American Survival Blog

By militia they of course mean a 60-year-old shut in and his three friends. The problem is the man was manufacturing fuse lit grenade loaded with shot. Sorry kids, they days of making a few bombs pre-SHTF to store in your basement ended back when Janet Reno turned the A.T.F into gun-grabbing shock troops for liberals.

That and a little thing called 9/11.

From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

A Clearfield County man who gave undercover federal agents explicit instructions on how to make what he called “bean can grenades” has been arrested on weapons charges.

Bradley Kahle, 60, of Troutville, who said the election of Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama would prompt a civil war, is being held pending a detention hearing tomorrow in Johnstown.

He is one of four men now charged in separate but related investigations by the U.S. Attorney’s Office related to possible militia activity.

The other three men, also in custody, were indicted by a federal grand jury last week. They will have detention hearings in Pittsburgh tomorrow.

According to an eight-page affidavit filed in Mr. Kahle’s case in U.S. District Court today, undercover officers have been meeting with him for more than a year.

On Sunday, federal agents served a search warrant on his home, finding 16 improvised explosive devices in a “gun reloading room.” They were made out of cardboard cylinders and sealed on both ends with epoxy, with non-electric fusing systems. Agents also found cans of fragmentation and bags of lead shot.

At a previous visit to his home on April 10, according to the affidavit, Mr. Kahle showed two undercover agents several firearms, including assault rifles and a sniper rifle, as well as 5,000 rounds of ammunition.

Kahle sounds like an old fashioned crazed survivalists, which I franky see nothing wrong with. But my advice to fellow survivalists is to save the bomb making until post-TEOTWAWKI especially if you live in the north east or anywhere liberals hold sway.

h/t N.T.A. Cross posted at Red Alerts.

Time to start hoarding food, and some ammunition? From The New York Sun:

Major retailers in New York, in areas of New England, and on the West Coast are limiting purchases of flour, rice, and cooking oil as demand outstrips supply. There are also anecdotal reports that some consumers are hoarding grain stocks.

 At a Costco Warehouse in Mountain View, Calif., yesterday, shoppers grew frustrated and occasionally uttered expletives as they searched in vain for the large sacks of rice they usually buy.

“Where’s the rice?” an engineer from Palo Alto, Calif., Yajun Liu, said. “You should be able to buy something like rice. This is ridiculous.”

The bustling store in the heart of Silicon Valley usually sells four or five varieties of rice to a clientele largely of Asian immigrants, but only about half a pallet of Indian-grown Basmati rice was left in stock. A 20-pound bag was selling for $15.99.

The story goes on to detail the grumbling of people who don’t realize their support for “green” this or that (especially Ethanol) has led the world to the brink of starvation. There is much complaining about the current trend of of big box stores limiting purchases of rice and other staples. Then the survivalists chime in:

The curbs and shortages are being tracked with concern by survivalists who view the phenomenon as a harbinger of more serious trouble to come.

“It’s sporadic. It’s not every store, but it’s becoming more commonplace,” the editor of SurvivalBlog.com, James Rawles, said. “The number of reports I’ve been getting from readers who have seen signs posted with limits has increased almost exponentially, I’d say in the last three to five weeks.”

Spiking food prices have led to riots in recent weeks in Haiti, Indonesia, and several African nations. India recently banned export of all but the highest quality rice, and Vietnam blocked the signing of new contract for foreign rice sales.

“I’m surprised the Bush administration hasn’t slapped export controls on wheat,” Mr. Rawles said. “The Asian countries are here buying every kind of wheat.”

Mr. Rawles said it is hard to know how much of the shortages are due to lagging supply and how much is caused by consumers hedging against future price hikes or a total lack of product.

“There have been so many stories about worldwide shortages that it encourages people to stock up. What most people don’t realize is that supply chains have changed, so inventories are very short,” Mr. Rawles, a former Army intelligence officer, said. “Even if people increased their purchasing by 20%, all the store shelves would be wiped out.”

Panic inducing stuff. Speakng as a crazed survivalist myself (with the fallow blog to prove it) I say Rawles, a man who uses radical leftist websites to “prove” America’s on the verge of collapse,  isn’t over stating this one. Food shortages are real and even one season of corn crop lost here to trendy eco-nonsense has serious repercussions for the rest of the world.

I’m a free marketer but in this case Bush should be looking into some export caps, because the food shortages world wide will have a cascading effect as countries buy out our stock of food, causing more shortages and ultimately more chaos. If you’re going shopping stock up on long lasting foods you’ll be able to break out 4-8 months from now when shortages drive prices up beyond the ability of many to afford.

Me? I like my canned chicken breast, baked beans and canned fruit. But you’ll want a bigger variety, especially if you have kids. Beans are a good source of protein and most canned vegetables have a long enough shelf life to make storing them when they’re on sale easy.

Don’t panic, but be prepared.

Cross Posted at Red Alerts.