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« Letter Re: Gerald Celente Predicts Survivalism Will Go Mainstream in 2010 |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Sunday December 20 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Nevertheless we made our prayer unto our God, and set a watch against them day and night, because of them.." - Nehemiah 4:9 (KJV) « Letter Re: Vehicle Recommendations? |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Saturday December 19 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Adversity has the same effect on a man that severe training has on the pugilist - it reduces him to his fighting weight." - Josh Billings « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Friday December 18 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars." - Edwin H. Chapin « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Thursday December 17 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Yes, we did produce a near-perfect republic. But will they keep it? Or will they, in the enjoyment of plenty, lose the memory of freedom? Material abundance without character is the path of destruction." - Thomas Jefferson « Letter Re: Fitness Training for WTSHTF |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Wednesday December 16 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"We pay too little attention to the reserve power of the people to take care of themselves. We are too solicitous for government intervention, on the theory, first, that the people themselves are helpless, and second, that the government has superior capacity for action. Often times both of these conclusions are wrong." - President John Calvin Coolidge, Jr. « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Tuesday December 15 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"One of the common failings among honorable people is a failure to appreciate how thoroughly dishonorable some other people can be, and how dangerous it is to trust them." - Thomas Sowell « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Monday December 14 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:“Sure I am that this day - now we are the masters of our fate; that the task which has been set us is not above our strength; that its pangs and toils are not beyond our endurance. As long as we have faith in our cause and an unconquerable will-power, salvation will not be denied us.” - Winston Churchill, addressing a joint session of the US Congress, December 26, 1941 « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Sunday December 13 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Just as we must learn to obey God one choice at a time, we must also learn to trust God one circumstance at a time…We honor God by choosing to trust Him when we don’t understand what He is doing or why He has allowed some adverse circumstance to occur." - Jerry Bridges « Note from JWR: |Main| Economics and Investing: » Saturday December 12 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"If it be not to come, it will be now, « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Friday December 11 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Empires and currencies rise and fall, but gold stands strong, monolithic and proud, casting an enormous shadow over all monetary history." - Adam Hamilton, April 2, 2002 « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Thursday December 10 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Let me be a free man, free to travel, free to stop, free to work, free to trade where I choose, free to choose my own teachers, free to follow the religion of my fathers, free to talk, think, and act for myself--and then I will obey every law or submit to the penalty." - Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce Tribe « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Wednesday December 9 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you." - Sachel Paige « Letter Re: Free Local EMS Training |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Tuesday December 8 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"When goods do not cross borders, soldiers will." - Frederic Bastiat « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Monday December 7 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"The only thing that can stop a bad man with a gun, is a good man with a gun" - Major Lars Laine, a fictional character in the forthcoming sequel to "Patriots: A Novel of Survival in the Coming Collapse", scheduled for release in 2011. The working title is: Veterans: A Novel of Survival in the Coming Collapse. Its storyline will be contemporaneous with that of JWR's first novel, and will have a few cross-over characters. This novel will be set primarily in the southwestern United States. « Letter Re: Observations on Hand-Powered Tools |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Sunday December 6 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Search me, Oh God, and know my heart. Try me, and know my thoughts. And see if there be and wicked way in me, and lead me to way everlasting." - Psalm 26:2 « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Saturday December 5 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"The nation needs to return to the colonial way of life, when a wife was judged by the amount of wood she could split." - W. C. Fields « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Friday December 4 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"You need only do three things in this country to avoid poverty: finish high school, marry before having a child, and marry after the age of 20. Only 8 percent of the families who do this are poor; 79 percent of those who fail to do this are poor." - William Galston « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Thursday December 3 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Inflation is the senility of democracies." - Sylvia Townsend Warner « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Wednesday December 2 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:“Don't worry about the world coming to an end today. It is already tomorrow in Australia.” - Charles M. Schulz (American cartoonist, 1922-2000) « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Tuesday December 1 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"We in America do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate." - Thomas Jefferson « Notes from JWR: |Main| Economics and Investing: » Monday November 30 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear." - Edmund Burke « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Sunday November 29 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work: If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls down and has no one to help him up!" - Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 « Notes from JWR: |Main| Economics and Investing: » Saturday November 28 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"It is, in a way, an odd thing to honor those who died in defense of our country ... in wars far away. The imagination plays a trick. We see these soldiers in our mind as old and wise. We see them as something like the Founding Fathers, grave and gray-haired. But most of them were boys when they died, and they gave up two lives -- the one they were living and the one they would have lived. When they died, they gave up their chance to be husbands and fathers and grandfathers. They gave up their chance to be revered old men. They gave up everything for their country, for us. All we can do is remember." - Ronald Wilson Reagan « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Friday November 27 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"A fine marksman is with a second rate rifle is far more effective than the reverse." - Colonel Jeff Cooper, writing in Mel Tappan's P.S. Newsletter « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Thursday November 26 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government -- lest it come to dominate our lives and interests." - Patrick Henry « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Wednesday November 25 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"A wise [man] feareth, and departeth from evil: but the fool rageth, and is confident." - Proverbs 14:16 (KJV) « Letter Re: Preparing Your Spouse |Main| Economics and Investing: » Tuesday November 24 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"We will always remember. We will always be proud. We will always be prepared, so we will always be free." - Ronald Wilson Reagan « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Monday November 23 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go." - Joshua 1:9 « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Sunday November 22 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"The law of the LORD is perfect, restoring the soul; The testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; The commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; The judgments of the LORD are true; they are righteous altogether. They are more desirable than gold, yes, than much fine gold; Sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb." - Psalm 19:7-10 « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Saturday November 21 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Mischief springs from the power which the monied interest derives from a paper currency which they are able to control, and from the multitude of corporations with exclusive privilege. . .which are employed for their benefit." - President Andrew Jackson « Letter Re: Oral Rehydration Solutions |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Friday November 20 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"The new danger was that when the peasants finally refused to deliver produce to the towns, the towns would go and fetch it. It had happened in Austria during the blockade. It had happened in the Ruhr and the Rhineland under the provocation of French militarism and enforced idleness. Now there were reports from Saxony -unoccupied Germany -- that bands of several hundred townspeople at a time had taken to riding out into the countryside on bicycles to confiscate what they needed. Anna Eisenmenger's diary included a first-hand account of the plunder of Linz and its neighbourhood in Austria -- the place which Hitler regarded as his home town. She transcribed a letter from her daughter who had been staying there for a few weeks with cousins who ran a small farm with eight cows, two horses, twelve pigs and the usual poultry: I had driven with Uncle and Aunt to church at Linz. The nearer we approached the more crowded became the usually deserted high road. All kinds of odd-looking individuals met us. One man wearing three hats, one set on top of the other, and at least two coats, excited our amusement … We met people drawing carts piled high with tinned foods of every description … A man and a woman were seated in a ditch by the side of the road and, without the least embarrassment, were changing their very ragged garments for quite new ones. 'Hurry up', the woman shouted to us, 'or there'll be nothing left!' We did not understand this remark until we passed the first plundered shops. Peaceful Linz looked as if it had been visited by an earthquake. Furniture smashed beyond recognition littered the pavements. But not only provision shops, inns, cafes, and drapers' shops had been looted. Jewellers and watchmakers, too, had been unable to defend their wares. We saw that the inn at which Uncle and Aunt usually stopped after Mass was completely devastated. The old innkeeper caught sight of us and hurried up, almost in tears. He could not open his inn because all the furniture had been smashed and all the provisions stolen; and he strongly advised my uncle to drive home, since the ringleaders of the mob were inciting their followers to ransack the neighbourhood." - From When Money Dies (1975), as recently quoted in Bison Survival Blog « Letter Re: Getting a Christian Wife Involved With Preparedness |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Thursday November 19 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"It is not only what we do, but also what we do not do, for which we are accountable." - Jean-Baptiste Poquelin Molière « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Wednesday November 18 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it." - Theodore Roosevelt « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Tuesday November 17 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"It is a cruel thought that, when we feel ourselves standing on the firmest ground in every respect, the cursed arts of our secret enemies, combining with other causes, should effect, by depreciating our money, what the open arms of a powerful enemy could not." - Thomas Jefferson « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Monday November 16 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"I, for one, do not trust Congress to be in charge of monetary policy. But I do not argue that the Federal Reserve System should maintain its independence from the Federal government. I maintain that it should be made completely independent of the Federal government: cut loose and left to fend for itself, just as the Second Bank of the United States was in 1836. It went bust. I am not so naive as to imagine that this will happen in my lifetime, short of a true social collapse in which several million people die because of the collapse of the division of labor due to hyperinflation. I do not expect this to happen. But I can dream [of such a catastrophe]." - Dr. Gary North « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Sunday November 15 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"The righteous cried [out], and the Lord heard, And delivered them out of all their troubles." - Psalm 34:17 « Letter Re: How Can I Make and Store Dog Food? |Main| » Saturday November 14 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:Nothing is more certain than that a general profligacy and corruption of manners make a people ripe for destruction. A good form of government may hold the rotten materials together for some time, but beyond a certain pitch, even the best constitution will be ineffectual, and slavery must ensue. - John Witherspoon, The Dominion of Providence Over the Passions of Men, 1776 « Letter Re: It Takes a Village for Perimeter Security |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Friday November 13 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; they shall walk, and not faint." - Isaiah 40:31 « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Thursday November 12 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"The mania for giving the Government power to meddle with the private affairs of cities or citizens is likely to cause endless trouble, through the rivalry of schools and creeds that are anxious to obtain official recognition, and there is great danger that our people will lose our independence of thought and action which is the cause of much of our greatness, and sink into the helplessness of the Frenchman or German who expects his government to feed him when hungry, clothe him when naked, to prescribe when his child may be born and when he may die, and, in time, to regulate every act of humanity from the cradle to the tomb, including the manner in which he may seek future admission to paradise." - Mark Twain « Letter Re: Food Storage--of Mice and Moths |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Wednesday November 11 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"You have never lived until you have almost died. For those who fight for it, life has a flavor the protected will never know." - An unattributed quote, penned on a C-ration box for display at a Marine Corps command post, Khe Sahn, South Vietnam, during the 77-day siege in 1968 « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Tuesday November 10 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Of all contrivances for cheating the laboring classes of mankind, none has been more effective than that which deludes them with paper money." - Daniel Webster « Letter Re: An Overwhelmed Newbie, Catching Up at Prepping |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Monday November 9 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"With reasonable men I will reason, with humane men I will plead, with tyrants I will show no mercy." - Thomas Jefferson « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Sunday November 8 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart Be acceptable in thy sight, O Jehovah, my rock, and my redeemer. " - Psalm 19:14 « Letter Re: Preps and Minimizing My Debts Paid Off When Unemployed |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Saturday November 7 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"I am being unfairly accused. Time will prove that I have done nothing wrong, and I am confident that I will be found innocent of these charges." - Mayor Sheila Dixon, in her blog on January 10, 2009. (Her trial on a dozen theft, corruption, perjury and bribery charges is scheduled to begin on November, 9, 2009. Two others implicated have already pled guilty, and are cooperating with prosecutors in Dixon's case. Dixon is a member of the controversial Mayors Against Illegal Guns Coalition. « The Reliability of the Gas Tube-Driven AR-15/M16/M4 Design is Again Questioned |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Friday November 6 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed, and next oblige it to control itself." - James Madison « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Thursday November 5 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"I find it simply fascinating how little is currently being written about the big bull market in gold. Where anything is written, it's almost a warning that 'gold is volatile,' that 'speculators are driving gold up,' or that 'the gold shorts are simply being squeezed.' Never a word about the Fed creating new inflationary oceans of liquidity, never a word about the dollar losing its purchasing power, never a word about real money rising against all other asset classes. Silence reigns regarding what could be the most significant bull markets in recent history." - Richard Russell « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Wednesday November 4 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death." - Thomas Paine, December 19, 1776 « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Tuesday November 3 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"How rare is gold? If you could gather together all the gold mined in recorded history, melt it down, and pour it into one giant cube, it would measure only about eighteen yards across! That's all the gold owned by every government on earth, plus all the gold in private hands, all the gold in rings, necklaces, chains, and gold art. That's all the gold used in tooth fillings, in electronics, in coins and bars. It's everything that exists above ground now, or since man learned to extract the metal from the earth. All of it can fit into one block the size of a single house. It would weigh about 91,000 tons - less than the amount of steel made around the world in an hour. That's rare." - Daniel M. Kehrer « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Monday November 2 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"We must reject the idea that every time a law's broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions." - Ronald Wilson Reagan « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Sunday November 1 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"On the first day of every week each one of you is to put aside and save, as he may prosper." - 1 Corinthians 16:2 « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Saturday October 31 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"China is now a big buyer of gold and silver for their banks. Chinese television has been recommending that everyone should go to the bank to buy gold and silver. That’s 1.3 billion people getting propagandized. This is a major bullish factor for gold. Perhaps the bankers have met their match." - Howard J. Ruff « Letter Re: Comments of Storing Coffee and Grinding Whole Wheat Flour |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Friday October 30 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Some people think the Federal Reserve Banks are U.S. government institutions. They are not ... they are private credit monopolies which prey upon the people of the U.S. for the benefit of themselves and their foreign and domestic swindlers, and rich and predatory money lenders. The sack of the United States by the Fed is the greatest crime in history. Every effort has been made by the Fed to conceal its powers, but the truth is the Fed has usurped the government. It controls everything here and it controls all our foreign relations. It makes and breaks governments at will." - Congressman Charles McFadden « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Thursday October 29 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"The gold standard, in one form or another, will prevail long after the present rash of national fiats is forgotten or remembered only in currency museums."- Hans F. Sennholz « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Wednesday October 28 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Let me tell you why you're here. You're here because you know something. What you know you can't explain, but you feel it. You've felt it your entire life, that there's something wrong with the world. You don't know what it is, but it's there, like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad. It is this feeling that has brought you to me." - Laurence Fishburne as Morpheus, The Matrix, 1999. (Screenplay by Larry and Andy Wachowski.) « Letter Re: Survival Notes from the Dominican Republic |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Tuesday October 27 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Inflation has now been institutionalized at a fairly constant 5% per year. This has been scientifically determined to be the optimum level for generating the most revenue without causing public alarm. A 5% devaluation applies, not only to the money earned this year, but to all that is left over from previous years. At the end of the first year, a dollar is worth 95 cents. At the end of the second year, the 95 cents is reduced again by 5%, leaving its worth at 90 cents, and so on. By the time a person has worked 20 years, the government will have confiscated 64% of every dollar he saved over those years. By the time he has worked 45 years, the hidden tax will be 90%. The government will take virtually everything a person saves over a lifetime." - G. Edward Griffin « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Monday October 26 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Cynic is a word created by optimists to criticize realists." - Gregory Benford, In the Ocean of Night, 1972 « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Sunday October 25 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual [hosts] of wickedness in the heavenly [places]. Wherefore take up the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and, having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; withal taking up the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the evil [one]. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: with all prayer and supplication praying at all seasons in the Spirit, and watching thereunto in all perseverance and supplication for all the saints." - Ephesians 6:11-18 « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Saturday October 24 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"A house is not a home unless it contains food and fire for the mind as well as the body." - Benjamin Franklin « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Friday October 23 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"You might just as well. . . read the Bible to buffaloes as to those fellows who follow [slavery]; but they have a supreme respect for the logic that is embodied in Sharp's rifle." - Rev. Henry Ward Beecher (after whom, Sharps repeating rifles were nicknamed "Beecher's Bibles") « Three Letters Re: Storing Food in Commercial Storage Spaces? |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Thursday October 22 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Once the shooting starts, a plan is just a guess in a party dress." - Michael Yon « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Wednesday October 21 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"The modern mind dislikes gold because it blurts out unpleasant truths." - Joseph Schumpeter « Twenty-Two Reasons Why this Recession is Different and Why it Will Endure |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Tuesday October 20 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"It is not what you do not know that will hurt you the most. It is what you think you know, but it just ain’t so!" - Mark Twain « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Monday October 19 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Anyone who clings to the historically untrue — and thoroughly immoral — doctrine that "violence never solves anything" I would advise to conjure up the ghosts of Napoleon Bonaparte and of the Duke of Wellington and let them debate it. The ghost of Hitler could referee, and the jury might well be the Dodo, the Great Auk, and the Passenger Pigeon. Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor, and the contrary opinion is wishful thinking at its worst. Breeds that forget this basic truth have always paid for it with their lives and freedoms." - Robert A. Heinlein, Starship Troopers « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Sunday October 18 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"For what glory [is it], if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer [for it], ye take it patiently, this [is] acceptable with God. For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps." - 1 Peter 2:20-21 (KJV) « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Saturday October 17 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"The right of self-defense is the first law of nature; in most governments it has been the study of rulers to confine this right within the narrowest limits possible. Wherever standing armies are kept up, and when the right of the people to keep and bear arms is, under any color or pretext whatsoever, prohibited, liberty, if not already annihilated, is on the brink of destruction." - Henry St. George Tucker, in Blackstone's 1768 Commentaries on the Laws of England « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Friday October 16 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"The will to win is important, but the will to prepare is vital." - Penn State Football Coach Joe Paterno « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Thursday October 15 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"How can we think that setting up the Fed as monitor of systemic risk in the financial sector will result in meaningful reform? The words ‘fox’ and ‘henhouse’ come to mind." - Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Tuesday October 13 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Every man who goes into the Indian country should be armed with a rifle and revolver, and he should never, either in camp or out of it, lose sight of them. When not on the march, they should be placed in such a position that they can be seized at an instant's warning; and when moving about outside the camp, the revolver should invariably be worn in the belt, as the person does not know at what moment he may have use for it. - Randolph B. Marcy, Captain, U.S. Army, The Prairie Traveler, 1859 « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Monday October 12 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"When I was asked to make this address I wondered what I had to say to you boys who are graduating. And I think I have one thing to say. If you wish to be useful, never take a course that will silence you. Refuse to learn anything that implies collusion, whether it be a clerkship or a curacy, a legal fee or a post in a university. Retain the power of speech no matter what other power you may lose. If you can take this course, and in so far as you take it, you will bless this country. In so far as you depart from this course, you become dampers, mutes, and hooded executioners. As a practical matter, a mere failure to speak out upon occasions where no statement is asked or expect from you, and when the utterance of an uncalled for suspicion is odious, will often hold you to a concurrence in palpable iniquity. Try to raise a voice that will be heard from here to Albany and watch what comes forward to shut off the sound. It is not a German sergeant, nor a Russian officer of the precinct. It is a note from a friend of your father's, offering you a place at his office. This is your warning from the secret police. Why, if you any of young gentleman have a mind to make himself heard a mile off, you must make a bonfire of your reputations, and a close enemy of most men who would wish you well. I have seen ten years of young men who rush out into the world with their messages, and when they find how deaf the world is, they think they must save their strength and wait. They believe that after a while they will be able to get up on some little eminence from which they can make themselves heard. "In a few years," reasons one of them, "I shall have gained a standing, and then I shall use my powers for good." Next year comes and with it a strange discovery. The man has lost his horizon of thought, his ambition has evaporated; he has nothing to say. I give you this one rule of conduct. Do what you will, but speak out always. Be shunned, be hated, be ridiculed, be scared, be in doubt, but don't be gagged. The time of trial is always. Now is the appointed time." - John J. Chapman, Commencement Address to the Graduating Class of Hobart College, 1900 « Where to Store Food When There is No Simple Answer, by Margy |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Sunday October 11 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"The thing they forget is that liberty and freedom and democracy are so very precious that you do not fight to win them once and stop. You do not do that. Liberty and freedom and democracy are prizes awarded only to those peoples who fight to win them and then keep fighting eternally to hold them!" - Sergeant Alvin York « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Saturday October 10 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"The public cannot be too curious concerning the characters of public men." - Samuel Adams, in a letter to James Warren, on November 4, 1775 « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Friday October 9 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"If you become involved in a crisis situation, you will not rise to the occasion but, rather, default to your level of training." - A phrase first coined by firefighters, but now commonly used by shooting instructors « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Thursday October 8 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:“In addition to some of the obvious reasons why you don’t want to cut yourself when operating a saw, blood on a bare tool steel blade can cause serious and near-immediate rusting, and good tools deserve better treatment than that. “ - H. J. Halterman, Along the Way, August 2009 « Letter Re: Where to Start in Survival Preparedness? |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Tuesday October 6 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"The fact of the matter was that Venice was utterly demoralized. It was so long since she had been obliged to make a serious military effort that she had lost the will that makes such efforts possible. Peace, the pursuit of pleasure, the love of luxury, the whole spirit of dolce far niente (softness for nothing) has sapped her strength. She was old and tired; she was also spoilt." - John Julius Norwich's description of once mighty Venice's surrender to Napoleon « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Monday October 5 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Nature is cruel and dynamic. It is a daily massacre for the lame and the newborn. Vicious spasms of violence red in tooth and claw tempered by turns of weather that can kill and nourish in the same pastoral event. Most importantly, nature is capricious in the most practical sense: the complexity is so immense as to be almost incomprehensible to human cognition. Complexity theory has tried to capture the distillate of what appears to be random phenomenon but is actually a spontaneous order much like economic market forces. Which brings us to the cruelest joke of all on the Greens: they can’t possibly know what they are talking about." - Bill Buppert « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Sunday October 4 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:If liberty is not maintained with regard to education, there is no use trying to maintain it in any other sphere. If you give the bureaucrats the children, you might as well give them everything else…. No we do not want a federal Department of Education; and we do not want, in any form whatever, the slavery that a federal department of Education would bring.” - J. Gresham Machen in Education, Christianity, and the State « Notes from JWR: |Main| Economics and Investing: » Saturday October 3 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:For this is what the LORD says - « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Friday October 2 2009#1 Son's Quote of the Day:"Modern military planners often talk in terms of “threat spirals” when a given threat escalates and inspires a defensive countermeasure. Ideally you should anticipate your opponent’s next escalation and take countermeasures, insulating yourself from the future threat." - James Wesley, Rawles, discussing recent trends in home invasion robberies in « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Thursday October 1 2009#1 Son's Quote of the Day:"Learn the crucial skills for self-sufficiency and self-defense. Once you’ve mastered them, share them with others. Future generations need to learn these skills. Raise your children to be God-fearing, practical, and thrifty. That will be a lasting legacy." - James Wesley, Rawles, « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Wednesday September 30 2009#1 Son's Quote of the Day:"If you are serious about preparedness, then it is time to get out of your armchair and start training and preparing. It will take time. It will take some sweat. It will take money. But once you’ve prepared, you can sleep well, knowing that you’ve done your best to protect and provide for your family, regardless of what the future brings. Don’t get stuck in the rut of simply studying preparedness. Unless the shelves in your pantry and garage are filling with supplies, and unless you are growing muscles and calluses, you are not preparing." - James Wesley, Rawles, « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Tuesday September 29 2009#1 Son's Quote of the Day:"There is no substitute for mass. Mass stops bullets. Mass stops gamma radiation. Mass stops (or at least slows down) bad guys from entering a home and depriving its residents of life and property. Sandbags are cheap, so buy plenty of them. When planning your retreat house, think: medieval castle." - James Wesley, Rawles, « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Monday September 28 2009#1 Son's Quote of the Day:"The foundational morality of the civilized world is best summarized in the Ten Commandments. Moral relativism and secular humanism are slippery slopes. The terminal moraine at the base of these slopes is a rubble pile consisting of either despotism and pillage, or anarchy and the depths of depravity. I believe that it takes both faith and friends to survive perilous times." - James Wesley, Rawles, « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Sunday September 27 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man. [It is] better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in princes." - Psalm 118:8-9 (KJV) « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Saturday September 26 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"While the people have property, arms in their hands, and only a spark of noble spirit, the most corrupt Congress must be mad to form any project of tyranny."- Rev. Nicholas Collin (1745-1831) Fayetteville Gazette (N.C.), October 12, 1789 « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Friday September 25 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"The more subsidized it is, the less free it is. What is known as "free education" is the least free of all, for it is a state-owned institution; it is socialized education - just like socialized medicine or the socialized post office - and cannot possibly be separated from political control." – Frank Chodorov (1887-1966), Why Free Schools Are Not Free « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Thursday September 24 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:“The great body of our citizens shoot less as times goes on. We should encourage rifle practice among schoolboys, and indeed among all classes, as well as in the military services by every means in our power. Thus, and not otherwise, may we be able to assist in preserving peace in the world. The first step – in the direction of preparation to avert war if possible, and to be fit for war if it should come – is to teach men to shoot!” - Theodore Roosevelt « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Wednesday September 23 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"This first stage of the inflationary process may last for many years. While it lasts, the prices of many goods and services are not yet adjusted to the altered money relation. There are still people in the country who have not yet become aware of the fact that they are confronted with a price revolution which will finally result in a considerable rise of all prices, although the extent of this rise will not be the same in the various commodities and services. These people still believe that prices one day will drop. Waiting for this day, they restrict their purchases and concomitantly increase their cash holdings. As long as such ideas are still held by public opinion, it is not yet too late for the government to abandon its inflationary policy. But then, finally, the masses wake up. They become suddenly aware of the fact that inflation is a deliberate policy and will go on endlessly. A breakdown occurs. The crack-up boom appears. Everybody is anxious to swap his money against 'real' goods, no matter whether he needs them or not, no matter how much money he has to pay for them. Within a very short time, within a few weeks or even days, the things which were used as money are no longer used as media of exchange. They become scrap paper. Nobody wants to give away anything against them. It was this that happened with the Continental currency in America in 1781, with the French mandats territoriaux in 1796, and with the German mark in 1923. It will happen again whenever the same conditions appear. If a thing has to be used as a medium of exchange, public opinion must not believe that the quantity of this thing will increase beyond all bounds. Inflation is a policy that cannot last." - Ludwig von Mises « Letter Re: Will Junk Silver Be Accepted for Barter, Post-Collapse? |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Tuesday September 22 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Better prepare for confrontation than hope that the enemy will not come; « Notes from JWR: |Main| Economics and Investing: » Monday September 21 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Freedoms assumed become freedoms forgotten, freedoms forgotten will become freedoms lost." – Dr. Ergun Caner, President of Liberty Theological Seminary « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Sunday September 20 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Work as if you were to live 100 Years, Pray as if you were to die To-morrow." - Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanack, 1757 « Linda Rawles Memorial Fund Donations |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Saturday September 19 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Human freedom is not a gift of man. It is an achievement by man; and as it was gained by vigilance and struggle so it may be lost in indifference and supineness." - Harry F. Byrd « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Friday September 18 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:“Associate yourself with men of good quality, if you esteem your own reputation; for it is better to be alone than in bad company.” - George Washington, Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior #56 « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Thursday September 17 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival." - W. Edwards Deming « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Wednesday September 16 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:“Every disaster response is local. It’s up to us to take care of our people.” - Mike Manning, president and chief executive officer of the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank « An Apology, In Advance |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Tuesday September 15 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Why did she have to go She flew up to Heaven on the wings of angels « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Sunday September 13 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Never forget, even for an instant, that the one and only reason anybody has for taking your gun away is to make you weaker than he is, so he can do something to you that you wouldn't let him do if you were equipped to prevent it. This goes for burglars, muggers, and rapists, and even more so for policemen, bureaucrats, and politicians." - from the novel Hope « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Saturday September 12 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"But what do you mean by the American Revolution? « Letter Re: Living in the Time After TEOTWAWKI |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Friday September 11 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"It will not be quick and it will not be easy. Our adversaries are not one or two terrorist leaders, or even a single terrorist organization or network. It's a broad network of individuals and organizations that are determined to terrorize and, in so doing, to deny us the very essence of what we are: free people. They don't live in Antarctica. They work, they train and they plan in countries. They're benefiting from the support of governments. They're benefiting from the support of non-governmental organizations that are either actively supporting them with money, intelligence and weapons or allowing them to function on their territory and tolerating if not encouraging their activities. In either case, it has to stop. We'll have to deal with the [terror] networks. One of the ways to do that is to drain the swamp they live in. And that means dealing not only with the terrorists, but those who harbor terrorists. This will take a long, sustained effort. It will require the support of the American people as well as our friends and allies around the world." - Donald Rumsfeld, press briefing on September 18, 2001 « Note from JWR: |Main| Often-Overlooked Readiness: Preparing for Joy, by Carla » Thursday September 10 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"When a man spends his own money to buy something for himself, he is very careful about how much he spends and how he spends it. « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Wednesday September 9 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"By a continuing process of inflation, governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens.... The process engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and does it in a manner which not one man in a million is able to diagnose." - John Maynard Keynes « Letter Re: Lessons from a Brief, Opportunistic Burglary |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Tuesday September 8 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government -- lest it come to dominate our lives and interests." - Patrick Henry « An Instructive Survival Story from the 1930s |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Monday September 7 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"When in doubt, overbuild." - Eric Flint, 1635: The Cannon Law « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Sunday September 6 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Trust in the LORD, and do good; « Letter Re: Some Economic Indicators to Watch |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Saturday September 5 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"A man does what he must - in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers and pressures - and that is the basis of all human morality." - Winston Churchill « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Friday September 4 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"...if the debt should once more be swelled to a formidable size... we shall be committed to the English career of debt, corruption and rottenness, closing with revolution." - Thomas Jefferson « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Thursday September 3 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"If you're not shootin', you should be loadin'. If you're not loadin', you should be movin', if you're not movin', someone's gonna cut your head off and put it on a stick." - Clint Smith, Director of Thunder Ranch « Notes from JWR: |Main| Economics and Investing: » Wednesday September 2 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"A nation can survive its fools and even the ambitious.But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and he carries his banners openly against the city. But the traitor moves among those within the gates freely, his sly whispers rustling through all alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears no traitor; he speaks in the accents familiar to his victim, and he wears their face and their garments and he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation; he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of a city; he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to be feared. The traitor is the plague." - Marcus Tullius Cicero « Letter Re: Old Boy Scout and Girl Scout Handbooks are Available Online |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Tuesday September 1 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"They didn't have rounds for the Buhnder, but we're ammoed up pretty good. Got a discount too, on account of my intimidating manner." - Adam Baldwin as Jayne Cobb, Firefly « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Monday August 31 2009Jim's Quote of the Day: "You gonna pull those pistols or whistle Dixie?" - Clint Eastwood in the title role of The Outlaw Josey Wales « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Sunday August 30 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"It is written, 'As surely as I live,' says the Lord, « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Saturday August 29 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Now if just a small portion of American bank depositors hear that the FDIC had to tap into the US Treasury for funds, and these depositors feel their banked money is at risk and want to withdraw some of it, the mother of all bank runs could ensue. This could create the day of reckoning that many have predicted. A short banking holiday would have to be declared and who knows what happens from there – troops in the streets, issuance of new currency, martial law? Don’t think those in the Federal government haven’t made plans for such an occurrence." - Bill Sardi « Letter Re: A Method for Storing Fresh Eggs up to Two Years |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Friday August 28 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"...the Last Contango in Washington will be different from all previous crises. It will be elemental, devastating, and apocalyptic. It will destroy virtually all paper wealth and render virtually all physical capital idle. It will involve hordes of unemployed people roaming the streets, caring for no law and order, pillaging homes and institutions. It will destroy our freedoms. It may destroy our civilization unless we take protective action." - Antal Fekete « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Thursday August 27 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Take calculated risks. That is quite different from being rash." - General George S. Patton « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Wednesday August 26 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"They made up their minds They drank up the wine And when the car broke down Where were they going without ever knowing the way?" The Way, by Fastball, (1991) « Two Letters Re: Canning Your Own Butter |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Tuesday August 25 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives." - James Madison « Letter Re: Trading Numismatic $5, $10, and $20 Gold Pieces for Bullion Coins? |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Monday August 24 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"In ancient times they had no statistics so they had to fall back on lies." - Stephen Leacock « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Sunday August 23 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble: the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining: « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Saturday August 22 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion." - Parkinson's Law, coined by C. Northcote Parkinson, circa 1957 « Letter Re: The Usefulness of the AK-47 as a Survival Rifle |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Friday August 21 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Remember, God provides the best camouflage several hours out of every 24." - General David M. Shoup « The Open Carry Debate Catches Mainstream Attention |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Thursday August 20 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Fear not, but trust in Providence, Wherever thou may'st be." - Thomas Haynes Bayly « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Wednesday August 19 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Our whole way of life today is dedicated to the removal of risk. Cradle to grave we are supported, insulated, and isolated from the risks of life- and if we fall, our government stands ready with Band-Aids of every size." - Shirley Temple Black « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Tuesday August 18 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"A heart well prepared for adversity in bad times hopes, and in good times fears for a change in fortune." - Horace « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Monday August 17 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"He that tilleth his land shall have plenty of bread: but he that followeth after vain persons shall have poverty enough." - Proverbs 28:19 (KJV) « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Sunday August 16 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"The LORD will perfect [that which] concerneth me: thy mercy, O LORD, [endureth] for ever: forsake not the works of thine own hands." - Psalm 138:8 (KJV) « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Saturday August 15 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed because his compassions fail not, they are new every morning. Great is Thy faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him. The Lord is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord." - Lamentations 3: 21-26 « Letter Re: Grid Beam Construction |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Friday August 14 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Consider it pure joy, my brethren, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." - James 1:2-4 « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Thursday August 13 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"It's amazing that people can't see the theft [of their buying power through currency inflation], and even that so many will argue in favor of deflation, meaning that "the dollar is getting stronger" when that has never taken place over the long run in the last 95 years." - Jason Hommel « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Wednesday August 12 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"When you're safe at home you wish you were having an adventure; « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Tuesday August 11 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"My father sent my mother a revolver as a gift, which for her was the symbol of what any young girl wants in a marriage, this was for her the means to stay alive, to kill herself or to die fighting." - Assaela Bielski, as quoted in the book Defiance:
The Bielski Partisans « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Monday August 10 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"I told a reporter here a while back--young girl, seemed nice enough, she was just tryin' to be a reporter. She said: 'Sheriff how come you let crime get so out of hand in your county?' Sounded like a fair question. Anyway I told her, I said: Any time you quit hearing 'Sir' and 'Ma'am' the end is pretty much in sight." - Tommy Lee Jones as Terrell County Texas Sheriff Ed Tom Bell, from the movie No Country for Old Men « Two Letters Re: Advice on Storing Precious Metals |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Sunday August 9 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Commit thy works unto the LORD, and thy thoughts shall be established." - Proverbs 16:3 (KJV) « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Saturday August 8 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:
"How quiet, calm, and solemn, not at all like when I was running," thought Prince Andrei, "not at like when we were running, shouting, and fighting; not at all like when the Frenchman and the artillerist, with angry and frightened faces, were pulling at the swab - it's quite different the way the clouds creep across this lofty, infinite sky. How is it I haven't seen this lofty sky before? And how happy I am that I've finally come to know it. Yes! everything is empty, everything is a deception, except this infinite sky. There is nothing, nothing except that. But there is not even that, there is nothing except silence, tranquility. And thank God!..." - Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace Volume 1, Part Three, Chapter XVII « Hard Times at Here--Are You Ready? |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Friday August 7 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:
"Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint." - Mark Twain « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Thursday August 6 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Naturally the advance planning that we did on this thing belongs on the credit side of the ledger. So also does the venture into night flying, although in the final analysis the only real effect it had on this operation was to hold us in the area for one more night. Had we found the U-505 at night, there would have been no possibility of capture—that boarding idea was improbable enough in broad daylight, it was impossible at night. This whole operation is an example of the fact that a military commander controls events only up to a certain point. He can anticipate certain things, perhaps even set the stage for them to happen, and can be ready to cash in on them if they do happen. But whether they will happen or not depends on many things over which he has no control. One is what goes on in the other commander’s mind and another is what goes on in his own. Both of these mental processes are subject to influence from above, or by Divine sufferance, from below. I am not trying to say that we have no control over our destiny on this earth. But I do say that in many things we control it only up to a certain point. Beyond that point nebulous things which occur inside men's brains decide the issue. In this particular instance, I speak from firsthand experience when I say the stuff that ran through my mind for a week or so was all wrong, but the final result was very good.... The only moral I can see to all this is to plan your operations carefully, get the best advice you can from experts, fix it so that if certain things happen, you will not be caught flat-footed, and then, rely on the motto we have stamped on all our pennies—'In God We Trust.'” - From Twenty Million Tons Under the Sea, by Rear Admiral Daniel V Gallery . In June of 1944, Gallery’s Naval Task Group Task Group 22.3 boarded and captured the German submarine U-505, the first capture of an enemy man-of-war at sea since 1915, taken as a Prize of War and still on public display, at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Wednesday August 5 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Every truth passes through three stages before it is recognized: In the first it is ridiculed, in the second it is opposed, in the third it is regarded as self-evident." - Arthur Schopenhauer (German Philosopher, 1788-1860) « A Vault Full of Hedges: Tangibles, Tangibles, Tangibles! |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Tuesday August 4 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where [is] the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk [therein]. - Jeremiah 6:16-18 (KJV) « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Monday August 3 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"If you could borrow $4 trillion at 6% interest, your interest payments alone would be $240 billion per year, $548 million per day, $761,000 per second." - Martin Weiss (author of The
Ultimate Depression Survival Guide « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Sunday August 2 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"The president has got to stop promising renewed growth. While this would affect the perceived "standard-of-living" as measured in things like shopping mall sales and vehicle miles driven, it would not necessarily mean diminished "quality-of-life." It would mean different ways-of-life for a lot of people -- for instance, young adults who had expected lifetime employment as corporate executives but who, instead, find themselves ten years from now working at farming. We have an awful lot to get real about." - James H. Kunstler (author of The
Long Emergency « Letter Re: One Way to Visualize Inflation and Dollar Devaluation |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Saturday August 1 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:“Oh, I have lost some of the fights I’ve been in, some sudden little dustups for which I wasn’t well-prepared and a couple of larger ones in which I was mostly just involved as a bit player. If you really want to win you can always be certain to pick in advance a much weaker opponent and crush him, but that’s bullying. Or you can take on someone who outclasses you and really deserves a good beating, and wait for a chance when he’s not in his best shape, though you may have a long wait. But I’ve never lost a scrap with an opponent whose pants were on fire, while he was swatting at angry hornets buzzing around his mouth and eyes, and while rattlesnakes nipped at his ankles. The trick is to be ready for the hornets, snakes and assorted secondary fires yourself. By the way: this also applies to political fights on a national scale as much as it does to one in the parking lot behind the local roadhouse....” - H.J. Halterman, Along the Way, 2009 « Notes from JWR: |Main| Economics and Investing: » Friday July 31 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Grown men do not need leaders." - Edward Abbey « Odds 'n Sods: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Thursday July 30 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"The necessity of procuring good intelligence is apparent and need not be further urged." - General George Washington, then commanding the Continental Army, 26 July 1777 « Gear Up -- Appropriate and Redundant Technologies for Prepared Families |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Wednesday July 29 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"It's difficult to think anything but pleasant thoughts while eating a homegrown tomato." - Lewis Grizzard « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Tuesday July 28 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Behold, a people shall come from the north, and a great nation, and many kings shall be raised up from the coasts of the earth. They shall hold the bow and the lance: they [are] cruel, and will not shew mercy: their voice shall roar like the sea, and they shall ride upon horses, [every one] put in array, like a man to the battle, against thee, O daughter of Babylon." - Jeremiah 50: 41-42 (KJV) « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Monday July 27 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Three groups spend other people's money: children, thieves, politicians. All three need supervision." - Dick Armey « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Sunday July 26 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Saturday July 25 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Without a rifle you are nothing, worthless; you are waiting for death, any minute, any second." - Aron Bielski, as quoted in the book Defiance:
The Bielski Partisans « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Friday July 24 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Windage and elevation, Mrs. Langdon. Windage and elevation..." - John Wayne as Col. John Henry Thomas, The Undefeated. « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Thursday July 23 2009Jim's Quote of the Day: "Liberty is never unalienable; it must be redeemed regularly with the blood of patriots or it always vanishes. Of all the so-called natural human rights that have ever been invented, liberty is the least to be cheap and is never free of cost." - Robert A. Heinlein, Starship Troopers « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Wednesday July 22 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Never stand when you can kneel, never kneel when you can sit, and never sit when you can get down prone. Take your time, and make each shot count, son." - Donald Robert Rawles, (JWR's father), instruction on shooting positions, circa 1975 « Self-Sufficiency in England? Take the Gap |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Tuesday July 21 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"You’ve got a fast car, « Oh, Henry! Worried About TEOTWAWKI? |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Monday July 20 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"You can say ‘stop’ or ‘alto’ or use any other word you think will work, but I’ve found that a large bore muzzle pointed at someone’s head is pretty much the universal language." - Clint Smith, founder of Thunder Ranch « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Sunday July 19 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Good luck is when preparation meets opportunity. Bad luck is when lack of preparation meets adversity." - Coach Darrel Royal « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Saturday July 18 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:" ...vaults of the central banks and return to the pockets and purses of private individuals, for gold is the only really sound money with intrinsic value. The desire to return to gold is understandable, and we hope to see it realized some day, although the argument in favor of the gold standard is not always stated in a valid way. The distinctive function of gold money does not consist in its intrinsic value or in the constancy of that value, which fluctuates even in the absence of government intervention. The excellence of metallic money in free circulation consists in the fact that it renders impossible the abuse of power of the government to dispose of the possessions of its citizens by means of its monetary policy and thus serves as the solid foundation of economic liberty within each country and of free trade between one country and another. - Faustino Ballve, Essentials of Economics, 1958 « Letter Re: Recommendations on Discreet Self Defense Weapons and Training |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Friday July 17 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"That mythical island, whose inhabitants earned a precarious living by taking in each other's washing." - Lewis Carroll « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Thursday July 16 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Collective fear stimulates herd instinct, and tends to produce ferocity toward those who are not regarded as members of the herd." - Bertrand Russell « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Wednesday July 15 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"We who lived in concentration camps can remember those who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a person but the last of the human freedoms - to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances - to choose one's own way. " - Victor Frankl « H1N1 Influenza: A Cytokine Storm Conclusion, But Still More Questions Than Answers |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Tuesday July 14 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"How strangely will the Tools of a Tyrant pervert the plain Meaning of Words!" - Samuel Adams « A Primer for Silver Newbies, by H.R.F. |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Monday July 13 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Of all the wonderful things government says, that's always been just about my favorite [government spending creates jobs]. As opposed to if you get to keep the money. Because what you'll do is go out and bury it in your yard, anything to prevent that money from creating jobs. They never stop saying it. They say it with a straight face and we in the press will write that down. We will say, 'This is expected to create x number of jobs.' On the other hand, we never say that the money we removed from another part of the economy will kill some jobs." - Dave Barry « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Sunday July 12 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:“My soul finds rest in God alone; for my salvation comes from Him. He alone is my rock and my salvation; He is my fortress; I will never be shaken.” - Psalm 62:1-2 « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Saturday July 11 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Welcome to a depression. Not such a bad thing, really. Just a period of adjustment...a time for fixing, re-organizing, downsizing, and mending. There's a time to every purpose under heaven. This is the time to take stock and shape up. But wait again. It doesn't feel like a depression. Where are the soup lines? Where are the Okies packing up and moving to California? Where are Ziegfield Girls, the Civilian Conservation Corps and Eleanor Roosevelt? How come this depression's not in black and white? Well...because this is a 21st century depression. This depression is in living color...and it comes to a world that is much richer than the world of the 1930s. Besides, it is just 1930...not 1932. Give it time." - Bill Bonner, The Daily Reckoning « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Friday July 10 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"History is not merely what happened; it is what happened in the context of what might have happened. Therefore it must incorporate, as a necessary element, the alternatives, the might-have-beens." - Professor Hugh Trevor-Roper, Regis Professor of Modern History; Oxford University, valedictory address 20 May 1980; quoted in History Today, Vol. 2, Issue 7, July 1982, p. 88 « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Thursday July 9 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:“Keep your revolver near you night and day, and never relax your precautions.” - Advice of Sherlock Holmes to his close friend Dr. Watson, circa 1889, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, in The Hound of the Baskervilles « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Wednesday July 8 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:“Thunder is good, thunder is impressive; but it is lightning that does the work.” - Mark Twain, in a letter, 1908 « The Nascent Depression: Be Ready to Barter and Adopt the Rhodesian View |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Tuesday July 7 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Be not deaf to the sound that warns! « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Monday July 6 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Thus the men of democratic times require to be free in order to procure more readily those physical enjoyments for which they are always longing. It sometimes happens, however, that the excessive taste they conceive for these same enjoyments makes them surrender to the first master who appears. The passion for worldly welfare then defeats itself and, without their perceiving it, throws the object of their desires to a greater distance. There is, indeed, a most dangerous passage in the history of a democratic people. When the taste for physical gratifications among them has grown more rapidly than their education and their experience of free institutions, the time will come when men are carried away and will lose all self-restraint at the sight of the new possessions that they are about to obtain. In their intense and exclusive anxiety to make a fortune they lose sight of the close connection that exists between the private fortune of each and the prosperity of all. It is not necessary to do violence to such a people in order to strip them of the rights they enjoy; they themselves willingly loosen their hold. The discharge of political duties appears to them to be a troublesome impediment which diverts them from their occupations and business. If they are required to elect representatives, to support the government by personal service, to meet on public business, they think they have no time, they cannot waste their precious hours in useless engagements; such ideal amusements are unsuited to serious men who are engaged with the more important interests of life. These people think they are following the principle of self-interest, but the idea they entertain of that principle is a very crude one; and the better to look after what they call their own business, they neglect their chief business, which is to remain their own masters....By such a nation [a wealthy, self-absorbed one] the despotism of faction is not less to be dreaded than the despotism of an individual. When the bulk of the community are engrossed by private concerns, the smallest parties need not despair of getting the upper hand in public affairs. At such times it is not rare to see on the great stage of the world, as we see in our theaters, a multitude represented by a few players, who alone speak in the name of an absent or inattentive crowd; they alone are in action, while all others are stationary; they regulate everything by their own caprice; they change the laws and tyrannize at will over the manners of the country; and then men wonder to see into how small a number of weak and worthless hands a great people may fall." - Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Sunday July 5 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:“ ‘Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me. But you ask, “How do we rob you?” In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse—the whole nation of you—because you are robbing me. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,’ says the Lord Almighty, ‘and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.’ ” - Malachi 3:8-10 « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Saturday July 4 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Where liberty dwells, there is my country" - Benjamin Franklin « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Thursday July 2 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Inflation is a special concern over the next decade given the pending avalanche of government debt about to be unloaded on world financial markets. The need to finance very large fiscal deficits during the coming years could lead to political pressure on central banks to print money to buy much of the newly issued debt." - Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, from commentary in The Financial Times, June 26, 2009 « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Wednesday July 1 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"The most successful people are those who are good at Plan B." - James Yorke « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Tuesday June 30 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"...the Constitution does not repose in the Congress the power to bail out individuals or private industry: Bailouts violate the Equal Protection doctrine because the Congress can’t fairly pick and choose who to bail out and who to let expire; they violate the General Welfare Clause because they benefit only a small group and not the general public; they violate the Due Process Clause because they interfere with contracts already entered into... Worse still, Congress lacks the power to let someone else decide how to spend the peoples’ money. "- Judge Andrew Napolitano, November 25, 2008 « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Monday June 29 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"The paper system being founded on public confidence and having of itself no intrinsic value, it is liable to great and sudden fluctuations, thereby rendering property insecure and the wages of labor unsteady and uncertain. The corporations which create the paper money can not be relied upon to keep the circulating medium uniform in amount. In times of prosperity, when confidence is high, they are tempted by the prospect of gain or by the influence of those who hope to profit by it to extend their issues of paper beyond the bounds of discretion and the reasonable demands of business; and when these issues have been pushed on from day to day, until public confidence is at length shaken, then a reaction takes place, and they immediately withdraw the credits they have given, suddenly curtail their issues, and produce an unexpected and ruinous contraction of the circulating medium, which is felt by the whole community. The banks by this means save themselves, and the mischievous consequences of their imprudence or cupidity are visited upon the public." - President Andrew Jackson, Excerpt from his farewell speech on March 4, 1837 « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Sunday June 28 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"The LORD will guide you continually, And satisfy your soul in drought, And strengthen your bones; You shall be like a watered garden, And like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail" - Isaiah, 58:11, NKJV « The Meme of Crushroom: A Key Retreat Architecture Element |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Saturday June 27 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Never in the history of the world have we faced so much complexity combined
with so much incompetence in understanding its properties." -
Nassim Nicholas Taleb, The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Friday June 26 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"There's no such thing as life without bloodshed. I think the notion
that the species can be improved in some way, that everyone could live in harmony,
is a really dangerous idea. Those who are afflicted with this notion are the
first ones to give up their souls, their freedom. Your desire that it be that
way will enslave you and make your life vacuous." - Cormac McCarthy (author
of the disaster novel The
Road « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Thursday June 25 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"How do we know when irrational exuberance has unduly escalated asset values?" - Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, December 5, 1996 « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Wednesday June 24 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"And I do not hold to that. So no more running. I aim to misbehave." -
Nathan Fillion as Captain Mal Reynolds, Serenity « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Tuesday June 23 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Economists were created to make weather forecasters look good." - Rupert Murdoch « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Monday June 22 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:“He doubted whether they could survive the winter, even though they piled
broken furniture into the fireplace. Some accident would quite likely overtake
them,
or pneumonia might strike them down. They were like the highly bred spaniels
and pekinese who at the end of their leashes had once walked along the city
streets. Milt and Ann, too, were city-dwellers, and when the city died, they
would hardly survive without it. They would pay the penalty which in the history
of the world, he knew, had always been inflicted upon organisms which specialized
too highly.” - George Stewart Earth
Abides « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Sunday June 21 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:“[The fallout in subprime mortgages is] going to be painful to some lenders, but it is largely contained." - Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, March 13, 2007 « Letter Re: Advice on Deep Water Wells in a Grid-Down Era |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Saturday June 20 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:'There is an old song which asserts 'the best things in life are free.' Not
true! Utterly false! This was the tragic fallacy which brought on the decadence
and collapse of the democracies of the twentieth century; those noble experiments
failed because the people had been led to believe that they could simply vote
for whatever they wanted . . . and get it, without toil, without sweat, without
tears." - Robert A. Heinlein, Starship Troopers « Two Letters Re: Escape From (Fill in Your City Here), 2009 |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Friday June 19 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:Too many people spend money they haven’t earned, to buy things they don’t want, to impress people they don’t like. - Will Rogers « Letter Re: Escape From (Fill in Your City Here), 2009 |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Thursday June 18 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Don't listen to anyone who tells you that you can't do this or that. That's nonsense. Make up your mind, you'll never use crutches or a stick, then have a go at everything. Go to school, join in all the games you can. Go anywhere you want to. But never, never let them persuade you that things are too difficult or impossible." - Sir Douglas Bader, (1910-1982), The legendary British fighter pilot who lost both legs in a flying accident, but went on to fly as a fighter pilot in World War II. « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Wednesday June 17 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Iron rusts from disuse; stagnant water loses its purity and in cold weather
becomes frozen; even so does inaction sap the vigor of the mind." - Leonardo
da Vinci, Leonardo's Notebooks « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Tuesday June 16 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"The proliferation of state concealed carry laws has evidently reduced the rate of violent street crime to a considerable extent. When the goblins do not know who is armed and who is not, their professional enthusiasm declines. Now that Britain has made sure (insofar as any law can so insure) that everybody is disarmed, the streets are given back to the bad kid with the baseball bat. We hope they are satisfied." - Jeff Cooper, Cooper's Commentaries « Letter Re: Three Abstracts on Public Health in Ghettos During the WWII Holocaust |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Monday June 15 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"No one realized how bad the economy was. The projections, in fact, turned out to be worse. But we took the mainstream model as to what we thought -- and everyone else thought -- the unemployment rate would be." - Vice President Joseph Biden, June 14, 2009 (Backing away from the BHO Administration's estimate that "stimulus" funds could "create or save" 3.5 million jobs, instead now promising just 600,000 by the end of the summer.) « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Sunday June 14 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." - James 5:16 « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Saturday June 13 2009The Memsahib's Quote of the Day:"The Sierra Club's unofficial motto is: 'Take only pictures; leave only footprints.' But my motto is: Take only safe shots; leave only large gut piles." - James Wesley, Rawles « Letter Re: Breeding Guinea Pigs as a Protein Source? |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Friday June 12 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"There is no worse tyranny than to force a man to pay for what he does
not want merely because you think it would be good for him." - Robert
A. Heinlein, The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Thursday June 11 2009Jim's Quote of the Day: "I have long had a tendency to tie marksmanship to morality. The essence
of good marksmanship is self-control, and self-control is the essence of good
citizenship. « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Wednesday June 10 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"...compared warfare to a grand ballet, where every minute, every second, is carefully choreographed and orchestrated, but when the conductor raises the baton for the first note, two homicidal maniacs jump out of the orchestra pit onto the stage with bayonets and begin chasing the ballerinas - that is warfare. Much the same is true for disaster planning. Nevertheless, because you went through the planning process, you understand the key challenges, the key questions, and the critical issues regarding your specific business - and that is what will give you the flexibility to adapt in a crisis." - General Norman Schwarzkopf « Welcome to the Savage World of the Year 2009 |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Tuesday June 9 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars." - Edwin H. Chapin « Letter Re: Thermostatic Switches for Wood Heat Forced-Air Room Heating |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Monday June 8 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Every collectivist movement rides in on a Trojan Horse of 'emergency'. It was a tactic of Lenin, Hitler and Mussolini." - Herbert Hoover, Memoirs: The Great Depression (1951) « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Sunday June 7 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Today, prayer is still a powerful force in America, and our faith in God is a mighty source of strength. Our Pledge of Allegiance states that we are 'one nation under God,' and our currency bears the motto, 'In God we Trust.' The morality and values such faith implies are deeply embedded in our national character. Our country embraces those principles by design, and we abandon them at our peril." - President Ronald Wilson Reagan « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Saturday June 6 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"The economics of disaster commence when the holders of money wealth revolt. It is as simple as that. The government has little or nothing to say or do about it…They do not fly flags or demonstrate in the streets to express their revolt; they simply get rid of their money…The duller the holders of money wealth are, the longer the government can go on storing up inflation but, by the same token, the more cataclysmic must the eventual dam burst be. The Germans [of the early 1920s] were among the dullest and most disciplined of all holders of money wealth, and this alone permitted the government to build up so huge a pool of unrealized inflation before the burst." - Jens O. Parsson, Dying of Money: Lessons of the Great German and American Inflations « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Friday June 5 2009The Memsahib's Quote of the Day:
"Beware of Geeks bearing clipboards." - James Wesley, Rawles (In response to a question posed by a consulting client about building permits and zoning bureaucrats) « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Thursday June 4 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Do not move unless it is advantageous. « Two Letters Re: Protection from EMP Effects for Photovoltaic Panels and Communication Gear |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Wednesday June 3 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it." - Mark Twain « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Tuesday June 2 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Once again, recall the story of banks hiding explosive risks in their portfolios. It is not a good idea to trust corporations with matters such as rare events because the performance of these executives is not observable on a short-term basis, and they will game the system by showing good performance so they can get their yearly bonus. The Achilles’ heel of capitalism is that if you make corporations compete, it is sometimes the one that is most exposed to the negative Black Swan that will appear to be the most fit for survival." - Nassim Nicholas Taleb: The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable (2007) « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Monday June 1 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"The best things in history are accomplished by people who get tired of being shoved around." - Robert A. Heinlein « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Sunday May 31 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Today, prayer is still a powerful force in America, and our faith in God is a mighty source of strength. Our Pledge of Allegiance states that we are 'one nation under God,' and our currency bears the motto, 'In God we Trust.' The morality and values such faith implies are deeply embedded in our national character. Our country embraces those principles by design, and we abandon them at our peril." - Ronald Reagan « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Saturday May 30 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Frugality may be termed the daughter of Prudence, the sister of Temperance, and the parent of Liberty." - Samuel Johnson « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Friday May 29 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Globalization creates interlocking fragility, while reducing volatility and giving the appearance of stability. In other words it creates devastating Black Swans. We have never lived before under the threat of a global collapse. Financial Institutions have been merging into a smaller number of very large banks. Almost all banks are interrelated. So the financial ecology is swelling into gigantic, incestuous, bureaucratic banks – when one fails, they all fall. The increased concentration among banks seems to have the effect of making financial crises less likely, but when they happen they are more global in scale and hit us very hard. We have moved from a diversified ecology of small banks, with varied lending policies, to a more homogeneous framework of firms that all resemble one another. True, we now have fewer failures, but when they occur ….I shiver at the thought." - Nassim Nicholas Taleb: The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable (2007) « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Thursday May 28 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public." - Theodore Roosevelt « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Wednesday May 27 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Unlike any other nation, here the people rule, and their will is the supreme law." - William McKinley « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Tuesday May 26 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:
"A radical does not mean a man who lives on radishes," remarked Crook,
with
some impatience; "and a Conservative does not mean a man who preserves jam.
Neither, I assure you, does a Socialist mean a man who desires a social evening
with the chimney-sweep. A Socialist means a man who wants all the chimneys swept
and all the chimney-sweeps paid for it." « Four Letters Re: Dealing with Uninvited Guests |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Monday May 25 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"In a pandemic, if it's worldwide, you realize in the first five minutes of studying it that you're on your own" - Bob Kennedy « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Sunday May 24 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Today, prayer is still a powerful force in America, and our faith in God is a mighty source of strength. Our Pledge of Allegiance states that we are 'one nation under God,' and our currency bears the motto, 'In God we Trust.' The morality and values such faith implies are deeply embedded in our national character. Our country embraces those principles by design, and we abandon them at our peril." - President Ronald Wilson Reagan « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Saturday May 23 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Once each May, amid the quiet hills and rolling lanes and breeze-brushed trees of Arlington National Cemetery, far above the majestic Potomac and the monuments and memorials of our Nation's Capital just beyond, the graves of America's military dead are decorated with the beautiful flag that in life these brave souls followed and loved. This scene is repeated across our land and around the world, wherever our defenders rest. Let us hold it our sacred duty and our inestimable privilege on this day to decorate these graves ourselves -- with a fervent prayer and a pledge of true allegiance to the cause of liberty, peace, and country for which America's own have ever served and sacrificed. ... Our pledge and our prayer this day are those of free men and free women who know that all we hold dear must constantly be built up, fostered, revered and guarded vigilantly from those in every age who seek its destruction. We know, as have our Nation's defenders down through the years, that there can never be peace without its essential elements of liberty, justice and independence. Those true and only building blocks of peace were the lone and lasting cause and hope and prayer that lighted the way of those whom we honor and remember this Memorial Day. To keep faith with our hallowed dead, let us be sure, and very sure, today and every day of our lives, that we keep their cause, their hope, their prayer, forever our country's own." - President Ronald Wilson Reagan « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Friday May 22 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Surely, The Lord God does nothing, Unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets." - Amos 3:7 (NKJV) « Into the Maelstrom, and a Refuge on the Far Side |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Thursday May 21 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public." -President Theodore Roosevelt « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Wednesday May 20 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"The difference between truth and fiction: fiction has to make sense." - Mark Twain « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Tuesday May 19 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Hold fast to the Bible as the sheet anchor of your liberties; write its precepts in your hearts, and practice them in your lives." - Ulysses S Grant « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Monday May 18 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value -- zero." - Voltaire (François Marie Arouet, 1694-1778) « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Sunday May 17 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"All who profess Christianity believe in a Savior, and that by and though Him we must be saved." - Andrew Jackson « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Saturday May 16 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Whole nations depends on technology. Stop the wheels for two days and
you'd have riots. No place is more than two meals from a revolution. Think
of Los
Angeles or New York with no electricity. Or a longer view, fertilizer plants
stop. Or a longer view yet, no new technology for ten years. What happens to
our standard of living?... Yet the damned fools won't pay ten minutes' attention
a day to science and technology. How many people know what they're doing? Where
do these carpets come from? The clothes you're wearing? What do carburetors
do? Where do sesame seeds come from? Do you know? Does one voter out of thirty?
They won't spend ten minutes a day thinking about the technology that keeps
them alive." - Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, Lucifer's
Hammer « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Friday May 15 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Whenever you find that you are on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect." - Mark Twain « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Thursday May 14 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Procrastination is attitude's national assassin. There is nothing so fatiguing as an uncompleted task." - William James « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Wednesday May 13 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"All over the world, interest rates have been cut and budgets padded. France's deficit is running at 8% of GDP. England is running a deficit of more than 12% of GDP. And the U.S. is mobilizing as if it had been attacked by Martians. On the credit side, the feds have cut rates more than ever before, for a monetary boost equivalent to 18% of GDP, according to Grant. As to spending, $13 trillion has been pledged...an amount equivalent to a full year's annual output of the United States of America. This response is three times more (adjusted to today's dollars) than the U.S. spent to fight WWII. It is 12 times more (relative to GDP) than the total committed to fight the Great Depression." - Bill Bonner, The Daily Reckoning. May 4, 2009 « Odds 'n Sods: |Main| Economics and Investing: » Tuesday May 12 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and true religion. Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." - John Adams « Letter Re: Deer Ticks - The Threat Within Your Perimeter |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Monday May 11 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows." - Epictetus (c.55-c.135) « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Sunday May 10 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Governments and central banks are going to lose the war on gold because they refuse to fight gold by the one technique that can give them victory: stop printing money." - Dr. Gary North. « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Saturday May 9 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Integrity is not a conditional word. It doesn’t blow in the wind or change with the weather. It is your inner image of yourself, and if you look in there and see a man who won’t cheat, then you know he never will." - John D. MacDonald Friday May 8 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried." - G.K. Chesterton « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Thursday May 7 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Why should taxpayers who live in apartments, perhaps because they did not feel that they could afford to buy a house, be forced to subsidize other people who could not afford to buy a house, but who went ahead and bought one anyway?" - Thomas Sowell « More About Depression Proof Jobs--Consider the Three Ks |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Wednesday May 6 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"In the end, more than they wanted freedom, they wanted security. They wanted a comfortable life, and they lost it all -- security, comfort, and freedom. When... ...the freedom they wished for was freedom from responsibility, then Athens ceased to be free." - Sir Edward Gibbon (1737-1794) « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Tuesday May 5 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"In a time of drastic change it is the learners who inherit the future. The 'learned' usually find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer exists." - Eric Hoffer « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Monday May 4 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Properly speaking, of course, there is no such thing as a return to nature, because there is no such thing as a departure from it. The phrase reminds one of the slightly intoxicated gentleman who gets up in his own dining room and declares firmly that he must be getting home." - G.K. Chesterton. « Letter Re Advice for College Students Living Abroad |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Sunday May 3 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:O praise the Lord, all ye nations; praise Him, all ye people. For His merciful kindness is great toward us: and the truth of the Lord endureth for ever. Praise ye the Lord. - Psalm 117 « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Saturday May 2 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"We believe fear of infection will lead to drastically altered behaviour. It may be that swine flu does not tip the human fear scale sufficiently, but if it did, with the economy already in tatters, the results could be catastrophic,...” - Rob Carnell, ING's Chief Economist, April 29, 2009 « Mexican Flu Update |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Friday May 1 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Amateurs talk about strategy, dilettantes talk about tactics, but professionals talk about logistics." - Attributed to various American military officers, but most frequently to General Omar Bradley « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Thursday April 30 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"For a Westerner to trash Western culture is like criticizing our nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere on the grounds that it sometimes gets windy, and besides, Jupiter's is much prettier. You may not realize its advantages until you're trying to breathe liquid methane." - Neal Stephenson « Mexican Flu Update |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Wednesday April 29 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. The second best time is now." - Unattributed American Proverb « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Tuesday April 28 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Action springs not from thought, but from a readiness for responsibility." - G. M. Trevelyan « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Monday April 27 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"If, [when] evil cometh upon us, [as] the sword, judgment, or pestilence, or famine, we stand before this house, and in thy presence, (for thy name [is] in this house,) and cry unto thee in our affliction, then thou wilt hear and help." - From Jehoshaphat's prayer, 2 Chronicle 20:9 (KJV) « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Sunday April 26 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD. For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited. Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit." - Jeremiah 17:5-8 « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Saturday April 25 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Everyone carries a part of society on his shoulders; no one is relieved of his share of responsibility by others. And no one can find a safe way out for himself if society is sweeping toward destruction. Therefore everyone, in his own interests, must thrust himself vigorously into the intellectual battle. No one can stand aside with unconcern; the interests of everyone hang on the result. Whether he chooses or not, every man is drawn into the great historical struggle, the decisive battle into which our epoch has plunged us." - Ludwig von Mises, Socialism: An Economic and Sociological Analysis, 1922 « Letter Re: G.O.O.D. Advice for College Students |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Friday April 24 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:Here we live in a country that has a fabulous constitution and all these guarantees, a contract between the citizens and the government - nobody knows what's in it. It's one of the best kept secrets. And so, if you don't know what your rights are, how can you stand up for them? And furthermore, if you don't know what is in that document, how can you care if someone is shredding it?" - Frank Zappa (1940 - 1993), as quoted by Spin Magazine, July 1991 « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Thursday April 23 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"The bulls will buy stocks believing that we have another bull market
on our hands. After having lost 50% of their money since 2007, they'll lose
another 20% - 30% when this rally collapses. « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Wednesday April 22 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"The strength of a Nation derives from the integrity of the home." - Kong Zi (Confucius). « Letter Re: Bicycles as Bug-Out and Utility Vehicles |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Tuesday April 21 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"The world is filled with violence. Because criminals carry guns, we decent law-abiding citizens should also have guns. Otherwise they will win and the decent people will lose." - James Earl Jones « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Monday April 20 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"The wise man does at once what the fool does finally." - Baltasar Gracian, (1601-1658) « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Sunday April 19 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"With the exception only of the period of the gold standard, practically all governments of history have used their exclusive power to issue money to defraud and plunder the people." - Friedrich A. Hayek « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Saturday April 18 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Icelanders discovered that trading bits of paper isn’t a productive enterprise. A handful of guys, who fancied themselves as financial experts, were taking out tens of billions of dollars in short term loans from abroad. They were then re-lending this money to themselves and their friends to buy assets, such as soccer teams, cars, homes, etc. Since the entire world’s assets were rising; thanks to people of like mentality paying crazy prices for everything, the Icelanders appeared to be making money. One non-Icelandic fund manager said that its like, “You have a dog and I have a cat. We agree that they are each worth a billion dollars. You sell me the dog for a billion, and I sell you the cat for a billion. Now, we are no longer pet owners, but Icelandic banks with a billion dollars in new assets. They created fake capital by trading assets amongst themselves at inflated values.” Doesn't that sound like the rest of the world's financial geniuses?" - Don Stott of Colorado Gold, posted in the Whiskey and Gunpowder e-newsletter « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Friday April 17 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"The wavelike movement affecting the economic system, the recurrence of periods of boom which are followed by periods of depression, is the unavoidable outcome of the attempts, repeated again and again, to lower the gross market rate of interest by means of credit expansion. There is no means of avoiding the final collapse of a boom brought about by credit expansion. The alternative is only whether the crisis should come sooner as the result of a voluntary abandonment of further credit expansion, or later as a final and total catastrophe of the currency system involved." - Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, 1949 « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Thursday April 16 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it." - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Wednesday April 15 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"What at first was plunder assumed the softer name of revenue." - Thomas Paine « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Tuesday April 14 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it's free!" - P.J. O'Rourke « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Monday April 13 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Those, who have the command of the arms in a country are masters of the state, and have it in their power to make what revolutions they please. [Thus,] there is no end to observations on the difference between the measures likely to be pursued by a minister backed by a standing army, and those of a court awed by the fear of an armed people." - Aristotle 384–322 BC « Jim's Quote of the Day: |Main| Economics and Investing: » Sunday April 12 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:Joshua S. found a link on the "Kyoto Box" stove. o o o From Cheryl: New Food Crisis Looms o o o I found a good piece on edible and useful Cattail plants. o o o Beginning at Sunrise, Easter morning, the folks at Everlasting Seeds are offering a 20% discount on all products except the Medicinal Garden, just for SurvivalBlog readers. You’ll have to use this link to get the Special price. The sale ends at sundown on Saturday, April 18th « Note from JWR: |Main| Jim's Quote of the Day: » Jim's Quote of the Day:And when I think, that God, His Son not sparing; - Excerpt from the Hymn How Great Thou Art, based on the poem O Store Gud, written by Carl Gustav Boberg, in 1885. Translated from the Swedish by Stuart K. Hine. « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Saturday April 11 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"There is no education like adversity." - British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Friday April 10 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"We adults are survivors by definition; our first priority now is to
make our next generation expert at pulling through.' - Dean Ing, Pulling
Through « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Thursday April 9 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"It is sometimes said that some complicated task is as difficult as herding cats. Actually, that’s not necessarily all that hard, if you’ve got a laser pointer to give the cats a mischievous little red dot to chase after." - H. J. Halterman, Along the Way, March 2009 « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Wednesday April 8 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Baruch Atah A-donai E-loheinu Melech Ha`olam Oseh Ma`aseh Breishit." ("Blessed are You, LORD, our God, King of the Universe who makes the works of Creation.") - From the Birkat Hachamah recitation, April 8, 2009 (14 Nisan 5769). A mitzvah recitation made just once every 28 years. « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Tuesday April 7 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"From November 1929 to April 1930, the Dow Jones rallied 48%. This rally
however was followed by an 85% drop from the April 1929 highs to the July 1932
lows." - Simon Maierhofer in « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Monday April 6 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"It is upon a reckless people: squalid in their demeanor, stupid and arrogant in their politics, economics and military matters; sleazy in their popular culture the savage judgment of history will be rendered. The verdict will be guilty. The penalty will be death, for the people, the institutions and culture which so openly mocks all that is just and true and good about the American Republic. Like Rome, we have replaced Republic with Empire and, like Rome, we will pay the economic price for our folly." - Doug McIntosh, "The Economic Farce is Ending", June 5, 2005 « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Sunday April 5 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"...and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation [even] to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book. And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame [and] everlasting contempt. And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever." - Daniel 12:1-3 (KJV) « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Saturday April 4 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"[I] may have been on the losing side. I'm still not convinced it was
the wrong side." - Nathan Fillion as Captain Malcolm Reynolds, Firefly « Bug Out Vehicle Cooling Systems for Extreme Emergencies, by The Oddshot |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Friday April 3 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Call on God, but row away from the rocks." - Hunter S. Thompson « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Thursday April 2 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"The time is now near at hand which must probably determine, whether Americans are to be, Freemen, or Slaves; whether they are to have any property they can call their own; whether their Houses, and Farms, are to be pillaged and destroyed, and they consigned to a State of Wretchedness from which no human efforts will probably deliver them. The fate of unborn Millions will now depend, under God, on the Courage and Conduct of this army." - General. George Washington, to his troops before the battle of Long Island, New York « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Wednesday April 1 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Manus haec inimica tyrannis ense petit placidam sub libertate quietam" ["This hand of mine, hostile to tyrants, seeks peace by the sword, but only under liberty"] - Algernon Sidney's "Book of Mottoes", circa 1659. (Also the original but unofficial Massachusetts state motto.) « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Tuesday March 31 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:Lazar: Halt, who goes there? « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Monday March 30 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Every government interference in the economy consists of giving an unearned
benefit, extorted by force, to some men at the expense of others." - Ayn
Rand, (author of Atlas
Shrugged « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Sunday March 29 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat." - 2 Thessalonians 3:10(b) « Letter Re: A Carrington Event Space Storm--A Natural EMP Equivalent |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Saturday March 28 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"The closest I ever got to the outdoors was the Ralph Lauren section
at Neiman
Marcus." - Alicia Coppola as Mimi Clark, Jericho « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Friday March 27 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"The net effect of the failures in banking is that a lot of people have less money than they expected they would have a year ago. This is bad enough, given our habits and practices of modern life. But what happens when farming collapses? The prospect for that is closer than most of us might realize. The way we produce our food has been organized at a scale that has ruinous consequences, not least its addiction to capital. Now that banking is in collapse, capital will be extremely scarce. Nobody in the cities reads farm news, or listens to farm reports on the radio. Guess what, though: we are entering the planting season. It will be interesting to learn how many farmers “out there” in the Cheez Doodle belt are not able to secure loans for this year’s crop." - James H. Kunstler Peak Oil: What's Next? « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Thursday March 26 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"These derivatives are the root of the credit crunch. Why? Unlike all
other property paper, derivatives are not required by law to be recorded, continually
tracked and tied to the assets they represent. « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Wednesday March 25 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Know how to use them so well, that you are able defend yourself at two
a.m. as you are at two p.m."- Octavia E. Butler Parable of the Sower « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Tuesday March 24 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"It is the conservative laissez- fairist, the man who puts all the guns and all the decision-making power into the hands of the central government and then says, 'Limit yourself'; it is he who is truly the impractical utopian." - Murray Rothbard « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Monday March 23 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"It’s not surprising, then, they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations." - President Barack Hussein Obama, describing conservative rural residents, in a presidential campaign fundraising speech in Pennsylvania, April 6, 2008 « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Sunday March 22 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:And David spake unto the LORD the words of this song in the day [that] the LORD had delivered him out of the hand of all his enemies, and out of the hand of Saul: And he said, The LORD [is] my rock, and my fortress, and my
deliverer, I will call on the LORD, [who is] worthy to be praised: so shall I be saved from mine enemies. - 2 Samuel 22:2-4 (KJV) « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Saturday March 21 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Work joyfully and peacefully, knowing that right thoughts and right efforts inevitably bring about right results" - James Allen « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Friday March 20 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"I got things under control, that's why people call me an extremist. I'm autonomous. I understand that I declare my independence every day." - Ted Nugent « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Thursday March 19 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"How come when I put my AmEx bill on my VISA, it's stupid, but when the government does it, it's stimulus?" - Tamara K., View From The Porch Blog « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Wednesday March 18 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Morals—all correct moral rules—derive from the instinct to survive; moral behavior is survival behavior above the individual level.... Man is what he is, a wild animal with the will to survive, and (so far) the ability, against all competition. Unless one accepts that, anything one says about morals, war, politics—you name it—is nonsense. Correct morals arise from knowing what Man is—not what do-gooders and well-meaning old Aunt Nellies would like him to be." - Robert A Heinlein, Starship Troopers 1959 « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Tuesday March 17 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Pangloss is admired, and Cassandra is despised and ignored. But as the Trojans were to learn to their sorrow, Cassandra was right, and had she been heeded, the toil of appropriate preparation for the coming adversity would have been insignificant measured against the devastation that followed a brief season of blissful and ignorant optimism." - Ernest Partridge: Perilous Optimism « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Monday March 16 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Money is a mirror of civilization. Throughout history, whenever we find good, reliable noninflated money, we almost always find a strong, healthy civilization. Whenever we find unreliable, inflated money, we almost always find a civilization in decay." - Whatever Happened to Penny Candy? by Richard J. Maybury, Karl Hess, Kathryn Daniels, and Jane A. Williams « Letter Re: Idaho and Washington as Retreat Locales |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Sunday March 15 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:“Wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart. Wait, I say on the Lord." - Psalm 27:14 « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Saturday March 14 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:“You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end – which you can never afford to lose – with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.” - Vice Admiral James B. Stockdale, Stockdale's Paradox « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Friday March 13 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"It is good to keep in mind that the screw that tightens the mechanism is also the one that loosens it." - From a Japanese air rifle manual, circa 1971 « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Thursday March 12 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"No one was psychologically prepared for hard times when they hit, because, according to the tenets of positive thinking, even to think of trouble is to bring it on. Americans did not start out as deluded optimists. The original ethos, at least of white Protestant settlers and their descendants, was a grim Calvinism that offered wealth only through hard work and savings, and even then made no promises at all. You might work hard and still fail; you certainly wouldn’t get anywhere by adjusting your attitude or dreamily 'visualizing' success." - Barbara Ehrenreich « Two Letters Re: Storing Food Without Refrigeration |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Wednesday March 11 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"A government by representatives, elected by the people at short periods, was our object; and our maxim at that day was, 'Where annual election ends, tyranny begins.'" - Thomas Jefferson, letter to Samuel Adams, February 26, 1800 « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Tuesday March 10 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"We may be tossed upon an ocean where we can see no land nor, perhaps, the sun and stars. But there is a chart and a compass for us to study, to consult, and to obey. The chart is the Constitution." - Daniel Webster « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Monday March 9 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government, and all that is necessary to close the circle of our felicities." - Thomas Jefferson, in his 1801 Inaugural Address « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Sunday March 8 2009Quote of the Day:"By this we have come to know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives in behalf of our brothers. But whoever has this world's goods, and sees his brother having need, and shuts off his compassion towards him, how does the love of God abide in him? My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth." - 1 John 3:16-18 « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Saturday March 7 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"A gun is a tool, Marian; no better or no worse than any other tool:--an axe, a shovel or anything. A gun is as good or as bad as the man using it. Remember that." - Alan Ladd as Shane - Shane, 1953. (Screenplay by A.B. Guthie, Jr. and Jack Sher) « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Friday March 6 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"You and I as individuals can, by borrowing, live beyond our means, but only for a limited period of time. Why should we think that collectively, as a nation, we are not bound by that same limitation?" - President Ronald Wilson Reagan « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Thursday March 5 2009Quote of the Day:"The difference in energy between a .22 Long Rifle cartridge and a .223 Remington is like the difference between a viola and and a bass fiddle. By the way, a viola is a bass fiddle, after taxes." - James Wesley, Rawles « The Long Arm of the Lawless, by Fred Burton and Scott Stewart |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Wednesday March 4 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Until they realize that their agenda is destroying the life savings of millions of Americans, then all I can give you is caution... I'm not saying Mr. President go stare at the Bloomberg quote machine and come to your senses. I just want some sign that Obama realizes the market is totally falling apart and that his agenda has a big hand in that happening. I don't know about you but I felt it everywhere I went this weekend... A young kid took me aside. He said I was right when I said we've elected a Leninist... I felt the total lack of control we all feel right now, the, "It's out of my hands but where's the authority?" The, "Hey it's amateur hour at our darkest moment." - Jim Kramer, CNBC's host of the Mad Money show « Reviewer's Copies of New "Patriots" Edition Available This Month! (Seeking Mailing Addresses) |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Tuesday March 3 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"For what, after all, is the stimulus package attempting to stimulate? A restrained life of living within our means? No. It's stimulating consumption. All the big talk of get the credit markets moving again, banks healthy again, balance sheets strong again comes down to this: we need little Susie [Homemaker] to get a loan for a really cool new car she can live without, drive it to a shopping mall to buy cr*p she doesn't need with a credit card she shouldn't have, and return to a home mortgaged at a price higher than she can afford. That way, when she can't keep up with all of it, she'll have to fall back on other credit cards, and bank balance sheets will be strong again. Great!" - Jason Kelly « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Monday March 2 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"When watching men of power in action it must be always kept in mind that, whether they know it or not, their main purpose is the elimination or neutralization of the independent individual -- the independent voter, consumer, worker, owner, thinker -- and that every device they employ aims at turning man into a manipulatable "animated instrument," which is Aristotle's definition of a slave." - Eric Hoffer, The Ordeal of Change (1963) « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Sunday March 1 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land." - 2 Chronicles 7:14 (KJV) « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Saturday February 28 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"It's time [for the Federal government] to stop bribing me with my own money." - Rep. Dan Itse of New Hampshire, author of New Hampshire's sadly moribund state sovereignty bill, HR 645. « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Friday February 27 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"When they call the roll in Congress, our Congressmen don't know whether to answer present, or guilty." - Colonel Theodore Roosevelt, 1st US Volunteer Cavalry, Manzanillo, Cuba 1898 (to a Hearst newspaper reporter) « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Thursday February 26 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"We are in a period of price discovery. Many shares, businesses, and credits are on offer. Typically, people are reluctant to make bids until they have a clearer idea of what these things are worth. What are they worth now that we’re in a post-Bubble world? No one knows. And no one seems in a hurry to find out." - Bill Bonner, The Daily Reckoning « Product Review: Shelf Reliance Cansolidator - Addendum, by Michael Z. Williamson |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Wednesday February 25 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"He that suffers his life to be taken from him by one that hath no authority for that purpose, when he might preserve it by defense, incurs the Guilt of self murder since God hath enjoined him to seek the continuance of his life, and Nature itself teaches every creature to defend itself." - From a 1747 sermon given in Philadelphia, as quoted by C. Asbury in The Right to Keep and Bear Arms in America: The Origins and Application of the Second Amendment to the Constitution, (an unpublished doctoral thesis in history, available at University of Michigan Graduate Library), pp. 39-40 « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Tuesday February 24 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:Wir versaufen unser Oma ihr klein Hauschen, « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Monday February 23 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"All the perplexities, confusion and distress in America arise, not from defects in their Constitution or Confederation, not from want of honor or virtue, so much as from the downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit and circulation." - John Adams « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Sunday February 22 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:Then Daniel went to his house, and made the decision known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions, that they might seek mercies from the God of heaven concerning this secret, so that Daniel and his companions might not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. Then the secret was revealed to Daniel in a night vision. So Daniel blessed the God of heaven. Daniel answered and said: “Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, « Letter Re: The Risk to Reward Ratio in Getting Concealed Carry Permits |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Saturday February 21 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Abilene is a town of an armed citizenry. This tends to make relations both peaceful and respectful." - James Butler ("Wild Bill") Hickok, while City Marshal of Abilene, in an interview with an eastern newspaper reporter. (Until Hickok's reply, the reporter had thought Wild Bill himself was the reason.that Abilene was so peaceful for the locals) « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Friday February 20 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"If you can't feed a hundred people, then feed just one." - Mother Teresa « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Thursday February 19 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"What has been, what ever must be, the consequence of such a sudden and prodigious inflation of the currency? Business stimulated to the most unhealthy activity; a vast amount of over production in the mechanick arts; a vast amount of speculation in property of every kind and name, at fictitious values; and finally, a vast and terrifick crash, when the treacherous and unsubstantial basis crumbles beneath the stupendous fabrick of credit, and the structure falls to the ground, burying in its ruins thousands who exulted in the fancied security of their elevation. Men, now-a-days, go to bed deeming themselves rich, and wake in the morning to find themselves stripped of even the little they really had. They count, deluded creatures! on the continued liberality of the banks, whose persuasive entreaties seduced them into the slippery paths of speculation. But they have now to learn that the banks cannot help them if they would, and would not if they could. They were free enough to lend their aid when assistance was not needed; but now, when it is indispensable to carry out the projects which would not have been undertaken but for the temptations they held forth, no further resources can be supplied." - William Leggett, Plaindealer, December 10, 1837 « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Wednesday February 18 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"The very first, most important rule of gunfighting is this: have a gun. If you do not have a gun, do not come to the gunfight." - Mark Moritz « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Tuesday February 17 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"I am so firmly determined, however, to test the constancy of your mind that, drawing from the teachings of great men, I shall give you also a lesson: Set aside a certain number of days, during which you shall be content with the scantiest and cheapest fare, with coarse and rough dress, saying to yourself the while: 'Is this the condition that I feared?' It is precisely in times of immunity from care that the soul should toughen itself beforehand for occasions of greater stress, and it is while Fortune is kind that it should fortify itself against her violence. In days of peace the soldier performs manoeuvres, throws up earthworks with no enemy in sight, and wearies himself by gratuitous toil, in order that he may be equal to unavoidable toil. If you would not have a man flinch when the crisis comes, train him before it comes. Such is the course which those men I have followed who, in their imitation of poverty, have every month come almost to want, that they might never recoil from what they had so often rehearsed." - Lucius Annaeus Seneca, c. 4 BC – AD 65, Epistles, Volume I. « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Monday February 16 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"There are certain things that are true no matter how much someone may deny them. In the economic realm, for instance, you cannot legislate the poor into independence by legislating the wealthy out of it. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it. Government cannot give to people what it does not first take away from people. And that which one man received without working for, another man must work for without receiving." - Kenneth W. Sollitt « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Sunday February 15 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"The world is not going back to normal after the magnitude of what they have done. When the dust settles this will either work, and the money they have pushed into the system will feed though into an inflation shock. Or it will not work because too much damage has already been done, and we will see continued financial deterioration, causing further economic deterioration, with the risk of a feedback loop. We don't think this is the more likely outcome, but as each week and month passes, there is a growing danger of vicious circle as confidence erodes. This will lead to political instability. We are already seeing countries on the periphery of Europe under severe stress. Some leaders are now at record levels of unpopularity. There is a risk of domestic unrest, starting with strikes because people are feeling disenfranchised. What happens if there is a meltdown in a country like Pakistan, which is a nuclear power? People react when they have their backs to the wall. We're already seeing doubts emerge about the sovereign debts of developed AAA-rated countries, which is not something you can ignore." - Tom Fitzpatrick, CitiBank's chief technical strategist, as quoted by The London Telegraph in November 2008 « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Saturday February 14 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"It will not be enemies at the gates who overwhelm the American empire. It will be the army of politically armed economic dependents inside the gates. Granny will bring it down. If you want a mental picture image of the end of American empire, imagine a man dressed in uniform, holding an automatic rifle, being pelted mercilessly by an old lady who is beating him over the head with her handbag." - Dr. Gary North « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Friday February 13 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"You've got to understand that we had a big ranch but we only got money once or twice a year out of it. The money wasn't very free. All the money you got was in gold coin. I remember I was nearly fifteen or sixteen years old before I saw much paper money. It was all gold and silver. They didn't have any greenbacks that I remember. My dad would take the wool and mutton to sell, and he'd come back with some tobacco sacks full of twenty-dollar gold pieces. He used to drive three or four-hundred head of sheep down to Cloverdale. They only brought about $2 a head. A big four horse load of wool taken over to Ukiah would pay for the groceries and clothes for the next winter. That was the big trip of the year, when I was a boy. That was when the money came in. That was the way that we used to get paid for things. Gold and silver coins. As kids, they used to let us play with the gold coins now and again. That was quite a celebration." - Ernest E. Rawles (JWR's grandfather) « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Thursday February 12 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"With the planned fiscal stimulus (taxing future generations), the National Debt will reach 100 percent of GDP during the Obama administration. When Argentina’s economy collapsed in 1998, their National Debt as a percentage of GDP was 65 percent. The Great Deniers say we are not Argentina. They say we are safe because the U.S. dollar is the reserve currency of the world. This is like jumping off a 20 story building and as you pass the 10th floor someone yells out the window asking how you are doing. You answer, 'Good, so far'." - James Quinn « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Wednesday February 11 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable." - Seneca 5 BC - 65 AD « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Tuesday February 10 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Time and the laws of trade will restore things to an equilibrium if legislatures do not rashly interfere in the natural course of events." - New York Evening Post, June 15, 1819, as quoted in The Panic of 1819: Reactions and Policies, Murray N. Rothbard, Ludwig von Mises Institute, 2007, pp 31–32. « Product Review: Shelf Reliance Cansolidator, by Michael Z. Williamson |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Monday February 9 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"For the great majority of mankind are satisfied with appearances, as though they were realities, and are often more influenced by the things that seem than by those that are." - Niccolò Machiavelli « Letter Re: Some Online Resources on Determining Prescription Drug Shelf Lives |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Sunday February 8 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Thus says the LORD: « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Saturday February 7 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Why had they been so anxious to believe that any government could solve problems for them which had been pridefully solved, many times over, by their fathers? Had their characters become so weak and debased, so craven and so emasculated, that offers of government dole had become more important than their liberty and their humanity? Had they not known that power delegated to government becomes the club of tyrants? They must have known. They had their own history to remember, and that history of five thousand years. Yet, they had willingly and knowingly, with all this knowledge, declared themselves unfit to manage their own affairs and had placed their lives, which belonged to God only, in the hands of sinister men who had long plotted to enslave them, by wars, by "directives," by "emergencies." In the name of the American people, the American people had been made captive." - Taylor Caldwell, from her novel The Devil's Advocate, 1964 « Letter Re: Finding Like-Minded Folks |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Friday February 6 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Listen, this whole [heat and air conditioning] system of yours could be on fire, and I couldn't even turn on the kitchen tap [to put the fire out] without filling out a 27-B Stroke 6 [form.] Blo**y paperwork!" - Robert DeNiro as Harry Tuttle, in Brazil.1985. (Screenplay by Terry Gilliam, Tom Stoppard, and Charles McKeown) « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Thursday February 5 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"When we reflect that the eyes of the virtuous all over the earth are turned with anxiety on us as the only depositories of the sacred fire of liberty, and that our falling into anarchy would decide forever the destinies of mankind and seal the political heresy that man is incapable of self-government, the only contest between divided friends should be who will dare farthest into the ranks of the common enemy." - Thomas Jefferson to John Hollins, 1811. ME 13:58 « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Wednesday February 4 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"There are two kinds of fool. One says, ‘This is old, and therefore good.’ And one says, ‘This is new, and therefore better’" - John Brunner « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Tuesday February 3 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"I have often thought that if heaven had given me choice of my position and calling, it should have been on a rich spot of earth, well watered, and near a good market for the productions of the garden. No occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth, and no culture comparable to that of the garden. Such a variety of subjects, some one always coming to perfection, the failure of one thing repaired by the success of another, and instead of one harvest a continued one throughout the year. Under a total want of demand except for our family table, I am still devoted to the garden." - Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Charles E. Peale, 1811. « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Monday February 2 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Great works are performed, not by strength, but by perseverance. Yonder palace was raised by single stones, yet you see its height and spaciousness. He that shall walk with vigor three hours a day will pass in seven years a space equal to the circumference of the globe." - Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Sunday February 1 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"It was good to be back in the wilderness again, where everything seems as peace. I was alone -- just me and the animals. It was a great feeling -- free once more to plan and do as I pleased. Beyond was all around me. My dream was a dream no longer. I suppose I was here because this was something I had to do -- not just dream about it but do it. I suppose too I was here to test myself -- not that I had never done it before but this time it was to be a more thorough and lasting examination. What was I capable of that I didn't know yet? Could I really enjoy my own company for an entire year? And was I equal to everything this wild land could throw at me? I had seen its moods in late spring, summer, and early fall but what about the winter? Would I love the isolation then, with its bone-stabbing cold, its ghostly silence? At age 51, I intended to find out." - Richard Proenneke, Alone in the Wilderness documentary « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Saturday January 31 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"I figured out when I was a little kid that it was better to be a pessimist than an optimist. You see, when you’re an optimist, the best that happens is that things go as you planned, and half the time you’re bitterly disappointed. But when you’re a pessimist, the worst that ever happens is that things to exactly the way you were prepared for them to go, and half the time you’re pleasantly surprised." - Massad Ayoob , January 1, 2009 « Letter Re: Mini-14s as Battle Rifles? |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Friday January 30 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"One aspect of the red state versus blue state dynamic of the country which is often overlooked, is that while the Blue States have come out on top politically, the red states are much more self-sufficient in resources and infrastructure. In a time of crisis this underlying dynamic would become painfully obvious, as overpopulated and undersupplied states in the North and Midwest began demanding resources from politically disenfranchised states in the South and West where most of the agricultural and energy resources are located. When the force of the federal government is turned to massive redistribution of wealth and resources, those who are on the losing end of that redistribution are going to be very disgruntled. When a central government which you feel does not represent you comes to take the food from the mouths of your children and give it to someone else, suddenly concepts like secession and civil war seem more appealing than they might under ideal conditions." - Dave Nalle « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Thursday January 29 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"If you board the wrong train, it's no use running along the corridor in the other direction." - Dietrich Bonhoeffer « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Wednesday January 28 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Hoplophobia is a mental disturbance characterized by irrational aversion to weapons, as opposed to justified apprehension about those who may wield them." - The Late Col. Jeff Cooper, To Ride, Shoot Straight, and Speak the Truth « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Tuesday January 27 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"No man survives when freedom fails, The best men rot in filthy jails, And those who cry 'appease, appease' Are hanged by those they tried to please." - Hiram Mann « Letter Re: The Sad State of Private Firearms Ownership in Australia |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Monday January 26 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Americans who are in the bottom 10th of income distribution live better today than kings lived in 1800. They have better health care, cheaper entertainment, cheaper books, longer life expectancy, air conditioning, central heating, and much more. This has come as a result of the private property system, the future-orientation of a broad mass of savers, and the willingness of entrepreneurs to invest their time and money to meet the wants of consumers in the future." - Dr. Gary North « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Sunday January 25 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"It is of the LORD's mercies that
we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. - Lamentations 3:22-26 (King James Version) « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Saturday January 24 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"The wise man does not expose himself needlessly to danger, « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Friday January 23 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"You cannot run away from a weakness; you must sometimes fight it out or perish. And if that be so, why not now, and where you stand?" - Robert Louis Stevenson « How to Approach Shooting, by M.J.M. |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Thursday January 22 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money." - Margaret Thatcher « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Wednesday January 21 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:Andrea: Unhappy the land that has no heroes. Galileo: No, unhappy the land that needs heroes. - Bertolt Brecht, "Life of Galileo" « Letter Re: Advice on Two-Way Radio Communications |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Tuesday January 20 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"The Second Amendment is a doomsday provision, one designed for those exceptionally rare circumstances where all other rights have failed - where the government refuses to stand for re-election and silences those who protest; where courts have lost the courage to oppose, or can find no one to enforce their decrees. However improbable these contingencies may seem today, facing them unprepared is a mistake a free people get to make only once." - Alex Kosinski, US Federal Appeals Court Judge « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Monday January 19 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:“Let a regular army, fully equal to the resources of the country, be formed; and let it be entirely at the devotion of the federal government; still it would not be going too far to say, that the State governments, with the people on their side, would be able to repel the danger. The highest number to which, according to the best computation, a standing army can be carried in any country, does not exceed one hundredth part of the whole number of souls; or one twenty-fifth part of the number able to bear arms. This proportion would not yield, in the United States , an army of more than twenty-five or thirty thousand men. To these would be opposed a militia amounting to near half a million of citizens with arms in their hands, officered by men chosen from among themselves, fighting for their common liberties, and united and conducted by governments possessing their affections and confidence. It may well be doubted, whether a militia thus circumstanced could ever be conquered by such a proportion of regular troops. Those who are best acquainted with the last successful resistance of this country against the British arms will be most inclined to deny the possibility of it. Besides the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation, the existence of subordinate governments, to which the people are attached, and by which the militia officers are appointed, forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition, more insurmountable than any which a simple government of any form can admit of. Notwithstanding the military establishments in the several kingdoms of Europe, which are carried as far as the public resources will bear, the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms? - James Madison, The Federalist Papers, No. 46. « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Sunday January 18 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"[There is] treasure to be desired and oil in the dwelling of the wise; but a foolish man spendeth it up." - Proverbs 21:20 (KJV) « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Saturday January 17 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Expecting a carjacker, a rapist or a drug pusher to care that his possession or use of a gun is unlawful is like expecting a terrorist to care that his car bomb is taking up two car [parking] spaces." - Joseph T. Chew « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Friday January 16 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Many citizens are questioning the numerous disconnects between the futures markets in precious metals and commodities and the realities of global supply and demand. As the saying goes: keep an eye on the referee. Maybe this match/game isn't quite as fair as it's advertised." - Charles Hugh Smith « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Thursday January 15 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"What we as a nation have done recently is eat the seeds and kill off the game which is necessary to regenerate surplus in the future. We have consumed our future surplus. This is essentially why the Coming Depression will not end in 2009 or 2012--we as a nation have consumed our future surplus via stupendous deficits and the stupendous interest payments which must be paid out of future surpluses." - Charles Hugh Smith « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Wednesday January 14 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Life is ten percent what happens to you and ninety percent how you respond to it." - Lou Holtz « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Tuesday January 13 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical." - Thomas Jefferson « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Monday January 12 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Gold is money, and nothing else." - J.P. Morgan, testifying under oath to Congress before the Pujo Commission, 1913 « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Sunday January 11 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"A sluggard does not plow in season; so at harvest time he looks but finds nothing." - Proverbs 20:4 « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Saturday January 10 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm, and three or more is a congress." - John Adams (1735-1826) « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Friday January 9 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Determine what is best for the government, and know that is what the powers are working to make happen. [Monetary] inflation is what is ‘best’ for a government with enormous debt'. - Ayn Rand « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Thursday January 8 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"With the exception only of the period during which the gold standard was in effect, virtually all governments throughout history have used their exclusive power to issue money, as a method to defraud and plunder the people." - Friedrich von Hayek « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Wednesday January 7 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"The typical individual is addicted to low quality leisure. He watches prime time television. He reads very little. He does not subscribe to economic newsletters or spend much time on financial web sites. He does not think about the distant future, which he defines as anything beyond this month’s paycheck." - Dr. Gary North « The MOAB Expands Yet Again: Five State Governors Seek $1 Trillion from Uncle Sugar |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Tuesday January 6 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Because of the unprecedented fragility of our intertwined power grid and complex transportation system, the technological West is highly vulnerable to sabotage and chaos." - Camille Paglia « Letter Re: Building a Very Inexpensive 10-in-1 Machine Tool for Every Retreat |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Monday January 5 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"There was no court in Holland which would enforce payment. The question was raised in Amsterdam, but the judges unanimously refused to interfere, on the ground that debts contracted in gambling were no debts in law. Thus the matter rested. To find a remedy was beyond the power of the government. Those who were unlucky enough to have had stores of tulips on hand at the time of the sudden reaction were left to bear their ruin as philosophically as they could; those who had made profits were allowed to keep them; but the commerce of the country suffered a severe shock, from which it was many years ere it recovered." - Charles Mackay, LL.D., describing the Tulipomania, in Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, first published London,1841. « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Sunday January 4 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"America’s most precious metals are Gold, Silver, and Blued Steel." - Frank in Maine (a SurvivalBlog reader) « Letter Re: Sources for Fasteners for D.I.Y. Web Gear Fabrication |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Saturday January 3 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"If the jury feels the law is unjust, we recognize the undisputed power of the jury to acquit, even if its verdict is contrary to the law as given by a judge, and contrary to the evidence." - 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, US v. Moylan, 1969 « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Friday January 2 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"For more than six hundred years-- that is, since Magna Carta, in 1215--there has been no clearer principle of English or American constitutional law, than that, in criminal cases, it is not only the right and duty of juries to judge what are the facts, what is the law, and what was the moral intent of the accused; but that it is also their right, and their primary and paramount duty, to judge the justice of the law, and to hold all laws invalid, that are, in their opinion, unjust or oppressive, and all persons guiltless in violating, or resisting the execution of, such law." - Lysander Spooner, The Right of Juries « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Thursday January 1 2009Jim's Quote of the Day:"Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear." - Harry S. Truman, August 8, 1950 « Letter Re: Home Invasion Robbery Countermeasures--Your Mindset and Architecture |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Wednesday December 31 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:"While 2008 will probably be best known as the year that global stock markets had their values cut in half, it was really much, much more. It was a year in which every major asset class - stocks, real estate, commodities, even high-yield bonds - suffered significant double-digit percentage losses, resulting in the destruction of over $30 trillion of paper wealth. To blame this on subprime mortgages alone would be to dismiss an era of leveraging that encompassed derivative structures of all types, embodying a belief that economic growth was always and everywhere a certainty and that asset prices never go down." - Bill Gross « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Tuesday December 30 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:"When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle." - Edmund Burke, 1770 « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Monday December 29 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:"It was the Wild West. If you were alive, they would give you a loan. Actually, I think if you were dead, they would still give you a loan." - Steven M. Knobel, a founder of the appraisal company Mitchell, Maxwell & Jackson, that did business with Washington Mutual (WaMu) until 2007, as quoted by The New York Times « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Sunday December 28 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:"And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not." - Isaiah 58:11 « Letter Re: Advice in Storing Extra Gasoline in Cans at Home |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Saturday December 27 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:"Liberty must at all hazards be supported. We have a right to it, derived from our Maker. But if we had not, our fathers have earned and bought it for us, at the expense of their ease, their estates, their pleasure, and their blood." - John Adams, A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law, 1765 « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Friday December 26 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:This is a coalition to ban coalitions, I ain't a politician but I've got views. « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Thursday December 25 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:"The giving of gifts is not something man invented. God started the giving spree when he gave a gift beyond words, the unspeakable gift of His Son." - Robert Flatt « Letter Re: Long Haul Voice and Data Communications in a Post-Collapse Environment |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Wednesday December 24 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:"There has been only one Christmas - the rest are anniversaries." - W.J. Cameron « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Tuesday December 23 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:"No state or policy can prosper unless the groundwork is moral." - Thomas Masaryk (1850 - 1937), founder and first president of Czechoslovakia « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Monday December 22 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:"Men of sense often learn from their enemies. It is from their foes, not their friends, that cities learn the lesson of building high walls and ships of war; and this lesson saves their children, their homes, and their properties." - Aristophanes (B.C. 448-380) « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Sunday December 21 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:My son, fear the LORD and the king; « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Saturday December 20 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:"Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom of Europe. The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of the people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any bands of regular troops that can be, on any pretense, raised in the United States." - Noah Webster, "An Examination into the Leading Principles of the Federal Constitution," 1787, in Paul Ford, ed., Pamphlets on the Constitution of the United States, p. 56 (New York, 1888). « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Thursday December 18 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:"All centuries are dangerous, it is the business of the future to be dangerous. It must be admitted that there is a degree of instability which is inconsistent with civilization. But, on the whole, the great ages have been the unstable ages." - Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947) « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Jim's Quote of the Day:"The right of a citizen to bear arms, in lawful defense of himself or the State, is absolute. He does not derive it from the State government. It is one of the high powers" delegated directly to the citizen, and `is excepted out of the general powers of government.' A law cannot be passed to infringe upon or impair it, because it is above the law, and independent of the lawmaking power." - Cockrum v. State, 24 Tex. 394, at 401-402 (1859) « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Wednesday December 17 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:"The bottom line is that we've become a nation of thieves, a value rejected by our founders. James Madison, the father of our Constitution, was horrified when Congress appropriated $15,000 to help French refugees. He said, 'I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents.' Tragically, today's Americans would run Madison out of town on a rail." - Dr. Walter Williams « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Tuesday December 16 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:"Let them fail; let everybody fail! I made my fortune when I had nothing to start with, by myself and my own ideas. Let other people do the same thing. If I lose everything in the collapse of our financial structure, I will start in at the beginning and build it up again." - Henry Ford. February 11, 1934 « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Monday December 15 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:"We goldbugs will get our wish: the explosive price rise we have all drooled about for nearly a quarter century. The bad news it will be in the context of social anarchy and collapse. I have somewhat sardonically mentioned that I have been investing in lead, as in ammo, the other precious metal. If people think the urban mob members in evidence at the Long Island Wal-Mart on Black Friday were unusual or even particularly decadent in their behavior, they need to get out more. The rot is everywhere now. There is no hiding from it anymore. Nowhere; Nohow. My illusions died a long time ago. I write to you in the light of cold, cruel reality. If you can't take it, then go watch American Idol or whatever you do to shield your eyes from the ongoing chaos." - Doug McIntosh « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Sunday December 14 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:"The first lesson of economics is scarcity: There is never enough of anything to satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics." - Thomas Sowell « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Saturday December 13 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:"When you have no principles, your life is first worthless and then lost." - Christopher Anvil, Pandora's Planet « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Friday December 12 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:"Beware of those who say we've hit the bottom." - Nouriel Roubini « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Thursday December 11 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:"We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our
election between economy and liberty or profusion and servitude. « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Wednesday December 10 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:"Today, a major economic crisis is unfolding. New government programs
are started daily, and future plans are being made for even more. All are based
on the belief that we're in this mess because free-market capitalism and sound
money failed. The obsession is with more spending, bailouts of bad investments,
more debt, and further dollar debasement. Many are saying we need an international
answer to our problems with the establishment of a world central bank and a
single fiat reserve currency. These suggestions are merely more of the same
policies that created our mess and are doomed to fail." « Letter Re: Can Firearms Magazine Springs "Take a Set"? |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Tuesday December 9 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:"Do we really think that a government-dominated education is going to produce citizens capable of dominating their government, as the education of a truly vigilant self-governing people requires?" - Alan Keyes « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Monday December 8 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:"Most people lost in the wilds, they, they die of shame...'What did I do wrong? How could I have gotten myself into this?' And so they sit there and they... die. Because they didn't do the one thing that would save their lives...Thinking." - Anthony Hopkins as Charles Morse in "The Edge" (2007); screenplay by David Mamet « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Sunday December 7 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:"Japanese naval officers in dress whites are frequent guests at [the Pearl Harbor US Navy Base] officers' mess are very polite. They always were. Except, of course, for that little interval there between 1941 and 1945." - William Manchester « Letter Re: Essential Oils for Survival |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Saturday December 6 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:"The difference between death and taxes is death doesn't get worse every time Congress meets." - Will Rogers « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Friday December 5 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:Mexican Boy (pointing): Mira, mira! Viene la tormenta! - Closing scene of Terminator (1984) Screenplay by James Cameron, Randall Frakes, Gale Anne Hurd, and William Wisher Jr. « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Thursday December 4 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:"I can calculate the movement of the stars, but not the madness of men." - Sir Isaac Newton, shortly after losing all of his savings in the South Seas Bubble investing swindle « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Wednesday December 3 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:"So here we are in a country with more wheat and corn and more money in the bank than any other nation, more cotton, more everything in the world – there’s not a product that you can name that we haven’t got more of than any other country had on the face of the earth – and yet we’ve got people starving. We’ll hold the distinction of being the only nation in the history of the world that ever went to the poorhouse in an automobile." - Will Rogers, in a live radio broadcast, October 18, 1931 « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Tuesday December 2 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:"No man is worth his salt who is not ready at all times to risk his well-being, to risk his body, to risk his life, in a great cause." - Theodore Roosevelt « Two Letters Re: Gardening and Seed Saving, by Carolyn W. |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Monday December 1 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:"The moral and constitutional obligations of our representatives in Washington are to protect our liberty, not coddle the world, precipitating no-win wars, while bringing bankruptcy and economic turmoil to our people." - Congressman Ron Paul, 1987 « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Sunday November 30 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:"The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime and the punishment of his guilt." - John Philpot Curran, 1790 « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Saturday November 29 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:"The simple truth is that cheap and easy oil is gone. This is one emergency we can't drill our way out of." - T. Boone Pickens « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Friday November 28 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:"By using gravity as your tow line, you can sidle up to an asteroid. Maintain it for a year and that should give it enough nudge to miss the earth 20 years later." - Stanley Love « The Time Has Come to Cache Some Cash |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Thursday November 27 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:"Nothing can destroy a government more quickly than its failure to observe its own laws, or worse, its disregard of the charter of its own existence." - U.S. Supreme Court Justice Tom C. Clark, in Mapp v. Ohio, 1961 « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Wednesday November 26 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:"The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be either good or evil." - Hannah Arendt « Letter Re: A Vehicular Bug-Out Kit |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Tuesday November 25 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:"Our currency’s fiat status is old news; it’s been completely unfettered from the discipline of the gold standard for nearly forty years. A gold standard is one of the things that keep governments in check. Without it, governments tend to do really evil and stupid things…like setting up a central bank that creates “money” at will, simultaneously destroying the savings of the citizenry and subsidizing unproductive businesses, practices and people. Okay, now this really is starting to sound familiar The bad news: Our currency is probably going to collapse completely and we are probably seeing the very first days of a very long, very severe economic depression. These things happen. They happen because people think that there is something magical about voting, that it can repeal the laws of physics and that despite the old adage, one really can get something for nothing. Or at least one can simply vote what’s in a neighbor’s pocket into one’s own. It’s like magic. Before you know it, every humble republic gives way to a society of freeloaders, nannies, connivers and bums. One set of folks makes lifelong careers out of telling independent adults what to do with the fruits of their labor. And each person in the populace expects to get at least a few things at the expense of some other portion of the populace: Housing, healthcare, food… And they don’t stop at trying to pick each other’s pockets either. At fairly regular intervals a nation will cast a covetous eye abroad at another nation’s bounty. It’s entirely natural for people to want more than they currently have...but actually believing one can have as much as one wants is a fantasy for children…actually trying to take as much as one wants is the province of criminals. Governments by their nature result from and promote this sort of infantile banditry.That’s why we love gold so much…and why we hate taxes. Gold enforces a rigorous standard. Gold keeps governments from quietly stealing from individuals through inflation…and what they can’t steal they can’t use to finance invasions and land grabs. And what they don’t tax they can’t idiotically redistribute." - Gary Gibson, writing in a recent issue of the highly-recommended Whiskey & Gunpowder e-newsletter. « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Monday November 24 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:"People who object to [privately-owned] weapons aren't abolishing violence, they're begging for rule by brute force, when the biggest, strongest animals among men were always automatically 'right.' Guns ended that, and social democracy is a hollow farce without an armed populace to make it work." - L. Neil Smith « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Sunday November 23 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:"Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody." - 1 Thessalonians 4:12 « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Saturday November 22 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:"No one can read our Constitution without concluding that the people who wrote it wanted their government severely limited; the words ‘no’ and ‘not’ employed in restraint of government power occur 24 times in the first seven articles of the Constitution and 22 more times in the Bill of Rights." - Edmund A. Opitz « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Friday November 21 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:"Nothing is ever what it seems, but everything is exactly what its is." - Buckaroo Banzai (as quoted in Pinky Carruthers' Unknown Facts) « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Thursday November 20 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:"The Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in Him." - Nahum 1:7 « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Wednesday November 19 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:"No battle plan ever survives contact with the enemy." - Field Marshall Helmuth Carl Bernard von Moltke « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Tuesday November 18 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:"Pets are always a great help in times of stress. And in times of starvation too, o’course." - Terry Pratchett, Small Gods « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Monday November 17 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:"I wish I didn't know now, what I didn't know then." - Bob Seger, from "Running Against the Wind" « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Sunday November 16 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:"Something funny is happening down at the bank." - Jimmy Stewart in It’s a Wonderful Life (Screenplay by Frances Goodrich, Albert Hackett, and Frank Capra.) « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Saturday November 15 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:"Well, I guess we don't get to make fun of Burt's [survivalist] lifestyle anymore." - Fred Ward as Earl Bassett in Tremors, (1990). (Screenplay by S.S. Wilson and Brent Maddock.) « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Friday November 14 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:"It is tempting to deny the existence of evil since denying it removes the need to fight it." - Alexis Carrel « Letter Re: Frequency of Firearms Practice? |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Thursday November 13 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:"Thank God every morning when you get up that you have something to do which must be done, whether you like it or not. Being forced to work, and forced to do your best, will breed in you temperance, self-control, diligence, strength of will, content, and a hundred other virtues which the idle never know." - Charles Kingsley (1819 - 1875) « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Wednesday November 12 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:"There is nothing which persevering effort and unceasing and diligent care can not accomplish." - Seneca (4 BC - 65 AD) « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Tuesday November 11 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:"It's best for anyone who's been in the military service if he's had some disagreeable experiences... to talk about it and get it out of his system and then forget it." - Frank Woodruff Buckles (America's last surviving WWI Veteran, age 107) « Letter Re: Deflation Followed by Mass Inflation? |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Monday November 10 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:"God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. ... And what country can preserve its liberties, if it's rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to the facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure." - Thomas Jefferson « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Sunday November 9 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:"For a quarter century, those who recalled Charles Mackay's [non-fiction book] Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds and its many successors, and pointed out that uncontrolled speculation always ends the same dismal way, were told that they ought to shut up until they learned something about economics. Sober warnings from distinguished scholars were drowned out by a chorus of cheerleading, while less prestigious voices were pushed out to the fringes of the blogosphere. What is now painfully clear is that those marginalized voices were right all along, and their warnings could have spared us a massive economic disaster if the pundits and politicians who dismissed them had listened instead." - John Michael Greer « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Saturday November 8 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:'If we find our government in all its branches rushing headlong... into the arms of monarchy, if we find them violating our dearest rights, the trial by jury, the freedom of the press, the freedom of opinion, civil or religious, or opening on our peace of mind or personal safety the sluices of terrorism, if we see them raising standing armies, when the absence of all other danger points to these as the sole objects on which they are to be employed, then indeed let us withdraw and call the nation to its tents. But while our functionaries are wise, and honest, and vigilant, let us move compactly under their guidance, and we have nothing to fear. Things may here and there go a little wrong. It is not in their power to prevent it. But all will be right in the end, though not perhaps by the shortest means." - Thomas Jefferson, Letter to William Duane, 1811. ME 13:29 « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Friday November 7 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:“History is a vast early warning system” - Norman Cousins « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Thursday November 6 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:"Murphy's Law: "If there's more than one way to do a job, and one of those ways will result in disaster, then somebody will do it that way." - Capt. Edward A. Murphy, Jr., Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, circa 1949 « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Wednesday November 5 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:"The problem with political jokes is they get elected." - Henry Cate, VII « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Tuesday November 4 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:"Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedies." - Groucho Marx « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Monday November 3 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:"The liberties of our country, the freedoms of our civil constitution are worth defending at all hazards; and it is our duty to defend them against all attacks. We have received them as a fair inheritance from our worthy ancestors: they purchased them for us with toil and danger and expense of treasure and blood, and transmitted them to us with care and diligence. It will bring an everlasting mark of infamy on the present generation, enlightened as it is, if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle, or be cheated out of them by the artifices of false and designing men." - Samuel Adams (1722 -1803) « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Sunday November 2 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:"An election is coming. Universal peace is declared and the foxes have a sincere interest in prolonging the lives of the poultry." - T.S. Eliot « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Saturday November 1 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:"Politicians and diapers should be changed often, and for the same reason." - Mark Twain « Letter Re: The Least Expensive Way to Stock Up on Storage Food? |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Friday October 31 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:"People never lie so much as after a hunt, during a war or before an election." - Otto von Bismarck « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Thursday October 30 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:A clown is funny in the circus ring, but what would be the normal reaction to opening a door at midnight and finding the same clown standing there in the moonlight?" - Lon Chaney, Sr. « Letter Re: Your Next Career in the New Economy |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Wednesday October 29 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:"There is only one thing more painful than learning from experience and that is not learning from experience." - Archibald McLeish « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Tuesday October 28 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:"There can be no such thing, in law or in morality, as actions forbidden to an individual, but permitted to a mob." - Ayn Rand « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Monday October 27 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:"Mystery is the source of all true art and science." - Masado Banzai (as quoted in Pinky Carruthers' Unknown Facts) « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Sunday October 26 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:"Using a television without an appropriate licence is a criminal offence. Every day we catch an average of 1,200 people using a TV without a licence. There is no valid excuse for using a television and not having a TV Licence, but some people still try - sometimes with the most ridiculous stories ever heard. Our detection equipment will track down your TV. The fact that our enquiry officers are now so well equipped with the latest technology means that there is virtually no way to avoid detection." - from the official website of the British Television Licensing Authority, May 2003 « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Saturday October 25 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:"Whistling in the dark does not bring light." - German social philosopher Erich Fromm « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Friday October 24 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:"If we find our government in all its branches rushing headlong... into the arms of monarchy, if we find them violating our dearest rights, the trial by jury, the freedom of the press, the freedom of opinion, civil or religious, or opening on our peace of mind or personal safety the sluices of terrorism, if we see them raising standing armies, when the absence of all other danger points to these as the sole objects on which they are to be employed, then indeed let us withdraw and call the nation to its tents. But while our functionaries are wise, and honest, and vigilant, let us move compactly under their guidance, and we have nothing to fear. Things may here and there go a little wrong. It is not in their power to prevent it. But all will be right in the end, though not perhaps by the shortest means." - Thomas Jefferson to William Duane, 1811. ME 13:29 « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Thursday October 23 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:"The trouble with small furry animals in a corner is that, just occasionally, one of them's a mongoose." - Terry Pratchett, Witches Abroad « Letter Re: Learning a Second Language as a Survival Skill |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Wednesday October 22 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:"Liberty tells you that you are entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; to whatever you earn, and nothing that you don't." - Ron Paul « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Tuesday October 21 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:"I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it." - Thomas Jefferson « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Monday October 20 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:
"...While
every bank tries to pass the toxic parcel on to somebody else, the system has
to find the money. So will compensation for the near valueless contracts and
thus now uninsured debt ultimately be made - and by whom? And because nobody
knows - not the regulators, banks or governments - who owns the swaps and whether
they are credit-worthy, nobody can answer the question. Maybe holders of insurance
policies will get the cash due to them, but will that weaken somebody else?
The result - panic. « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Sunday October 19 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:"The wise look ahead to see what is coming, but fools deceive themselves." - Proverbs 14:8 (New Living Translation) « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Saturday October 18 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:"For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."- Jer 29:11 « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Friday October 17 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:"... By calling attention to a well-regulated militia for the security of the Nation, and the right of each citizen to keep and bear arms, our founding fathers recognized the essentially civilian nature of our economy. Although it is extremely unlikely that the fear of governmental tyranny, which gave rise to the 2nd amendment, will ever be a major danger to our Nation, the amendment still remains an important declaration of our basic military-civilian relationship, in which every citizen must be ready to participate in the defense of his country. For that reason I believe the 2nd Amendment will always be important." - John F. Kennedy « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Thursday October 16 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:"The economic statistics put out by the U.S. government are propaganda, pure and simple. Issued by the government and the financial community, and reported by the mass media, the information we get has been manipulated to mold a public understanding favorable to the agenda of the powers that be." - Peter Schiff, "Crash Proof" « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Wednesday October 15 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:"The current rescue plans, which will force governments to issue more debt, print money and flood the markets with liquidity, will flare up inflation after the crisis is over and will create worse problems. We're setting the stage for when we come out of this of a massive inflation holocaust." - Investing Sage Jim Rogers « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Tuesday October 14 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:"The avalanche has already started. It is too late for the pebbles to vote." - Kosh Naranek, in Babylon 5 Season 1, Episode 10 "Believers" (Screenplay by David Gerrold) « Letter Re: Getting Adult Family Members Home in Times of Crisis |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Monday October 13 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:"In one sense, what is happening is not the bankruptcy of America but the transfer of assets from the spendthrift imprudent to the frugal prudent. Is this a bad thing? I don't think a "good/bad" statement has any meaning here; it is simply a market economy at work. Excesses get unwound, cash is always king, prudent investors tend to be rewarded and gamblers tend to lose all their money." - Charles Hugh Smith « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Sunday October 12 2008Jim's Quote of the Day: "O eternal and everlasting God, I presume to present myself this morning before
thy Divine majesty, beseeching thee to accept of my humble and hearty thanks,
that it hath pleased thy great goodness to keep and preserve me the night past
from all the dangers poor mortals are subject to, and has given me sweet and
pleasant sleep, whereby I find my body refreshed and comforted for performing
the duties of this day, in which I beseech thee to defend me from all perils
of body and soul.... « Letter Re: Everyday Carry Pocketknife Recommendation? |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Saturday October 11 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:"University of Maryland economist Herman E. Daly points out that the current crisis is really one of the “overgrowth of financial assets relative to growth of real wealth.” Daly believes that “financial assets have grown by a large multiple of the real economy” and that “paper exchanging for paper is now 20 times greater than exchanges of paper for real commodities.” Exploding debt liens have simply outgrown the wealth. The problem, in other words, cannot be bailed out. Historically, debt that cannot be redeemed has been repealed by inflation. The same inflation that wipes out debt will wipe out savings." - Former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Paul Craig Roberts, in Can a Bailout Succeed? « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Friday October 10 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:"Necessity never made a good bargain." - Benjamin Franklin « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Thursday October 9 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:"Policies are many, Principles are few, Policies will change, Principles never do." - John C. Maxwell « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Wednesday October 8 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:"There is no counter-party risk -- when you are holding Krugerrands." - SurvivalBlog Reader Rob C. « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Tuesday October 7 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:"Keynes explicitly classified the two components in the money supply as 'industrial circulation' versus 'financial circulation.' The distinction is important; it is like the difference between a woman and a female impersonator. They may be alike in almost every respect, except the essential ones." - Bill Bonner « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Monday October 6 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:"When all is said and done, Civilizations do not fall because of the barbarians at the gates. Nor does a great city fall from the death wish of bored and morally bankrupt stewards presumably sworn to its defense. Civilizations fall only because each citizen of the city comes to accept that nothing can be done to rally and rebuild broken walls; that ground lost may never be recovered; and that greatness lived in our grandparents but not our grandchildren. Yes, our betters tell us these things daily. But that doesn’t mean we have to believe it.- Bill Whittle « Note from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Sunday October 5 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:"The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not entirely absurd, indeed, in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widespread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible." - Bertrand Russell « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Saturday October 4 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:
"In modern democracies, successful politicians must possess two qualities: They must say what the people want to hear and they must do what those in power want done." - Darryl Schoon « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Friday October 3 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:“Fear, Mr. Bond, takes gold out of circulation and hoards it against the evil day. In a period of history when every tomorrow may be the evil day, it is fair to say that a fat proportion of the gold dug out of one corner of the earth is at once buried again in another corner...” - Ian Fleming, Goldfinger « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Thursday October 2 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:"The money markets have completely broken down, with no trading taking place at all. There is no market any more. Central banks are the only providers of cash to the market, no-one else is lending." - Christoph Rieger, fixed-income strategist with Dresdner Kleinwort. « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Wednesday October 1 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:"The financial meltdown the economists of the Austrian School predicted has arrived. We are in this crisis because of an excess of artificially created credit at the hands of the Federal Reserve System. The solution being proposed? More artificial credit by the Federal Reserve. No liquidation of bad debt and malinvestment is to be allowed. By doing more of the same, we will only continue and intensify the distortions in our economy - all the capital misallocation, all the malinvestment - and prevent the market's attempt to re-establish rational pricing of houses and other assets." - Congressman Ron Paul, My Answer to The President. (See also the short video clip of Ron Paul's address before congress on corporatism and the destruction of the dollar.) « Notes from JWR: |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » Tuesday September 30 2008Jim's Quote of the Day:"Mostly the thing I see is the pure lack of planning -- people feel secure in their homes and think that it will never happen to them, and then it does". Tom Hazelwood, quoted by Laura Rowley in Flirting with Disaster: Preparation is Key for Potential Catastrophes « Letter Re: Advice on Fuel Drums and Fuel Transfer Pumps? |Main| Odds 'n Sods: » | |
by Aaron Zelman and L. Neil Smith
Episode 12, "The Message". Screenplay by Joss Whedon and Tim Minear 
, (1976). Screenplay by Phillip Kaufman and Sonia Chernus, based on the novel 
by 
)
by
Nechama Tec.
, 2005 (originally written by Cormack McCarthy)
)
)
Screenplay by James Lee Barrett. (The Other Ryan, over at 
, Vol. 2, 140–4
(2007)
)
,
2005. (Screenplay by Joss Whedon)
, (1948), a classic pandemic novel 
(2008)
Screenplay by Clayton Frohman and Edward Zwick, based on the book 
)
