A Quick Run Around the Web -- December 15, 2015

Survival/Prepping/Firearms:

• "Zero Like A Hero"--Blue Collar Prepper. How to properly "zero" a rifle, including some tips specific to particular calibers.
• "TEOTWAWKI: The Ultimate Guide"--Father Son Preppers. This article first looks at the difference between SHTF and TEOTWAWKI, and then to the types of disaster that could lead to the end of the world as we know it.
• "BATTEN DOWN THE HATCHES! 8 WAYS TO PREPARE FOR EL NIÑO"--Emergency Essentials. To sum up: (1) fix leaks and clean or repair you gutters; (2) install a sump pump in your basement or check on the status of one you already have; (3) get new tires for your autos; (4) replace the window wipers on your car; (5) turn off your automatic watering system; (6) have on hand shovels and sand bags that you can use to divert flood waters from your home; (7) get flood insurance, or at least look at whether you may need it; and (8) don't wait until the heavy rains come before beginning your preps.
• Sparks 31 is offering a free sample of this month's Signal-3 newsletter.
• "Hiding in the crowd"--Survival UK. From the article: "The State doesn’t care about you as such. They simply don’t want anyone rocking the boat. Imagine they are a Hippo and you a small animal next to it. Most of the time you get killed because you are not paying attention when it turns your way to check something unconnected to you, when it wants you it will come for you and steamroller over everything in its way, friends, family and even innocents. Yet if you retaliate or resist in any way, even if it has made a mistake, that gives them the justification that they need. So best keep out of the way. At least till it turns a bit more like a middle eastern country, excluding Bradford and Tower Hamlets which are already like those hell holes, and you will be just one of millions looking to stay alive and using any method you can." Read the whole thing.
• "Two Essential Kits That Most Preppers Overlook"--The Survivalist Blog. Referring to a Patrol/Guard Duty Kit, and a Foraging Kit.
• "Light Rifle, Part IV: The M1 Garand Learns To Rock And Roll"--The Firearms Blog. Nathaniel F. continues his series exploring the United States' efforts to develop a light infantry rifle.
• "Long-Term Review: Wild West Guns Alaskan Co-Pilot"--The Firearms Blog. The author has been pleased with his Marlin 1895 modified by Wild West Guns to shoot the .457WWG (as well as any .45-70 load).
• "AR-15 Flash Hiding Test #2"--The Truth About Guns. TTAG decided to test various devices (not just dedicated flash hiders) on how well they reduced muzzle flash. Check it out.

The World In Which We Live:

• A new Woodpile Report is up.
• "Why it's time to grant Isis diplomatic recognition"--Independent. The author argues that "Only by recognising and treating Isis as a bona fide state can we hope to understand its workings and motivations and, ultimately, contain its murderous advance across the region." His reasoning is based on the sole example of the Soviet Union tempering its behavior after being recognized as a legitimate government by Western powers. The author is delusion if he thinks that ISIS will be satisfied just because it is recognized as a state. ISIS doesn't care if it is part of the current international order: they want to set up a new Caliphate and impose Sharia law over the entire world.
• "What's Happening at Los Angeles Schools?"--The Atlantic. The Los Angeles School District closed down after receiving threats; New York City received the same threats and determined they were hoaxes.

• Related: "LA shuts 1,000 schools and sends 640,000 students home over 'credible' terror alert while New York remains open and dismisses it as a 'Homeland-style hoax' after receiving the SAME bomb threat"--Daily Mail.
• Related: SNAFU thinks that the difference is that DHS is aware of terrorist cells operating in the LA area. 
• Related: "DHS Shut Down The Inquiry Into San Bernardino Terrorists"--Anonymous Conservative. The author cites an article stating: 

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been accused of deleting intelligence records relating to dangerous Islamists linked to terrorists Sayed Farook and Tashfeen Malik, because they wanted to protect the “civil liberties” of members of the caliphate-supporting network. 

Phil Haney, a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol analyst, says he was ordered to stop investigating Deobandi Islamist groups and his work on them was erased.

The Anonymous Conservative gives his analysis and thoughts on the matter, including this:

So when I read something like this, I don’t see a buttoned down agency frightened of accidentally intruding on the freedom of some citizen. Intel doesn’t work that way. I see the deeper state, manipulating affairs so the shallower state will stop intruding in its affairs. Maybe they were afraid this DHS guy was going to bring unwanted attention to a CI they wanted to protect, maybe they were following these people to bigger fish, maybe they were afraid that triggering some sort of official LE surveillance would expose their more covert surveillance teams, or maybe they just didn’t want to shut down an organization which they were already inside of, only to see it replaced with a new organization.

• "The Secrets of an Abandoned Microwave Tower in Kansas"--The Atlantic. Some Cold War telecommunications history.
• "The Paris Climate Conference"--The Silicon Graybeard. "Was a colossal waste of time and money, producing an agreement that will have no discernible effect on the global temperature.   The bottom line is that a bunch of self-impressed politicians and diplomats flew there to be seen with each other, stay at expensive hotels, eat expensive food, and pose for pictures, just so they can feel good about themselves." He also adds:

It's a scam; the insiders know it's a scam, the only people who don't think it's a scam are the useful idiots in the parties and the press that vote for these guys.  The insiders, Kerry, Obama, and the crooks  selling carbon credits are just in it to fleece us.  If it's not the largest criminal enterprise in history, that's only because they haven't gotten everything they want. 

• "America’s Empire in Africa That You Haven’t Heard Of"--Anti-Media. 60 military bases or outposts maintained throughout Africa.
• "Once Seen, It Cannot Be Unseen"--Anonymous Conservative. Large cache of explosives found buried in a National Forest outside of Lebanon, Missouri.