January 5, 2019 -- A Quick Run Around the Web

"Concealed Carry Retention Shooting"--Tactical Rifleman (5 min.)

• "Auxiliary Functions within the Tribal Structure"--Mountain Guerrilla. Just because you can't be a fighter for your tribe doesn't mean that you aren't useful to a tribe. There are logistic concerns, intelligence gathering, and other critical functions to a tribe. Mosby notes that "[t]raditionally, the activities of the auxiliary have been directed and controlled by the area command authority." He also explains:

       Within the context of a tribal-based resistance that adheres to the “Heinlein Doctrine,” there is still a role to be played by individual members of a local tribe, in the traditional duties of the auxiliary however. By fulfilling those roles that the auxiliary has historically fulfilled in a resistance, that do not require the fitness or physical capabilities of the guerrilla force or underground, members of a tribe can still contribute worthwhile efforts to the security of their tribe, thus “earning their keep.”

        An individual’s specific contribution to the efforts has—and will—depend largely on their socio-economic status, roles, and their occupation. A stripper or bartender may provide crucial intelligence-gathering and collection roles that end up facilitating actions by the guerrilla force or underground, or they may set up a hit on members of a rival organization by dropping “roofies” in their drinks, a farmer or homesteader may “only” provide assistance by providing extra harvest to feed the guerrilla force or underground, or to sell on the local black or gray market, in order to help finance tribal operations. On the other hand, the farmer may end up providing barn space for a way-station on an evasion corridor, or for use as a guerrilla hospital.

In this regard, I would recommend reading the book Defiance by Nechama Tec and Edward Zick (my review here). It recounts the story of Tuvia Bielski and his brothers and their group of Jewish refugees that fled to the forests of Poland to avoid being killed by the Nazis and avoid being taken over by the Soviet backed partisans. 

• "SITUATIONAL AWARENESS AND WARGAMING YOUR AO"--American Partisan. The author suggests taking a look at what a guerrilla group might attack in your area of operation/local community. He explains the CARVER method (Criticality, Accessibility, Recuperability, Vulnerability, Effect and Recognizability) and warns that groups like AntiFa are nascent terrorist groups following the same trajectory as other terrorist organizations, pointing out:

Boko Haram, a name you all should be familiar with, has followed a historical pattern of violence not quite unlike what we are seeing the genesis of currently. It began in 2002 as a social movement among ‘repressed’ muslims in northern Nigeria. The real goal was growth of the Caliphate, but near term, it was ‘social equality for muslims’. Eventually, after organizing years of riots and small scale civil unrest, the group killed their original leader and broke 105 of their buddies out of prison. ... Immediately they began attacking infrastructure, in part to cause disruption of services and in part to discredit the government’s ability to protect and provide. Critical to this was the communications infrastructure- mass coordinated attacks against the cell phone network and government radio repeater systems- forcing the Nigerian government to first protect those before it could tend to the people under attack. And Nigeria is a country that is still extremely rural and impoverished in the North- imagine the magnified effect on a people spoiled by instant information access.

Beyond what is in the American Partisan article, you need to realize that these groups are not just the militants, but are the sum of various parallel organizations that work in tandem, but probably have no formal or public connection. For instance, the most important part of an insurgent organization will be a legitimate or semi-legitimate political organization. Parallel to that will be a militant organization with no direct ties to the political organization, but will be the people to organize protests in support of the aims of the political arm, and even supply some of the more radical elements that will show up at protests to start fires or create other mayhem. This organization will be set up in cells or other informal groups (perhaps even something as a basic as a telephone tree). There may even be another parallel organization that is completely clandestine that carries out more violent action. The political arm will always be in a position to deny liability for what the protesters (especially the more violent protesters) do. On the other hand, the political organization will probably have more open connections to various charities, trusts or foundations that collect and distribute money and/or provide a "neutral" face to the organization that can feed "neutral" information to friendly media. These charities or foundations may even own media outlets. In the United States, for instance, I would describe CAIR and the SPLC as examples of such foundations or charities. 

• "The Big 5 Weight Loss Myths"--Schafer's Self-Defense Corner. A look at some of the myths about weight loss that are commonly spread, even by doctors. The myths are: (1) "If you don't eat regularly you go into starvation mode and your body eats itself, or it stores each and everything you eat because it thinks food is no longer available"; (2) "If you're dieting you need to focus on eating protein because protein builds muscle and burns fat"; (3) "To lose weight, you must eat small, frequent meals"; (4) "You shouldn't eat just before going to bed because since your body doesn't need the energy while you're sleeping, you will just store everything as fat"; and (5) "A calorie is a calorie and that it doesn’t matter what you eat as long as you reduce your calories." He discusses each of these myths and why they are wrong (or, in some cases, not completely true), and recommends that "[i]f you want to learn more about how to do intermittent fasting or about the scientific evidence on the benefits of fasting I recommend the book 'Eat Stop Eat' by Brad Pilon or 'Complete Guide to Fasting' by Dr. Jason Fung, M.D."

• Related: "Lift Weights, Cut Carbs, Intermittently Fast"--Château Heartiste. 

• You can't stop the signal: "Two homebuilt revolvers"--Impro Guns. Two revolvers built using the Professor Parabellum DIY .22 Revolver plans.
• I'm shocked, I tell you, shocked: "'Gun-toting hippies' greet Boulder 'assault weapons' ban with mass noncompliance"--Washington Times. The article reports: "Only 342 'assault weapons,' or semiautomatic rifles, were certified by Boulder police before the Dec. 31 deadline, meaning there could be thousands of residents in the scenic university town of 107,000 in violation of the sweeping gun-control ordinance."
• "New ASR Plate Carrier Announced By AT Armor"--Recoil Magazine. From the article/press release: "The new plate carrier is designed with fast deployment when an officer is responding to either an active shooter call or any number of other calls that might dictate additional body armor." It appears to be something that can be quickly strapped on over whatever else the officer may already be wearing.
• "Charter Arms Pitbull 9mm Revolver"--The Revolver Guy. 9 mm offers a serious upgrade in power over the .38 Special. The key advantage of this revolver is that it has spring loaded extractors for each cylinder that allow positive ejections of spent shells, even if you are not using a moon clip.

• Related: "The Gray Man Gun of Choice"--Loadout Room. The author asks, "what type of gun would be perfect for an 'Operational' gray man, someone doing dangerous things in dangerous places"? Logistics were an issue, so the author decided that something that didn't need a magazine and shot a common caliber would be best. His decision was a concealable revolver shooting 9 mm.

• One can always dream: "FRAG12 T17 12 GAUGE HIGH EXPLOSIVE (HE) ROUND." From the product description:

• 2 gauge High Explosive (HE) shotgun round

• Standard 3 inch shogtun shells

• Fin stabilised projectile

• Range > 200 meters

• MIL SPEC 1316 fuze

• Arms 3 meters from muzzle

• Inertia Firing Pin

• Explodes on contact with target

• Payload: 3.40 grams of RDX in warhead

"Nietzsche In Twelve Minutes"--Eric Dodson (12 min.)

I was thinking of Nietzsche recently, while at church, as the congregation sang "I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day"; in particular, the line "God is not dead, nor does he sleep," and realized it was a big middle finger to Nietzsche. Although he died in 1900, Friedrich Nietzsche was arguably the most influential philosopher of the 19th and 20th Centuries. In fact, even if not directly referenced, I would contend that he is still the most influential philosopher into the 21st Century. He is most famous for his concept of "will to power," and that one should live life as one chooses without regard to consequences--particularly, consequences after this life. In fact, he believed that common Christian morality was a belief system of "slaves" and the weak. One of his most famous quotes is "God is dead." Although Nietzsche may have claimed that God was dead, God is still a pretty smart guy: Nietzsche went mad at age 44, probably as a consequence of syphilis. I guess he should have paid more attention to Christian morality regarding sex.

• Apparently having handmaids bear children for the wealthy is okay as long as rich liberals do it: "Wombstyles of the Rich and Famous, Sexy Handmaids, Insurance, and Insulin"--Wilder, Wealthy, and Wise. John Wilder writes:

        Kanye West and Whatever Kardashian have three kids, which surprised me – I always thought that the Kardashians reproduced like a virus – infecting their host cell and then making it explode with millions of copies of Kardashians that go on to infect other cells.  I guess not, and even my second guess – reproduction through egg-laying was wrong.  Kardashians reproduce just like a normal human does.

       Or, maybe not?

* * *

       This birth, however, will be special.  Whatever Kardashian is not using her own womb, but is renting one for her baby. 

Read the whole thing. 

• "University Educator: Mowing Your Lawn & Acting Respectable Is Racist"--Freedman Outpost. According to the unnamed Madison educator, "white supremacy is the accumulation of these aggressive messages that say 'stay off the grass,' 'mow your lawn,' 'act respectable,' 'pull your pants up,'." If you remember Steven Pinker's description of the civilizing process includes as steps the widespread adoption of manners and etiquette, as well as respecting the rights of various groups, the left's rejection of manners and demonization of white males takes on a new meaning.
• "Opening the Venona Files"--War History Network. From the article:

       Venona was the brainchild of Colonel Carter Clarke, the chief of the U.S. Army’s Special Branch, a division of the War Department’s Military Intelligence Division. During 1943, Colonel Clarke picked up signals that a possible Soviet-German peace deal was in the works, and he wanted to find out if the rumor was true. He ordered his small code-breaking unit to read all Soviet diplomatic traffic being sent from the United States to Moscow. The colonel’s crack team of code breakers was able to pick up copies of Soviet messages via international cable traffic being sent over the wires. Through hairsplitting months of trial and error, the analysts were able to crack the Soviet code. What they discovered was not information leading to a separate peace, but a massive Soviet espionage penetration operation of the highest levels of the American government.

* * *

        The year 1945 was pivotal as far as gathering information on Venona was concerned. In that year, a Soviet code clerk working in the Russian embassy in Ottawa, Canada, Igor Gouzenko, defected to Canadian authorities with hundreds of pages of top-secret documents. Gouzenko told the Canadians that the Soviets had a mole inside their intelligence system. He also named numerous officials who were working for the Soviet Union and passing national secrets. Among the names of alleged spies were such notable Roosevelt administration officials as Alger Hiss; Harry Dexter White, the second-highest-level person in the Treasury Department; Lauchlin Currie, one of FDR’s confidants; and the atomic espionage ring led by Julius Rosenberg.

A long read but worth the time.

• Globalists in action: "Koch Network to Push for Legal Status for Dreamers in 2019"--Time Magazine. The article reports:

       The politically savvy donor network helmed by billionaire Charles Koch plans in 2019 to use its deep pockets to push for an overhaul of the nation’s immigration system, including permanent legal status for for young people who came to the country illegally, according to an email obtained by TIME and verified by a Koch spokesman.

       The Koch donor network, among the most powerful force in conservative circles, also plans to tackle poverty, addiction and education in the coming two-year election cycle, according to the message.

The article also indicates that the Koch Network will provide monetary support to certain favored Republican candidates, but not to Trump.

• Paul Joseph Watson reports that "Muslim Doctor Admits Deliberately Giving Jews the 'Wrong Meds'; Media Ignores." "27-year-old Lara Kollab was fired from her position as an Internal Medicine Resident at the Cleveland Clinic, Ohio, after tweets were uncovered in which she spread anti-Semitic hatred on Twitter for at least 6 years," including one admitting to giving Jews incorrect medicines.
• "What is the blue pill?"--Dalrock. Feminism and its predecessor, chivalry (or courtly love). Dalrock explains:

      What we call chivalry is the original reaction, and chivalry was reacting to/against Christian sexual morality.  Chivalry/courtly love was originally a parody of Christianity, ostensibly a game of reversing Christian teachings regarding men, women, and sex.  Where Christianity taught that it was marriage that made sex and sexual desire moral, courtly love taught that the only pure expression of sexual passion occurred within adultery.  Where Christianity taught that wives were to submit to their own husbands in fear and reverence, courtly love taught men to submit to other men’s wives in fear and reverence.  What was pure was portrayed as perverse, and what was bawdy was portrayed as pure.  It was a truly devious joke.

* * *

      What I want to focus on with this post is what the Christian red pill is or should be in reaction to;  what is the blue pill?  As I noted earlier there is confusion on this even within the sphere.  When I first started blogging I probably would have tentatively answered feminism.  But fairly recently it has become clear to me that chivalry is a much more precise answer.  As Christians we should oppose the lesbian feminist “pastor” who is melting down purity rings to create a golden vagina.  But at least her rejection of Christian sexual morality is overt.  The far more insidious rejection of Christian sexual morality comes not from liberal Christians but from conservative Christians, and it comes not as feminism but as chivalry posing as Christianity.  The problem is compounded by the desire of Christian men to strike a mock courageous pose by proposing to fight feminism with chivalry, which in their mind is the real Christianity anyway.

• "The Conservative Storyteller Who Made Christmas Scary"--American Conservative. The author writes:

      ... Americans used to revel in their local customs and folkways, many of which derived from the craggy shores of England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. One of those long forgotten pastimes was the Christmas ghost story. A Christmas Carol is but the most popular example of an ancient ritual. It used to be standard that when the temperature dipped outside and the distant noise of sleigh bells could be heard, families gathered around the hearth to tell chilling yarns about revenants and ghosts returning from their graves. Whether or not this derives from the pagan practice of the Winter Solstice is still debated.

        No writer understood the power of the Christmas ghost tale better than Montague Rhodes James, better known simply as M.R. James. Born during the glory days of the British Empire in 1862, James spent his life as a medieval scholar, schoolmaster, and devout Anglican. ... A conservative through and through, James nevertheless came to minor fame during the Edwardian Age for his ghoulish and sometimes gruesome ghost stories.

      James called his fiction “antiquarian.” Few designations have been so apt, as James’s stories predominantly feature single, solitary men with scholastic temperaments who find themselves faced with the supernatural. One of James’s greatest admirers, H.P. Lovecraft, followed the Englishman’s template when he began casting the runes on his own “weird tales.” ...