Here are JWR‘s Recommendations of the Week for various media and tools of interest to SurvivalBlog readers. This week’s emphasis is on thermal imagers.
Mark Levin’s latest book is causing a stir: Rediscovering Americanism: And the Tyranny of Progressivism
The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes – and Why
A memorable Robert Heinlein sci-fi novel: Friday
“The person who profits from this law will complain bitterly, defending his acquired rights. He will claim that the state is obligated to protected and encourage his particular industry; that this procedure enriches the state because the protected industry is thus able to spend more and to pay higher wages to the poor workingmen.
Do not listen to this sophistry by vested interests. The acceptance of these arguments will build legal plunder into a whole system. In fact, this has already occurred. The present-day delusion is an attempt to enrich everyone at the expense of everyone else; to make plunder universal under the pretense of organizing it.” ― Frédéric Bastiat, The Law
July 11th is the birthday of John Quincy Adams. He was born in 1767 and died in 1848. Not to be confused with his father– John Adams– the younger Adams also served as a diplomat, congressman, and as president.
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July 11th is Prime Day, for Amazon Prime members, with lots of special deals. If you are not already a member, you can sign up for a free 30-Day trial membership.
These days, we “evil gun owners” are blamed for all sorts of despicable acts. Acts such as the horrible terrorist shooting/mass murder in California. Muslim extremists used legally purchased weapons that they had been given by a friend of theirs. Typical of our leftist, non-American former President and his liberal communist-minded minions, their message was to blame gun owners, the NRA, and the ease of availability of firearms for that senseless incident of terror. To their way of thinking, it couldn’t possibly be because some Muslim terrorist hated our culture and simply wanted to kill as many of us as he could.
Most Americans could benefit from some basic “firearms 101” education, if only to better understand firearms. Guns do not kill people; people kill people. And every firearm that I possess, combined, has been used to kill fewer people then Ted Kennedy’s car. Firearms are simply tools that are used for all sorts of sporting purposes as well as self defense and target shooting.
Continue reading“Basic Handgun Marksmanship Skills- Part 1, by Mark Bunch”
Here is SurvivalBlog’s News From The American Redoubt. This weekly column features news stories and event announcements from around the American Redoubt region. We also often mention companies in the region of interest to preppers. Today’s focus is on the recent Earthquake in western Montana.
Officials may know where missing man is, but can’t get to him
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On to this news story from southern Idaho: After spending 9 months alone in mountains, lost dog is home.
Continue reading“SurvivalBlog’s News From The American Redoubt”
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”. Leading with a couple of articles on “slingshots” today.
One of our SurvivalBlog Writing Contest sponsors, Montie Gear, is having a 25% off sale on Slingshot Accessories. If you haven’t looked at this site, you need to. There are some pretty neat slingshots available on his site. I have a friend who recently found himself having to deal with city restrictions on firearms with no help on dealing with roaming critters. His rural community suddenly decided to incorporate and now his .22 can’t be fired in the city limits. You might be surprised how effective a good slingshot can be in this situation. Use the coupon code “july201799”
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Speaking of slingshots, I find myself spending time on Joerg Sprave’s Sling Shot channel on YouTube lately. This guy weaponizes everything from slingshots, to fidget spinners. Slingshot cannons and Cold Steel’s 2.2 lb Torpedo launchers are the norm. Just for fun, a working Minions “fart gun” is one of his latest projects. Many projects are just for fun, but some are deadly serious. After a couple of hours, you may find yourself saying “…let me show you it’s features…ha ha ha!” in your best German accented English.
“Now I will tell you the answer to my question. It is this. The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power, pure power. What pure power means you will understand presently. We are different from the oligarchies of the past in that we know what we are doing. All the others, even those who resembled ourselves, were cowards and hypocrites. The German Nazis and the Russian Communists came very close to us in their methods, but they never had the courage to recognize their own motives. They pretended, perhaps they even believed, that they had seized power unwillingly and for a limited time, and that just around the corner there lay a paradise where human beings would be free and equal. We are not like that. We know what no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means; it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now you begin to understand me.” ― George Orwell, 1984
July 10th is the birthday of British novelist John Wyndham. (His full name was John Wyndham Parkes Lucas Beynon Harris, but Harris shortened that to just John Wyndham for his pen name.) He we was born in 1903 and died March 11, 1969. Harris was a good friend of fellow novelist Samuel Youd (1922-2012), who wrote under several pen names, including John Christopher. Both men were famous for writing what are often called cosy catastrophies. Several of Wyndham’s novels and short stories have been adapted to film, with varying degrees of success. One of the best of these was a parallel universe story called Random Quest.
Today, we are going to take a close look at the Taurus Model 85 Ultra Lite while I continue on with more all-metal handgun reviews, as requested by many SurvivalBlog readers. According to Taurus, which offers several versions of this model, the Model 85 is their best-selling handgun. Many people are so caught-up with polymer handguns, especially semiauto handguns, they are overlooking some outstanding firearms still manufactured out of metals.
For quite some time, I only considered carrying a revolver for self defense. Yep, I’m old school but I’m not too old to be schooled! You can teach an old dog new tricks. For sure, I owned a lot of semiauto handguns early on, to wit, the outstanding Colt 1911A1 as well as the Browning Hi-Power. And when I was younger, much younger, I would sometimes carry either a 1911 or a Hi-Power while working in private law enforcement, working in plain clothes. I could pretty much carry whatever I wanted.
I hate to admit it, but way back in the day I carried the Hi-Power and the 1911 with a round in the chamber and the hammer lowered on that round. That was stupid! However, it didn’t take me long to realize that carrying that way was not only stupid but very slow to bring the gun into action because the hammer had to be cocked before the gun could be fired.
Continue reading“Taurus Model 85, Ultra Lite, by Pat Cascio”
Posole notes: My husband and I developed a blend of my mother’s tomato-based posole (a hominy-meat soup) that she learned in Mexico and his sister’s red chili-based posole. Neither of those recipes was a written recipe but more a method. My posole is significantly distinct from the other two and is our own creation. I have never printed it before and have not had it copyrighted. I use a church cookbook recipe for the red sauce, but it may be copyrighted. (Use whatever red chili sauce or recipe you have available.) This is a two-day process.
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 Nickels. The U.S. five cent piece “Nickel” is the only currently minted U.S. circulating coin that has a metals content close to its face value. It costs the U.S. Treasury around 7.2 cents to produce each Nickel. (See the Tangibles section near the end of this column.)
Precious Metals:
First, this from Warren Bevan: Precious Metals Massacre
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Next, at Investopedia: Top 4 Platinum Stocks for 2017 (SBGL, PLG)
Now, on to this headline: Oil prices plummet 3 percent on oversupplied market
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Arthur Berman: The Shale Gas Revolution Is A Media Myth
“Men fight for liberty and win it with hard knocks. Their children, brought up easy, let it slip away again; poor fools. And their grand-children are once more slaves.”
– D. H. Lawrence
July 9, 1956 was the birthday of actor/director/producer Tom Hanks. His acting in the movie Saving Private Ryan is riveting.
The same day in 1938 was the birthday of Brian Dennehy. He is most often remembered for his role as the alien leader in Coccoon, but he was cast in many other movies and in hundreds of television shows.
Yesterday, I talked about the changes that have been made to the Harvest Right Freeze Dryer in their new model that made it worthwhile to upgrade. We also reviewed some of the annoying things about the unit that make it difficult. Today, I’m going to review some of the “uglier” aspects of this unit. SurvivalBlog holds a high standard when it comes to product reviews. You’re going to get the bad with the good here. If you purchase this unit based upon our reviews, you’re going to know what to expect. I already covered the major changes that Harvest Right made to the new unit. These “uglier” aspects deal mostly with just owning and operating this type of device. Unless otherwise noted, it applies to both the older model and the newer model.
Let’s get this out in the open right up front. Most people complain about the price on this machine. But it’s really a matter of perspective. Prior to Harvest Right, you had basically two options: 1) Make your own, or 2) Spend more than $10,000 (and usually closer to $30,000) for one of comparable capability. Is price really an issue then? If you purchase this unit at full Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Pricing, you will still be paying less than half of what any other freeze drying unit I’ve found costs. Sure, we want it all. I’d love to have the capabilities of this unit for the price of a good kitchen appliance. I don’t think that’s being very realistic.
Continue reading“Harvest Right: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly – Part 2, by HJL”
First, let me share a little background. I spent 20 years in the industrial labeling area, putting labels on everything from small engines to processed food.
This experience has given me a critical eye on the expiration dates printed on consumer packaging. I can tell you that the production people, the ones sweating on the packaging lines, are very concerned about the safety of what they are working on. Most of them consider the dates they have to put on the cans, jars, boxes, et cetera as a joke. They know that the packaging they are sending down the line is good for decades.
With apologies to the bulk packaging/home canning advertisers, I feel you just cannot, in a home kitchen setting, match the quality of an industrial kitchen run by professionals. Is it “over cooked?” Maybe, but it is safe. (If you are canning home grown stuff, go for it! I grew up on that kind of thing.)
