Category: Note

The mass media-driven Congressional gun control juggernaut seems to be slowing. It is noteworthy that the horribly vague and unconstitutional H.R. 3999 appears to now be stuck at just 25 co-sponsors—but it is frightening to see that 12 of them are Republicans. Hopefully the bill will die in committee. Please keep up the pressure, folks. This fight is far from over! Please contact your Congressional Representative repeatedly (by phone and e-mail) and insist that he or she oppose ALL civilian disarmament legislation. There are now a half dozen bills pending in Congress. SurvivalBlog reader Kevin A. sent me this summary …

On this day in 1835, Texans approve a resolution to create the Texas Rangers– a corps of armed and mounted lawmen designed to “range and guard the frontier between the Brazos and Trinity Rivers”. After winning their revolutionary war with Mexico the following year, Texans decided to keep the Rangers, both to defend against Indian and Mexican raiders and to serve as the principal law enforcement authority along the sparsely populated Texan frontier. o o o SurvivalBlog Writing Contest This has been another entry for Round 73 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The nearly $11,000 worth of prizes for …

There is now a petition on the White house web site, encouraging the President to veto H.R. 3999 if it reaches his desk. Please take a few moments to sign it! o o o October 15th, 1859 is the anniversary of abolitionist John Brown’s raid against the federal armory in Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia), in an attempt to start an armed slave revolt and destroy the institution of slavery. Although the raid failed, it inflamed sectional tensions and raised the stakes for the 1860 presidential election. Brown’s raid helped make any further accommodation between North and South nearly …

October 15th, 1990 is the day South Africa’s Separate Amenities Act, which had barred blacks from public facilities for decades, was scrapped.

The Cuban Missile Crisis began on October 14, 1962, bringing the United States and the Soviet Union to the brink of nuclear conflict. Photographs were taken by a high-altitude U-2 spy plane and offered incontrovertible evidence that Soviet-made medium-range missiles were in Cuba. These missiles were capable of carrying nuclear warheads and were stationed 90 miles off the American coastline. SurvivalBlog Writing Contest Today features another entry for Round 73 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The nearly $11,000 worth of prizes for this round include: First Prize: A $3000 gift certificate towards a Sol-Ark Solar Generator from Veteran owned …

Today, in 1492, after sailing across the Atlantic Ocean, Italian explorer Christopher Columbus sighted a Bahamian island, believing he had reached East Asia. His expedition went ashore the same day and claimed the land for Isabella and Ferdinand of Spain, who sponsored his attempt to find a western ocean route to China, India, and the fabled gold and spice islands of Asia.

On this day, in 732, at the Battle of Tours near Poitiers, France, Frankish leader Charles Martel, a Christian, defeated a large army of Spanish Moors, halting the Muslim advance into Western Europe. Abd-ar-Rahman, the Muslim governor of Cordoba, was killed in the fighting, and the Moors retreated from Gaul, never to return in such force.

On October 10th, 1913, the Panama Canal officially linked the Atlantic to the Pacific when the Gamboa dike was demolished with dynamite charges.

On this day in 1992, 18-year-old Michelle Knapp was watching television in her parents’ living room in Peekskill, New York when she heard a crash in the driveway. Alarmed, Knapp ran outside to investigate. A sizeable hole in the rear end of her car and a matching hole in the gravel driveway underneath the car. In the hole was what looked like an ordinary, bowling-ball–sized rock. It was extremely heavy for its size (it weighed about 28 pounds), shaped like a football and warm to the touch; also, it smelled vaguely of rotten eggs. The next day, a curator from …

October 8th is the birthday of economist and libertarian commentator J. Orlin Grabbe. (Born, 1947, died March 15, 2008.)

October 7th is the day that we remember the 96 American POWs from Wake Island that were executed on the orders of the commander of the Japanese garrison on the island, Rear Admiral Shigematsu Sakaibara. The execution of those American POWs who were blindfolded and shot in cold blood, remains one of the more brutal episodes of the war in the Pacific.

October 6 is the birthday of Thor Heyerdahl. (Born 1914, died April 18, 2002.) Although his east-to-west theory of Pacific Ocean transmigration was later disproved by genetics studies, his many adventures were still remarkable. Today is also the birthday of science fiction author David Brin. (born, 1950.) He wrote The Postman, which was very loosely the foundation of a movie by Kevin Costner.

October 5, 1703 is the birthday of Jonathan Edwards. He died March 22, 1758 and was a prolific Calvinist theological writer. Many of his writings were later collected in the multi-volume book The Rational Biblical Theology of Jonathan Edwards, edited by John Gerstner. o o o Seed for Security, LLC is having a sale. Their Colossal Security Pack is now 15% off. This pack is a total of 7 pounds of vegetable, grain and herb seeds. All are open-pollinated, and non GMO. Included are their most popular collections: Super Survival Pack, 4 Grain Collection, and Heirloom Herb Collection. This offer …

October 4, 1923 is the birthday of the late Charlton Heston, who was born John Charles Carter. He died April 5, 2008. He is often remembered for movies like Ben Hur, The Ten Commandments, Soylent Green, The Planet of the Apes, and the survivalist classic The Omega Man. o o o Tom Petty, a rock-’n-roll superstar, has died at age 66. He known as a perfectionist in his studio recordings, often working for weeks to achieve the perfect sound. Preppers will remember that he had an extended cameo role in the movie The Postman. His later life was a shambles, …