TEOTWAWKI, gun pairing

         A friend of mine who has been preparing for the collapse recently had his eyes opened as to the need for self-defense. He asked me what I thought he ought to get started with. After going over his situation (married with two young kids, living in a small house near Detroit but with acess to an old relative's farm in Michigan's thumb) and thinking about what folks did in the days when money was dear, life was cheap and the ability to travel light was important I recomended that he get a .357cal. revolver and a lever action rifle in the same caliber.

         I can hear some of you saying "too much pistol, not enough rifle". To a point you are right, but my thoughts are this; he is looking to get started being able to defend himself and his family as easily and simple as possible, a heavy revolver will handle close-in work well and a lever-action in .357 will work out to 200 yards or so. Both have the advantage of using the same ammo and being able to use .38cal as well. For a beginner this could be important as he only needs to stock (and perhaps reload) one type of ammo. Both guns are as foolproof as is reasonably possible and are mechanically simple in the event of failure (very unlikely with modern firearms). Practice ammo is inexpensive and the full-power loads are tolerably priced. Neither gun can jam in the way a semi-auto can and the clearing drill is the same for both; reload and squeeze the trigger. Both have plenty of knock-down power ar closer ranges and are adequate fr taking game in the area he will be heading for.

         This is the best gun pair that I could come up with, I am sure there are others out there but for beginners this seemed the best; two simple guns, one type of ammo.

Surviving TEOTWAWKI Part 3b; A Place in the Country

For many people the thought of trying to survive an economic collapse (and the attendant social discord) in or near a big city is simply, well, ......unthinkable. The lucky ones have the sort of job, or finanacial resources, that has already allowed them to relocate to a more desirable location. For the rest of us there is only the option of trying to obtain a cottage or such as some sort as a bolt-hole in the event of emergency. This would provide the option to carry on in a more congenial environment "far from the madding crowds" without having to abandon the niceties of ubran dwelling and employment in the short-term.

There are many things to consider when selecting a domicile in a non-urban environment. First (as the real-estate people always say) is location. Access to resources is equally important in the country as it is in the city, water, food and fuel will continue to be crucial requirements. The upside of some cottages is that they are almost independent for short-term use (a good many have wells and septic fields so an important part of civilized living is covered) but many fall down when you consider permanent use as a dwelling. Most vacation properties were selected for sweeping views or seclusion in a quiet pine forest or waterfront access to an all-sports lake. These are excellent features for a vacation home they do not add to long-term survival in a crumbling world. If you can find a property that has these features and can cover most of the items that we will dicuss below then you are in good stead, if not you might consider looking elsewhere.

How will the collapse look?

It would be the height of presumption for me to claim that I know what the Fall of Fiat will look like to those of us that are around when it happens (it could be going on right now) but I think I can make some educated guesses. To my mind it could go one of two ways; sudden collapse or a long, drawn-out grind to perdition; I call these two The Explosion and Sovietization.

Steady Lads!

        The recent pummelling that precious metals have taken may be my fault, after the price broke back at the beginning of May I thought the correction was over and ran out and bought a bunch of physical. It seemed a deal at $36US an ounce, as usual I missed the mark. Oh well.

        My thoughts are this; I am buying insurance, everybody does. You insure your car, your house, your life; you never want to collect as that would mean that your car/house/life have been destroyed or damaged. I buy PMs as an insurance against economic collapse and, like the other insurances that I buy, I hope to go through life without ever testing to see how well it worked. That said, all other sorts of insurance is a loss while my collection of Silver Eagles can at least be used to teach my grandchildren to count.

    If you are buying PMs to trade you have bigger stones than I and good luck to you. If you are holding physical PMs as insurance this simply represents an opportunity to aquire more. Either way, hang tough (and read the Turd).

Surviving TEOTWAWKI Part 3a; Home Sweet Home

   In  a SHTF situation you will need to have a base, most likely this will be your home, largely because that is where your family and all your stuff reside. It is time to think in critical terms about your house. In Part 3a we will be looking at how well your house would continue to be a happy home in the face of the loss of electricity, gas and water. We will also consider relocation issues. I will look at the option of bugging out to a Place in the Country in Part 3b and Security and Defenses in Part 3c. How the collapse unwinds will determine the path of choices that we will all face, be it a sudden implosion or a gradual erosion of quality of life, or even a mixture of the two, it won't make life easier. As always preparation is key.

Tomahawk report suspended, Predators on scene

With the near complete removal of US military personell from the Libyan conflcit it seems that we won't be firing any further Tomahawk missiles at the desert nation. We have sent a few Predator drones as a replacement. This is probably an improvement in real terms as the Tomahawk has to know where it is going before it leaves the ship while  Predator can take off on a "watch and see" sort of mission.

It has the ability to hang above potential target areas, providing up-to-the-minute info the NATO commanders and also has a limited on-board weapons capability of a couple of Hellfire missiles. These can be fired at a target that presents itself and may be available for too short a time to launch an airstrike against. This weapon system has proven hugely effective over the borderlands of AfPak. With a hang-time of over 14 hours they can chase a target to ground and then (in relays) wait until it resurfaces. The powerful camera array can allow operators to recognize facial features to confirm a target's identity before launching a missile. This should enhance the NATO effort to  "strike at command and control assets" (also known as Mr. Khadaffi) as well as allowing strikes to be made very close to non-combatants as the Hellfire is extremely accurate.

Mr. Khaddafi may wish to remind himself of the fate of Sheikh Fateh al Masri and Mustafa Abu al-Yazid who met their fates at the hands of the unseen "eye-in-the-sky". Retirement may now seem more of an option .

Busy Weekend so all you get is a link

The always perceptive Gonzalo Lira has a good article examining the value of government spending as a way of influencing the national GDP .

DJINNS in politics???

Over at PJM Brian Preston offers this tidbit:

Iranian turmoil gets medieval

The mullahs who hate Mad Mahmoud dream of genies. And not the Barbara Eden kind, unfortunately.

Close allies of Iran‘s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, have been accused of using supernatural powers to further his policies amid an increasingly bitter power struggle between him and the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Several people said to be close to the president and his chief of staff, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, have been arrested in recent days and charged with being “magicians” and invoking djinns (spirits).
Ayandeh, an Iranian news website, described one of the arrested men, Abbas Ghaffari, as “a man with special skills in metaphysics and connections with the unknown worlds”.

Meanwhile, Mahmoud went back to work after an ineffective one-man strike to protest the mullahs’ rehiring of the state intelligence chief that he, Mahmoud, had fired. His power does seem to be breaking while the mullahs appear at this point poised to win. As for using the supernatural to keep him in power, it doesn’t take a genie to stuff ballot boxes.


There are times when I feel that I must be having a bad dream, are these people really running a nation that is on the brink of being able to launch medium range nuclear missiles?  WTF

Surviving TEOTWAWKI Part 2 Outside the skin

Depending on how bad you think the blow-up will be you will have different ideas as to how much depth you will need in this area. I figure that when the fiat economy blows up it will be at least a year before things begin to look "normal" and I base most of my assumptions on that. "Outside the skin" means literally your closest contact with the world, clothing, footwear outerwear etc. When the balloon goes up life will get a lot harder, a LOT harder, your designer jeans and stylish jacket won't last long in a world that cannot provide the cocoon of civilization.

You need clothing (lots of it) that is at least as tough as the times you will be facing. If you are an outdoor type you may be better off than most, but a lot of the stuff they sell for hikers and such are only good for the odd weekend or three a year. Hunters will be better off as hunting clothing is traditionally made to stand heavy use. My suggestion for workable, wearable clothes would be to examine the clothing worn by construction workers or farmers. These folks face a "heavy use" environment every day and understand the sort of wear and tear that the average weekend hiker does not encounter.

Those Bears are back (pardon the pun)

My well-known affliction for drawing financial advice from cartoon bears has been tickled again. Not safe for office, or little kids.


Enjoy!

You have doubtless heard by now, OBL is dead

For almost a decade he had been on the run (that or just hanging out in his million dollar resort) while the mightiest nations on earth hunted him. He sent thousands to their death one fine September morning and then, over the following years (as if to compound the crime), sent thousands more to theirs in suicidal missions against the armed might of the U.S. and it's Allies.

Failing in those efforts he returned to his roots and went back to murdering civilians, London, Madrid, Baghdad, Kabul and a thousand little towns and villages known to far too few people in the West. He sent his pliable minions on their bloody-minded, hate-filled errands. No doubt rejoicing in every statistic of lives ruined, hopes crushed, children maimed, and old women murdered, he never risked his life to implement his mad schemes.