November 22, 2016 -- A Quick Run Around the Web

Source: "The Italian ghost town left abandoned for 35 years after the ENTIRE population fled in terror when an earthquake hit"--Daily Mail.

• "Earthquake, tsunamis… and even a METEORITE! Video footage captures powerful 7.4-magnitude tremor near Fukushima and flaming objects in the sky above Japan"--Daily Mail. Sometimes a wonder about the editors at the Daily Mail--it didn't hit the ground, so it was a meteor. 
• "Kansas man's homemade gun silencers clash with federal law"--Charlotte Observer. Apparently Kansas is one of the states that passed state laws intended to preempt Federal firearms laws and regulations. In response, a Kansas manufacturer, Shane Cox, started making a selling sound suppressors marked "Made in Kansas" to comply with state law. One of his purchasers decided to post about his purchase on social media, and Cox is now a test case for the Kansas law. The article indicates that Cox was arrested for violating the National Firearms Act (NFA), and found guilty after a jury trial. His sentencing is scheduled for February 2017. Interestingly, the article also indicates that:

Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt has intervened to defend the state law's constitutionality in the first criminal case that has used the Kansas law as a defense. Schmidt said in a statement that buyers' reliance on the state law as a defense is "reasonable, and it is consistent with the State's interest in ensuring the Second Amendment Protection Act itself is defended."

• "DoD Contingency for a President Trump: Directive 5210.56"--Gun Watch. The directive allows allows installation or unit commanders at the O-5 level (Lieutenant Colonel (LTC) for the Army, Air Force, and Marines; Commander (CDR) for the Navy and Coast Guard) and above to grant personnel the authority to carry private defensive weapons.
• "NEW: The Modular SKELI X11 Rifle"--The Firearms Blog.
  
• "Pat Cascio’s Product Review: Ruger P-89 9mm"--Survival Blog. The P-89 was a "high capacity" 9 mm handgun that was intended to correct some problems with Ruger's first 9 mm, the P-85. The P-89 was the basis for Ruger's semi-auto pistols for most of the 1990s. Although Wikipedia indicates that it was manufactured through 2007, it was mostly replaced in most gun stores in the mid-1990s by the P-94. I owned a P-89 for several years, which I purchased to replace a Taurus PT-92 (pretty much a copy of the Beretta P-92), mostly because my hands were really not quite big enough for the PT-92, and the P-85 offered slightly smaller grip. My own experience with the P-89 was that it was a solid gun: relatively inexpensive, reliable, decent accuracy (although inferior to the PT-92), and solidly made. My primary complaint was that there was very little in the way of accessories available for it (or, at least, that I could find in the early days of the internet) such as holsters or replacement sights,which is why I finally replaced it with another handgun.
• "FULL CONCEAL FC-G17 80% Glock Receiver"--The Firearms Blog. The manufacturers web site has a "buy now" button, but apparently the  receiver/frame is not yet available for sale. 
  

The whole package has a footprint about the size of a Android Galaxy 7 phone. Obviously, the magazine is intended to serve as the pistol grip. Basically like many people do now with a Glock 26 (carrying a back up magazine intended for the Glock 17 or 19), except a lot shorter on the grip, and with a storage compartment for the magazine. Although the TFB author is critical about how slow it would be to get this weapon into service, I see it more as something that you could stuff into a bug-out bag or a get-home bag rather than carrying for day-to-day self-defense.

• "Under Trump, GOP to Give Space Weapons Close Look"--Roll Call. From the article:

Coming soon are a greater number of more capable anti-missile interceptors and radars deployed around the globe — on land, at sea and possibly in space, say these legislators and experts, several of whom have consulted with President-elect Donald Trump’s advisers. More government money will be directed at protecting U.S. satellites from attack — potentially including systems that can ram into or otherwise disable another country’s satellites. And senior Republicans who oversee Pentagon spending said in interviews this week that they support considering all such systems.

Sounds like we will be on schedule for George Friedman's prediction of a space based war by mid-century.

• Diversity! "'They Want an Operation in Times Square': Brooklyn Man Arrested on ISIS Charges"--PJ Media. Federal authorities announced the arrest of Mohamed Rafik Naji, a legal permanent U.S. resident and citizen of Yemen. Naji had returned to Yemen to fight for ISIS, and been in discussions about conducting a Nice-style attack in Times Square.
• Separating the wheat from the tares: "The most divisive element in American church life is no longer racism; it's homosexuality"--Dallas Morning News. I'll warn you that the author of this op-ed supports churches relaxing their standards to accommodate homosexuals and their practices. 

One of the greatest misunderstandings afflicting Christianity right now is the false belief that love or mercy is the equivalent of tolerance, and that God is tolerant. Nothing could be farther from the truth. As the Psalmist noted (Psalms 5:4-5):

4 For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness: neither shall evil dwell with thee.

 5 The foolish shall not stand in thy sight: thou hatest all workers of iniquity.

I am reminded of the story in John 8, where Christ shames the crowd into leaving off the stoning of a prostitute. It is notable that Christ did not tell the prostitute that she was good, strong woman, deserving of our sympathy, if not our praise. Rather he told her "go, and sin no more." He showed mercy and love, but not tolerance of her sin.

Another example, non-scriptural, is the ending to the movie Old Yeller. where Travis is forced to shoot his rabies infected dog. Travis loved Old Yeller, but nevertheless recognized that, mad from the rabies, the dog was too dangerous to keep around. His love didn't stop him from doing what had to be done. This is how Christ will approach the last days and the events of Revelation: he may not want to do it because of his great love for mankind, but he will destroy the wicked, for he cannot tolerate evil and will not allow the evil to wholly exterminate the righteous. 

• The peasants are revolting: "Right-wing populism poses new problem for German intel"--DW. German intelligence services are in a quandary because the resurgence of patriotism (i.e., what the article terms populism or nationalism) has supposedly blurred the line between hard-core right wing groups and more moderate political parties such as PEGIDA and AfD. The agencies want to surveil the parties, but probably are concerned of a backlash if they were caught doing so.

• Related: "Study: Stable racism stats, but 'new right' ideas permeate Germany"--DW. According to the article, the number of Germans self-describing as racist has not increased, but 40% thought Islam was undermining German culture, and that there should be restrictions on the number of refugees admitted to the country. In addition, 28% of Germans agreed that they could not freely voice their opinions and that the ruling parties were betraying the German people.

• A reminder that we live in the 21st Century: "Photos: Dwarf Planet Ceres, the Solar System's Largest Asteroid"--Space.com. A slide show of close up photographs of Ceres. And the interesting comment that Ceres "may contain more fresh water than the entire Earth." The more we discover about the Solar System, the more it appears it was designed to encourage us to develop space travel and expand outward from Earth.