SurvivalBlog’s Orwell Awards – 2016

As promised (but after a delay) we are announcing our first set of Orwell Awards. These are awarded to individuals and organizations who have abused the English language with Newspeak distortions in ways that degrade our liberty, our dignity, our heritage, and the truth, in the past year. Our thanks to the many readers who e-mailed us their nominations. We plan to issue these awards annually. The winners are: First Place: Barack Hussein Obama, for his “Gender Identity Mandate“. Under Obama’s twisted logic, any school, organization, agency, or business will be denied Federal funds or contracts if they don’t allow …




Seeking Reader Input: SurvivalBlog’s Orwell Awards

The recent news about how the FBI filed a lawsuit to block disclosure of surveillance camera locations because it would “violate the privacy” of those surveilled has prompted the editors of SurvivalBlog to start a new awards contest for the most egregious examples of Orwellian Newspeak in the past year. This is in part to remind our readers of the prescience of George Orwell, in his novel 1984. We intend to issue these awards annually (like the Darwin Awards) each July 4th, and post descriptions and links for the top three examples, as well as for several Dishonorable Mention awards, …




Round 64 Non-Fiction Writing Contest Winners Announced!

First Prize goes to B1 for “Crises Preparation- Part 1”, “Part 2”, and “Part 3”, which was posted on April 8th, 9th, and 10th, 2016. A Tactical Self-Contained 2-Series Solar Power Generator system from Always Empowered. This compact starter power system is packaged in a wheeled O.D. green EMP-shielded Pelican hard case (a $1,700 value), A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate that is good for any one, two, or three day course (a $1,195 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 …




Round 63 Non-Fiction Writing Contest Winners Announced!

First Prize goes to R.C. for “Winter Survival- Part 1”, “Part 2”, and “Part 3”, which was posted on February 23rd, 24th, and 25th, 2016. A Tactical Self-Contained 2-Series Solar Power Generator system from Always Empowered. This compact starter power system is packaged in a wheeled O.D. green EMP-shielded Pelican hard case (a $1,700 value), A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate that is good for any one, two, or three day course (a $1,195 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 …




New Video: The FBI Narrative Unravels in the Aftermath of the Killing of Lavoy Finicum

A newly-released synced video of of the killing of Lavoy Finicum makes several things clear: 1.) The OSP and FBI started shooting before Finicim exited the pickup truck. (Note the timing of when the driver’s-side rear window is shattered by the FBI 5.56 round that hit the roof and wounded Ryan Bundy.) 2.) Finicum exited with his hands up. 3.) After Finicum was shot in the back and fell, dying, and even though there was no sign of resistance from the surviving passengers, the officers continued to shoot through the side windows, camper shell windows, and windshield of the pickup …




Round 62 Non-Fiction Writing Contest Winners Announced!

This was a tough contest to judge as there were so many good entries. Ultimately, the top prize winners were multi-part articles, but SurvivalBlog would like to point out that there was no filler in these entries. They were long articles, but they were thorough and complete. All of the articles in this contest were good articles. All entries that were submitted, not rejected, but not yet published are automatically rolled over as entries into Round 63 of the Non-Fiction Writing Contest. First Prize goes to J.R. for “What’s For Dinner – Part 1”, “Part 2”, “Part 3”, “Part 4”, …




What? SurvivalBlog Has a FaceBook Page?

Anyone who has been a follower of SurvivalBlog for any time understands the distaste that the editors have for Facebook and other forms of social media. We make no secret of the fact that we know the primary purpose of these sites is to produce a viable database that can be mined for marketing purposes (and ofttimes other nefarious reasons). We have long stayed away from these OPSEC nightmares and have encouraged our readers to do likewise. However, we have watched these social media sites become giants in the communications industry, and it became obvious to us that we had …




Information For Those Receiving Security Warnings When Visiting SurvivalBlog:

SurvivalBlog has enabled an SSL certificate on the domain “SurvivalBlog.com”. The Certificate was issued by COMODO RSA Domain Validation Secure Server CA and has these fingerprints: SHA-256 – 00:EE:D5:A4:2F:FE:45:2B:10:1E:33:FE:94:AE:7C:6F:44:AF:58:6D:BF:12:22:B2:88:4D:0A:7B:B0:83:C7:FE SHA1 – 1B:64:54:33:C5:C1:D9:8A:26:EE:B5:06:91:5E:71:09:9F:8E:62:70 There are a few reasons that warnings may be issued: Because of the way that WordPress works, there tends to be “Mixed Content” on each page, The server our hosting provider currently uses is an older server that uses some deprecated methods of encryption, Some older browsers don’t recognize COMODO as a valid SSL issuer. If you are receiving a warning on your browser, you can usually temporarily …




Annual Reminder: The Ten Cent Challenge

I only post one reminder each year about Ten Cent Challenge subscriptions, and this is it. Unlike the whining leftist hand-wringers at PBS, I don’t do endless pledge drives. I depend on my readers to help pay the bills to keep SurvivalBlog up and running. Our web hosting on a dedicated server costs $650 per month, and our local ISP bill is $135 per month. We also have a salaried Managing Editor, a paid Product Review Editor, and other expenses including liability insurance, phone bills, computer hardware, software, accounting, subscriptions, writing contest Honorable Mention prizes, and so forth. My appeal …




Important Provisos For SurvivalBlog Readers

(Please Read This!) SurvivalBlog, a private information service, is obliged to post some disclaimers and provisos, annually. These notices are current as of January 1, 2016 and remain in force unless later specifically revoked or modified by the Editor. Advertising and Reviews Per FTC File No. P034520: SurvivalBlog accepts cash-paid advertising. To the best of my knowledge, as of the date of this posting, none of our advertisers that sell the products mentioned in this blog have solicited SurvivalBlog or our staff to write any reviews or endorsements, nor have they provided me any free or reduced-price gear in exchange …




Seeking Input on Nigeria and on Drafting the Ilemi Constitution

I’m sure that many SurvivalBlog readers have now read my novel Land of Promise, which set up my Counter-Caliphate Chronicles novel series. (Reviews on Amazon.com are greatly appreciated.) The first novel included some details on the founding of the fictional Ilemi Republic, in East Africa. I’m now drafting the second novel in the series, titled Piece of Resistance. Although part of this book will be set in The Ilemi Republic, it primarily describes a war of resistance in Nigeria, in the 2040s. (Fourth Generation warfare against a totalitarian Islamic government.) If any SurvivalBlog readers have recent experience in Nigeria, then …




The Myth of The Gun Show Loophole: The Statist Perversion of Our Language Continues

I’ve mentioned this before in SurvivalBlog, but recent events make this worth repeating: The statist gun grabbers drone on and on about a “gun show loophole” as if it were some ground truth, just like saying a phrase like “humans are mortal.” But just what is this “loophole” they are talking about? It is in fact perfectly legal commerce between private citizens of the same state. This is not a “loophole”. Rather, it is merely the exercise of free trade in used household goods between sovereign citizens within their own states. Gun shows are a time-honored tradition in free exercise …




Fighting Words: An Open Letter to Publisher Arthur Sulzberger, Jr.

The New York Times just published the newspaper’s first front page editorial in 95 years. It urged America’s legislators to outlaw civilian ownership of semiautomatic battle rifles. This editorial twisted words to castigate our militia arms as follows: ” These are weapons of war, barely modified and deliberately marketed as tools of macho vigilantism and even insurrection.” The editor went on to urge: ” Certain kinds of weapons, like the slightly modified combat rifles used in California, and certain kinds of ammunition, must be outlawed for civilian ownership. It is possible to define those guns in a clear and effective …




Round 61 of the SurvivalBlog Writing Contest – Winners Announced!

First Prize goes to TLS for “An Alternative to Calcium Hypochlorite” which was posted on November 21st. he will receive the following prizes: A Tactical Self-Contained 2-Series Solar Power Generator system from Always Empowered. This compact starter power system is packaged in a wheeled O.D. green EMP-shielded Pelican hard case (a $1,700 value), A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate that is good for any one, two, or three day course (a $1,195 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 …




Letter Re: SurvivalBlog E-Mail List

Hi, I am curious if you have a sign up for the SurvivalBlog to come to my e-mail? Thank you, – S. JWR Responds: For the privacy of our readers, we keep NO lists! So that you don’t miss out on new posts, I recommend that you make SurvivalBlog your web browser’s home page, since SurvivalBlog is updated daily, without fail. HJL adds: You can also use your web browser or other RSS feed reader by pointing it to our RSS feed and adding it to your bookmarks.