Today is the birthday of “claymation” artist and filmmaker Nick Park (born, 1958.) He is best known for his Wallace & Gromit films.
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On December 6th, 1865, the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, ending the institution of slavery. “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” With these words, the single greatest change wrought by the Civil War was officially noted in the Constitution.
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SurvivalBlog Writing Contest
Today we present another entry for Round 86 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The more than $12,000 worth of prizes for this round include:
First Prize:
- A $3,000 gift certificate towards a Sol-Ark Solar Generator from veteran-owned Portable Solar LLC. The only EMP Hardened Solar Generator System available to the public.
- A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any one, two, or three day course (a $1,095 value),
- A course certificate from onPoint Tactical for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses, excluding those restricted for military or government teams. Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795,
- DRD Tactical is providing a 5.56 NATO QD Billet upper. These have hammer forged, chrome-lined barrels and a hard case, to go with your own AR lower. It will allow any standard AR-type rifle to have a quick change barrel. This can be assembled in less than one minute without the use of any tools. It also provides a compact carry capability in a hard case or in 3-day pack (an $1,100 value),
- Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
- A $250 gift certificate good for any product from Sunflower Ammo,
- American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses.
Second Prize:
- A gift certificate from Quantum Harvest LLC (up to a $2,200 value) good for 12% off the purchase of any of their sun-tracking models, and 10% off the purchase price of any of their other models.
- A Front Sight Lifetime Diamond Membership, providing lifetime free training at any Front Sight Nevada course, with no limit on repeating classes. This prize is courtesy of a SurvivalBlog reader who prefers to be anonymous.
- A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, which have a combined retail value of $589,
- A $300 purchase credit for any of the products from EMPShield.com
- A Three-Day Deluxe Emergency Kit from Emergency Essentials (a $190 value),
- Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord (in-stock colors only) from www.TOUGHGRID.com (a $240 value).
- An assortment of products along with a one hour consultation on health and wellness from Pruitt’s Tree Resin (a $265 value).
Third Prize:
- Good2GoCo.com is providing a $400 purchase credit at regular prices for the prize winner’s choice of either Wise Foods or Augason long term storage foods, in stackable buckets.
- Three sets each of made-in-USA regular and wide-mouth reusable canning lids. (This is a total of 300 lids and 600 gaskets.) This prize is courtesy of Harvest Guard (a $270 value)
- A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
- Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy (a $185 retail value),
- Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
- Mayflower Trading is donating a $200 gift certificate for homesteading appliances.
Round 86 ends on January 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.
Re. the single greatest change wrought by the Civil War
That’s the Yankee version taught to us in Union schools.
I’m sticking with the Southern version. It was best stated by historian and author Shelby Foote, “Before the war it was said the United States ‘are’, grammatically it was spoken that way and thought of as a collection of independent states, after the war it was the United States ‘is’. As we say today without being self-conscious at all and that sums up what the war accomplished. It made us an is.”
We, the freedom lovers, need to start using the word “slavery” much more often in place of words like “democracy,” “tyranny,” “taxation,” etc. Slavery still has a negative connotation in this country, and it conveys what is actually happening to us. Not that the tyrants care to follow the Constitution or that the slaves care to enforce it, but this would be an excellent amendment to cite.
To Further your point.. ‘These United States’ was turned into ‘The Unites States’…
Correctly, these united States were turned into the United States…..
There is a huge difference between the united States and the United States.
In a nutshell, the United States is the 68.3 square miles called the District of Columbia and ALL of the federal enclaves within the several states of the union. The federal enclaves can be as small as a federal building or as large as a sprawling military base.
The united States are the several states united (at last count there are 50) each with its own constitution. All power NOT expressly invested in the United States is reserved to the several states united in the united States by the 10th amendment of the federal constitution.
There is a reason why we were never taught any of this in high school civics class. If more people discovered that the emperor (the United States) has no clothes the emperor would have no power over them…..
The Northern Armies used slaves and Northern Officers owned slaves(including Gen. Grant), the war of Northern Aggression was to cripple and steal the Southern economy