The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods:

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SurvivalBlog presents another edition of The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods— a collection of news bits and pieces that are relevant to the modern survivalist and prepper from “HJL”. Good news! The pending Defense Authorization Act has provisions to transfer thousands of Army surplus 1911 firearms to the Civilian Marksmanship Program.

The Age of Junk Science

John Stossel had an interesting segment on his show: The Chocolate Hoax and Media Sensationalism. A media science writer put together a piece on how you could lose weight by eating one chocolate bar a day and used twisted data and facts, ignoring the real science. He then published this piece in a new science journal that did not depend upon peer review for acceptance. The media news, including ABC and TV affiliates along with magazines like Prevention ran with the article. It is a good warning to be skeptical of anything you pick up from the general media.

First Amendment

In a glaring example of why the founders included the First Amendment in our Constitution, a London assembly has stepped off the deep end. The assembly has voted to have pro-life Christians arrested and prosecuted for peacefully protesting abortion clinics and praying for women. Video documentation shows that the protesters stand quietly, offering support and prayer, but not blocking or harassing. Anti-protesters, on the other hand use bull-horns, shouting, insults and even occasionally violence in response. Guess who gets targeted by the government for “harassment”? If not for the Constitution, that would be us. Thanks to D.S. for the link.

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The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” – 1 Peter 1:3-5 (KJV)

A Christian Prepper’s Perspective on Giving- Part 3, by R2

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How Does the Lord Value Your Gift?

The Lord does not value the gifts He receives in the same way that man values gifts. The exception perhaps is a mother valuing gifts she has received from her children. I can’t tell you how many times I have sat in church during the obligatory sermon on tithing to your church just to see some un-Biblical practice being followed.

Give in Secret

On one occasion, the pastor of the church we attended thought that he would encourage the congregation to give by being an example. He held up the check that he was going to donate to the cause (I don’t even remember what that cause was) and declared that he was starting the offering by giving $100.

The first thing that came to mind was the Lord’s instruction on giving to the poor:

“Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven. So when you give to the poor, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be honored by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.” Matthew 6:1-2

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The Editors’ Preps for the Week

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To be prepared for a crisis, every Prepper must establish goals and make long-term and short-term plans. Steadily, we work on meeting our prepping goals. In this column, the SurvivalBlog editors review their week’s prep activities. They also often share their planned prep activities for the coming week. These range from healthcare and gear purchases to gardening, property improvements, and food storage. This is something akin to our Retreat Owner Profiles, but written incrementally and in detail, throughout the year. We always welcome you to share your own successes and wisdom in the Comments. Let’s keep busy and be ready!

JWR

Dear SurvivalBlog Readers,
The Rawles family spent most of the week traveling. We’ve returned to very wintery conditions.  Once we got back to the ranch, we did our unpacking and reorganizing. The Greenhouse path still needs to be shoveled, so we’ll have to update that greenhouse within a greenhouse report next week.  Lily started to plan the layouts for the gardens for this coming summer.  Lord willing, we will be doubling the planted area and will be branching off into new crop growing adventures.  More on that later.

We are looking forward to reading comments from readers about your preps this winter.  May you all have a blessed Christmas week, – Avalanche Lily Rawles

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The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods:

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SurvivalBlog presents another edition of The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods— a collection of news bits and pieces that are relevant to the modern survivalist and prepper from “HJL”.

California Fire

The Thomas fire has scorched 273,400 acres, or about 427 square miles of coastal foothills and national forest. This makes it the largest wildfire in California History and it is still going strong with only 65% containment. I’ve noticed some confusion over the term “containment” in the past. It doesn’t mean the fire is under control. It is a term that means firefighters have been able to place a firebreak around it’s perimeter. That firebreak can be anything from a 100 yard wide bulldozed separation to a couple shovel fulls wide. It can also just be a section of already burned land. It just depends on how large that section of fire is and the what the fire conditions are. The fire break is often no bigger than necessary. 65% containment means that there is a firebreak around 65% of the perimeter of the fire.

Fleeing Dragons

Speaking of wildfires, are you prepared for a possible wildfire in your area? If you live in a city, are you prepared for a large city fire? Kevin Reeve, of onPoint Tactical has prepared a short article on being prepared to deal with urban evacuations due to fire conditions. It is short and worth a read. With Tolkien as one of my favorite authors, his use of Tolkien’s quote on dragons caught my eye: “It does not do to leave a dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him.”

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The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

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“For you will go out with joy And be led forth with peace; The mountains and the hills will break forth into shouts of joy before you, And all the trees of the field will clap their hands.” – Isaiah 55:12 (KJV)

A Christian Prepper’s Perspective on Giving- Part 2, by R2

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Yesterday, we talked about how people have a desire to give to the Lord but that all gifts are not valued by Him. We looked at some early examples of our Biblical fathers giving offerings and paying tithes to the Lord as well. Today, I want to continue with one more example that we can use as we begin to build our foundation of understanding on the subject of giving. It is important to note that these are not the only examples, just the first three obvious examples of people planning and arranging to give something of themselves to God.

We don’t want to assume that our gifts are acceptable to Him. Just like when you give to someone special in your life, we want to study His Word and discover what He has told us is important to Him. We want our gifts to Him to show that we love Him and have a desire to obey Him. It’s not enough to just throw some pocket money at Him or who we think His representative is. We want to express our love to Him in everything that we do.

With that in mind, let’s look at one more example:

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Letter: Is the Country Degenerating More Rapidly?

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Hugh,

Is it just me, or is our country changing more rapidly now? I’ve noticed a large increase in cases of people’s lack of consideration for others lately, especially when driving. Cutting others off, passing when it’s unsafe, cutting behind someone backing out of a parking space, driving well under the limit with a dozen cars stacked up behind you, et cetera. It seems like the speed of the descent into social chaos has really quickened lately. We live in a rural area, and it’s bad everywhere now but even worse in urban areas. – L.H.

HJL’s Comment:

It’s not just you. Our great republic is following in the footsteps of all democratic republics that have gone before it. The Greeks dealt with this same issue. The Romans followed suit and a myriad of other nations also did along the way. There really isn’t anything unique about our situation, except perhaps for the speed at which communication happens and the rate at which knowledge increases. These differences have not really seemed to have an impact on the timing though. We are perhaps more aware of the position of other nations around us, but as a whole we are following the same path that has been established before. Alexander Fraser Tytler, Lord Woodhouselee gave us the infamous Tytler cycle, otherwise known as the “Eight (or Nine) Stages of Democracy”. While I don’t agree with everything he wrote, I do believe he is right on with this observation.

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Economics & Investing For Preppers

Here are the latest items and commentary on current economics news, market trends, stocks, investing opportunities, and the precious metals markets. We also cover hedges, derivatives, and obscura. And it bears mention that most of these items are from the “tangibles heavy” contrarian perspective of JWR. (SurvivalBlog’s Founder and Senior Editor.) Today’s focus is on Natural Gas Land. (See the Tangibles Investing section, near the end of this column.)

Precious Metals:

Gold Hovers Below 2-Week High, But Eyes Second Weekly Gain

Gold Forecast 2018: Prices Are Setup For A Breakout Year

Stock Markets:

JPMorgan’s quant guru says traders are waiting for tax cuts to unleash more stock market gains

Here is an interesting monthly stock report to determine what months of the year have historically been better than other months. It is a bit simplistic and doesn’t take into account outside influence, but interesting nonetheless.

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The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“The art of war teaches us to rely not on the likelihood of the enemy’s not coming, but on our own readiness to receive him; not on the chance of his not attacking, but rather on the fact that we have made our position unassailable.” – Sun Tzu

A Christian Prepper’s Perspective on Giving- Part 1, by R2

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Christian charity is a huge topic in the Christian prepping circles and particularly now as holiday and end-of-year giving is on people’s mind. I have seen solutions run the gamut, from churches and groups attempting to feed anyone who knocks to those individuals who refuse to prep to give anything for fear of violence against their own.

There are three aspects of giving, and many confuse these, though they are distinctive. They are as follows:

  1. Giving to the Lord
  2. Giving to your family
  3. Giving to others

The most complex type of giving is actually the first— “Giving to the Lord”. The other two are pretty straight forward.

Investing vs Charity

Most Christians are familiar with the Biblical ban on Usury. While this article is not really on this subject, it bears mentioning a short description to keep confusion to a minimum.

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Letter Re: Food for Thought

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Hello HJL and JWR,

In your recent post titled “The Survival Community’s Dirty Little Secrets”, you refer to the hucksters that seem to pop up and snare unsuspecting customers. This happened to a friend not too long ago with regards to long term food storage. He fell for the ridiculously cheap “complete one year supply” mirage. Fortunately, I had the time to educate him on calories per meal and the type of calories he needed in each before he made the purchase. This brings me to the reason I am writing you. I wanted to show him the facts, so I used chapter 9 of Nuclear War Survival Skills. No wonder this book is in JWR’s Non Fiction Must’s short list.

Those of your readers who have not yet read this free book fail to recognize how much scientific research and hard data it contains. Also, much of the information in this book is applicable to most types of scenarios. Anyone who wants a primer on long term food storage need only read chapter 9. Those who only want the solution to the problem need only glance at table 9.3. Table 17.1 will give readers a breakdown of exactly how much of the basics they need to store per person for one year. Chapter 9 also explains what nutrients will be lacking in this regimen.

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