Economics and Investing:

Several readers sent this: Santelli’s Chicago Tea Party

Gone in 60 Days: Citi and Bank of America Won’t Live to See May (A hat tip to KT for the link.)

Another Friday FDIC bank failure notice: Citizens Bank, Corvallis, Oregon, Assumes All of the Deposits of Silver Falls Bank, Silverton, Oregon

Items from The Economatrix:

Stock Decline Hits Depression Levels

Get Ready for Mass Retail Closings (220,000 stores may close)

GM Break-up Close as Saab Files Bankruptcy

No Bailout Can Mend the Economy Now. A quote: ” …the life of the depression is being deliberately extended in order to complete the wealth distribution process.”

Gold Rises Over $1,000

Latvian Gov’t Falls; EU in Crisis

Popular Rage Grows as Global Crisis Worsens

Major Indexes Fall 6%+/- for Week

Inflation Via Another Con (The Mogambo Guru)

The Great Depression Has Arrived–Collapsing American Dreams

Commercial Real Estate’s Crisis Point Approaching?

Friday: Stocks End Down 100 Points After Seesaw Day

B of A, Citi Shares Fall on Fears of Nationalization

Housing Plan Leaves Out Critical Pieces



Odds ‘n Sods:

Jeff M. found this: Family of Four Trying to Live on $1,500 for the Year

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The folks at CampingSurvival.com got creative and put together a fairly complete one year food storage system. including Yoder’s canned meats and cheese. All you need to add is some cooking oil, a sprouting kit (or multivitamin tablets) and a couple of tubes of toothpaste!

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KAF sent us: How to Build a Cold Smoker

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Our Editor at Large Michael Z. Williamson found this: Building a stick welder from an old microwave oven.



Jim’s Quote of the Day:

Then Daniel went to his house, and made the decision known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions, that they might seek mercies from the God of heaven concerning this secret, so that Daniel and his companions might not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon.

Then the secret was revealed to Daniel in a night vision. So Daniel blessed the God of heaven. Daniel answered and said:

“Blessed be the name of God forever and ever,
For wisdom and might are His.
And He changes the times and the seasons;
He removes kings and raises up kings;
He gives wisdom to the wise
And knowledge to those who have understanding.
He reveals deep and secret things;
He knows what is in the darkness,
And light dwells with Him.
“I thank You and praise You,
O God of my fathers;
You have given me wisdom and might,
And have now made known to me what we asked of You,
For You have made known to us the king’s demand.” – Daniel 2:17-23 (KJV)



Note from JWR:

Today we present another entry for Round 21 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The contest prizes include:

First Prize: Two transferable Front Sight  “Gray” Four Day Training Course Certificates. This is an up to $4,000 value!
Second Prize: A three day course certificate from OnPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses.
Third Prize: A copy of my “Rawles Gets You Ready” preparedness course, from Arbogast Publishing

Round 21 ends on March 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that articles that relate practical “how to” skills for survival will have an advantage in the judging.



Preparing Your Feet for TEOTWAWKI, by The Surgeon

This essay will cover several common foot problems which can be prevented with proper care. These problems can lead to impaired walking, running, and decreased mobility, which may adversely affect survival in a serious post disaster situation. The foundation for this information is basic knowledge gleaned from the 1930s edition Scout Handbook, which relied heavily on Lord Baden Powell’s experience in the British Army.The author is a Board-Certified Surgeon.

The feet have a hard job to do. They support the weight of the body standing, walking, running, and jumping. Any time there is excess body weight, the added load on the feet can result in problems. These include plantar fasciitis and ankle sprains. There is a much higher incidence of Type II Diabetes in the obese, and this leads to a host of foot problems, many of which can be life-threatening.
Ingrown toenails are a common preventable problem. There is a congenital predisposition based on the geometry of the nail, and this is made into a problem by the bad habit of keeping the nails too short and ripping the nail off instead of trimming or filing it straight across. This leads to a spicule of nail which points into the soft and delicate tissue of the nail fold, where it causes irritation, inflammation, and finally chronic infection and pain.

The preventive treatment is to keep the nail as thin as possible by filing the surface, which makes it flexible instead of rigid, and to avoid any ripping of the nail. The nail should be gently filed or trimmed straight across, with only enough rounding of the sides to prevent digging into the skin. A small tuft of cotton can be wedged between the nail and the nail bed if needed to prevent digging in until the nail grows long enough. [JWR Adds: I concur that a relatively "square" cut is best, as has been encouraged by military organizations since before the 1850s. However, readers are forewarned that changing the profile of toenails radically can cause in-growth, so make any changes gradually!]

Sometimes cutting a “V” notch in the center of the leading edge can relieve the pressure on the sides until it grows out.

There are proprietary systems which involve gluing a rigid polymer or metallic strip across the nail to pull up on the sides. In theory this should work. It is difficult to get any adhesive to work on nails, but they are worth a try.

If things have gotten too far out of hand, and a spicule of nail is growing into the nail fold, then a thin portion of nail will need to be removed by a surgeon or podiatrist.
This can be done as an office procedure with local anesthesia. The procedure itself is not very hard but I have found that getting good anesthesia requires some skill and patience and I would not recommend it as a “do-it-yourself” project. The nail matrix needs to be destroyed either by cautery or by a caustic agent to prevent re-growth on the affected side. Recovering from this to achieve normal walking takes several weeks.

Parents and partners need to look out for each other and their children since this can become a serious problem. Education about proper foot care starts early along with toothbrushing.
Immersion foot or trench foot is caused by chronic exposure to water and extreme environmental condition, either hot and humid or cold. The best prevention is avoidance of immersion, and if this should occur, dry socks need to be put on after drying and powdering the feet. It is helpful to have spare boots. The time to break these in and waterproof them is now.

Ankle sprains can be extremely debilitating. Wearing well-fitted ankle high boots, laced securely, best prevents this. There is a great product available wherever animal health supplies are sold called Vet rap made by 3M. It is flexible elastic wrap that is self-adherent. It provides excellent support for those who have previously injured their ankles, and it makes an all-purpose first aid dressing material, which can help hold a pressure dressing in place, or keep a splint immobile. If you would like to pay more, the human version is called Coban. I would recommend the 4” size.

Diabetics need to take special care of their feet. In a survival situation it is extremely unlikely that you will be able to get the specialized care needed to treat a diabetic foot infection, so prevention is key. Because of the peripheral neuropathy which many diabetics develop, the feet may lose sensation. It is very important to frequently inspect the feet for any injury, nails rubbing on the skin, pressure sores, etc. This is best done with a partner so all parts of the foot can be seen. Nails need to be cared for meticulously. Cotton tufts can be placed between the toes. Shoes must be “shaken out” frequently to make sure that no pebbles or debris get inside. Well-fitting high boots are less likely to get debris inside than sneakers or low-cut footwear.

Smoking can lead to severe peripheral vascular disease with loss of arterial supply to the toes and feet. In a normal situation it can lead to gangrene and amputation. Combined with diabetes it can result in more severe atherosclerotic changes in the blood vessels. It can also make the smoker more susceptible to frostbite.

Who can help you meet these challenges? Most experienced outdoorsmen and soldiers have learned the hard away about these issues. Next to making sure the troops get enough water to drink, foot care comes a close second. It might be a good idea to link up with a healthcare provider to make sure you don’t have any remediable issues such as ingrown nails that require attention.
Diabetic control and smoking cessation can be approached with your primary care doctor. There are specially trained nurses who frequent senior centers and nursing homes, providing basic foot care. Those with a nursing background might check out this type of training. For good quality shoes with plenty of toe room, and custom made inserts for pressure relief, you’ll need to see an orthotist.
Having healthy feet is critical to maintaining a tactical readiness for future possible disaster. Some chronic foot problems develop over years, so now is the time to make appropriate changes in one’s habits.



Three Letters Re: The Risk to Reward Ratio in Getting Concealed Carry Permits

Sir:
Some states allow for the public release of permit holders names and sometimes address. Newspapers have requested these lists (since they are public information) and then published them.
Other states (like Minnesota, and others) makes it a crime to release to the public who is a permit holder. – X.

James,

This headline says it all: Dateline Feb. 17, 2009 in The Miami Herald: Florida can’t keep up with concealed weapons permit requests.

Regards, – Jim H.

Mr. Rawles,

Thanks for your very reasonable and level-headed response on concealed carry permits. I agree that you they aren’t for everyone! I wish that I lived where I only had to worry about predators with four legs. But living where I do (in Virginia), we have lots of two-legged predators and I would feel naked without my XD .45. (I got the “Compact” version.) I used to carry a Commander-size Kimber 1911, as I used to be a M1911 Die Hard, but nowadays I practically speak Croatian.) [JWR Adds: To explain his comment to the uninitiated, the Springfield Armory XD-series auto pistols are made in Croatia.] My family will soon have two XDs, since my wife is signing up for the Front Sight “Get a Gun” package deal. We want to get back out there while the weather is still cool. (Summer at Front Sight is an oven set to “BROIL”.) Their XD package is an amazing bargain, and the training is superb. It is absolutely worth the travel expense! I recommend it to everyone that reads SurvivalBlog. Put that training at the top of your “Priorities list.” Without proper training you are just a “pistol owner”, not a competent shooter. I had no idea how incompetent I was until I went to take the training. It takes some humility to admit that, but I really was incompetent, and just thought that I was good shooter.

By the by, I am buying every XD magazine that I can lay my cotton-pickin’ hands on at a good price. Since they are imported, these mags could be under risk of an import ban, soon. One of your recent posters mentioned he saw high mag prices at gun shows. That is true, but there are still some bargains out there, by mail order. [JWR Adds: I highly recommend 44Mag.com, CDNN Sports, MidwayUSA, and Natchez Shooter’s Supply, as low-costs sources for full capacity magazines. Buy plenty, now, while they are still reasonably-priced!]

My XD is a my constant companion, kinda like an American Express card. I “don’t leave home without it.” – Riggins in Virginia



Economics and Investing:

Justin sent us a link to an excellent documentary on the chain of events in the global credit collapse, with a bit of pro-interventionist coloring from PBS: Inside the Meltdown.

Heather sent us this: Volcker: Crisis May be Even Worse than Depression

Jim Willie nails it: Russia’s Post U.S. New World Order Blueprint ( A hat tip to KT for the link.)

Luddite Jean in England sent us three bits of news of ill-portent: £2trillion – the terrifying total of our national debt… that’s £33,000 for every man, woman and child in Britain. —
Car industry in meltdown as plant faces ‘imminent’ closure with loss of 100,000 jobs and production plunges by 58%. — Repossessions soar by 54% in a year as 40,000 people lose their homes.

Items from The Economatrix:

Gold Demand Surges by 1/3 to $100 Billion

Record 881 US Auto Dealers Closed in 2008

Wall Street Slumps as Dow Hovers Around Three-Month Low

UK Public Finances Deteriorate Dramatically

Giants Swiss Re and BNP Paribas Report Severe Losses

Ukraine Crumble Triggers Fear Through Europe

Foreign Firms, Investors Flee Ireland

Bank of Japan to Buy 1,000 Billion Yen of Corporate Bonds

Dow Ends Thursday at Lowest Close in More than Six Years

Sarkozy Announces $6 Billion in Aid to Avert Unrest

Rising Debt May Overwhelm Obama’s Bailout

US Bank CEO: TARP Program is Lousy

GM, Chrysler Seek $21 Billion More

Newly Poor Swell Food Banks Nationwide

GM Shares Hit 74-Year Low

Bank Fears Hit Wall Street; Dow Down 6.2% for the Week, S&P off 6.9%



Odds ‘n Sods:

LRG spotted this: Cave house for sale in Festus, Missouri

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I just heard about another preparedness blog The Prudent Home. Check it out.

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Oxy sent this: Scratch Guadaloupe off the list of possible retreat locales.
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The JPFO’s latest Talkin’ to America show features and interview is with Mark Spungin, the author of “Neither Predator nor Prey“. Mark’s novel is about the reaction by a minute percentage of Wyoming gun owners to a nationwide ban and confiscation of firearms.



Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“Abilene is a town of an armed citizenry. This tends to make relations both peaceful and respectful.” – James Butler (“Wild Bill”) Hickok, while City Marshal of Abilene, in an interview with an eastern newspaper reporter. (Until Hickok’s reply, the reporter had thought Wild Bill himself was the reason.that Abilene was so peaceful for the locals)



Letter Re: The Risk to Reward Ratio in Getting Concealed Carry Permits

Jim,
Thank you for your excellent site. I’m here every day.
My wife and I are considering getting Concealed Weapons Permits. Do you recommend getting a permit? Is it a good idea, or is it a red flag that would attract the unwanted attention of our government officials? Do you have a permit? I would appreciate your insight. – The Forester

JWR Replies: I do not have a CCW permit, but I have the benefit of living in an open carry state. I don’t issue any blanket advice on concealed carry. Everyone has to weigh the risks and benefits of licensure for themselves, in their own particular circumstances. Since I live in a lightly-populated region with low crime, I decided that the high profile that goes along with getting a CCW permit wasn’t justifiable. I am far more worried about being mauled by a bear when out berry picking than I am getting mugged. Street crime is virtually unheard of here in TUWS. (Robert Heinlein was right: An armed society is a polite society.) Again, the decision on whether or not to get a CCW permit is personal judgment call. For many SurvivalBlog readers living in high crime areas, getting a permit would probably be advisable.

BTW, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Utah, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and perhaps the Dakotas all “going Alaska” in the next few years–dropping the requirement for a CCW for carry inside city limits. This has been the case in Vermont since time immemorial, and the CCW permit requirement for inside city limits was recently dropped in Alaska. (In many southern and western states it is already legal to carry conceal outside of city limits.)



The Winning Edge: Safe Dry Practice, by John Parker, Jr.

I’ve often been asked for advice on how a shooter can improve his or her proficiency at arms, and it seems that the questioner is almost always expecting some magical tidbit of “gouge” that will bring out their “A” game. Apart from analyzing form and talking about mechanics, one thing that I universally recommend, and almost always find lacking in the normal routine of many shooters, is dry practice.
The term “dry practice” includes many things, but to put it simply and encompass all applications, it is firearms training conducted without live ammunition. Far from a replacement for live fire training, dry practice is, however, an essential and exceptionally useful tool in improving everything from presentations to reloads to trigger control and beyond. Its application to a program of training can help with any firearm related endeavor, and if you aren’t doing it now, you should consider adding it to supplement your live fire training.

So, how does one go about this dry practice? First, one needs a safe place to conduct it. We are training without live ammunition, but human fallibility still applies, so a safe backstop is requirement number one. In the event that a live round finds its way into the mix despite all our precautions, which we will discuss shortly, a safe backstop will limit the event to an embarrassment instead of a possible tragedy. I often use a 40mm ammo can filled with sand to affix my target to, and place this in front of a stout exterior wall. Basement walls are ideal for this. Ballistic panels, such as those made by Second Chance and Point Blank, also work well to affix targets to, and you are really limited only by your imagination, as long as your backstop will reliably stop the caliber of arm you intend to conduct training with, even if you were to not strike your intended aim point. Targets can be anything from the actual targets used in a competitive discipline to scaled silhouettes replicating distance in the confines of the practice area to squares of tape or target pasters. Col. Jeff Cooper even recommended the “televisor” as a dry practice aid, as he stated he could get along quite nicely without it. (Placed against a safe backstop, of course!) Your mileage may vary on this one, for many reasons. I would recommend saving yourself a potential television replacement trip to Best Buy and using more mundane targetry. Other considerations for the training area include floor composition—when conducting pistol or carbine reload drills you don’t really want to be dropping magazines onto a concrete floor hundreds of times (cardboard and carpet are your friends!)—and also separation. You want your practice area well-defined so that all sources of live ammunition can be kept out, and your mental focus can be devoted to the task at hand. One final note: no mirrors. While one may think that a mirror will help to observe and debrief practice sessions, their effect is always negative. Your attention will be focused away from where it should be, and the result will be negative training. No mirrors on the backstop, no mirrors anywhere in the area. If you want to be able to debrief performance, use a video camera.

Additional equipment includes dummy cartridges and “snap caps”. Snap caps, for the purposes of this treatise, are generically defined as inert cartridge simulations which include a semi-rigid or spring loaded surface in the primer area to cushion firing pin or striker fall. Some arms designs are better suited than others to omitting such aids, but I’ve always thought it wise to use them in all my dry practice to avoid striker/firing pin abuse. Snap caps can be found in nearly any caliber or gauge from Brownell’s, Midway, and other sources, and are made by A-Zoom, Armsport, Precision Gun Specialties, and other manufacturers. When practicing reloads and manipulations, dummy cartridges can be used to add appropriate “heft” to magazines. One does not reload with empty magazines, so it should not be so in practice. Dummy cartridges can be obtained from the same sources as snap caps, or can be manufactured if one is a reloader. I use cartridges reloaded with appropriate real projectiles sans primer and powder. My manufactured dummy rounds for this purpose are all marked “DUMMY” on the side of the case with a blue Sharpie pen, and projectiles are likewise colored blue. For dual purpose training aids on the cheap, dummy cartridges can be assembled with short length of nylon rod of the appropriate diameter (available at any hardware store) inserted into the primer pocket. The nylon rod will cushion the firing pin fall and last for a good long while.

Apart from these items, the appropriate firearm, magazines, holsters, and magazine pouches, are of course requisites, as is a container for live ammo downloading at the entrance to the practice area for use when practicing with a carry weapon that is normally kept loaded and on the person.

Dry Practice Safety Rules

This brings us to safety and prep. First and foremost, eliminate all sources of live ammunition. When entering the practice area, download your carry firearm, if appropriate, and place all rounds and loaded magazines into the live ammo container at the entrance to your practice area or range. A sealed container is best. Pat yourself down and check weapon condition before proceeding. Enter your practice area. I keep dedicated practice magazines and snap caps/dummy rounds in a box that gets placed on a stool in my practice area. Ensure that this box is visibly different from the live ammo container. Now, inspect all magazines and training cartridges to be sure they are what they are supposed to be. Inspect the primer area of all dummy cartridges, and check weapon condition again. Do this every time you begin practice. If, for any reason, you are interrupted during your training, stop everything, and do not begin again until you have come back and completed the inspections again. Now conduct your training. Dry practice sessions should be no more than 15-30 minutes depending upon the discipline and intensity. After this, we get into the realm of diminishing returns and incorrect repetition. At the completion of training, Stop. Flip a mental switch out of practice mode. No more trigger squeezes, no more manipulations. Check weapon condition. Police up training aids and store them. Exit the training area and place the weapon in the desired condition at the live ammo area. Done.

So what do we actually “practice” in dry practice? As stated before, these sessions can be put to a myriad of uses. I tend to begin and end each and every session with pure fundamentals. Stance, grip, sight alignment, sight picture, slow steady trigger “roll”, drop the hammer/striker on a snap cap, follow-through, recover, repeat. For pistol, I include dominant hand and less-dominant hand only work as well. In the meat of my sessions, I pick out several items to work on ahead of time and concentrate on these areas. This is a great opportunity to work on presentations, especially in the case of pistol if you are unfortunate enough to be limited to live fire at a facility that frowns on holster work. End each presentation with sight alignment, sight picture, and I mix it up between stopping there and continuing through to trigger actuation. This prevents creating a conditioned response of always pulling the trigger after presenting your weapon. Work slowly and concentrate on form at first, gradually pick up to full speed, then push it past your limits a bit. Don’t get too carried away here, and if form deteriorates, it’s time to pull it back. After pushing it past the redline, I always come back to slow and deliberate again, and finish with normal full speed. This formula works for just about any area in which you wish to increase speed. Rifle bolt manipulations for hunting arms, tactical and speed reloads, malfunction drills, assuming firing positions, and many other drills can be incorporated. Drills do not always have to include trigger actuation. One of my staples is multiple target drills where I simply practice taking a sight picture on each of several Aimpoints, working on decreasing my target to target splits. Your imagination is the limit here, and further guidance on dry practice drills can be obtained from numerous books by the best and brightest in the shooting world.

On frequency of practice, this is up to the shooter. When deployed in harm’s way, I have dry practiced nearly every day in one form or another with primary and/or secondary weapons systems. When stateside, my frequency drops off a bit depending on the minutiae of everyday life, but at a minimum, I can find at least one or two times a week to devote to dry practice, no matter how hectic things get, and usually more. It’s not hard to find 30 extra minutes a week if you make it a priority. This small investment in time will quickly show its many rewards in your live fire training. Remember to use a safe backstop, separate yourself from all live ammo, check and recheck weapon condition in all phases of practice, and remember, above all, that you are handling a live firearm—do not treat it as anything else, and remember to observe all basic safety rules.



Economics and Investing:

We’ll start with a bit of levity, to temper all the recent bad news: The Monster Crash. (Kudos to Richard at KT Ordnance for sending the link.)

I’ve added 90-Day and 5-Year price charts for silver and gold to the bottom of my Investing page.

Reader M.H. sent a reminder that anyone in the US that is expecting a tax refund on their state income tax should file their tax returns as early as possible this year. As states increasingly run into budget crises, some taxpayers that wait until April 15th to send in their tax forms may end up out of luck–and end up waiting for many extra months to get their tax refund checks.

Robert B. sent us this: New Gulf currency ‘Khaleeji’ poised to be Gold backed to remove ‘Riba’

From Ben H.: US Federal 2008 deficit was really about $5 trillion

RSR spotted this: Beer No Longer Recession-Proof

Items from The Economatrix:

US Economy: Housing Starts, Factory Output Plunge

The Crash of 2009 is Coming to YOU!

1 in 5 California Public Workers to be Fired

BofE Seeks Power to Inject More Money into Economy to Fight Recession

Britain’s AAA Credit Rating Threatened by Scale of Bail-Out, Says S&P

Fed Says Economy Even Worse than Thought

Growing Stocks of Unsold Cars

HUD: The Mortgage Crisis is a Jobs Crisis

Nearly 5 Million Americans Receiving Unemployment Benefits

California Legislators Finally Approve Budget

Public Fears about Troubled Economy Growing

Gold Primed to be “Mania Asset”

It’s Getting Ugly: Economist Says Hoard Gold and Scotch

The Burning Platform Here is a quote:”When I see Senator Charles Schumer of New York make a speech on the floor of the Senate saying, ‘And let me say this to all of the chattering class that so much focuses on those little, tiny, yes, porky amendments, the American people really don’t care’, I want to throttle him.”

It Will Happen (The Mogambo Guru)

Investors Rush into Gold Coins



Odds ‘n Sods:

SF in Hawaii found this fascinating web page about a secret underground ammunition factory built under the noses of British administrators in Palestine: The Ayalon Institute

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I found these personal accounts captivating: Urban Survival Stories.

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OSOM sent a link to this two-minute video clip: War Zone Detroit

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Bob at Ready Made Resources mentioned that between now and March 7th, they can offer 215 watt REC (Norwegian) and Evergreen Solar (American) brand photovoltaic power panels an unprecedented cash price of just $3.75 per watt! (Plus shipping.) This is an amazing price, considering that the prevailing price is around $5 per watt plus shipping. When you consider the state solar power incentives, plus the new Federal tax credit incentive, this makes a PV power system quite affordable. Why buy a gas-guzzling generator with a service life of a few thousand hours, when you could buy PV panels to provide self-sufficient and dirt cheap power, lasting for decades? Call Ready Made Resources at 1(800) 627-3809 for the special pricing. See their web page for specifications.





Note from JWR:

Our spin-off web site, SurvivalRealty.com (my #1 Son’s venture), has several new retreat property listings, including the first one in Australia.