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Thursday, April 3, 2025

The Diversity Report #23

 A selection of articles showcasing the benefits of diversity, equity and inclusion: 

 Described as “apocalyptic” by William O’Neill, whom the United Nations Human Rights Council appointed its expert on Haiti, the country has suffered thousands of homicides as well as kidnappings, with rape a common occurrence. In addition to the violence, Haitians experience a constant lack of food, shelter, water, and medical services. All the necessities of a functioning state remain in disrepair. The humanitarian catastrophe has displaced more than five hundred thousand Haitians, a majority of whom are seeking entry into the United States, legally or not. More than three hundred thousand Haitians have been granted safe haven through the Temporary Protected Status program, as the Biden administration expanded program coverage last summer.

But it then argues for armed intervention involving U.S. troops lest the Haitians flee the country en masse to surrounding countries and the U.S. Or, here is a brilliant idea, rather than waste our blood and treasure trying to salvage what cannot be saved, we defend our borders and let nature take its course in Haiti. It would be cheaper to interdict boats leaving Haiti than to send troops into Haiti. 

    Austin Metcalf was attacked on Wednesday at the Kuykendall Stadium in Frisco after he told 17-year-old Karmelo Anthony he was sitting in the wrong chair, according to the late teen's family.

    Anthony was charged with murder after he allegedly stabbed Metcalf in the heart as his twin brother Hunter watched in horror and then tried to save his life.

    USA's Stephanie Turner initially lined up to face Redmond Sullivan in a tournament at the University of Maryland earlier this week, only to take a knee and remove her mask in protest at being matched against a biological male.

    As a result, she was subsequently excluded from the Cherry Blossom competition and suspended for the remainder of it after being shown a black card.  

I'm old enough to remember when women taking male hormones was enough to disqualify them from women's athletics. Now its okay for actual men to compete in women's athletics. I bet it would change, though, if it started angering Muslims because, for obvious reasons, if government officials don't respect Muslims, they at least fear them. And that is the basic problem we face in the West: our governments neither respect nor fear the citizenry. At the least they should fear to lose their jobs, which means that the primary steps to recover our democratic forms of government will require eliminating government labor unions, make government employment "at-will", and bring back the spoils system.

    Nashville police have released their final report on the Covenant School massacre – a targeted March 2023 attack on a Christian school by a transgender shooter who killed three third-graders and three adults.

    Rather than a highly anticipated manifesto, the report found that killer Audrey Hale left behind numerous notebooks, art books and computer documents about her plans to commit the attack and gain notoriety, partly inspired by the Columbine school shooting in 1999.

    Hale, the 28-year-old attacker and biological female, began “fantasizing” about and researching mass shootings as far back as 2017, according to investigators. A year later, she wrote “detailed fantasies” about shooting up the Isaac T. Creswell Middle Magnet School for the Arts, killing her father and killing her psychiatrist.

* * *

    Hale wanted people to remember her after her death, according to the document, and was partly inspired by books and documentaries on the Columbine killers. She wanted similar records of her own life and expected her guns, artwork and journals to be preserved in museums around the world.

    “Most disturbingly, she wanted the things she left behind to be shared with the world so she could inspire and teach others who were ‘mentally disordered’ like her to plan and commit an attack of their own,” investigators wrote.

Notably, Hale did not describe being bullied or harassed at the school, but recollected her time there as one of the happiest times in her life. Instead, she picked the school because it was the least likely location where anyone would be able to stop her. 

    The U.S. federal government sent an unprecedented amount of money to fraudsters and international criminal gangs through COVID-19 relief programs, according to a Friday report from the American Enterprise Institute (AEI).

    The government provided an estimated $872 billion in assistance through programs like the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) and the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), at least 17% of which — amounting to nearly $200 billion — was “disbursed to potentially fraudulent actors,” AEI’s Matt Weidinger wrote, quoting an after action review from the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic under the Committee on Oversight and Accountability.

The Gates Foundation, AAER says, is “intentionally discriminating against white students by excluding them from the tuition assistance and specialized support that it provides to students of every other race or ethnicity.” The foundation’s Gates Scholarship states that the program is a “highly selective, last dollar scholarship for outstanding, minority high school students” before listing acceptable racial and ethnic backgrounds in its eligibility requirements.

  • Time to call the wambulance! "Military women left fuming after US Air Force changes appearance policy"--Daily Mail. What horrible changes were made? "Now, women can only wear clear polish or have a French or American manicure. An American manicure is similar to a French, with white tips and a clear or softer skin-colored natural polish underneath instead of using start [sic] pink and white." 

    'Three options! No matter what your skin tone,' Elora exclaimed.

    'People are not happy,' Elora explained about Reddit forums where fellow military women are complaining and questioning the new rulings. 'They think that the priorities are a little bit skewed right now and nail polish is not really that serious.'

    She said people believe 'there are a lot of other things that should be focused on when it comes to military readiness and recruiting.'

One thing we can do to increase military readiness is get rid of service women who are hung up on what colors of nail polish they are allowed. 

Liberty Counsel filed a lawsuit on behalf of an Idaho Army National Guard infantry officer against Governor Brad Little and two army generals for unlawfully removing the officer from command solely due to his personal Christian expression on biblical sexuality made outside of the military environment. An investigation into the officer, which revealed no wrongdoing, nevertheless recommended a policy to monitor potential candidates for command for any “concerning ideologies” as a way of “rooting out” any “extremism” in the ranks. In this case, the decision to remove him from command on this basis shows that his superiors believe his Bible-centered beliefs on sexuality to be concerning and essentially puts an unconstitutional “No Christians in Command” policy into action.

The article relates that "Major David Worley ran for mayor of Pocatello, Idaho, and during his campaign, he spoke out against drag queen story hours, explicit material in public libraries, and transgender treatments for children. He made all of those statements outside of his duties with the Idaho Army National Guard."

    In February, as Breitbart News reported, the Trump administration paused funding for the Acacia Center for Justice — a non-governmental organization (NGO) that provides free lawyers to tens of thousands of UACs hoping to stay in the United States using millions in American taxpayer dollars.

    During the Biden administration, the Acacia Center for Justice secured $200 million in federal contracts to provide lawyers to UACs.

    Late on Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Araceli Martinez Olguin, who was born in Mexico City and was appointed by Biden, became the latest federal judge to block Trump from carrying out his “America First” agenda.

    “The irreparable harm resulting from Defendants’ actions weighs in favor of temporary injunctive relief,” Olguin wrote while issuing a temporary restraining order that will require the Trump administration to continue funneling taxpayer money to the Acacia Center for Justice.

  • "Canada Discovers True Multiculturalism"--Vox Day. Quoting from a piece about how the old-guard political alliances that help flood the country with immigrants is now discovering that the new immigrants aren't interested in the old-guard's politics but are looking out for their own. Google is proving to be its useless self, so I can't find the link to the original source, although I believe it was a from the X account of  κρῠπτός (kruptos). An excerpt:

    ... But, immigration has been promoted to the scale that that the one time client has now realized that it can form it’s own client base. So Indians, the Chinese, and to a lesser extent Middle Eastern Muslims have begun to work in concert. Each works for the benefit of their own group. ...

* * *

    As a non-Indian or a non-Chinese or a non-Middle Easterner in Canada ... one of the political calculations that has to be made is the question of containing and subverting or undermining the political influence of these groups. They are a threat to all three of the original power bases and to the nation as a whole. Why? Because they place family, clan, and ethnic loyalty ahead of other interests. It is not in their thinking culturally to look out for the nation as a whole.

    You are thinking in older terms of DEI or the “meritocracy,” hiring the best candidates, and they are looking to hire or place Indians in positions whenever possible. You cannot defeat this by emphasizing institutional neutrality. That will be used against you. The shift that is going to have to come is that you will have do as they are doing or you will lose to them because they are better organized and are better at looking after their own interests. Attach whatever negative label you want to this, but you have been warned.

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Wednesday, April 2, 2025

Gruesome Deaths and Attacks #3

 Some more macabre news stories I've come across:

    This is the horrifying moment a python's bulging stomach appeared to wriggle - before a family found their grandmother swallowed whole inside.

    The anxious family of a missing woman tracked the snake down to a patch of dense vegetation in South Sulawesi, Indonesia yesterday afternoon.

    Locals feared for the worst when they saw the 26ft serpent weighed down by a large bulge in its stomach.

    Slashing into the snake, they found the body of 66-year-old Hasia, who had vanished while walking home from her job at a rubber plantation.

    The snake is believed to have pounced from the tall grass and clamped down on her leg, causing her to fall.

    Hasia battled to escape from its grip, but was squeezed to death while being swallowed whole, it was reported locally.

    The bodies of nine students who went missing on vacation in southern Mexico last month have been found dismembered by the side of a local highway — with a bag of hands nearby.

    The group’s gruesome remains were discovered in the trunk of an abandoned vehicle and underneath a blood-covered tarp in San Jose Miahuatlan on the border of the Mexican states of Puebla and Oaxaca.

    Four of the bodies were in the trunk, while the other five corpses were left under the tarp. 

    A bag with eight pairs of hands was also found at the scene, with two more hands left in the trunk, reported Periodico Central.

    The bodies of the four women and five men, ages 19 to 30, all had bullet wounds and signs of torture, according to El Financiero.

    Two Russian divers have died in the Philippines after being swept away by strong undercurrents - with one believed to have drowned and the other mauled in a horrifying shark attack, according to officials.

    Four Russian men aged 18 to 57 were diving with a Filipino dive instructor in a popular destination near the resort area of Batangas on Thursday when they were separated by the current, coast guards said.

    While two members of the group and the instructor managed to swim back safely to their boat, two of the tourists, who were identified as Ilia Peregudin, 29, and Maksim Melekhov, 39, went missing.

    The dive instructor and other divers in the area, along with Philippine coast guard personnel, immediately launched a search, according to officials.

    The first man found by rescuers floating in the water, and was pronounced dead on arrival at a local hospital, coast guard district chief Airland Lapitan Lapitan said.

    The second missing diver was found later that evening 'being attacked by sharks', Lapitan said.

    It took the rescuers more than half an hour to prize him away from the predators, but eventually, he said, 'they somehow managed to pull him away.'

    The man lost his right arm in the vicious attack, with Lapitan saying it had been severed as the sharks pulled at him.

    New footage captured the moment a 61-year-old man lured a nine-year-old girl into his convenience store in Brazil moments before an angry mob beat him to death.

    Marco Jacob was seen standing by the exit of the shop in the southeastern city of Tramandaí when the girl followed him inside, surveillance camera showed.

    The child's family told police that she was given permission to visit a neighborhood plaza for a playdate before she failed to return home. 

    The video showed the girl walking past the store and stopping in front of a house before she walked over to Jacob.

    After speaking for about 16 seconds, the girl ran on to the street and appeared to walk away, but turned around and followed Jacob into the store.

    She was reported missing around 7 pm local time and residents joined her family in an all-out search by putting up posters and pictures of her in the neighborhood. 

* * *

    Cell phone video showed the frantic moment cops barged through the convenience store, tossing crates to the side before they located the girl locked away underground beneath a trapdoor.

    The child was eventually carried out of her makeshift dungeon by one of the cops as she shouted, 'I was abused,' while Jacob is slammed to the ground

    A person who witnessed the rescue alerted neighbors, who surrounded the store and wrestled Jacob away from the police and killed him on the spot.

    A little girl was almost dragged away by a coyote seconds after stepping outside her family's stunning $2.3 million home in a ritzy Seattle suburb.  

    Chang Tong was right behind his daughter Lena when she stepped outside their gorgeous Craftsman home and was immediately attacked by the wild dog on Tuesday.

    Tong said they thought the gray-and-white canine was a pet dog, so Lena reached out to pet it - but it responded by latching its jaws onto her palm and dragging her.

The girl's father was able to scare the animal away, but imagine if the girl had gone outside on her own.

    An ex-con strangled and decapitated a man who impregnated his wife while he was locked up in prison, authorities say.

    The victim’s hands were chopped off, too — and one was later found by a 5-year-old boy in a mail box.

    Anthony Newton, 45, is now charged in the gruesome murder of Ulisys “Cesar” Molina, whose burned, dismembered body was found in a vacant lot outside Las Vegas in 2017 after his family reported him missing, according to KLAS.

The article also observes that "Molina’s head and other hand were never found."

    Authorities in Texas have confirmed that a human rib found last December belonged to Texas A&M student Caleb Harris, whose remains were found in a wastewater well months earlier.

    The latest update into the tragic death of the college student came on Friday, March 28, when the Corpus Christi Police Department (CCPD) said a city employee at the Greenwood Water Recycling Plant found the bone on Dec. 2, 2024.

    “The Greenwood Water Recycling Plant is the same location where the contents of the Perry Place lift station were transported to in June 2024, following the discovery of Caleb Harris's remains,” authorities continued.

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Useful or Useless?

I don't know how many of you use a linear compensator on a rifle. The idea behind such compensators is to direct the blast forward of the weapon instead of to the sides as is normal for most muzzle devices. You can see where this would be a benefit for someone shooting at a range where shooters are crammed in quite close beside one another, or other situations where shooters may be operating in close proximity to each other. But what if there are times you want to also keep your standard flash hider?

    The Firearm Blog reports (announced?) that Strike Industries is releasing what they call their A2 Blast Shield which is designed to fit over the standard A2 flash hider, and act like a linear compensator "to reduce side concussion and redirect muzzle blast forward, this blast shield is geared toward both professional and civilian shooters looking to enhance comfort without replacing legacy muzzle devices." The article (press release?) continues by noting that "[r]ather than removing a functioning A2 device—which can be difficult or even damage your rifle—this new blast shield is simple and risk-free to install." Given the sometimes difficult nature of getting the timing correct when installing a flash hider, or most people lacking the equipment to hold the barrel and receiver in place while cranking down on a crush washer, I can see how this could be useful to some shooters. But what do you think? Useful or useless?

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Tuesday, April 1, 2025

Deadline: Snow Woke Will Lose Disney $115 Million

 At least that is what Deadline is predicting in its article, "‘Snow White’, Poisoned By Controversy At Box Office, Won’t Have A Happy Ending With $115M Loss: What Went Wrong." 

Snow White per our forecasts will clear $295M in revenues from $101M in global film rentals, $62M in worldwide home entertainment, $130M in streaming and TV revenues, and $2M from merchandise. Note that when Disney+ buys the title from itself for its streaming window, it’s not a quick and easy calculation of 10% of domestic box office, as was the case back in the days of Pay 1 windows. Rather, it’s a more byzantine computation based on myriad factors, I’ve been told. Counter this with $410M in feature expenses that are comprised of a $270M net production price tag (thanks to the starts and stops due to the strikes, and a fire on the UK set), a $111M global P&A and $29M in residuals and other expenses. 

"$101M in global film rentals" means that they are estimating that the total box office take will be just a little over $200M since theaters keep roughly half of the box office.

    But the article goes on to state that the movie isn't bad and it was just the negative publicity from social media that brought it down. But Rotten Tomatoes tells a different story with only 40% of critics giving it a positive rating and an audience score of 74%. But that isn't really the whole story, either. The 40% rating is among all critics. If you click on the metric, a pop-up shows that when considering "top critics" the score drops to 29%. And the audience score is even worse. The 74% is among "verified audience," which only includes those reviewers that purchased tickets to the film through Fandango. If you select "all audience", then the ratings decline to 19%.

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How Many Died Because Of Covid In China?

 A few interesting videos on China's population. The first and second videos question how many have died from the pandemic, suggesting that hundreds of millions may have died. The first video takes note of reports coming out of China seeming showing mostly empty streets, trains, and shopping malls that should have been packed, suggesting that the populations are shrinking. The second is similar, but has more video of villages that seemingly have been abandoned.

    The third video is longer. The woman who produced that video has, in the past, argued that China's population based on birth and death statistics is actually around 800 million, not the 1.4 billion cited by the government. Now she argues that the repeated pandemics have reduced the population to between 300 and 400 million. 

    I obviously have no way of verifying any of this. I don't travel to China and have no special sources of information. Perhaps we are seeing videos that are faking the scenes of mostly empty streets or malls, showing them in the early morning when there is little traffic but claiming it to be rush hour or another busy time of day. China has for years been encouraging younger workers to return to the countryside in order to fight youth unemployment in the cities, and perhaps it has finally worked. 

    Or perhaps China's economy has tanked and people simply don't have the money to be shopping or going out to eat, and factories and businesses have shut down. I would note in this regard a two-part article from George Calhoun at Forbes entitled: "The Missing Factor In Explanations Of China’s Economic Distress: COVID - Part 1: The Cover-Up" and "The Missing Factor In Explanations Of China’s Economic Distress: COVID – Part 2: Estimating The True Death Toll." He argues that Covid was, in fact, the missing factor to explain why China's economy did not come rushing back after Covid restrictions were lifted; and it was because the death toll was much larger than official statistics (but in the millions, not hundreds of millions). He indicates that "[t]he total over four years from 2019-2022 amounts to about 1.6 million excess deaths. (2023 added another 800,000 'excess deaths' above the pre-COVID baseline.)" The 800,000 figure may, itself, also be low: the CDC published a paper in October 2023 which concluded that "SARS-CoV-2 infections caused 1.41 million deaths in China during December 2022–February 2023."

    And, finally, China has seen an outbreak of human metapneumovirus (HMPV) earlier this year, so perhaps the Chinese people were self-isolating.

VIDEO: "People are discovering the truth of COVID & China’s real population"
Lei's Real Talk (15 min).


VIDEO: "Apocalypse Begins! Hundreds of Millions Disappear in China, Massive Abandoned Villages Found" -- China Observer (17 min.)


VIDEO: "The Vanishing Billion: Exposing China’s Population Myth"
Lei's Real Talk (52 min.)

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Monday, March 31, 2025

China Loses Out On Large Fighter Aircraft Contract With Saudi Arabia

I'm seeing reports that Saudi Arabia has rejected entering into a deal with China to purchase China's J-35 stealth fighter jet. This is being reported as a "a major blow to Chinese President Xi Jinping's Middle East strategy, as he wanted powerful Gulf nations to replace their American-made armaments with Chinese weaponry. According to experts, Xi Jinping hoped that if Gulf powers like Saudi Arabia purchased China's J-35 fighter jet, it would shut the door for American weapons in the Middle East, besides increasing Beijing's weapon sales." So far, the only foreign purchaser China has found for the aircraft was Pakistan, which may have only done so under pressure from China.

    At issue may have been actual or perceived shortcomings. As the MSN article above relates:

    Although cheaper than its Western-made counterparts, such as the F-35, China's J-35 stealth fighter is marred by the perceived quality and reliability of Chinese military hardware. This was evident at the World Defense Show in Saudi Arabia in February 2024, when J-35's predecessor, the FC-31, failed to secure any buyers. 

    The reliability of Chinese weaponry, while largely perceptional, are not completely unfounded, as they have been well documented. Chinese-made CH-4 drones have reportedly witnessed numerous operational failures in Libya and Yemen, while Chinese air defense systems such as the HQ-9 lagged behind Western competitors in live tests, resulting in potential buyer opting for Western-made systems. 

Rather, Riyadh has decided to join a UK-Italy-Japan consortium to develop a 6th generation fighter aircraft. Saudi Arabia is also considering purchasing 100 units of Turkey's next generation "KAAN" fighters, and has approached U.S., French and other European manufacturers about procuring updated fighter aircraft.

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Snow White Rapidly Sinking At Box Office

 As I wrote about last week, Snow White had a terrible opening weekend--in fact, the worst of any of their live-action remakes of classic animated films. It continued over the second weekend of release, dashing Disney's hope that word-of-mouth would save the film. 

    Variety reports that Snow White saw a disastrous 66% decline in revenue, making only $14.2 million this past weekend domestically. And it doesn't appear that the overseas box office will save it. At an estimated production budget of $250 million (not including marketing), its breakeven is probably somewhere around $625 million or more, according to Screen Rant. But, again from Variety, the film appears to have only grossed $143.1 million worldwide to date. 

    The problem for Disney is that the intended audience doesn't seem to like it. As I noted last week, only about half of the kids that saw the movie said they would recommend that a friend see it immediately. Little girls still want to see a Disney princess movie, not a female Che Guevara.

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VIDEO: The Importance of Scheduled Maintenance on a Firearm

Parts wear out. It's a fact of life. But on a carry weapon, it could be fatal. The following video shows a guy who is training, apparently as part of a class, when his Sig 365 suddenly stopped working. It wasn't an issue of a failure to feed or failure to extract--rather, it was quickly discovered, the trigger spring had broken. The trainer running the class had seen this happen enough that he actually had some extra springs on hand, and the problem was quickly fixed. But if it had been in a defensive gun use, in which case the pistol would have been out of action when it most needed, the results could have been more catastrophic.

    I don't believe the video was intended to pick on the Sig 365. The video's author mentions that the handgun is extremely popular in his class which means, statistically, he is likely to see more failures involving that firearm, all other things being equal. The issue is that the owner of the firearm has put approximately 7,000 rounds through the firearm plus who knows how much dry fire practice, and the metal fatigue finally caught up with the spring. 

    The issue here is that certain parts--particularly springs--should be replaced after a set number of cycles to prevent a failure at a critical juncture. Greg Ellifritz, for instance, has written on this topic a number of times and, through various articles, recommended scheduled maintenance for several different springs in Glock pistols, including that the recoil springs be replaced after 3,000 to 5,000 rounds, and that trigger springs be replaced every 10,000 rounds (although, I think that should probably be every 10,000 trigger presses to account for dry fire practice); in a another post, he recommends against using aftermarket, third-party Glock recoil springs; in reporting on an AR armorer's class he attended, the instructor recommended replacing the extractor spring assembly annually on any AR that saw extensive use; he elsewhere notes that Glock slide lock springs seem prone to failure. Apparently earlier models used too narrow of a spring, but can be replaced with wider springs. 

    An NRA Family article from 2018 stated: "The springs on a modern striker-fired pistol should be good up to about 5,000 rounds. Just this week I participated in the FN Armorer course for the FNS-9 and FNS-40. Mike Clark, Dealer Support Representative with FN America, mentioned the slide catch spring was the most vulnerable after 10,000 rounds. So as usual, check your owner’s manual and learn the factory recommendations for your particular firearm, but also use common sense."

    And the Pistol Wizard website has a detailed article on recoil springs for handguns, including some tips on recognizing they are going bad and when to replace them.

VIDEO: "SIG P365 Massive Failure"
CarryTrainer (6 min.)

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Saturday, March 29, 2025

Peter Grant: "Is the left-wing politicization of our military a threat to our country?"

The short answer is "yes." He cites an article from Cynical Publius indicating that "the resistance" to President Trump is very much alive and well among the officer ranks of the military. Grant adds: "I guess it goes without saying that the progressive left would welcome a military coup against the Trump administration.  To them it would be 'saving the nation' from his malign influence - regardless of the fact that the majority of Americans voted for him.  He won both the Electoral College and the popular vote, making his constitutional and democratic legitimacy unshakeable . . . but they don't see it that way."

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Gun & Prepping News #26

 Some articles that have caught my attention:

  • First up, Greg Ellifritz at Active Response Training has a new Weekend Knowledge Dump. Some of the articles that in particular caught my attention included: a good article for prepping for apartment dwellers, including some really good ideas as to water and food storage; a piece from Matt Bracken on "duplexed" AR magazines, why you want a pair and how to make your own; an article from Mass Ayoob with quite a bit of details about a home invasion robbery in 2014 with a lot of good lessons for the home defender; and an Organic Prepper article on "Modern OPSEC and Thirdworldization." 
    The latter article notes that as the Great Depression wore on, the wealthy started to tone down their ostentatious shows of wealth--locking up jewelry instead of flaunting it,  putting away the mink coats, and parking the wildly expensive cars in remote barns--to avoid being a target. The article doesn't delve into this issue, but the U.S. was probably the closest to a revolution as it had been since its inception, with a wave of food riots and protests. The wealthy not only tempered their show of wealth, but Congress passed the National Firearms Act to make sure the populace would be incapable of any serious revolution. In any event, the article presumes that we will be facing similar issues as a result of ever increasing wealth disparity and declining economic fortunes. 

    I just read a piece at the New York Post today entitled "Bill Gates says AI will replace doctors, teachers within 10 years — and claims humans won’t be needed ‘for most things’," which is just another way of saying that within 10 years a whole lot of people will be out of jobs. 
  • Some firearm history: "Covert Commando: Reviewing the Famous De Lisle Suppressed Carbine"--Guns & Ammo. This was a .45 ACP carbine based off the bolt-action Enfield rifle action, with an integrally suppressed barrel. Apparently a reproduction is being manufactured by U.S. Armament Manufacturing in Ephrata, Pennsylvania. 
  • "Why Is 9 mm So Popular With USPSA Competitors?"--Shooting Sports USA.  He gives three reasons: (i) the increase in the number of divisions scored minor; (ii) the popularity of optics, particularly with younger shooters who may have little or no experience with traditional iron sights; and (iii) 9mm is less expensive and easier to obtain. 
  • Earlier this month, I had published a short piece with links to articles on terminal ballistics, and included an illustration of places to target on the skull. Jon Low had emailed me to point out that the head might not be the best place to aim for various reasons, including that a pistol bullet might not penetrate (this actually was something occurred in the home invasion article of Mass Ayoob that Ellifritz linked to in this week's Weekend Knowledge Dump). Jon's email got me thinking, so I did some more digging and came across this article: "Thinking Twice About the Head Shot"--SWAT Magazine. Among other things, it covers the three methods of incapacitation, noting:

    The third mechanism is injury to the brain. This will almost always result in instant incapacitation if the brain itself is penetrated and damaged. It is a much larger target than the cervical spine. It is armored, but the thickness of the skull varies by location.

    And nearly every gun magazine article I’ve read—and most instructors— get the fundamentals wrong.

So what's the problem? The primary is what the author calls the "Myth of the Medulla": that you must strike the medulla for a "no reflex" shot where the person instantly drops like a sack of potatoes without being able to do more. But as the author relates:

I have searched the medical literature back to 1900 looking at gunshot wounds that penetrated the skull and did not result in immediate incapacitation. They are quite rare and typically involve underpowered handgun rounds or truly miraculous suicide attempts with a rifle. These rare cases involve a bullet that damages the edges of the brain (usually the frontal or temporal lobe) or that passes between the two hemispheres of the brain.

Moreover, he recommends trying to target the medulla, in any event, because it is small and, commensurate with its importance, enclosed in the most heavily armored portion of the skull. 

    The thickest, toughest bones of the skull are those near the eyes and around the base of the brain. A round aimed at middle face is directed at the part of the skull that is the most difficult to penetrate. With a full-frontal shot, those bones can readily deflect projectiles, especially handgun rounds.

    This is also exactly where most have been taught to aim: the triangle formed by the eyes joined to the nose. The brainstem is narrow and also changes position every time the head moves and turns, just like the cervical spinal cord. If you aim at the nose when the head is turned even slightly to the side, the straight-line path will miss the medulla and brainstem.

So where to aim if shooting for the brain? The author recommends a location that offers a large target and thinner bone: 

    Assuming a full-frontal assailant, you should aim just between and above the eyes.

    From the side (assailant looking directly to your left or right), aim just above the top of the ear. For other positions, you’ll need to mentally rotate this model, thinking about the position of the brain as the head turns. The key is getting the bullet to penetrate the skull and enter the brain, not the precise brain structure that is damaged.

    Having seen the brim of a baseball cap deflect pistol and rifle rounds— and even 12-gauge slugs—keep in mind that bone and other objects may deflect a perfectly aimed shot. The brain must be penetrated and damaged for the shot to be effective.

    Louis Awerbuck excels at making his students think about the orientation of the threat and how this changes where you need to aim. This is also true with the head.

    If the threat is looking directly at you but upward, aiming at the nose will put the bullet’s intended path through the center of the brain. If the threat is looking downward, aiming for the upper forehead would be more appropriate.

    So, back to the statement in the title to this blog entry. Can we just casually shoot the homicide bomber in the face and call it good? By now, I expect you know the answer to that.

    To illustrate my point, I’ll give you a real life example: I once had a guy come into my ER who had been shot by police. Four times. All four police bullets (40 S&W caliber) hit this guy in the head, so that means he had taken four “head shots”, but was still actively fighting police and had actually returned fire after receiving these wounds. Two of those shots were in the so-called “T-zone”, as it is called by some internet gunfighting “experts”.  

    This case illustrates the folly of thinking that any/all “head shots” are equal… there is a huge potential for variance in outcomes!  Again: if your pistol bullets do not transect the brainstem, your homicide bomber may still be able to kill you.

    Part of the problem with taking “head shots” is that the shape and structure of the bones of the human skull are designed (or have evolved, if you prefer) to very efficiently protect the brain. The density of the bones and the curvature of the surface work very well to deflect any missile that comes at the skull unless the angle of incidence is very close to perpendicular to the skull’s surface. Pistol bullets striking the human head at angles less than 65-75 degrees will penetrate the skin/scalp, but will often just glance off the hard, smooth bone of the skull, tunneling under the skin to exit several inches from the entry wound without penetrating the skull. This is well-documented in the trauma literature, and it’s exactly what happened with the guy I saw in my ER with 4 bullet holes in his noggin.

    The other part of the problem is that if you don’t know where the brainstem is, your chances of hitting it are really, really poor. Think about it: in frontal anatomic presentation, the human head has a target area of about 325-400 cm2. The brainstem has a target area of about 25 cm2. If you think you can hit the brainstem by randomly shooting the head, your chance of hitting it is about 6-7%.

    Even if we round up to be generous and say your odds are 10%, that means that your chances of being blown to smithereens by a homicide bomber in that scenario are 90%. 

    I’m no brain surgeon.  A guy shot through the head with a .308 round should be dead.  Especially dead when a quarter of his skull is missing and some funky looking stuff is seeping through the ragged remains of his head wrap.  Though, as I stood next to this life less looking body while watching members of my platoon search for a 2nd guy’s tracks and blood trail and the company clerk throwing up behind me, it came very shortly as a shocking surprise just how much the body intends to live despite injuries that occur. 

    The man, whom our sniper team had placed a round slightly off center of his dome, lay so still and lifeless that everyone had completely disregarded him.  That was until I stopped to soak in the scene about two feet to the side of him.  Without warning, this man kicked his arm and leg straight up into the air and scared the fuck out of me.  The company clerk threw up again.  He lowered his appendages back down, kicked up once more, lowered again, and then began to snore.  Of course, I called for the corpsman and our LT, cause it was some freaky shit.  Doc said the dude was done; there was nothing he was going to be able to do to fix the brain soup coming out of his skull.  The LT still wanted to try and treat him.  Meanwhile I’m just sitting there like, “Let me pump a burst into him and put him out for good”.  Doc won.  He was eventually picked up by a local ambulance and taken to the town’s morgue.  Doc later explained to me what had happened in terms my dumb grunt mind could grasp.  Since the bullet didn’t go through the medulla oblongata or the brain stem, his autonomic responses didn’t turn off.  Part of the guy’s brain was still trying to tell him to breath, to bleed, and to move (reflex).  

    Why is this important?  Just another story about how some Iraqi dirtbag got shot, right?  He still wound up dead, yes, but what happens if that man had a hostage?  Or a detonation device?  Yeah, you kill him, but who and what does he take with him if he can still twitch the fuck out?  That’s where a simple anatomy lesson and some precision shooting can make the difference.  

    The revolver has advantages in certain critical areas. As one example a short barrel revolver doesn’t offer much leverage for a gun grabber who grasps the barrel during a struggle. The handle however offers a good gripping surface.

    One of my Lieutenants a very experienced officer carefully honed the sides of his ramp front sight as sharp as possible in case of a gun grab. Others had a thin gold line set into the revolver sight at a carefully arrived at hold over spot for long range fire. We qualified at fifty yards in those days.

    An officer using a Combat Masterpiece, Combat Magnum, or Highway Patrolman was often a very good shot at long range. Another advantage is that the revolver may be pressed into an adversary’s body and fired repeatably without jamming.

    A revolver may be fired from inside a coat pocket. (Those guys in the popular press don’t tell you that your knuckles will be singed but then I don’t recommend a tactic I have not tried.) The martial ability of the revolver cannot be overrated.

    A revolvers smooth rolling action helps control recoil well as the break is a surprise you don’t anticipate recoil. I am not saying the revolver always trumps an automatic, but the revolver has clear advantages in some situations.

  • "22 Short VS 22LR"--Wideners Blog. Of course, the .22 LR outclasses the .22 Short in power, versatility, and accuracy. And by dint of its popularity, it is less expensive than .22 Short (when you can find the latter). The only reason given by the author for selecting the .22 Short over the .22 LR is "if you’re aiming for a more subdued shooting experience, the .22 Short might be your best choice. Its quieter report and mild recoil are ideal for introducing beginners to shooting fundamentals or for when you want a laid-back plinking session." One thing I've noticed with the .22 Short and even the .22 Long versus the .22 Long Rifle is that while the latter will generally punch right through a steel can without moving it much, the .22 Short and .22 Long tend to actually punch those cans around a bit. So if you want to use old soup or vegetable cans as reactive targets, the .22 Long or .22 Short are the better choices. 
  • "General Preparedness Discussion--9MAR2025"--Mountain Guerilla.  Some thoughts on short term preparedness. An excerpt on why you want a couple weeks worth of supplies on hand:

Given human nature, and the ever-American quest to “make a buck,” price-gouging is not only the be expected, but has been witnessed in the near past, even absent scarcity.1 Any kind of localized disaster will almost certainly see severe deleterious impacts on many families, from an economic perspective. Not having to deal with “scalper” prices on essential survival items like foodstuffs, can keep those impacts from being ruinous. Recent history has illustrated that, even in the most calamitous localized disasters, the worst of the emergency—at least to the point of outside assistance beginning to arrive—is largely past within about two weeks. That doesn’t mean everything is back to normal, and peaches and rainbows, it just means additional assistance is generally available by that time. Having a plan to subsist for that two weeks—aside from the obvious black swan events like your house being buried in a mudslide, or a tornado flattening your apartment complex, or a wildfire actually turning your house, specifically, into a pile of cinders and ash—will allow you not only the ability to survive without ruination, but will also often provide the psychological and physical security buffer to allow you to be useful to your friends, family, and neighbors. 

But he also warns that storing more of what you normally eat may not work, such as storing items that require a lot of water to prepare (noodles, anyone?); and your standard kitchen utensils may not be safe to use over an open fire or on a Coleman stove. So you need to review what you have and see if it all works together. Anyway, tips on putting together a survival pantry as well as thoughts on food hygiene, so be sure to read the whole thing.

    The EU wants every member state to develop a 72-hour survival kit for citizens to face any new crisis that might emerge as part of its Preparedness Union Strategy which also calls for more stockpiling of essential supplies and for improved civilian-military cooperation.

    The strategy unveiled on Wednesday by the European Commission includes a list of 30 concrete actions it says EU member states need to take to boost their preparedness against potential future crises ranging from natural disasters and industrial accidents to attacks by malicious actors in the cyber or military domains. 

* * *
    One of the key areas identified is the need to enhance population preparedness with the Commission urging member states to ensure citizens have an emergency kit that allows them to be self-sufficient for a minimum of 72 hours in the event they are cut off from essential supplies.

    Several member states already have such guidelines with varying timeframes. France, for instance, calls for a 72-hour survival kit that includes food, water, medicines, a portable radio, a flashlight, spare batteries, chargers, cash, copies of important documents including medical prescriptions, spare keys, warm clothes and basic tools such as utility knives. 
 
War is coming. There is some clique of elites that have decided that a war with Russia is an imperative and it will happen no matter what the peasants think.
  • "Off-Body Everyday Carry"--Shooting Illustrated. EDC survival gear brings to mind pocket knives and flashlights stuffed into pockets, paracord watchbands, and perhaps some other kit stuffed here or there. The author of this piece suggests a small pack or bag--like a fanny pack or a small sling bag to create "The Modern Urban Survival Kit, or MUSK for short." He begins with the a bag--for the author, this was the Elite Survival Systems Sentinel bag. The kit he mentions includes mundane items like earbuds, charging cords, and a portable battery pack; as well as a first-aid kit, "some pain relievers, antidiarrheal meds and some antacid for non-emergency medical situations" and a tourniquet. While shelter might not be needed--the kit assumes you are in an urban environment--"[a]dd in enough cash in your MUSK to get a decent hotel room in your zip code, and you’re set for the next 24 hours. Sudden torrential rain storms are a thing, though, as are blizzards, so having a small disposable rain poncho or a mylar emergency blanket is a good idea."
  • And for your car: "The Ultimate Vehicle Survival Kit for Road Trips"--Outdoor Life (via Get Pocket).  The article recommends carrying a basic tool kit and a phone charger; extra water; several flashlights and extra batteries; flares and reflectors (the flares can be used to start a fire in addition to signaling/warning); jumper cables (I would probably substitute a battery jumper as I've had occasions where a smaller car didn't have the juice to start a larger truck); extra food; a tow strap; basic shelter items and/or blankets; a flat tire kit; and a first aid kit.
  • "Your old DVDs are suffering disc rot — Warner Bros. will replace them: ‘They curdle like milk’"--New York Post.  While Sony states that DVDs can last up to 100 years if properly cared for, "WBHE, the home movie distribution arm of Warner Bros. Discovery, acknowledged in a statement to movie news and reviews site JoBlo that many of their DVDs manufactured between 2006 and 2008 are prematurely failing." Warner will replace failing DVDs, provided that they still have the films available. Otherwise, you will get a different title.
  • Canary in the coal mine? "The snacking recession: Why Americans are buying fewer treats"--Axios. The leading point from this piece is that Americans are spending less on snacking foods with, for instance, General Mills reporting a 5% decline in net sales this past quarter, with other companies reporting similar declines in snack food sales. But the article continues with comments from Dollar General and Walmart CEOs that they are seeing an increasing number of customers running out of money even for essentials before the month is through. And General Mills has even seen a decline in sales of dog treats. 
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The Diversity Report #23

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