February 4, 2019 -- A Quick Run Around the Web

"Shooting 9mm at a Steel Front Door" - TheFireArmGuy (2-1/2 min.)

As you could probably guess, all rounds went through the door. Unfortunately, from this test, we don't know how much energy they retained. 

• "Your Tactical Training Scenario- Shot Through the Door"--Active Response Training. Greg Ellifritz notes that it isn't uncommon for a criminal to knock on a door or ring a doorbell, and then shoot the homeowner through a door, and relates that that is what happened in the Jayme Closs kidnapping. He gives some advice on what to do when answering a door, but given the technology, perhaps one of the best options he lists is getting a video camera door bell so you don't actually have to stand in the zone of danger to see who is at the door.
• A couple from Modern Survival Online on purifying and storing water:

• "How to Pre-filter Water (and Prolong the Life of Your Water Filters)"

• "How to Store Bleach and How to Use It to Purify Water"

I wrote an article in 2012 on the topic, as well: "Storing Water."

• "Enlightened Equipment on backpacking quilts vs. sleeping bags"--Loadout Room. An introduction to using backpacking quilts for the ultra-light backpackers. Not recommended for cold weather, however.
• "How to Stay Warm in a Tent in Winter"--Alpha Survivalist. Covers the basics: the right clothes, an appropriate sleeping bag for the temperature, using a sleeping bag liner (also advisable to keep the bag clean), having adequate insulation below your sleeping bag, and using something like a warm water bottle.
• "21 Life Hacks To Help You Breeze Through the Apocalypse (or at Least the Next Power Outage)"--The Organic Prepper. One that I thought particularly good was that as you use up home canned items, instead of storing an empty mason jar until next canning season, fill it with water during the interim to expand your water supply during that period.
• "Fish Antibiotics for Survival"--The Survivalist Blog. Another good article about purchasing and storing fish antibiotics.
• "The 'Miracle Mineral' The World Needs"--BBC. The importance of phosphorus to food production (particularly the early stages of plant growth), how acidic soil can result in the phosphorus being wasted as it binds to other minerals in the soil is no longer available to plants, and some methods being taught to farmers in Africa on how to increase soil quality through managed composting. 
• "Force Multipliers: My Optics Of Choice For The LP/OP"--Mason Dixon Tactical. He explains why his choices are (1) a good quality 7×50 pair of binoculars, (2) a good quality spotting scope, and (3) a thermal imaging scope.

• Related: "How to Choose Binoculars"--REI Expert Advice.

• "Ray Bevis: Connecticut Pushing ‘Stop and Frisk’ Bill for Gun Owners"--The Truth About Guns. At issue is a bill "that would allow law enforcement to require gun owners to show their gun permit upon request for any reason." From the article:

Ray Bevis of Wolcott and the CCDL calls it a profiling bill adding,  “It’s a ‘stop and frisk’ bill. To say, ‘Hey just because you have a firearm we’re going to stop you and identify you and frisk you down for doing nothing wrong other than carrying a firearm.”

• "Dog pack kills woman during 11-minute attack in México state"--Mexico News Daily. There is a surveillance video showing the dog pack. There were 11 dogs in the pack of varying sizes and breeds. 
• The Firearm Blog notes that Fix It Sticks has attachments and kits for maintaining or repairing firearms, including an AR15 kit.
• How's that gun control working out for you? "Wild West Britain: Terrifying arsenal of 24 firearms including a Kalashnikov that have been seized by police in just one month as violent crime grips the nation"--Daily Mail. The article reports that "[s]ince 2012, the number of firearm possession offences has jumped by 87 per cent to 8,039." 

"Earth Catastrophe Cycle | Signs on the Sun"--Suspicious Observers (11 min.)

Signs that would warn of an impending major flare event or micro-nova.

• "China’s EMP Weapons Pose Grave Threat to America, Newly Declassified Report Shows"--Epoch Times. The Chinese are developing nuclear weapons intended specifically for an EMP attack because they believe that the United States is particularly vulnerable to such an attack, and that it would immediately take America out of a war. What is particularly concerning to me is that the Chinese are operating an erroneous and dangerous assumption:

It is common American perception that the use of a nuclear weapon is simply unthinkable.  But this newly declassified report undermines such a view.  China doesn’t consider a nuclear EMP strike to carry the same taboo that a traditional nuclear strike does.  They view it as more related to cyber warfare and far more acceptable.  Their reasoning is based on the idea that when a nuclear warhead is detonated at a high elevation for EMP effects then people wouldn’t die from the nuclear fireball or fallout.

I don't think an EMP attack that the U.S. believes could kill up to 90% of its population is going to be waved off as a mere cyber attack, but would result in a full nuclear response.

• The wages of sin socialism: "Starving, sold to paedophiles or simply abandoned: How Venezuela's children are paying a terrible price for their country's failed socialist experiment"--Daily Mail. This is a rare article--a major news outlet actually linking Venezuela's disaster to socialism.

• Related: "Inside the hell of 'communist heaven': Corpses dug up for jewellery, children jailed and a gangster regime that has looted billions. Read this searing dispatch from a Venezuela on the brink of revolution"--Daily Mail. 

• "China’s small pig farmers are being wiped out by deadly African swine fever"--South China Morning Post. Small farmers are responsible for 40% of China's pig production, but with outbreaks of African swine fever, China has prohibited the transfer of live pigs from several of the country's provinces. The result is that farmers have been unable to sell their pigs, have gone into debt, and will have to seek employment elsewhere. The consequence may well be up to a 20% decline in production, nationwide, according to the article. 

• "Of Sad Defeats & No Progeny"--The American Conservative. Rod Dreher writes about the Catholic Church's coddling of liberals and its natural end result. He concludes:

If Catholic and other traditional Christian leaders (and their followers) stand up for what they know is true and just, they’ll probably be driven out of the public square. Fine. As Legutko asserts, it’s delusional to think that bingo hall winsomeness in the face of this anti-Christian ideology is going to give any church leader any influence over those in power. If you’re bound to be defeated anyway, then go down fighting with dignity, within integrity, with honor. You might then inspire people in coming generations that the Christian faith is something worth fighting for, and dying for, instead of aspiring to be nothing more than the prayer auxiliary of a ruling class that hates it anyway.

I would add that we not only need to stand up in the public square, but also in our churches. The youth are confused and beguiled by liberal lies, many longstanding within Christianity, such as the sanctifying power of love (e.g., its okay if you love each other) or that women are inherently more moral or spiritual than men. 

        Dreher predicts that the final confrontation will be over forcing the LGBT lifestyle on Christian schools:

I predict the ultimatum is going to come when the non-state institutions of liberal democracy compel Christian schools to fully accept and affirm LGBT ideology. The First Amendment will likely protect Christian schools from state orders, but there is little a Christian school can do if a private accrediting organization refuses to accredit a Christian school on grounds that it’s a bigot factory. There is little a Christian school can do if other private institutions shun them and their graduates, thereby rendering a diploma from that school worth much less.

That day is rapidly approaching as this article makes clear: "New Jersey Governor Signs Bill Requiring LGBTQ-Inclusive Curriculum In Schools"--Huffington Post. Per the article, the new law "requires students be taught the societal contributions of notable LGBTQ people throughout history." 

• Related: "Duke to Methodist Church: Change your beliefs for inclusivity"--Campus Reform. Duke is ostensibly a Methodist university, but it has become LGBTQ+ inclusive and is demanding that the Methodist church do likewise. The article reports that Duke University has joined other schools in petitioning the Methodist church to change its doctrine: "The petition, which claims that part of its acceptance should be based on the fact that the church’s 'core religious and humanistic values [are] that all persons are of sacred worth and equal standing,' was ultimately signed by every attending member at the National Association of Schools and Colleges of the United Methodist Church (NASCUMC)." (Brackets in original). 

• "The Four Kinds Of Male Loneliness"--Château Heartiste.
• Heh. "Governor Northam Assures Virginians He Supports Killing Babies Of All Colors"--The Babylon Bee. I could see him actually saying something like this.
• "China says it’s even colder on the moon than we thought"--New York Post. China's most recent lunar probe measured temperatures as low as -310 degrees Fahrenheit (-190 degrees Celsius) during the lunar night.