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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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”. You need to see the emergency knife sharpener featured today. This is a must-have for any serious prepper.

Emergency Knife Sharpener

Reader T.W. sent me a sample knife sharpener called Speedy Sharp. When I first picked it up, I really couldn’t understand how it was supposed to work, so I did what any good prepper would do. I looked it up on the Internet. Wow! This tool is a “must have” for any prepper. It’s simply a piece of sharpened carbide mounted on a steel handle with a plastic grip and cover. It weighs less than a small pocket knife but it will sharpen any knife you have in a pinch, including those with serrated edges. You should note that you have to use a light touch though. The carbide takes a bite in the steel of your knife and a heavy hand can ruin a good blade.

It took just three light passes on Mrs Latimer’s serrated tomato knife that somebody had ruined the edge by cutting on a marble cutting board. I’m getting one of these for each person’s BOB and EDC and perhaps a few extras. Given the choice, I’d still rather use a water stone to put a fine edge on a knife, but when I can’t carry my Tormek with me…

The End of Gun Control

Hobby CNC automation has brought about the end of gun control. The politicians just haven’t figured that out yet. Owen Shroyer of Infowars interviews Cody Wilson (of Ghostgunner fame): The End of Gun Control?

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Into Bear Country- Part 2, by George Fox

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In part 1 of this article series, I wrote about the likelihood of people encountering bear, the different types of bear, and began with an overview of how to detail with one in the event of an encounter. Today, we’ll go into more detail about preventing encounters and what to do if you have one.

Setting Up “Triangle” Camp to Avoid Bears

When you set up camp, there are procedures that should be followed to keep your food secure, to keep you safe, and to prevent bears from coming to the tent to look for snacks. I was taught to establish a camp in a type of triangle with each side at least fifty yards long.

Food Storage

At the first point of the triangle you should have your food storage area. Your food can be stored in bear-proof containers or on a line between two trees at least twenty feet off the ground. I have used Garcia Bear-Resistant containers and have not had any problems.

Continue reading“Into Bear Country- Part 2, by George Fox”

Economics & Investing For Preppers

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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, for retreats. (See the Tangibles Investing section, near the end of this column.)

Precious Metals:

First off, there is this from John Rubino, at Seeking Alpha: Gold And Silver Futures Swing From Bearish To Bullish In Just 2 Weeks

Stock Markets:

On to this at Fortune magazine:  Commentary: Four Reasons Investors Should Be Psyched for Next Year’s Market. JWR’s Comment:  Just keep in mind that Fortune is famous for being in the Perpetual Cheering Section, for the Dow. So view that commentary with suspicion.

 

Commodities:

Next, over at MarketWatch: How palladium and lumber defied the 2017 commodity slump


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JWR’s Recommendations of the Week

Here are JWR’s Recommendations of the Week for various media and tools of interest to SurvivalBlog readers. This week, the focus is on movies about The Reformation.

Books:

Small-Scale Grain Raising: An Organic Guide to Growing, Processing, and Using Nutritious Whole Grains for Home Gardeners and Local Farmers, 2nd Edition

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The Survival Doctor’s Complete Handbook

 

Movies (Reformation):

John Hus — A  Journey of No Return. (Available on DVD, or free streaming to those with Amazon Prime.) JWR’s Comment: Hus has been called a “Proto-Reformer.” He died in 102 years before Martin Luther nailed up his famous 95 Theses. It is noteworthy that the Hussite revolution started after the death of Hus, and was led by Jan Zizka. It is Zizka who is sometimes credited as the father of modern guerilla warfare. The concept of “circling the wagons” came from Zizka, and was later popularized by both the Voortrekkers in South Africa and pioneer wagon train parties in American West. I would have preferred to a see this movie in the original Czech with subtitles, but the dubbing into English was passable.

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And a century later, when the Reformation began in earnest, comes the setting of this much more fictionalized film (also dubbed into English): Storm: Luther’s Forbidden Letter. It is suitable for older children. (It too is available on DVD, or free streaming to those with Amazon Prime.)

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