A Quick Run Around the Web--January 2, 2016

• "Mississippi River flooding to threaten more levees, homes after leaving St. Louis area submerged"--AccuWeather. 

Water levels will continue to rise in Memphis, Tennessee, and Greenville, Mississippi, as well as Baton Rouge, Louisiana, through the second week of January. Levees will be forced to hold back the rising water, but in some cases may fail, as has been seen in the past week. Residents in these areas will want to be prepared for historic flooding.

Flooding on the middle portion of the Mississippi River and some of its tributaries reached levels not seen during the winter months since records began during the middle 1800s.

As I've written about before, my concern is a threat to the Old River Control System.

• "2016 resolution? Stock up on guns"--Howie Carr at The Boston Herald. 

... Obama, Holder, Lynch et al. have zero interest in enforcing the existing gun statutes because they’re violated in large measure by illegal aliens, gangbangers, drive-by shooters, street muggers and fifth-generation welfare layabouts — in other words, the core constituencies of the Democratic Party. 

• Related: "On Guns, The Democrats Aren't Serious"--Powerline Blog. Obama and his ilk have no interest in enforcing gun laws already on the book.

• Related; "Texas Governor Challenges Obama On Gun Control: 'Come And Take It'"--Info Wars. 

• "Gun Sales Surge In Switzerland As Army Chief Warns 'Arm Yourselves'"--Zero Hedge. According to the article, applications for gun permits increased 20% during the past year.

• Related: "Overwhelmed by 'Migrants,' Sweden Throws in the Towel as Europe Faces 'General, Permanent Terror Threat'"--Michael Walsh at PJ Media. "Overwhelmed by the human tide of 2015, the center-left government is deploying extraordinary new border controls and slashing benefits in an unmistakable signal to refugees contemplating the long trek to Sweden in the new year: Stay out."

• "Romancing the Sunni: A US policy tragedy in three acts; Act I"--Angelo Codevilla at Asia Times.

This attempt to outsource America’s security concerns by entering into the Sunni-Shia conflict on the Sunni side has been counterproductive because the Sunni, 85% of the Muslim world, are also the nursery of its most contagious plagues — the Wahhabi sect and the Muslim Brotherhood. Above all, it has been disastrous because it has led the US government to lose sight of our own interests by confusing them with those of Sunni states and potentates.

Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states are places where royal families and their huge retinues live sybaritic lives, where work — high and low — is done by foreigners who are despised for doing it, where expensively equipped armed forces are fit only for inter-dynastic strife and civil repression, and where foreign policy consists of paying for protection.

At odds with one another as well as conflicted internally, they cannot wield significant force on their own behalf — never mind on behalf of America. Impressions to the contrary are due to the favors they lavish on the US officials and businessmen who deal with them.

• Related: "Angelo Codevilla: The ‘War on Terror’ has become ‘The War on Americans’"--The Daily Caller (2013).

Rather than confronting the movement of Islamic radicalization, Codevilla says that both Barack Obama and George W. Bush blamed acts of terrorism on the perpetrators themselves, instead of viewing them as the incarnations of a murderously ideological movement.

“The Bush administration gave the impression that we were merely dealing with rogue groups, not people supported by major movements which in their turn are supported by major countries,” Codevilla said. “American policy after 9/11 was wrong primarily in giving the American people the impression that those outrages had not been performed by Muslims pursuing Muslim agendas, but by rogues — amorphous rogues who were acting for essentially insane reasons.”

Once that impression had coalesced, Codevilla argued, it lead to a paradigm shift in policy making mindsets that has had serious consequences on the constitutional freedoms of the American people, a “lockdown” of the U.S.  This in turn, Codevilla says, has resulted in a breakdown in the trust between citizens and the state — and a breakdown in trust between individual citizens.

•  "The Ice Age Floods"--Chicago Boyz. An interesting article about Bretz' Flood, approximately 17,000-15,000 ago, as the world warmed at the end of last Ice Age. "However it happened, when it failed one of largest freshwater floods in the history of the world cascaded out of Montana and across parts of Idaho and eastern Washington, finally emptying into the Columbia River and eventually the Pacific Ocean. In the process, those regions were almost completely denuded of soil, then had had the bedrock stripped hundreds of feet deep, leaving behind a vast, interconnected series of flat bottomed canyons known as ‘coulees’ and a barren, despoiled, almost lifeless region known as The Channeled Scablands."
• "InRange TV Gives An AK-47 A Mud Bath – The Results May Surprise You"--The Firearms Blog. "Unlike the Galil ACE test or the M1 test, the AK in the video above doesn’t suffer a major mechanical failure like that of the trigger to reset or of the bolt to lock, but there’s just so much sludge and muck in the action that it slows the velocity of the bolt carrier down enough to prevent the action from working."
• "Guns for Beginners: Three Things Women Should Consider Before Carrying a Gun"--The Truth About Guns. The three points are: (1) know the 4 rules of safe gun handling; (2) make sure you are willing to use deadly force; and (3) purchase proper gear. On the latter point, the author states:

Men’s bodies are different from women’s. A carry system (gun and holster) that works for a man may not be comfortable or efficient for woman, considering her hand size, grip strength, and/or choice of clothing. Base your decision on your body type and where you want to carry for optimum comfort or concealment, no matter which system you choose. Understand that you may need several different types of holsters to carry in different kinds of clothing. Also, keep in mind that trial and error is part of the selection process.

On this point, I would add a couple thoughts: It is a truism that comfortable and effective concealed carry relies on a solid base. Most writers discuss this "solid base" as being the holster. But I would add that it is not just a proper holster, but a proper support for the holster--in most cases, the gun belt. Spend the money for a quality belt specifically made for carrying a firearm. Like holsters, you may need more than one for different modes of dress.

• Last, but not least, check out this week's "Weekend Knowledge Dump" from Active Response Training.