Keep Eating In Troubled Times

With's Steve's post about survivalblog.com, I'd thought I post some stuff I've found over the last few years that might help you guys plan ahead. A warning though, that some of these sites are huge, and you could spend days looking through it all.

Unfortunately, I still haven't learned how to hotlink on Blogger, so you'll have to cut and paste these.

First of all, there's the Old Timer's Page. This is a page devoted to living like they did in the old days, without power or refrigeration. There are also links to dozens of other sites with similar info.

http://www.waltonfeed.com/old/old/index.html

Next comes Alpha Rubicon. AR is pretty much a die hard survivalist site, that's easy to navigate, and has just about all the info you could want on SHTF scenarios. BTW, read the Distilled Message of Preparedness on the home page first.

http://www.alpharubicon.com/index2.html

http://www.alpharubicon.com/prepinfo/themainmessage.htm

Equipped To Survive is a site that focuses on the gear involved in SHTF undertakings. I found this site to be generally reliable and worth checking out.

http://www.equipped.org/

On Fighting

To begin with, we'll start on the unarmed category of fighting. My favorite for the WWII and conemporary combatives is gutterfighting.org. Gutterfighting is the bailiwick of the New Jersey combatives crew of the late Carl Cestari. You'll see Cestari's Bare Knuckle Boxing vid on the upper left corner. Gutterfighting has a slew of Carl's articles he wrote over the years, as well as a lot of other applicable stuff, and all of it is worth reading and learning from. Carl was the man.

Their forum is awesome as well, but it is readable by invite only, and I don't have the clout to get anyone else in, unfortunately.

http://www.gutterfighting.org/Main.html

One of the better sites I've seen is Lee Morrison's Urban Combatives site. Lee is a UK combatives trainer, and I own a couple of his training dvd's. The free stuff on his site is basic, but good. Give it a serious read through, and take notes.

http://www.urbancombatives.com/index.htm

Jimmy Fatwing has a bunch of links on his site worth reading. Much of this stuff comes from old texts, but the material is still just as useful as it always was.

http://www.jimmy-fatwing.co.uk/

For the use of the knife, here's a PDF of a good slam and jam knife book, Put 'Em Down, Take 'Em Out. A classic knife fighting manual.

http://www.zhivitam.ru/files/83d9f916f68c532.pdf

Here are a slew of the classic combatives works of the old masters such as Colonel W.E. Fairbairn, E. A. Sykes, John Styers, Col. Rex Applegate, AJ Biddle, and others. All of them are good reads, and are good manuals for beginners. Indeed, the WWII combatives curriculum evolved during the war to meet the needs of instructors who had to train thousands of beginners in combative principles in a matter of weeks, so the methods they designed had to be easy to learn, easy to remember, and easy to make work in the field.

Cold Steel by John Styers. His knife and bayonet work is excellent. Anytime you see bayonet, substitute cane or walking stick, 'cause the techniques are the same.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/2346045/Cold-Steel-John-Styers

Get Tough by W.E. Fairbairn. The greatest hand to hand manual of WWII.
http://www.vrazvedka.ru/main/learning/ruk-b/fairbairn-01.shtml

Shooting To Live by Fairbairn and Sykes. The original point shooting manual. I've taught Jeremy and Kyle in these methods, and they can vouch for how effective they are.
http://www.gutterfighting.org/files/shooting_to_live.pdf

Do or Die by A.J. Biddle.
http://fliiby.com/file/41489/81blmvoowf.html

Kill or Get Killed by Colonel Rex Applegate. Another of the great WWII manuals.
http://www.gutterfighting.org/files/Kill_or_Get_Killed.pdf

Arwrology by Gordon E. Perrigard. Weird name, decent book.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/3026801/Arwrology-AllOut-HandtoHand-Fighting-Gordon-Perrigard

That should get you started.

And remember when reading through these combatives books, that unlike martial arts, which is something you do with someone, combatives is something you do to someone. There's no sparring, no give and take, no cutting slack, no giving an even break. Just bare naked caveman aggression and killer instinct. Attack, attack, attack.

The Coming Charlie Foxtrot

You know guys, we try on our blogs to post more of the lighthearted things in our lives, but right now, I think that there is a dark cloud hanging over us all, and I feel like I need to get you guys informed and able to cope with what I see coming down the road.

Now, I know that you guys probably think that I just sit around all day reading books and watching movies and looking at guns on the internet, but the truth is that in the last year and a half or so, I spend at least four or five hours a night online getting what is probably the equivalent to a college degree in history, economics, and geo-politics. I'm constantly crawling through various forums, blogs, organization websites, institutes, and think-tank sites trying to learn as much as I can about What Is Going On. Everything I've seen for months and months points to the fact that it doesn't look good for us in the future.

So I'm going to try to keep everyone here informed, in a way that's easy for everyone to understand.

First of all guys, we've got trouble abrewin' in this country. Everybody knows it, but the average person, it seems, would rather believe that everything is going to be okay as long as they trust the government and simply believe that everything will be okay.

In reality, though, what we're looking at is another Great Depression, and very possibly either the collapse of the federal government, or at least a drastic curtailing of federal power. According to some of the experts out there, we're already in a depression, but the government is refusing to call it that for fear of causing a panic and making everything worse. At this point, the actual unemployment numbers sit at 13%, not the 7% being claimed. There are experts out there predicting unemployment at 25% before the year is out. Market strategist Dr. Brandon Kim thinks that number could actually get into the 30%+ range, which is freaking scary to think about.

Just like with the Soviet Union, the US is spending itself into collapse, and we get to watch it all unfold on Fox News every day. The Spending Bill of 2009 is going to be the beginning of the end. This turkey is all about the Dems getting all of the funding for programs they haven't been able to get passed in the last forty years all in one go. They're pushing social programs that cannot in any way be supported by the taxpayers. There's just no more money.

The Dems grand plan is to borrow money to pay off debt. WTF? Anyone who has ever payed off a credit card with another credit card knows that this is a losing game. Why the Democrats can't see the lunacy of this just amazes me.

There are several US States though that can see this as the biggest problem to our security. At the moment, eight states have introduced legislation declaring state sovereignty under the Ninth and Tenth Amendments. Another twenty are expected to draft similar bills in the coming weeks. Halle-freakin'-lujeh!

Essentially they are telling the Feds to back off of their latest power grab and stop spending money like drunken sailors. They're also rebelling against pending legislation that violates 2nd and 4th Amendment rights. Things like the REAL ID act and gun registration and ammunition encoding are absolutely unconstitutional, and the Dems are trying to push this stuff through ASAP.

This is how the Soviet Union started breaking up. I've even been hearing talk of secession now, and the movement is growing. New Hampshire, Montana, Texas, Arizona, just for starters.

So what does all this mean? We'll throw aside politics, and get down to what this means at the individual level, which means you and me.

Well, for one thing, it means that we are now looking at drastic changes in how we live our lives. The luxuries we've all gotten used to will likely be gone in the next few years. There is a very real need to start by planning ahead at covering the basic necessities of life. Food, water, shelter, transportation, and security.

Food- For one thing, start stocking up right now on food and seed. As much as you can afford. Buy it cheap, stack it deep. Also, I want everyone, and I mean everyone, to rip up their back yards and start planning subsistence gardens. Seriously, it may be the thing that gets you through the bad times in the years to come. Learn how to can and preserve food.

Jeremy, get Kyle and Dad together, tear out every patch of grass and Mom's flower beds, and start planting food. Do the same at Heidi's house. Get food growing, and start making compost.

Water- Very important. Keep a good supply in the garage, just in case. Enough for a few days at least. Maybe more if you live in AZ.

Shelter- At this point, shelter is going to be the least of anyone's problems. If you had to, it wouldn't be tough to find an empty house to squat in, given how many foreclosures there have been in the last few years. There is a three year inventory of houses in this country. There's plenty of room.

Transpo- Keep your car at least 3/4 full. Get a ten gallon gas can or three and fill them up. Rotate them, but keep the gas handy. 30 gallons of gas on hand would allow you to Get The Hell Out in an emergency.

Before the Spending Bill was passed, there were experts saying that gas would be down to eighty cents a gallon by summer. Now, though, we're looking at the very real threat of hyper-inflation, so the cost of gas could go through the roof. Keep some extra handy.

Get a bike. Start riding it. Get used to doing as many chores as you can on it. Eventually, it may be the only vehicle you can afford to use. You'd be surprised at how folks in third world countries get along and thrive on the bicycle.

Security- This means guns, friends, and family. The family we got covered. The guns though, are another issue. Get one or two, and buy as much ammo as you can afford. There may come a time when ammo will be worth more than money. No, I'm not kidding. Get to know your neighbors. Establish good relations with those around you.

Also, if the economy and the nation collapse, which is likely, crime will go through the roof and you have to be ready to protect yourself at a moment's notice. Cops will be few and far between. Guns and friends will be the only protection you have.

Get into the best shape you can. Exercise as much as you can, and lose some weight. If we collapse, you're going to want to have as few health issues as possible. Get used to walking long distances with a backpack. Trust me, I've done this a lot in the last few months, and it isn't easy. The Army has guys run with full packs every day for a reason. Get your body used to hardship.

Learn how to fight. Unarmed, with blade, club, and firearm. This is important. Keep it basic if you must, but learn something. Especially you men. There is no excuse for not knowing how to put the hurt on an enemy, and your family might need you to be able to defend them someday. So might your friends and neighbors. So learn what you need to learn, and become modern warriors.

Next time I'll post a few articles on the coming cataclysm, and solutions to surviving when the times are interesting, in the Chinese sense of the word.

I know this sounds like end of the world, tin foil hat stuff, but you can't ignore the lessons of history. America is not immune to the stupidity of those in charge. We've had nearly two decades of bad government leading us down the road to failure.

We've arrived.