First of all, I want to clear-up a misconception: Jim Rawles and I are not one in the same person – we are two different people. I hear from SurvivalBlog readers all the time, asking me if I’m really Jim Rawles – I am NOT! Jim had his blog site up and running for several years before I came on board, as the Field Gear Editor. I know this won’t satisfy some of you, but you can believe what you want – Jim and I are not the same person. I live in Western Oregon, and Jim lives – well, I don’t actually know where he lives, and it’s none of my business. And, please stop asking me for his phone number!
I receive well over 200 e-mails each day, many are junk, however many are from SurvivalBlog readers with questions. Due to the number of e-mails I get, I have to keep my answers short. I hope I’m still helpful with my answers, though. So many of you ask me “what’s the best……” and I can’t give you a pat answer to that. The best handgun is the one I’m carrying at the time – ditto for knives. I can’t pick a firearm or knife for you – it’s a very subjective thing, I can only suggest what appeals to me. And, while I sincerely appreciate this, this is not the way I operate – many of you offer to pay me for my advice to you in your e-mails. If I can help, I’m happy to do so, so don’t offer to pay me for my advice – I’m not in that business. I just hope I have the right answers to your questions most of the time.
As to the many vendors who send me their products to test and write about. Once again, don’t offer to pay me to push your products ahead of someone else’s products. We make every attempt to test products in the order they are received by me. The only exception to this is knives – I received so many knives, that I spread my reviews out quite a bit – no one wants to read half a dozen knife reviews in a row on SurvivalBlog. As the Editor, Jim Rawles decides when an article will appear in print, and he is a very ethical person, so I’m sure he’s just as offended as I am by companies wanting us to push their products ahead of someone else’s products. Right now, I’m working on review articles that will run in November, and I have enough products to test and write about, clear through January of 2014. If you can’t wait for me to get to your products for testing and a review, then don’t send them to me. Sorry! I write one article each week for SurvivalBlog, and I’m also writing one article each week for another web site , so I keep extremely busy!
I’m not any sort of celebrity and there is nothing special about me. I’m just a hard-working stiff like everyone else is. Many readers write and ask me if they can stop by and meet me. I simply don’t have the time to do this, and I’m a very private person. I don’t readily welcome unannounced guests onto my little homestead.
Thanks to everyone who e-mails me, I do sincerely appreciate hearing from all of you. And, even those few who are critical, at times of my reviews on gear, I still appreciate your e-mails. However, those few who send threatening e-mails to me: they are turned over the authorities. I had one fellow who went so far as to even threaten me and former President George Bush – for whatever reason. His e-mails were turned over to the US Secret Service.
SurvivalBlog is not some radical right-wing web site, as many Liberals believe it to be, especially the likes of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) who often target Jim Rawles, as some type of whacko survivalist who plans on taking over the country. This is not the case. Jim is running a very informative blog site, for those intelligent enough to realize that they need to prepare for disasters – many types of disasters. And, I have not seen any articles or suggestions on SurvivalBlog, that even come close to having the web site advocating over-throwing the government. And, for those agent provocateurs who e-mail me trying to get me to say I’m advocating over-throwing the government: Stop it – I can see right through your e-mails. Find someone else to set-up, neither myself nor Jim Rawles will fall for this.
Thanks again, to all the loyal and faithful readers SurvivalBlog has, Jim and I sincerely enjoy hearing from all of you. – SurvivalBlog Field Gear Editor Pat Cascio
Notes of Clarification for SurvivalBlog Readers, by Pat Cascio
