Give me Liberty or give me a safe without a backdoor passcode

Benjamin Franklin, my favorite Founding Father, famously said “Three May Keep a Secret if Two are Dead”. Sadly, its a brutal truth: if someone other than you knows your secret, it ain’t a secret.

And now, apparently, your gun safe isn’t a safe but rather a heavy storage locker when the manufacturer will roll over and hand the backdoor entry code over to someone with a badge.

I’ve had two emails so far about this:

Liberty Safe Gave FBI Access Code to January 6 Protester’s Safe

Liberty Safe announced Tuesday they cooperated with the FBI by giving them an access code that allowed agents to get into a safe owned by Nathan Hughes during a raid.

Liberty Safe describes themselves thus: “Liberty Safe has built America’s most trusted gun safes for sale for over 30 years. Our unyielding commitment to high-quality gun safes has made Liberty the premier choice for millions of Americans. You are always protected with a Liberty gun safe with superior fire protection, exclusive military-style locking bars, and unmatched security features.”

But those security features were overridden by an access code Liberty Safe provided to the FBI, which conducted a raid on Hughes’ home over January 6 participation allegations and arrested him.

The first thing I want to say is that whether the evidence in the safe was regarding the January 6 incident, or if it was regarding the Lindbergh kidnapping, makes no difference. The key issue is that the manufacturer of the safe retained the ability to override your personal privacy. I have no doubt that this wasnt some plan on Liberty’s part for anything more sinister than helping people who locked themselves out of their safe….BUT….even the most benign feature, with the best of intentions, will be abused by .gov.

You could say the lesson here is that you should trust a mechanical combination over an electronic one that could be compromised by the manufacturer. And, there’s some merit to that although whether its the manufacturer giving up the secret pass or a local locksmith hired to bypass the combo, the fact remains that a safe screams “Cool stuff in here! Come get it!”

This is the real message from this event: If you’ve got a USB drive of who really killed JFK, or a stained dress from the Oval Office, don’t put it in a big metal box that is, literally, the first place people will look. Put it under the safe, or in the insulation in the attic, or in the oil pan of that dead car in your backyard, or anywhere else than a safe that will be Target Number One of any search warrant.

And I recognize that, if they were handed a court order, Liberty’s hands were tied but I’m not sure there should have been that backdoor there to begin with…thats the part I have a problem with. If there wasn’t a court order and they turned over the data…..well, Its A Bold Strategy Cotton, Lets See If It Pays Off For Em.

So, not that youre doing anything wrong, but if you absolutely, positively gotta keep something away from people with badges, putting it in your high-profile safe might not be the best method.

 

Article – The American Government’s Secret Plan for Surviving the End of the World

Among the greatest foreign-policy dilemmas faced by former President Jimmy Carter is one that has never been publicly aired but is gaining new relevance. It concerns nuclear war, and how the U.S. government would survive it. Carter’s decisions remain classified, but documents declassified by the CIA in 2017, along with the archives at several presidential libraries, provide a window into the White House’s preparations for an imminent apocalypse.

It’s hilarious to think that this was the greatest foreign-policy crisis of Carter’s administration. There’s 52 former government employees who might think there was something a tad more pressing than this. If you’re too young to remember, Carter was a wildly unqualified politician whose own party didn’t even like him. The nation was still nursing a Nixon hangover and an outsider was exactly what people thought they wanted…what they got was a peanut farmer so out of his league he makes Obama look like Kissinger.

Anyway…..interesting article about .gov continuity. for a more..concrete..example of that continuity, look no further than the lovely Greenbrier hotel.

Discount meat, politics, Bactine wipes, Battle Bag

Not a bad shopping day yesterday. Hit the bargain meat bin and found 1# bricks, vacuum sealed, of 85/15 (85% lean) Angus ground beef marked down to $1.99. Sealed up nice and tight and in a very convenient brick shape that makes stacking the frozen flesh quite easy. It gets the date written on the package and then its off to the deep freeze. Mmmmm…beefy goodness.

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I do believe I’m ready to give up on the prospect that government will become nicer and less intrusive. The Patriot Act reauthorization is bad enough, but theres a host of other legislation going on that just makes a bad situation worse. Technically, politics isn’t that important to my preparedness except when it conflicts with my ability to get gear… but the more federal police powers that are thrown about the more likely it is that guys like me are going to get under the microscope for ‘suspicious’ behavior. Low profile seems the only recourse.

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Im a bit annoyed with the Bactine antiseptic wipes that I purchased last year. These things are packaged like a little hand-wiping towlette you get with an order of ribs. Little foil pouch (like a condom) and inside is a wet towelette saturated with Bactine. Figured it would be perfect for my first aid kits. Apparently, after time, the packaging degrades to the point that the Bactine starts seeping through the foil paper. Grrrr… so I either have to replace it every year or find something else to use as an antiseptic wipe. Very annoying. Plus, Ive always liked that Bactine smell.

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Blackhawk has a new product out that might solve my quest for a bag for my .308 gear. Its their “Battle Bag”. Lets get this out of the way and call it what it is: it’s a man purse. It’s a shoulderbag with pockets for magazines , radios, etc, etc. Might be just what I need to keep all my .308 gear in one place. No mention of it having webbing but otherwise it seems like an interesting product. Sugg. Ret. Is $100 but who pays retail in this world? Usual colors, but I think I’ll go with the goes-with-everything OD.