Preparedness Notes for Wednesday — May 27, 2020

On May 27, 1861, Chief Justice Roger B. Taney of Maryland issued Ex parte Merryman, challenging the authority of President Abraham Lincoln and the U.S. military to suspend the writ of habeas corpus in Maryland.

On May 27, 1813, former President Thomas Jefferson wrote former President John Adams about the loss of their mutual friend, Dr. Benjamin Rush. Reflecting upon the loss, Jefferson wrote, “We too must go; and that ere long. I believe we are under half a dozen at present; I mean the signers of the Declaration.” Dr. Rush was instrumental in the reconciliation of Jefferson and Adams by initiating correspondence between the three of them. Both Jefferson and Adams continued to correspond until their deaths on July 4th, 1826– the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, which all three had signed in 1776.

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 88 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. 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.
  2. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any one, two, or three day course (a $1,095 value),
  3. 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,
  4. 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),
  5. Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  6. A $250 gift certificate good for any product from Sunflower Ammo,
  7. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses.

Second Prize:

  1. 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.
  2. 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,
  3. A Three-Day Deluxe Emergency Kit from Emergency Essentials (a $190 value),
  4. 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).
  5. An assortment of products along with a one hour consultation on health and wellness from Pruitt’s Tree Resin (a $265 value).

Third Prize:

  1. 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)
  2. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  3. Naturally Cozy is donating a “Prepper Pack” Menstrual Kit.  This kit contains 18 pads and it comes vacuum sealed for long term storage or slips easily into a bugout bag.  The value of this kit is $220.
  4. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  5. A transferable $100 purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun. There is no paperwork required for delivery of pre-1899 guns into most states, making them the last bastion of firearms purchasing privacy!

Round 88 ends on May 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.




4 Comments

  1. JWR – interesting history on Dr. Benjamin Rush. I am related to Dr Rush through family. My uncle married a Rush. Great to be part of American history if only through family relations.

  2. Aside from Philadelphia’s James Wilkinson, Benjamin Rush is my favorite Founder.

    During the Constitutional Convention, some Founders made much of arguments based on knowledge of the classics and Roman history. James Madison, for example, used a distorted history of the Greek nation states to argue against too much democracy and in favor of the Roman Republic model. See Carl Richards, “The Founders and the Classics”.

    Use of history to argue politics has a very long tradition, of course, going from Machiavelli back to Aristotle and Polybius. But given that I agree with Founder Aedanus Burke that the Constitutional Convention was really a covert plot – a COUNTER-revolution by the Rich to put the rabble in their place after Shay’s Rebellion– I suspect the classics were used because 95 percent of the population were ignorant of them and hence put on the defensive. Same reason some incompetent, corrupt morons wave their Ivy League degrees today.

    Benjamin Rush was better educated and knew more about the classics than most of the others. He cracked up laughing at their use.

    In a later letter, he noted:
    “What trash may we not suppose has been handed down to us from antiquity, when we detect such errors and prejudices in the history of events of which we have been eyewitnesses and in which we have been actors?
    I am sometimes disposed to question the talents of Caesar, the virtues of Antoninus, and the crimes of Commodus. I suspect the well-concerted plans of battles recorded by Livy to have been picked up in the barber’s shops of Rome or from deserters from the Roman armies. “

    See https://books.google.com/books?id=mpaaDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA534&lpg=PA534&dq=%22benjamin+rush%22+Roman+Livy+deserters+barber+shops&source=bl&ots=Vx6GI0D3Ww&sig=ACfU3U2wLGdZ-2_amH5Rm-Bpc2E6yhcFJw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjF8q2VuNTpAhXGQs0KHQF5C74Q6AEwAHoECAsQAQ#v=onepage&q=%22benjamin%20rush%22%20Roman%20Livy%20deserters%20barber%20shops&f=false

    If that link doesn’t work , Google “Benjamin Rush” Roman Livy deserters “barber shops”

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