On December 2nd, 1823, what became known as the Monroe Doctrine was declared by President James Monroe to Congress outlining a foreign policy initiative that forbade European interference in the American hemisphere but also asserted U.S. neutrality in regard to future European conflicts.
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Today, we’re posting another review article by our Field Gear Editor, Pat Cascio. (Once in a while, article scheduling allows us to have two articles from Pat in the same week.)
Ken Onion is one of the most famous knife designers on the planet. I’ve never met him face to face, but I’ve spoken with him a few times on the phone and discussed his knife designs, as I was preparing articles about them. He is a wild man, to be sure! But he knows everything he needs to know about making some of the most in-demand knives in the world – both for collectors and practical users alike. To be sure, original Onion handmade knives don’t come cheap, so we have CRKT (Columbia River Knife & Tool) to thank for bringing some of Onion’s knives to the market in larger numbers, so that we all can afford them. I’m not sure if CRKT was the first knife company to do collaborations with custom knife makers, but they are at the forefront these days. Many of their knives are designed from collaboration with some of the best-known knife makers in the world.
I’ve probably written more articles about CRKT knives than any other writer out there. I’ve been covering their knives since about the first year they came on the scene. And, I haven’t come close to covering all the newest designs they introduce each year, if I did, I’d be writing about their knives all day long, for weeks on end – that’s how many new designs they come out with each year. I try to find the cutlery and tools from CRKT, that I believe will be of the most interest to SurvivalBlog.com readers. Our reader’s taste run the full gamut – from small EDC folders, to big fixed blades, to all manner of survival knives and tools.
I’ve witnessed many changes at CRKT over the years, and all for the good if you ask me. To be sure, many of their knives are made in Taiwan – and there are a couple reasons for this. They can bring some outstanding knife designs to fruition, for a lot less money, than if they were made here in the USA. And, CRKT also has some of their executives going to the plants in Taiwan on a regular basis to make sure things are running smoothly, and the knives are made to their strict specifications, too. Their knives are NOT made in the slave labor factories of Mainland China, instead, they are manufactured in state of the art factories in Taiwan. That is Free China.
Today we’re looking at a Ken Onion designed folder that is called “Panache” – and if you don’t know the meaning of that term, then look it up. Plus, this is a limited edition and only 550 of these knives will be produced – making them instantly collectible. I don’t collect knives, and I certainly don’t collect firearms, either. Most readers would be surprised at how few knives and firearms I actually have on-hand, at any given time. Many firearms I review are on-loan from gun makers – I’ve love to purchase all the gun samples I get, but that’s impossible. Like most folks, my wife and I live paycheck to paycheck most months – some months we make ends meet, some months, we do – and do whatever it takes to get the bills paid.Continue reading“CRKT Ken Onion Panache, by Pat Cascio”
Here are JWR’s Recommendations of the Week for various media and tools of interest to SurvivalBlog readers. The focus is usually on emergency communications gear, bug out bag gear, books, and movies–often with a tie-in to disaster preparedness, and links to “how-to” self-sufficiency videos. There is also an emphasis on links to sources for storage food and a variety of storage and caching containers. You will also note an emphasis on history books and historical movies. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. This week the focus is on the wonderfully anachronistic music of Pokey La Farge. (See the Music section.)
Live Not by Lies: A Manual for Christian Dissidents. This new book is by Rod Dreher, the author of the bestselling 2018 book The Benedict Option.
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Jordan Peterson’s upcoming book release is already raising a ruckus: Beyond Order: 12 More Rules For Life. That will be released March 1st, but they’re already taking pre-orders. The book’s release is still more than three months out, and it is already ranked #179 in books, overall! I should mention that I first heard of this book from this article: Penguin Random House Staff Melts Down After Learning They’re Publishing Jordan Peterson’s New Book. The book is of course a sequel to Peterson’s best-seller: 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos.
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And, speaking of pre-orders: This biography of famed explorer Joseph Banks won’t be released until September of 2021: Banks.
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“God granted men of principle to be our principal men.” – The late MG Victor Hugo, in a speech to The OSS Society
This is the birthday of novelist Rex Stout (1886–1975). Rex Stout was the brother of Ruth Stout, the gardener who wrote about no-till, year-round mulching, organic gardening in her book Gardening Without Work: For the Aging, the Busy, and the Indolent
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Today, in addition to announcing the most recent writing contest winners, we’re presenting the latest precious metals column from Stephen Cochran of Gainesville Coins. He kindly sends us this, monthly.
We’ve completed the judging for Round 91 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prize-winning authors are:
First prize is awarded to A.D.C. for: Kitting Out The Kalashnikov which ran in four parts: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4 — posted November 5-8, 2020.
He will receive:
Second Prize is awarded to N.E for: Range Estimation and Windage with Mil Reticles Part 1 and Part 2, which ran on October 20th and 21st, 2020.
He will receive:
Third prize is awarded to E.P. for his article Making Dosa – Indian Fermented Bread. He will receive:
We had a bit of a quandary when judging Round 91. Two of the best articles submitted in Round 91 came from a writer who had won one of our top three prizes just 11 months ago. That made him ineligible to win any of the top three prizes until Round 92 of the writing contest. So we decided to present a first-ever Editor’s Choice Award. That prize a transferable $400 purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, good toward the purchase of any of our pre-1899 antique guns. He in fact has already selected a S&W top-break .38 revolver, and it was just mailed to him late last week. Congrats to St. Funogas, the author of these two Editor’s Choice articles:
The Honorable Mention prize winners will each receive $30 Amazon.com gift cards. The five Honorable Mention prize-winning articles are:
Round 92 ends on January 31, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how-to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.
Welcome to SurvivalBlog’s Precious Metals Month in Review, where we take a look at “the month that was” in precious metals. Each month, we cover gold’s performance and the factors that affected gold prices.
There were many different factors steering gold prices in November, but the two major influences were also the most controversial: the COVID epidemic and the Presidential election.
Gold gained in early November, as COVID infections and deaths rose in the US and Europe. The possibility of a contested Presidential election was an even larger factor in the early November gold rally. Prices were further supported by continued dollar weakness. The gold price weakened as the Democrats failed to capture a majority in the Senate, breaking the “Blue Wave” that some had predicted.
The announcement in the middle of the month of three different COVID vaccines passing human clinical trials sent stocks shooting higher, and depressed safe-haven assets such as the dollar and gold. The last brick supporting gold prices fell when President Trump allowed the GSA to release transition funds to Joe Biden’s team.
Gold dropped more than $100 over the next two weeks, hitting a five and a half month low of $1,770 before the US open on November 30th. November was the worst month for gold in nearly four years.
In contrast, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had its best month since 1987, while the SP 500 and Nasdaq had their best months since April.
COVID SECOND WAVE AND VACCINES
COVID infections and deaths surged across the nation in November, once again straining hospitals to the breaking point. Pfizer announced on November 9th that its COVID vaccine had successfully passed human trials. The news sent the Dow 1,300 points higher at the opening bell. Gold fell by $67 at the open. December gold futures lost $98 on the day to settle at $1,854 an ounce. Spot gold closed at $1,863, down $86.
The next Monday, a second successful COVID vaccine was announced by Moderna. This time, the gold market had a muted reaction, leaking $20 lower on other news over the course of the week.
November 23rd saw a third COVID vaccine announced, this time by Astrazeneca and the University of Oxford in the UK. Gold investors, shaken by a new vaccine being announced three weeks in a row, headed out the door and into the stock market. By Black Friday, gold prices had fallen another $90 an ounce, breaking below the important $1,800 level.
The economy is expected to rapidly recover as vaccines roll out.Continue reading“November 2020 in Precious Metals, by Steven Cochran”
This weekly column features news stories and event announcements from around the American Redoubt region. (Idaho, Montana, eastern Oregon, eastern Washington, and Wyoming.) Much of the region is also more commonly known as The Inland Northwest. We also mention companies of interest to preppers and survivalists that are located in the American Redoubt region. Today, we focus on some crowded rivers. (See the Montana section.)
Authorities arrest fugitive in Coeur d’Alene, rescue two children missing since 2012
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Boise virus order prompts ‘robocalls’ to jam phone lines, deter enforcement
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In court over Idaho Capitol arrest, Ammon Bundy accuses government of ‘conspiring’
“A heart that’s full up like a landfill
A job that slowly kills you
Bruises that won’t heal
You look so tired, unhappy
Bring down the government
They don’t, they don’t speak for us
I’ll take a quiet life
A handshake of carbon monoxide
And no alarms and no surprises
No alarms and no surprises
No alarms and no surprises
Silent, silent
This is my final fit
My final bellyache with
No alarms and no surprises
No alarms and no surprises
No alarms and no surprises, please
Such a pretty house
And such a pretty garden
No alarms and no surprises
(Let me out of here)
No alarms and no surprises
(Let me out of here)
No alarms and no surprises, please
(Let me out of here)”
– Lyrics to the 1998 Radiohead song No Surprises. (Best covered in a retro style, by singer/clarinetist Chloe Feoranzo.)
Satirical novelist Jonathan Swift was born on November 30th, 1667.
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Today we are featuring another review by our stalwart Field Gear Editor, Pat Cascio.
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Shipments of Survival Retreats & Relocation are continuing. This is a book that I recently co-authored with my #1 Son, Jonathan Edwards Rawles. If strong interest continues, we will try to have one more printing run completed before Christmas.
The book is available through both Amazon and Jonathan’s SurvivalRealty.com site. The e-book is available at $9.99 as both a PDF and on Kindle.
Here are the current ordering links:
Main link: https://www.survivalrealty.com/survival-retreats-relocation/
I’m a big fan of the .45 ACP cartridge. The “official” FBI tests show that there isn’t a lick of difference between the 9mm, .40 S&W, and .45 ACP rounds – when loaded with high-performance JHP ammo, when it comes to stopping power. But I refuse to believe that those three rounds are all pretty much the same when it comes to stopping a deadly encounter. I do a lot of shooting, and I mean a lot of shooting for my articles, as well as for target practice, tactical shooting and just plain ol’ fun shooting. If there is one thing I’ve noticed when shooting different calibers of handguns, its that some calibers hit a whole lot harder than others. Whenever there are some targets of opportunity, like fist-sized rocks, I’ll focus on them. The 9mm will chip away at these rocks and eventually break them. The .40 S&W hits a lot harder and gets the job done faster. However, when we use a .45 ACP round on similar-sized rocks, it will break them – quite often with just one hit.
Now, this isn’t scientific testing, however, with the same aforementioned calibers, the 9mm when it hits a big rock, makes it move ever so slightly. The .40 S&W moves those rocks a bit more. However, when hit with a .45 ACP round – the rocks will move quite a bit. So, I’m not sure how this relates to real-world stopping power, or “knock-down” power, but it tells me that, the .45 ACP is hitting a lot harder than the other two rounds are.
The 9mm caliber, even with +P ammo is real easy gun to shoot for most people while the .40 S&W can be a handful with different ammo, and this is why many police departments, and the FBI and other Federal agencies have gone back to the 9mm, over the .40S&W. The .45 ACP isn’t all that hard to handle in the recoil department. Sure, it “kicks” a little more than the 9mm does, however, the felt “kick” is a lot less than the .40 S&W round does. Police qualification scores have gone way up, since many of them have gone back to the 9mm over the .40 S&W. Quite frankly, many in law enforcement simply aren’t “into” guns and don’t do a lot of shooting – so the hard-kicking .40 S&W round made it more difficult for them to qualify on the range – and it was even worse on the streets, when they had to deploy their firearms. Of course, then we have the fact that handguns can hold more 9mm rounds compared to .40 S&W or .45 ACP rounds – and that never hurts to have more ammo in your gun in a gunfight.
Not too long ago, I tested the Ruger American Compact 9mm pistol, their hot-selling LEO model. The “LEO” stands for Law Enforcement Only – model. And, I don’t believe this LEO gun is only sold to law enforcement, but it had some really nice features that the other American Compact 9mm didn’t have. My review article on the 9mm model is the SurvivalBlog archives. Shortly after testing and reporting on the 9mm American Compact, I received the new American Compact .45 ACP model with a gray Cerakote finish on the slide and a matching color frame – very handsome, indeed.
The 9mm version holds either 10 or 12 rounds – the LEO version came with three 12-round magazines, while the other models only come with a 10-round magazine. The new .45 ACP American Compact comes standard with three 7-round magazines, and these mags are Teflon coated, and make for easy insertion into the gun and even easier to load them to full capacity – an excellent design touch.Continue reading“Ruger American Compact .45 ACP , by Pat Cascio”
The following recipe for Smothered Chicken is from The New Butterick Cook Book, by Flora Rose, co-head of the School of Home Economics at Cornell University. It was published in 1924. A professional scan of that 724-page out-of-copyright book will be one of the many bonus items included in the next edition of the waterproof SurvivalBlog Archive USB stick. This special 15th Anniversary Edition USB stick should be available for sale in the third week of January, 2021. The 14th Edition sold out quickly, so place a reminder in your calendar, if you want one.
This is one of the most delicious ways of cooking chicken.
Take off the neck and split the chicken down the back, wiping it with a damp towel. Season inside and out with salt and pepper, and dredge on all sides with flour. Lay the chicken, with the inside down, in a small baking-tin and add very little water.
The pan should be very little larger than the chickens. Otherwise, the gravy will be too quickly-evaporated. Cook slowly for one hour, basting every ten minutes alter the first twenty minutes, or cook in a covered baking-pan.
Should the chicken be decidedly lacking in fat, add butter or butter substitute. There will be plenty of gravy in the pan with which to baste if the pan is small.
When done, place the chicken on a hot platter. Add enough water to make two cups gravy and thicken with two tablespoons of flour. Should the chicken be quite fat, remove all but two tablespoons of the oil from the pan before making the gravy. Season with salt and pepper, pour it over the chicken and serve at once. Any small birds can be dressed in this way with the most satisfactory results. The secret of success in this kind of roasting lies in very frequent basting and in not having too hot an oven.
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Do you have a favorite recipe that would be of interest to SurvivalBlog readers? In this weekly recipe column, we place emphasis on recipes that use long term storage foods, recipes for wild game, dutch oven and slow cooker recipes, and any that use home garden produce. If you have any favorite recipes, then please send them via e-mail. Thanks!
Here are the latest news items and commentary on current economics news, market trends, stocks, investing opportunities, and the precious metals markets. We also cover hedges, derivatives, and obscura. Most of these items are from the “tangibles heavy” contrarian perspective of SurvivalBlog’s Founder and Senior Editor, JWR. Today, we look at rural real estate. (See the Tangibles Investing section.)
Gold and silver both were pushed down last week, as was Bitcoin. But in the long term, we know the fate of the U.S. Dollar.
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Record Silver Shortage in 2020?
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A primer: Physical Gold vs. Gold Stocks: Which Perform Best In A Recession?
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At Zero Hedge: JPMorgan Makes $1 Billion From Gold Trading After Paying $1 Billion Fine For Manipulating Gold Trading
Several readers sent this piece at Bloomberg: Rich Americans Are Increasingly Looking for Second Passport
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Next, at Wolf Street: Taxpayers Face $435 Billion in Student-Loan Losses, Already Baked in: Leaked Education-Department Study
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Also at Wolf Street: Who Bought the Monstrous $4.2 Trillion Added to the Incredibly Spiking US National Debt in 12 Months? Everyone but China
“[T]he people as ultimate sovereigns, retain the ultimate power – and even the duty – to overthrow any government that fails to respect their authority.” – Glenn Reynolds
Today is the birthday of writer Clive Staples (“C.S.”) Lewis, who was born in 1898 and died 22 November 1963.
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Today we present the final entry for Round 91 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:
Round 92 begins on Tuesday, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how-to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.
