at a time.  Another package of sugar here, extra case of beans there, and then one day – ta-da!  Food storage.
                 
TRUST THE DIRECTOR   Many a great actor has butted heads with their director.  It always ends the same.  The Director wins.  This wonderful planet, our Mother and Home, has a plan.  We can fight it, or we can go with the flow.  Evolution and Nature are far more resilient than even the most stubborn human, so learn from the Director.  Watch how She does it.  After all, She’s been at this a lot longer than we have. Lessons in what can be done are all around us.  Can you grow citrus in the Austrian Alps?  Trick question?  The answer is yes, if you are Sepp Holzer.  He learned how to mimic nature’s ability to create micro-climates with ponds, trees, rocks, and plant diversity.  He has proven beyond a doubt that there is no limit to what you can grow if you understand how Mother Nature works.   For the amazing details read Sepp Holzer’s Permaculture: A Practical Guide to Small-Scale, Integrative Farming and Gardening.

BE A METHOD ACTOR – LIVE THE ROLE Gandhi said it best, “Be the change you want to see in the world.”  The first part of being the change is changing yourself first.  Do you despise Monsanto’s and other big corporations and their world-ignorant practices? Then live a clean life and do not give them your time or money.  Inform others.  Stand up for what you believe and do not give in to the opinion or even the mockery of friends.    The Ant prepared for winter all summer long despite what the Grasshopper said about “take it easy” and “why work so hard?”  The world has changed.  We are the change.  

VOTE – You have a voice, and maybe you feel like the littlest Who in Whoville on a political dust mote of individual unimportance, but say something.  Do something.  Others will add their voice to yours and what was just one “No!” will soon resound worldwide. 

PUT YOUR MONEY WHERE YOUR HEART IS – Is it important to you?  Get behind it with support.  Is it appalling and wrong?  Don’t add your money to it.  Don’t buy things that hurt others in the process of production.  We have options, and the sooner we spend the way we truly feel the better those options will become.

JUST BECAUSE THEY SAY IT DOESN’T MEAN IT’S SO – FDA approved…hmmmm.  Why would the government let us eat/drink/take things into our bodies that are harmful?  Why would anyone knowingly let a product out on the market that is known to cause cancer or other drastic side effects?  Sorry, Pollyanna, it’s not the sunshiny world it should be.  The hard truth is your lack of health makes you a cash cow that is part of a trillion dollar industry of disease and distress.  But not anymore.  Not if you are willing to read labels, stand up for preventive health measures, and become an informed consumer.  If it says “High Fructose” we put it back on the shelf.  We have learned more than we wanted to know about what is in processed foods.  We are picky eaters now, but so much healthier.

TIME FOR DRESS REHEARSAL    When our second refrigerator in the garage died, we had a crash course in what happens with no power.  The food within was instantly “use it or lose it.”  We saved some, lost some.  So, we are now in a more active dress rehearsal mode.  My man frequently asks the question, “If today we found ourselves in a major crisis, what would we most regret NOT doing?”  We work on that answer first.  Recent endeavors include: Honey, I Can’t Make it Home Day using GMRS hand held radios, Little House on the Prairie Day with no electricity, and All Shook Up earthquake prep day.  Dress rehearsal is a great way to find out what works and what doesn’t, and who is up for performance, and who needs a bit more stage time…

AS THE FINAL CURTAIN GOES UP…  The Greatest Performer this world has ever known lived His part perfectly:  “Love thy Neighbor As Thyself.” Imagine a world of loving, caring, planet-conscious humans whose role it is to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and care for those in need.  More than just mankind caring for our own, imagine finally understanding that being one means every living organism, from the smallest microbe in the dirt, to the molecules of air, the vast oceans of water, and every form of plant and animal life.  Everything should be protected and esteemed by us as caretakers of this beautiful Earth. 

Start with the understanding of One Home.  Take care of every needful thing for you and your family and then help others to do the same.  Eventually you will come to understand that we truly are one world.  One family.  Why classify by color, race, country or creed?  They are only the costumes we wear for this particular performance, and as Will Shakespeare, another great performer said, “All the world’s a stage and all the men and women merely players: They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts.”  The part you have been cast in is a critical one.  You were born to play it.  So act your part with pride, fellow Preppers.  TEOTWAWKI is now.

Weapons-Based Martial Arts for Survival, by Bladefighter

In survival situations, men use tools to get an edge over their opponents. If a man has a pistol, you want a rifle; if a man has a knife, you want a pistol and so on and so forth. Firearms are not very useful without training and the same can be said about bladed weapons such as knives and swords.

Eventually guns do run out of bullets or malfunction and you might find yourself in survival situations with only a knife or a machete. Things that can go wrong in survival scenarios seem to go wrong. You may be separated from your guns for some reason.  Training to fight with a knife or sword only makes sense, because the normal order of effectiveness starting at the top would be rifle, pistol, sword, knife, stick, empty hands. Fighting without weapons using only your feet and hands is dead last, no pun intended.

Instead of spending your time learning an empty handed martial art, I am going to recommend studying a martial art that starts immediately with weapons, including swords and knives but which also includes impact weapons such as sticks and canes as well as empty handed techniques as part of a complete system. For that we look to the Philippines– not because they are the only ones to learn to fight with bladed weapons- which they are not,  but because they kept the martial art true to its roots instead of turning it into a sport or spiritual quest.

The Philippines are made up of thousands of small islands. Waves and waves of invaders have come to these islands, from the island next door and from as far away as Spain, Japan and the United States. The local villages learned how to protect themselves with practical martial arts that started right away with weapons. They were interested in survival and defending the village and not on spiritual pursuits, discipline or sporting contests. They also decided some legal disputes with duels. Their way of fighting didn’t have room for things that didn’t work and were not for sporting games.

The Filipino art of Pekiti-Tirsia-Kali begins with weapons and ends in empty hands. This is the exact opposite of most other arts as taught in modern times.

Weapons categories in the traditional art are:
stick, sword, knife, spear, flexible weapons and empty hands. There are also variations or combinations… double weapons, or even a pairing of long weapon and short weapon, such as sword and knife.

Contrary to popular belief, and silly statements such as “don’t bring a knife to a gunfight”, bladed weapons in the hands of a trained person can beat firearms. Consider that the gun is a longer range weapon. Once a person is close, a knife cannot be grabbed and disabled like a gun can. While a gun pokes a hole in you and the effectiveness depends on the bullet and where it is placed, a sword or machete can remove arms, legs and heads. If you have your head down into your 8x scope on your bolt action rifle and someone sneaks up behind you with a knife  that knows how to use it, the “don’t bring a knife to a gunfight” comment will be seen as sick joke to you. A long range weapon is most effective at long range… a short range weapon has an advantage at close range. Firearms in general are longer range weapons, knives and swords are close range weapons. Either one can win depending on the range you find yourself in.

Two primary reasons to study bladed arts are 1.) to gain the ability to use bladed weapons when firearms are not available or would make unwanted noise 2.) the knowledge of the capabilities of bladed weapons if you are fighting someone using them.

Many gun owners seem to think that their gun is a magic wand and that someone with a bladed weapon is not their equal in the least. This is incorrect as it depends on the range. If you gut shoot someone and they cut off your gun arm at the wrist, then who won? Will your bullet stop a knife in the middle of being swung full force at your neck? Do you really think you will always have a gun and that you will never be the victim of a surprise attack at close range?

You must know your enemy and their capabilities in order to defeat them. Do not underestimate bladed weapons.

Many police officers die every year because of bladed weapons and they are all carrying guns. It has been said that the .45 automatic was created because a .38 special revolver couldn’t stop a charging Philippino with a machete or sword. Look up the “21 foot rule” to find out more what police officers have found regarding the danger bladed weapons pose to gun-carrying officers.

Training in Pekiti-Tirsia-Kali begins with the stick immediately. Though some filipino systems seem to be focused on the stick, a bladed system would also be using the stick but primarily as a training tool and less as a primary weapon. The stick is similar to a sword but without the potential tragic blunders a new student can make; It makes training safer. It also magnifies all the movements for the instructor which become much harder to visually recognize when moving to knives or empty hands. Additionally, the stick being swung and manipulated develops the body mechanics needed for all weapons categories and even empty hand strikes.

A stick can be used as a weapon, but if you train for using the sword, most of the techniques also work with the stick, which can’t be said works in reverse. Stick based techniques don’t transfer as well to bladed weapons. Watch for instructors who grab the stick right where the sharp part of the sword is- you don’t want to learn techniques that are overly focused on the stick.

The basic movements used with the stick in training are the same movements that will be used with all weapons. For example, two common strikes come down on a 45 degree angle from between the head and the shoulder of the person holding the stick. These strikes would be used to hit the clavicle if using a stick, the neck if using a sword, the neck if using a knife and the ear if using your empty and open hands. The base of the stick as a training tool represents the knife held in a downward position and the top of the stick a sword or knife held in the upward position. So when training with a stick properly you are practicing the movements of all weapons categories.

Most techniques done with a long weapon are done exactly the same or only slightly differently with different weapons categories, including empty hands. This is evidence of a system. The whole of the system is greater than the sum of its parts. You have the same responses and movements regardless of the weapon you happen to be holding in your hands. This system can take you far beyond what empty hand only systems can give you.

The problem with most martial arts is that they have lost touch with their weapons based origins or applications. There is a huge gap between firearms training and empty hands that most have neglected and that is bladed and impact weapons training. Would you rather go at a threat with a fist after your gun jams or runs out of ammo, or would you prefer pulling out a sword or knife and continue the fight with that?

Most traditional arts developed their techniques with weapons. Aikido was developed by a swordsman. Thai kickboxing came from an earlier art that included the use of swords. When I look at karate, I can see and explain the weapons based origins of what they are doing. Jiu Jitsu is what the samurai did when they lost or broke their sword. Judo was derived from Jiu Jitsu after taking out some of the more dangerous moves. After all, when you turn a martial art into a sport you don’t want injuries. Wing chun has the double short swords. Wrestling moves can be found in the old western swordfighting books, doing takedown and throws with swords in hand. Most empty hand martial arts originally came from weapons based systems.

When you lived or died and the army was defeated or victorious based on the use of bladed weapons, people spent a lot of time and energy to make the techniques and systems work. If your weapons skills were not good, you didn’t come back.

The mixed martial arts scene is late to the party and have a sports or fair fight mentality. These modern folks who think that the people who lived or died through years of battle based on their skills didn’t have a clue what they were doing need to know they are making a big mistake. Just because something is popular in the martial arts magazines or TV doesn’t mean it will serve you well in a TEOTWAWKI scenario.

Most mixed martial artists or “newly invented” martial arts or self defense systems focus a lot on empty hand techniques. If you are fighting for survival and are using nothing but your hands or feet, you have screwed up several times or are just not that smart. The most highly praised martial arts are highly praised since many of their tests of what martial arts work and which ones don’t work are based on two men getting into a padded ring with no weapons and plenty of rules of what you can and cannot do.  The reality of combat is multiple opponents with weapons and no rules.

Boxing, thai kickboxing, karate, and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu are focused primarily on you not having a weapon. This is not a recipe for survival. Quite frequently some of these empty hand martial artists get in fights with people who have knives. The most frequent comment is that they never saw the knife. They are not trained to deal with knives and are trained to think of kicks, punches and takedowns. They get cut and stabbed.

Mixed martial arts are also not a system… they are collections of techniques from other traditional arts, after they had been turned into sports. If you borrow from boxing, wrestling, fencing, thai kickboxing, judo, these all had traditional roots but were turned into sports already.

Fencing is another example. Fencing surely evolved from techniques used in real life or death combat, but was slowly changed into a sport. In sports, they do many things to prevent injuries. Modern fencing has little to do with the sword arts that could be used in a real knock down drag out fight. I am not saying fencers are not deadly or for that matter that a wrestler can’t pick you up and put your head into the concrete. I am saying that those arts have been changed to focus on something other than fighting for survival.

Many traditional arts through the years lost their roots with weapons. Some of the traditional arts will teach you weapons, but only after years and years of empty hand training.

We don’t send soldiers into battle without weapons. We don’t send police to the streets without weapons. Training in empty hand arts is for bar fights, television shows and the playground.

I also like the comment attributed to Einstein- “I don’t know the weapons that will be used in world war three, but world war four will be fought with sticks and stones.”

Learning a bladed martial art with give you the ability to fill in the gap between fighting with a gun and fighting with your bare hands. It will also give you a better idea of the threat that someone with bladed weapons poses to you and also the techniques of how to protect yourself from attacks with bladed or impact weapons. A bladed weapon makes a great backup for your firearms.

Letter Re: Another Way to Protect Your Retreat, by E. E.

Hello,
E.E.’s primary problem was not the insurance. It’s the design flaw and negligence that allows the small glitch to evolve to the full-scale catastrophe.

Every trouble that can occur occurs. Every trouble that cannot occur occurs too.

Firstly, the furnaces may fail – it’s quite normal. I have no idea about their model but I believe they should have and so have some security automation that stopped them due to some problem (electricity?), or the fuel supply failed. The first task to design should be “The stopped furnaces should not self-destruct”. How should it be done? I see at least 2 ways: either use the glycol or find some automatic valves that dump the system in emergency to the safe place.

Then, you have two furnaces. They do not heat the same area. Instead one of them heats basement and the other one heats the second floor. There is no chance that the operating furnace can heat the failed one and prevent it’s destruction.

I believe that both furnaces have a common fuel and electricity supply (a redundant propane tank and proper UPS is too costly.) Any supply problem stops them both.

Then, I think, the house has the grid power (see below). If so, the emergency electric heaters should keep the temperature at least in critical areas at least above zero.

Then let us imagine that the worst occurred. Both furnaces failed, and pipes burst. Some hundred liters of water flew to your basement. Not a big trouble. But
Water exploded out of the second floor bathroom at an alarming rate, for most of a week.

It means that either you have either a communal water supply or local electric water pump. Since the grid power is simpler to obtain I believe that you have electricity. So either your water pump has not been duly stopped before departure or your intake valve in your basement has not been duly closed (And possibly not duly heated and having no way to dump water when the valve fails). It’s not your design flaw. It’s negligence. You believed that your furnaces are reliable and you need not close the water supply. They weren’t.

And the last. Both the automatic valves that feel leaks and insulate them and the GSM controllers that can inform owners about troubles exist and can be bought and installed. But they are your last line of defense against the trouble that should not happen. – Thor A.

Economics and Investing:

A reader in Wyoming wrote to ask about topping off the gas, diesel and propane tanks at his ranch. My advice: Wait until late September. I expect unleaded gasoline to be at or below $3.00per gallon by then.

QE3, by any other name: Fed Extends Twist, Signals Concerns

Commentary by Michael Casey: Let’s be frank, the Euro’s days are numbered. (Thanks to Joseph G. for the link.)

Karl Denninger: It Didn’t Work (Again)

The downgrades keep coming: 15 Major Investment Banks See Ratings Cut by Moody’s. (A hat tip to Diana V. for the link.)

Items from The Economatrix:

US Economy, Market Now Facing A Monetary Cliff

Wall Street Claws Back After Sharp Decline

Moody’s Downgrades Gives Edge To Safe Haven Banks

Odds ‘n Sods:

Michael Z. Williamson (SurvivalBlog’s Editor at Large) sent a link to a useful “Thumb Saver” device for M1 Garand owners.

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Also from Mike: 5.56 vs .223 – What You Know May Be Wrong

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Yet another expo: Doomsday-Learn-Prepare-Survive Convention and Expo at the Cal-Neva Hotel and Casino, near Reno, Nevada, June 28-30, 2012. (Thanks to Robert S. for the heads-up.)

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AmEx sent this: Deadly Bird Flu May Be Five Steps From Pandemic Potential

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Don’t Drink The Water: Study Warns Drinking From Garden Hose

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“But where shall wisdom be found? and where [is] the place of understanding?
Man knoweth not the price thereof; neither is it found in the land of the living.
The depth saith, It [is] not in me: and the sea saith, [It is] not with me.
It cannot be gotten for gold, neither shall silver be weighed [for] the price thereof.
It cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx, or the sapphire.
The gold and the crystal cannot equal it: and the exchange of it [shall not be for] jewels of fine gold.
No mention shall be made of coral, or of pearls: for the price of wisdom [is] above rubies.
The topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal it, neither shall it be valued with pure gold.
Whence then cometh wisdom? and where [is] the place of understanding?
Seeing it is hid from the eyes of all living, and kept close from the fowls of the air. d
Destruction and death say, We have heard the fame thereof with our ears.
God understandeth the way thereof, and he knoweth the place thereof.
For he looketh to the ends of the earth, [and] seeth under the whole heaven;
To make the weight for the winds; and he weigheth the waters by measure.
When he made a decree for the rain, and a way for the lightning of the thunder:
Then did he see it, and declare it; he prepared it, yea, and searched it out.
And unto man he said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that [is] wisdom; and to depart from evil [is] understanding.” – Job 28:12-28 (KJV)

Note from JWR:

Today we present another two entries for Round 41 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize: A.) A gift certificate worth $1,000, courtesy of Spec Ops Brand, B.) A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses. (Excluding those restricted for military or government teams.) Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795, and C.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $350 value.) D.) a $300 gift certificate from CJL Enterprize, for any of their military surplus gear, E.) A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $300 value), and F.) A $250 gift certificate from Sunflower Ammo.

Second Prize: A.) A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training. Together, these have a retail value of $589. B.) A FloJak FP-50 stainless steel hand well pump (a $600 value), courtesy of FloJak.com. C.) A “grab bag” of preparedness gear and books from Jim’s Amazing Secret Bunker of Redundant Redundancy (JASBORR) with a retail value of at least $300, D.) A $250 gift card from Emergency Essentials, and E.) two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value) and F.) A Tactical Trauma Bag #3 from JRH Enterprises (a $200 value).

Third Prize: A.) A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21. (This filter system is a $275 value.), B.) A large handmade clothes drying rack, a washboard and a Homesteading for Beginners DVD, all courtesy of The Homestead Store, with a combined value of $206, C.) Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy. This is a $185 retail value, D.) A Commence Fire! emergency stove with three tinder refill kits. (A $160 value.), and E.) Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security.

Round 41 ends on July 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and articles that relate practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

Making Ham Radio Simple for the Survivalist, by Alan M.

Why Ham Radio?
The first question is why ham radio? What is the allure for the survivalist? When you pick up your home phone, there is a lot of equipment between your home and the person you are talking to: miles of wires, computers, power from the grid, etc. You have no control over this equipment. Cell phones are also very dependent upon expensive, complex equipment. The internet is even more vulnerable and interdependent on numerous systems.
Will these be around in a worst case scenario? How will you communicate or receive information over  long distances? Will traveling to gather information be safe? Will contact with other people be healthy and safe? Will you rely on information you might get from AM, FM, or other organized news broadcasts? These sources will probably not have power for very long, will rely on employees actually showing up for work, their locations are well known and therefore may have questionable security, and such sources are prone for takeover for propaganda and misinformation purposes during trying times.

I was living in Southern California in 2003, and almost lost my home to the Paradise Fire. Most of the local firefighters had gone north to help with other fires before our local fire started, so we were almost completely on our own. Both cell phones and land lines went down very early in the game. Not long after this experience, I got my technician license, to be able to communicate locally on Ham Radio. I became involved with a local group of hams, and helped organized a communications net.

Ham radio is one person with a radio and an antenna, talking to another person across the street or on the other side of the world, who has a radio and an antenna, with no other equipment between them – just air!
You may also find that many (if not most) hams will have political, social, and moral views quite similar to your own. Ham radio may very well be an avenue to put you in contact with a vast network of intelligent, helpful, service oriented, resourceful people that might be of great help to you in a TEOTWAWKI situation, or even in other less drastic scenarios.

How Will You Power Your Radio When TSHTF?
Many hams already have their equipment off the grid, using power sources as simple as a car battery and a small solar panel. If TEOTWAWKI happens, there will be a plentiful supply of good batteries available, as cars will quickly run out of fuel, but their batteries will be useful for much longer.

RVs and boats won’t be of much value to most, but will have very useful deep cycle batteries. If you don’t have access to a photovoltaic panel, with a little ingenuity, an alternator and an old bike, (or even a lawnmower engine and a small supply of gas) you can make a charger for your battery and get some exercise at the same time. There are many YouTube videos on the topic. If you are charging a battery that is not completely drained, you will not need a permanent magnetic alternator. Many car alternators will work, preferably one with an internal voltage regulator.

How Technically Complicated is it?
How complicated is ham radio? Well, the answer is that it can be very technical, and even if you are a genius, you could spend a life-time delving into it, and still not know everything there is to know about sending and receiving radio signals, designing and building  antennas, radios, amplifiers, etc. However, Ham radio can be greatly simplified. Metal resonates (vibrates), and different lengths of metal resonate at different frequencies. This is the essence of ham radio: it is about hooking up a piece of metal to a receiver or transceiver that resonates at the frequency you want to listen to or communicate on.

A good question is how much do you need to know? Your home is quite complicated. There is a lot of math that went into designing the shear panels in your walls so that they don’t fall over in a strong wind. A structural engineer designed your trusses so they can hold up your roof. An electrical engineer designed your power panel, the amperage of the breakers, sized the wire to each of your appliances, etc. Do you need to know this math in order to live in your home? Most people don’t, they just walk into their homes and turn on their appliances and appreciate that they work, and that their house doesn’t fall down.
You all have seen the 150’ towers with alien spaceship looking antennas on top of them. Those hams have taken a lot of time and spent a lot of money making their antennas and transmission systems as efficient as possible, and are talking around the world, often with just 5 watts or even less. Will that ability be important in a survival situation? Probably  not. In fact, I’ll bet  the last thing you will want is a tall tower with a beam antenna being turned around with a rotor. Not the best OPSEC.

Antennas can be Simple, Quick, and Cheap
I was on vacation at Lake Powell, Utah several weeks ago. I took a beam antenna that I had built the week before for about $100. It was designed to resonate at 14.250 MHz (the “20 meter” band is 14.000 MHz to 14.350 MHz, and is capable of world-wide communications). I used a 24’ mast made up of 4’ army surplus fiberglass poles ($1.00 each on eBay + shipping!). I had numerous conversations the first evening across the US. Unfortunately, the wind blew very strong the next day, and one of the plastic connectors between two of the poles snapped, and my antenna went down. It needed several hours of repairs before I could use it again, but I wanted to get “on the air” again that same evening.

I went into the hold of our houseboat, to see what I could use to make an alternate antenna. There are about 20 owners on the boat, so you never know what there might be down there. I found a piece of ½” x 10’ electrical conduit, an aluminum plate 1/8” x 6” x 20”, and 3 sets of jumper cables. I had a 4th set in my ski boat. Here is how I made my “free,” 15 minute antenna:

  1. I screwed a 6’ 5” wire to the bottom of the electrical conduit (I cut this from #12 wire I had brought with me to ground my radio)
  2. I then lashed the conduit to 2 sections of my fiberglass pipe, so the top was 16’, 5” off the ground.
  3. I used 3 lengths of ¼” nylon rope tied off to 3 metal stakes to hold the antenna vertical.
  4. I connected the wire from the conduit to a coax connector (an so-239 from radio shack – about $4) I robbed from my broken antenna.
  5. I grounded the coax connector to the aluminum plate with a small 3” piece of #12 wire and a self-tapping screw.
  6. I clamped the jumper cables to the plate, and ran them straight out from the plate on the ground, like an x with the plate at the center.
  7. I connected the other end of the coax cable to my transceiver.

I was able to make three contacts, one in California, one in Oregon, and one in Texas that evening using 100 watts, about the same amount of energy it takes to power one bulb in a light fixture. I was able to listen all over north and south America. This was a crude, inefficient, (but yet effective enough) vertical antenna. I knew I wasn’t going to talk to Russia or China, but I was able to communicate for hundreds of miles. For what survivalists may want, close enough will often be good enough.
You can make a simple antenna with almost anything. The wire in an extension cord would work. A piece of pipe (steel, copper, aluminum, it doesn’t matter), bailing wire, an old tape measure, etc. You could probably make dozens of simple antennas with just the exposed wire in your attic after the grid goes down. What else will you use it for?

Do You Have Space for an Antenna?
Can’t have an antenna in your HOA-ruled community? There are numerous antennas you can make with a wire suspended inside your attic. Live in an apartment and don’t have an attic or a yard? You would probably be surprised by what you can listen to by running a wire around the walls of your bedroom near the ceiling, and attaching it to your transceiver.  

Don’t have an aluminum plate to connect your ground radials? Use a metal trashcan lid, smash a beer can, use the wheel from your broken wheelbarrow. Or just use a wire nut to connect the ground radials to your coax. You don’t need a ground  plate, it just made it easy for me to clamp the jumper cables together.

Want stealth? Run the vertical wire up a tree. Several months ago I was at a Mountain Man Rendezvous. My buddy and I slung a 43’ wire up into a pine tree with a rock and a nylon string, used 2 – 100’ rolls of 3’ welded wire fencing laid on the ground in a big x (same function as the jumper cables), connected the vertical wire to the center post of a SO-239 connector, and the fencing to the ground portion of the connector with a short wire, and with my antenna tuner, were able to communicate with many hams on numerous bands.

Don’t Like Math?
The formula for the length of a ¼ wave vertical antenna (what we have been discussing here) is:
Length = 234/ Frequency in MHz
Don’t want to do the math? Thousands of geeks have already done it for you! Just google “wire antenna lengths for ham radio,” and you will find many links. For a 20 meter antenna, cut your wires 16’ 5” for your vertical and for your ground radials – at least 5, more is better (4 sets of jumper cables is actually 8 radials). The length for 40 meters is about 32’ 8”. Etc.
To get your antenna as efficient as possible, you would need an antenna analyzer, make your antenna a little longer than suggested, and tune it by cutting off smalls lengths until it resonates at precisely the frequency you are targeting. You could lay out 100 or more radials. The proximity of your house, other metal objects, the type of soil you have, the topography of your location, etc, will all affect your antenna. Is this important for a survivalist? Probably not, as perfection is not the goal. You will most likely be more interested in what is happening 1000 miles or 500 miles or 100 miles away. A simple, un-tuned wire antenna will more than easily allow you to communicate those distances. Such an antenna is very easy to hide, and is very easy to construct.

Getting Started
So where do you start? If you don’t want to transmit, you don’t need a license. Buy a radio, and build a few antennas. There are thousands of plans for simple wire antennas online. There may be reasons that you would not want to transmit. For example, transmissions can be triangulated quite easily. In ham radio, that is called a fox hunt, and 5 year olds do it with regularity. If you are just listening, no one will know it. Also, you can transmit without a license if someone with a license is with you, as long as they identify themselves with their call sign. This means that maybe only a few in your group will need a license. Also, in a TEOTWAWKI scenario, I doubt many people will be overly concerned with licenses.

I am using a Kenwood TS 590. It is a bit expensive, but I like some of the bells and whistles. It cost about $1,600, and will transmit from 6 meters to 160 meters. The Yaesu 957 is about half as big, cost half as much, uses less energy, and will transmit down to 2 meters. A hamfest is like a ham radio swap meet, and you can get some very good deals on high quality equipment. Contact a local radio club or just google hamfest.
If you want a license, it really is quite easy. You can contact your local ham club (simple to google – they make themselves easy to find), and attend a class. You probably will go to 4 or more classes at a local fire station, school, church, etc.

For some, an easier way is to go online and just start taking practice tests. All the questions and answers are online. EHam.net is a great site. The questions are multiple choice, and you only have to get about 75% correct. You will get 25% correct just by guessing! Many will say that this method will not teach you much, and they are probably correct. However, I am not one to go to a lot of classes to get a ton of information I may or may not need. I prefer to search out specific information that helps me with a project of my choosing.

I spent four evenings in a row (a Sunday to Wednesday) taking tests online for my general license, and passed it with over 90% the next Saturday. As I recall, it cost $10 for a 10 year license. I had seen all of the questions and answers multiple times when I took the exam. I knew I would learn on my own by doing, on an as-needed basis, after getting my license. I am not an electrical engineer, and I have never had an electronics class or even an electronics kit.

So ham radio can be as simple or as complicated as you want it to be. You can spend a ton of money building a system that will talk to Australia using about as much power as an LED flashlight, or you can build “good enough” antennas quickly out of junk laying around your back yard, and you can do it in a way that no one will even know that you are doing it.
By my way of thinking, information can be invaluable in stressful times, and you need to be able to trust the source of the intelligence you are receiving. Not only do I find the hobby fun and interesting, and filled with fascinating people that think a lot the way I do, I believe that ham radio will be one of the safest means of gathering intelligence, and one of the most reliable forms of long distance communications and information gathering should TSHTF.

Another Way to Protect Your Retreat, by E. E.

I am sorry. This article is not about debating the best calibers for your main battle rifle or dehydrating meat. It is not even a topic most people consider suitable for dinner conversation. It is not about any topic that I have seen on this blog, but it is crucial if you have a retreat property and want to protect it.

You see, about six months in December 2011 ago it got very cold here in our rectangular state. Close to zero actually. But first, let’s go back another six months to May of 2011. While on the road traveling to a Midwestern state to visit family, we decided to check the local area to see if there was any property for sale.

I am sorry again. We need to go back to the summer of 2009. We were on the road to meet some friends of ours at a lake cabin. Our three boys were looking forward to spending some time with their friends swimming and jet skiing. Long story short, our car broke down on the freeway. White smoke. Puddle of transmission fluid. Heavy duty wrecker. Transmission destroyed. A familiar story. He brought us back to a small town off the Interstate. This was the Fourth of July weekend and this particular little town still had a celebration for that. While the technicians at the garage looked at our car after hours, the rest of the town was at the parade. They test drove it. To their amazement it ran, adequately. Since it was a holiday weekend and towing it back to the dealership didn’t quite work out the way we had hoped, their advice was to drive it back to town, slowly, and carefully. Okay. Well, we had to eat first. The little diner they recommended a “very small town” local cafe. We ordered. We ate. The owner asked what brought us here and we told us pathetic story. The waiter bought our dinner. We cried. We fell in love with this tiny little town just off the Interstate.

Fast forward back to May 2011. When we looked to see if there was any property for sale, we found one. And only one. It was a log home on 35 acres about 30 miles from the middle of nowhere. After looking in the big metro area of our rectangular state for such a property, we expected the price to be well north of a million dollars. It wasn’t, it was less. Much less. Enough less that we could cash out our retirement plans and buy the thing outright. Just a note here. We always seek the Lord’s advice on these matters. Actually every decision we make we ask the Lord first, but that’s another, much longer article. We made an offer on the property. They countered. We countered back. We did that a couple of times and finally made a deal. Actually, it was every nickel we could scrape together. We even took out a home equity loan as we could not get a mortgage on the property because there were comparable properties for 100 miles around and no bank would underwrite the loan despite our very above average credit. After buying it, we bailed out of work each Friday and spent the weekend at our new retreat.

Sorry to keep jumping around in the timeline, and sorry for having to keep apologizing. Back to December 2011 and the very cold winter: The log home had two furnaces. We always set them to about 60 degrees when we weren’t there to avoid any problems. We had a problem. Actually two problems. The furnace in the basement failed. And the furnace up on the second floor failed. This led to problems three through ninety-nine. Without heat, the pipes froze. Freezing pipes burst. Water exploded out of the second floor bathroom at an alarming rate, for most of a week. Part of the second floor was now on the main level, while most of the main level was in the basement. Upon arrival, we cried again.

Up until now, I really have not told you what the topic of this article is: Insurance. I now realize the importance of insurance and it relationship to a retreat property. There are a two main types of insurance. The most common, by far, is called “home owner’s insurance” and goes by several different brandings by different insurance companies. Most of these policies fall into a couple different categories, such as HO-3 for your typical policy. There is also an HO-5, which is more of a deluxe version typically for newer homes. These policies typically cover “all perils” except those specifically excluded. The other broad type of insurance is termed “Dwelling Policy.” There are various flavors of that type of policy, but typically the policies covered “named perils” only. That is, only the causal events named in the policy are covered. These policies are typically written for seasonal, vacation or rental properties. They are also written for retreat properties when the agent is not familiar with the intended purpose of the property, is negligent, or even deceitful in quoting an inadequate policy at a low rate in order to get your business.

By now, you have probably realized that we had a Dwelling Policy. If I were a betting man, I would also wager that the more intuitive are also coming to the conclusion that Dwelling Policies do not cover pipes bursting and the ensuing water damage they cause.

It actually took about a week and half before the reality set in that we had substantial damage to our retreat that was not being covered by insurance. The bill for the water extraction and drying alone was more than $16,000. We had little savings left, but had a little more room on our home equity loan which was depleted within the first month of repairs.

This is when the Lord spoke to us again. He told us that we were not treated fairly when the policy was written and to inquire with our state’s regulatory agency that oversaw the insurance industry. We were obedient. We fought. We documented. We wrote letters, lots of letters. We sent photos. We made statements of what was told to us by our insurance agent.

Now here is something that a lot of people do not know. Most service professionals, such as insurance agents, have insurance that covers them in the event that they make a professional mistake. This is called “errors and omissions” insurance. With a bit of divine-inspired digging, we found the underwriters of our agent’s “errors and omissions” insurance and put in a claim. We plead our case. They resisted. We pleaded with the regulatory agency. They wrote letters on our behalf. We pleaded some more. The insurance made a low settlement offer. We pleaded. They sent an adjuster out to estimate the damage. They made another low offer. We pleaded yet again. After six months of negotiation, we settled. It was much more than they originally offered, but not as much as we wanted. But it was close to what we needed.

Another useful term to know is “tax deduction for an uninsured casualty loss.” We were fortunate in that our retreat property was also a working ranch. This qualified us to receive a tax deduction for the portion of the loss that was not covered by insurance. Remember way up near the beginning of this article the part about cashing out our retirement plans? Well that, as one would expect, resulted in what the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) calls a taxable event. Not only that, it seems there are substantial penalties for accessing your own money before the IRS determines that it is the proper time to do so. This uninsured casualty loss deduction nearly balanced out the taxes and penalties assessed for accessing our money. It is inconvenient, but I would rather pay a construction worker to help repair the damage than have the money taken for redistribution by those above my pay grade.

As of today, we are almost free from debt again. There is a lot of work left to do to restore the retreat property to a condition, not just as it was, but Lord willing, better; the we He seems to want it. My family has moved out to the ranch full time and the boys are enrolled in the local school. I am able to work from there about half the week, spending the balance of my time working two hours away in the city. We are in the process of raising chickens and goats.

The interesting thing is that if we had a “good” insurance policy at the time, we would not have come out as well financially. Wait, that goes against the whole point of this article. Ignore that.

What I meant to say was to get proper insurance coverage for your retreat. Know what perils your property is covered against.

One more thing. Last weekend there was an “update” to the situation. Our region was devastated by a freak hail storm. I have never experienced an hour and a half of constant hail and had never in my life seen hail drift into piles more than three feet high. I now have seen both of those things. It broke out several of our windows, ruined our roof, let inches of water into our home, destroyed our car and deck, and there is not a whole lot left of our garden. The onions seems to be holding up fine, however. The car that was destroyed was the same car we were driving in 2009 and had the very same transmission that "blew up" so dramatically on the highway. But we learned from our experience earlier in the year and are insured for most of that damage. You see, we have an HO-5 policy on our retreat now. – E. E. (Living in a rectangular state.)

Letter Re: A Low Tech Aids for Some Sleep Apnea Sufferers

Dear Editor:
I suffer sleep disruption and was prescribed apnea treatment. First a CPAP then a BIPAP machine. Neither of those were right for me, so my doctor put me on ProVent nose plugs. These are little disposable stickers with one-way valves, which seal up your nostrils; you can breathe in but are forced to breathe out through your mouth, so you don’t get throat blockage.

Not only did they work better for me, but I realized that since they don’t use electricity they’re great for grid-down situations. Score!

Their downsides are ongoing availability in a TEOTWAWKI situation, dry throat (so I keep water by the bed) and they’re not covered by my insurance, so they’re very expensive. $60 per month for some stickers!

I discovered that I could re-use them if I washed my nose well (got rid of oils) and dried my nose before applying. I was able to get 2-4 nights per set. But then I wondered what else I could do. I tried taping my nostrils shut with Band-Aids, and it worked! Not as well — dry throat got slightly worse, and it’s not as comfortable — but I’m still sleeping well through the night.

I clean my whole nose with soap and dry it. Then I gently tape both nostrils shut with one Band-Aid, leaving just a small gap for a little bit of air to pass. I use real Band-Aids, which stick very well; not cheap knock-offs. I use a second Band-Aid across the top of the nose to hold the sides of the first Band-Aid, to keep it from falling off. Then I drink a big glass of water and off to bed.

I’m glad I started with ProVents just to get accustomed to mouth breathing. The starter kit was $20. I can imagine that going cold turkey to Band-Aids would have been too difficult, so I’m glad I started with ProVent. But now I don’t need them.

My next change will be to a high-quality swimmer’s nose plug. Speedo plugs get good reviews on Amazon, and they’re less than $10. I’ll get two of them, for two is one and one is none 🙂

Maybe your readers with apnea will consider asking their doctor about ProVents. They’re not for everyone; my doctor told me if you have congestion you’ll find them difficult to tolerate. On the other hand my Band-Aid solution is like having permanent congestion, so maybe they are still an option.

Thanks for what you do, and God bless! – V.C.D.

Letter Re: Don’t Stockpile, Get Global — Conversations with a Rhodesian Expat and Being Financially Global

Dear Jim,
My mantra has always been “In a world of uncertainty….Diversify!”  Sure, it does make sense to stockpile (only to a rational degree) at one’s primary location and at one’s primary retreat.  However, this stockpiling should not be done beyond the optimal level such that it would disallow planning for other contingencies.  You are correct that “other” countries may be worse off than the US in the event of, for example, a financial collapse….but that does not preclude these other countries being a better option in the event of other sorts of problems.  Other more localized issues might include domestic political unrest, climatic changes or disasters, legal changes that preclude staying in your primary locale, etc.  Rhodesians, of course, know all too well about the latter.  Similarly, it would be totally irrational to place all one’s eggs (or even most of them) in a single or even a few foreign baskets.  I believe it does make a great deal of sense, however, to keep two or three foreign bank accounts with say $1,500-$2,000 in each.  From my experience during the Arab Spring, I can tell you that there is a world of difference between being a refugee and a being refugee with even temporarily sufficient means.  Fleeing domestic political unrest and arriving with the clothes on your back is infinitely inferior to arriving in a foreign country with $2,000 in the bank to pay a month’s rent and buy groceries while you, as the Rhodesian’s often say, “Make a plan”.  That time to breathe and regroup is absolutely invaluable let me tell you.  

As I said, one does not want to park vast sums of money in these places but, depending on where one’s social or familial support mechanism resides, having a few bucks or even a land title stashed away in Canada, Europe, Belize or elsewhere is a very decent and rational idea as part (only part!) of a larger prepping plan.  A potential retort to all of this, of course, is to horde gold and silver and cash outside the domestic financial structure so that one’s wealth can be transported anywhere they might choose to flee.  While this seems like a great idea, and I know someone who did it with diamonds upon leaving South Africa decades ago, for practical purposes it might be a bit tricky to transport cash or gold outside the country in the event of a major disaster.  Airports are probably not going to be friendly places for people trying to do this.  Further, given the weight and size of many silver stashes, this might even be a more difficult option.  It seems a much better idea to diversify one’s positions before things go bad: to buy your geographic and financial insurance before you need it and where it most benefits you, and to own your umbrella before it starts raining.  

Best, – Eightbore

Economics and Investing:

SurvivalBlog reader S.O.B. sent this: “Gary Gordon, president of Pacific Park Financial, an investment advisory firm, says he is “not buying anything at the moment until the world rights its ship.” But for investors who do want to trade on a bearish view of the global economy, he suggests the….” S.O.B. ‘s left this biting comment: “So guys in the know are holding on to their cash and not investing in intangibles like ETFs. But they are happy to advise their clients to buy stuff they wouldn’t touch with a ten foot pole, how nice.”

Some interesting observations at The Daily Bell: Fed Lies Unravel … [In 2008] Bank Board Gave US $4 Trillion in Loans to Its Own Institutions

Four recent articles from the excellent ETF Daily e-letter:

How Shorts on Gold ETFs are Nearing a Big Squeeze

Gerald Celente: This Thing [Financial System] is Coming Down
 
What is the Fiscal Cliff and What the Fiscal Cliff Means For You?
 
19 Reasons Why it is Time to Start Worrying About the Global Economy

Items from The Economatrix:

US Economy Downshifts to Lower Gear

Europe Imperils US Sales From Chemicals to PCs

Odds ‘n Sods:

Reader Pierre M. mentioned: Hyundai’s Zombie Apocalypse Survival Car. [JWR Asks: This zombie marketing is getting out of control. I see that MTM is already marketing Limited Edition Zombie Ammo Cans and Hornady is selling a new line of ZombieMax ammo from .380 to 12 Gauge. What’s next? Zombie Apocalypse collector Slurpee cups? Will Collins make special Zombie Slayer logo machetes? How about a Zombie Slayer ice cream flavor from Ben & Jerrys? Or a Zombie-theme political fundraiser? Oh, but wait, we’ve apparently already elected several Senators-For-Eternity that will keep getting elected long after they’ve assumed room temperature. And speaking of which, I have doubts about whether or not Barbara Boxer is still among the living. Those copious injections of Botox may have overcome the blood-brain barrier.]

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On a more serious note, Pierre also sent this: 4,000 years ago, solar caused climate changes massive civilization collapse

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Reader Mark A. sent this piece from Emily Miller of the The Washington Times: Gun ownership up, crime down.

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Blogger Kevin Swindle just posted an insightful review of my novel Survivors. Warning: It includes some plot spoilers.