Letter Re: A New Breed of Feral Dogs, by Buckshot

Mr. Rawles,

The most vital point, I think, of Buckshot’s piece is not that feral dogs will eat us all alive, but that [applying] current attitudes in future scenarios CAN GET YOU KILLED!
  You’d better get you mind wrapped around the hard decisions now the best you can.  Buckshot is exactly right: if you’re making decisions on the fly as a situation unfolds, you’re dog food.  The same goes for any, shall we say, less-than-polite social encounters with humans.  ARIES (Autonomic Response In Extreme Stress) is an acronym we used when I taught self-defense.  Most guys would pooh-pooh the idea because they were super-fit and could  kick you right in the face with ease.  They never got the idea of Spiritual Point of Origin, a concept that one attains when you’ve wrestled with all the moral-ethical dilemmas, as well as realizing one’s physical capabilities AND limitations.  The “dojo jock” never prepared for any real conflict; it’s all a game, but the minute things changed up, they end up getting the cr*p beat out of them.  When you are under stress, you will become much less coordinated, particularly in fine motor skills (read: sight acquisition, operating safety levers, firing-and moving maneuvers) unless they have been practiced to the point of neuro-muscular memory (i.e. second nature).  You WILL perform AS you have practiced, not just WHAT you have practiced.  Remember, practice DOES NOT make perfect; practice makes permanent what is practiced.  Now is the time to deal with the mental aspects of what you will need  to keep you and yours, safe and alive, not when the wolves (dog pack, murderous thugs) are at your door.  A perfect example is the horrific Manson Family murders: while testifying at their trials the women of Charlie’s lovely little clan complained bitterly how hard it was to kill Sharon Tate, that she pulled their hair and  kicked and pushed them away. She possessed the will to fight back, but apparently lacked either  the skill to fight effectively, or, more likely, the willingness to injure a fellow human being.  Students in self-defense classes get squeamish when the idea of eye-gouging or kicking to the trachea comes up, but in reality, if you’re not willing to do what it takes to win the fight, WHY ARE YOU IN A FIGHT? Better to surrender now, save yourself the beating, and pray that you will be rescued by some unforeseen circumstance.  Remember, suspect first, prospect later.  You are only paranoid if they’re not out to get you. – Bonehedz

Letter Re: Unintended Consequences of a Failure of Basic Services in a Disaster

Jim:
When I was a river [rafting] guide we used toilets made of [military surplus wooden] rocket boxes.
 
The premise is to take a large Army rocket box (a toilet lid fits inside ) and use double lined plastic bags and plenty of powdered lime. Regular old lime for the disinfectant.
 
We would use on of these on extended wilderness rafting trips for 30 or 40 people.
 
Here’s how it works. Set up the rocket box and remove the large roll of heavy black plastic trash bags. Take TWO bags and double bag them and line the inside of the box.
 
Set the lid on top and ONLY put toilet paper and feces in the box. All urine goes on the ground. After doing your business  take a small scoop of lime and sprinkle enough of the powder to cover the waste. After finishing, remove the seat and place the lid back on but don’t seal it. The next person comes along, takes the lid off (which keeps the flies out ) and puts the toilet seat on and does the same.
 
When a bag is full, remove it from the box, and tie off and then put it inside another bag in case of leaks.
 
This gets put in the trash bags for later disposal. ONE rocket box can handle about 30 people for a weekend easily going through 2 to 4 bags every 2 or 3 days. We always brought two, one for women and one for men. Once ready to break camp, we removed the bag of dump, put the bucket of lime, the roll of trash bags and the lid inside the box and sealed the lid.
 
This was VERY effective and met the U.S. Forest Service “pack it in, pack it out” rule.
 
Lime is a VERY good thing to stockpile. In addition to keeping the oders down on feces, it can also keep the odor down on rotting bodies, as will 20 Mule Team Borax. I use that for raw tanning hides and have some that have NEVER been chemical tanned and ONLY had Borax and are now going on 10 years with no hair slippage or odor. These are deer hides that I have made into rugs. – Mel

Odds ‘n Sods:

Iran’s president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad alternately threatens to annihilate or “liberate” Israel. With these tensions is it any wonder oil an precious metals are spiking?

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David Limbaugh comments on “Immigration Madness“

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It looks as if the short squeeze that I predicted in the silver market is starting to unfold. Look for a substantial spike in the price of spot silver in the next two weeks, as the shorts panic to cover their positions. This spike may very well be followed by some profit taking, but who knows–the stair step pattern may persist.

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

"Iran has dropped its pretense of benign intent. It has used the passing time to disperse, diversify, conceal, and protect its nuclear centers. But [the U.S.] cannot prevent this through military means—unless it is willing to commit itself to all-out war. Realism about Iran starts with throwing out any plans to bomb." — James Fallows, The Atlantic.

Note from JWR:

The first letter posted today is a thought-provoking piece directed toward fellow Christians, but the issues that it raises might be of interest to those of you that are of other faiths and even those who are not religious. I often stress charity in my writings. As a Christian, I consider charity my duty, and I feel strongly convicted to have extra food and gardening seed on hand to dispense as charity in the event of a disaster. Even for those of you that are not religious, I still recommend the practice, since it demonstrates kindness, and kindness builds trust instead of distrust. When times get bad, you will want neighbors that you can trust.

Letter Re: Questions on Saving, Interest, and Preparation Versus Hoarding,

James:
 I offer the following discussion (and answers, I hope) for Christians.
 
Proposition/assumptions: Good financial planning and even seeming ‘common sense’ dictates that we plan our income and expenditures wisely so as to have the ability to withstand a crisis.  This plan makes sense on an intuitive level, and also can be argued quite easily that as a Christian we have a duty to provide for the life and livelihood of our dependents; and that this provision includes saving money and goods for the event of hard times.  Or does it?
Our Christian duty is also unquestionably to be charitable and to avoid the sin of covetousness/greed.  First, some definitions:

Covet (verb: to covet): to wish, long, or crave for something, especially the property of another person
 
Greed: excessive desire to acquire or possess more (especially more material wealth) than one needs or deserves (syn. Avarice: a more religious term, one of the Seven Deadly Sins)
 
Charity: (one of the Three Theological Virtues), meaning loving kindness towards others; it is held to be the ultimate perfection of the human spirit, because it is said to both glorify and reflect the nature of God. In its most extreme form charity can be self-sacrificial. Charity is one conventional English translation of the Greek term agape.  Agape to the early Christians meant that inner bond of blessed union which united the individual with divinity, and mankind with their fellowmen. Till our eyes are fully opened, "there abideth faith, hope, and charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity" (1 Cor 13).  Charity is commonly understood to mean ‘giving to the needy’.
 
Reflections:  Is there gray area?  Where is it?  Is saving the necessary substantial sum for a child’s college education acceptable?  Is having six months living expenses in the bank acceptable?  Is a year’s worth of food storage acceptable?  Can I save for economic downturns without knowing with certainty that they will come?  Can I save for them knowing for certain that they WILL come, but not for certain that it will result in my inability to provide for my family?
 
What amount of saving is acceptable?  Where does it become ‘hoarding’?  Is the sin of greed more one of quantity, or one of attitude?
 
If any amount of saving is acceptable, how much?  Is it acceptable to save excluding  charity until the acceptable amount is reached?  Or are we obliged to give to charity while saving toward that amount?
 
It is generally accepted that Christians must lend without charging interest; but in what circumstances?  All without exception?  Toward family members?  To other Christians?  Can we earn interest on investments?  Is an interest-earning savings account acceptable? 
 
Can we earn interest in excess of the rate of inflation without sin?
 
Can we sell our home for a profit if we do not need a larger home to accommodate our own immediate needs? 
 
And some rhetorical questions, not meant to insult; but to add more facets for discussion: Does God always provide for his faithful?  Historically, have Christians been safe from starvation through economic hard times?   Is not saving and preparing for disaster a simple reality of living in the temporal world The Almighty has placed us into?  Is saving a function of ‘giving to Caesar’, which is considered acceptable as long as we also give to God? – C.P., MD

Letter Re: Survive or Prevail?

Jim,
I wanted to share the following with you. It really made me stop and think. I just finished reading G. Gordon Liddy’s book “When I Was A Kid, This Was A Free Country.” It is a very good read. Chapter seven is titled “Survive Or Prevail,” and in it he makes an excellent point. Do we want to survive, or prevail? The dictionary says that “to survive” means merely “to continue to live or exist.” Yet the definition of “prevail” means “to overcome; to gain the victory or superiority; to gain the advantage; to have the upper hand, or the mastery; to win; to triumph; to be victorious.” Being a survivor and surviving a SHTF situation is not a bad thing, but we are capable of, and should try for much more. We may indeed end up just surviving, but as my Dad used to say: “Shoot for the stars and you might hit the moon. Shoot for the moon, and you might hit your foot.” We should all be aiming to be “prevailers.” – Gung-Ho

Letter Re: Copper Price Galloping

Dear Mr. Rawles,
I have wanted to write to you for a week or two with respect to an oddity.  An increasing number of sources are discussing the degree to which the base metal in the US penny is becoming more valuable than the penny itself.  This is odd, and www.coinflation.comis tracking it with alleged numerical precision.  If I get some spare time this week, I hope to write about the death of the penny in more detail. Best Regards, – K.A.D.

JWR Replies: Silver is about 45 times more bulky than gold, (As I’m writing this, gold is $605.10 per ounce, whereas silver is $13.28 per ounce.) Even still, I prefer investing in silver. It is bulky, but stilll marginally portable. However, in general, I cannot recommend investing in physical copper! It is far too bulky. As a base metal, copper is far too heavy and bulky to be practical as a tangible investment. Just $2,000 worth would be too heavy to carry in a car. Perhaps if you are a retiree that lives at your retreat year-round, and if you have no intention of moving for the rest of our retired life. For anyone else, I cannot recommend investing base metals. Since only pre-1982 U.S. pennies are all copper (the later ones are merely copper-flashed zinc tokens) unless copper skyrockets, it is hardly worth your time to sort pennies. (But you might get lucky and find a cache of prte-1982 penny rolls.)

Odds ‘n Sods:

Chuck the Welding Wizard introduced me to an amazing publication, called the Encyclopedia of “Made it Myself ” Ideas. (30th Anniversary Edition, published by the folks at Farm Show Magazine). It has a wealth of knowledge on farm machinery modifications and outlandish inventions, some of which will doubtless prove useful at a retreat. It is available through http://www.farmshow.com. While you are at it, I recommend that you get their collection of magazine back issues on CD-ROM–less than $40 for 30 years of back issues.

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Former Federal Reserve Chairman Al Greenspan says that he regrets “irrational exuberance”

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Another U.S. mountain lion attack

 

Note from JWR:

We’re having some difficulties getting our continuous loop scrolling ad bar to work with Internet Explorer. 🙁 So unless you have Firefox, Safari, or Netscape, our ads may "disappear" until we get things straightened out. (Needless to say, I’ll be crediting all of our advertisers for some free days.) We may revert to non-scrolling ads for a while. Thanks for your patience.) much more secure and resistant to viruses.

Letter Re: A New Breed of Feral Dogs, by Buckshot

This article raised a valid point. But I think it overstated the threat. And it conveyed a lot of negative thoughts, like “you will freeze up, your shots will go into the ground, you will be overwhelmed before you can react,” etc.
 
  I’m a dog lover; owner of three Bull Terriers, which are basically civilized, happy Pit Bulls. No question, the strength, destructive potential and “hard to kill” factor of many dogs is true. But the author of that article overlooked a key feature of the “pack mentality.” Kill the lead dogs, and the followers probably will slink away.
 
Granted, the earlier the interdiction the better, via snares or other means. But I’d like to present a more positive scenario if one is attacked. I agree that short barreled, smaller caliber handguns may be inadequate. So if feral dogs are a real risk, carry a shotgun loaded with buckshot. You are less likely to miss, and more certain to stop any dog you solidly hit.
 
If attacked, identify the alpha dog and his strongest followers (that won’t be hard; they’ll be in front,) and shoot them in order. If you have six to eight rounds of buckshot, and use them effectively you very probably will prevail. In fact you may be surprised how fast the “follower dogs” run off once the Big Dogs go down.
 
If the SHTF badly enough for packs of wild dogs to form, one already should have got over that “can’t be happening” response. Training should have overcome the “ejecting unfired rounds” syndrome too. If you’re still worried about that, get a semi auto shotgun.
 
Your site is great, and the original article was valid. Just wanted to address the issue from a different perspective. – Mike in Mesa

Two Letters Re: The U.S. Housing Bubble–Yea, the Pinprick Cometh

Mr. Rawles,
I read the article on the housing bubble on SurvivalBlog and would like to add a bit of evidence to the claim.  I currently own a home in Orlando, Florida and haven’t sold in five months.  This is unheard of for that region, but it is just not me all the houses in the area having the same problem.  Here are a couple of quotes from my real estate agent on the Orlando market:
“I just returned from a real estate conference in Tampa.  The main topic was the large amount of time listings are sitting the market before they sell.  And, the huge inventory of homes available. 
 
There are six times more homes on the market right now than this time last year.” The Denver market seems to be doing similarly.  My sister is a real estate broker and she heard at a recent conference 50% of all homes for sale in Denver are in foreclosure.
The bubble is bursting. – Sean

Jim,
Your book “Patriots” radically affected my life: I only wish I had read it pre-Y2K. I live in Nebraska where the farmers are struggling with historically low prices and unprecedented costs for producing their products. Because of their relationships with their creditors(i.e. bankers) they have no choice but to continue going further
into debt. If they don’t plant, they will be foreclosed on, but if they do plant,they are probably going to lose even more money. They lose no matter what they do. In spite of the unprofitable nature of farming, the price of land is continuing to appreciate and taxes are rising, making it even more unprofitable. In the last week there have
been rumors that farmers are receiving unsolicited cash offers for their farms from foreign (Chinese) investors. Jim, I believe that in the event of a dollar collapse, we could end up in a situation like that of Argentina, where foreign corporations own the farms and refuse to sell their products for worthless dollars. Additionally, we are
now a net importer of food. Finally, I believe that the rise of Aztlan is attracting the notice of the people that can be awakened and a mass exodus of refugees from the Southwest is about to ensue.
This will have a profound impact on the food supply as investments in this region will become speculative and as the farm laborers become more militant.
In conclusion, while I believe a housing collapse is inevitable, I think that agricultural land in the Northern states will continue to appreciate as long as financing is available. Thanks for all you do. – Neb