Hard Times A Boon For Survivalist Sites

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SCOTT SIMON, host:

Tough economic times are bringing out the survival and survivalist instincts in a number of people. MSNBC.com notes that Web sites and forums usually reserved for more extreme back-to-the-landers are receiving interest from people who are usually more moderate on both the right and the left.

Jim Wesley Rawles, who runs SurvivalBlog.com and advocates, quote, "a beans, bullets and bandage philosophy," told MSNBC the traffic on his Web site has exploded. There are a lot more people, a lot more eager people who are trying to get themselves squared away logistically. He says now it's the entire political spectrum. But Liberals and Greens, he noted, put just a little less emphasis on self-defense and guns.

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