Exploring practical methods for preparing for the end times, including analysis of end time scripture and prophecy, current events, prepping and self-defense.
The first rule of a gun fight is to have a gun. And in the video, below, the host compares some "Rule One guns"--handguns so small and light that you will be able to easily carry and conceal them such that you could have one on you all the time. Obviously there are lot more small, pocket sized pistols, but she focuses on the three current biggest sellers.
Based on the her comments, I think the Glock is probably a no-go from the start for most people because of the much more limited magazine capacity, higher price, and overall larger size. Plus there is nothing special about the factory sights.
The S&W Bodyguard 2.0 seems the best on paper, but the host mentions issues with the trigger spring that apparently makes the trigger pull become dangerously light over time and use and just requires more maintenance. I would much prefer the heavier trigger pull of the Ruger pistol over something that could become dangerously light even if the ergonomics are not quite as good as the Bodyguard.
Call of Cthulhu, from Chaosium Inc., is one of the most popular table top role-playing games on the market, being either number two or three most popular in the United States and, I've learned, the top selling TTRPG in Japan. The game is based on the cosmic horror stories by H.P. Lovecraft, more particularly the stories set in his Cthulhu mythos, although other stories, including his Dreamland stories can certainly be incorporated as well. Lovecraft was one of the most prolific writer of "weird" fiction in the 1920s and '30s and very influential with horror, fantasy, and science fiction writers; not just because of his stories, but because of his mentoring and friendship with many other such writers. Thus, elements and ideas from his stories can be found in the stories of other writers. For instance, Robert E. Howard who wrote the Conan the Barbarian stories corresponded with Lovecraft and incorporated ideas into various tales including some of the Conan adventures. One of the greatest awards in fantasy writing is called the Lovecraft award in recognition of his influence and importance.
Lovecraft lived most of his life in New England (he was raised and lived in Providence, Rhode Island) with just a short stint where he resided in New York City. True to the advice to "write what you know," the majority of his stories are set in New England or New York, including his fictional towns of Arkham (home of Miskatonic University) and Innsmouth, as well as real locations such as Providence and New York City. A few are further afield: Louisiana, Egypt, the South Pacific, or Antarctica. But aliens and entities from other times, solar systems, or dimensions also figure in his stories.
His characters are not adventurers, fighters or gunmen, but generally scholarly individuals--antiquarians, doctors, professors, and the like--that either come across a mystery or are thrust into a situation and then use their knowledge and wits to expose the danger or otherwise act to stop a dangerous cult or creature; and sometimes victory just means escaping from the danger.
The first edition of the Call of Cthulhu RPG was released in 1981, and I must have purchased it in either 1981 or 1982, because a second edition was released in 1983. The contents of the first edition boxed set are pictured below.
It came with three main rule and setting books. Because the game mechanics were adopted from a fantasy role playing published by Chaosium called RuneQuest, the boxed set included a booklet called Basic Role-Playing with the basic RuneQuest rules--sort of a quick start guide, if you will.
Then there was the main rule book (in the center of the photo, above) which included the character creation rules, a description of skills that a character might have, added combat rules for using firearms (which were obviously not part of the Basic Role-Playing booklet), a cyclopedia of the monsters and creatures of the Cthulhu mythos, the magic and spells that creatures and cultists might use (or possibly learned and turned against them by a player character), some guidance on how to play the game, and a few short scenarios to start the players out with the game.
But most importantly--and what distinguished Call of Cthulhu from other games--where the rules on sanity. One of the characteristics or attributes each character had was a Sanity score. Being exposed to monsters or the horrors of the mythos, reading forbidden spell books, and certain other events could cause characters to lose Sanity points. Losing a point could result in the character fainting or going catatonic, run away screaming, or suffer various psychological maladies. And a total loss of Sanity would result in the character becoming permanently insane.
Finally, true to most of Lovecraft's stories, the first edition was firmly set in the 1920s and so it included A Sourcebook For the 1920's that provided interesting and useful information for the period. For instance, in included a timeline from 1900 through 1930 split into three columns: important events, discoveries or inventions; weird or strange events as collected by Charles Forte; and natural and man-made disasters. There are short biographies of important or significant people from the period; important companies; information on the procedures of arrest and prosecution at that time; rules on bribery; optional rules for character creation to better flesh out the character; maps of typical railroad coaches; a section on transportation and the costs and time for traveling in the period; prices and costs; and a selection of non-mythos beasts and monsters. Maps and floorplans of famous ruins are scattered throughout the booklet. And the covers diagram the layout of a Zeppelin passenger airship.
In addition to the rule books listed above, the first edition boxed set came with a poster sized map of the world showing both major cities and locations of lost cities and significant locations from various Cthulhu mythos stories; a booklet of character sheets (which I never used because I would photocopy them) and a sheet with silhouettes of people and monsters that could be cut out and used as playing aids in the game for when there was combat or you need to know where the players are in relation to each other on a map or floor plan.
My understanding is that the second edition--which used the same artwork and style on the box and in the books--was essentially the same as first edition, other than the Basic Role-Playing booklet was no longer included and its concepts moved to the main rule book, and there were some minor tweaks to the rules. But concurrent with the second edition was a steadily growing library of supplements and adventures, including rules for running the game in the modern day (at that time, the 1980s and '90s).
The game is now in its Seventh Edition, pictured in the photo at the top of page. You will see there the main rule book (the "Keeper Rulebook") which:
Provides an introduction to role playing games.
A brief introduction to H.P. Lovecraft and his Cthulhu mythos.
Character creations and skills.
The basic game system mechanics.
Combat.
Rules for chases.
Rules on Sanity, magic, the tomes of eldritch lore, and a spell grimoire.
An overview of artifacts and alien devices.
Tips on playing the game.
A compendium of monsters, beasts and alien gods.
A couple example scenarios.
And various appendices including equipment for the 1920s and for the modern era.
You will also see in the photo a couple of adventure books that I've picked up (including one for solo play--sort of a choose your own adventure type scenario) and a supplement entitled Pulp Cthulhu which presents a slightly different set of rules for those who do want a "shoot 'em up" scenario over the more low key, investigative approach in the traditional game.
I've also picked up a packet that includes a game master screen (you can see the artwork on the back of the screen in the photographs) and some other materials. The photo below shows the tables on the GM screen as well as the materials that come with the GM screen including another adventure book as well as several maps and player handouts.
Although the various editions have sometimes significantly changed some of the rules, the 7th Edition seem to have returned to the game's roots and has rules that are similar to the first and second editions.
Looking at the 7th Edition rules, however, each character has 8 characteristics: Strength, Constitution, Size, Dexterity, Appearance, Intelligence, Power, and Education. These are determined by rolling a number of six sided dice (3d6 for most) and multiplying the result by 5. There are also certain derived attributes such as Sanity Points, Hit Points, and Magic points calculated off of the main characteristics. For instance, starting Sanity Point is equal to the character's Power; while Hit Points are equal to the character's (Strength + Size)/5.
Characters will also pick an occupation (which come with certain skills) and otherwise receive certain skills.
To resolve actions, the players must role 1d100 (a percentile die) and roll under a certain target number depending on the difficulty of the action. For instance, if the character were using a chemistry skill with a score of 75, and it was a regular task, the player would need to roll equal to or less than 75 on 1d100 to succeed. If an action was more difficult, the player would have to roll equal to or less than half the skill score or a fifth of the skill score if extremely difficult. If the character is acting in opposition to someone else (e.g., a contest of strength, speed, or some other direct competition) the player (for the player character or PC) and the game master (for the non-player character or NPC) will select an appropriate skill or characteristic and roll to see who succeeds. The character (PC or NPC) with the highest level of success wins.
Combat is essentially a specialized set of the normal task resolution rules but covering all the other factors that can impact combat (initiative, resolving an attack or other action like dodging, armor and damage, etc.). Melee combat is a variant of the action resolution for opposed actions; and ranged weapons, such as firearms, are resolved like a normal skill versus difficulty.
Weirdly, even though the National Firearms Act had not yet been passed, the 1920's list of weapons has a whole section on "illegal weapons" that you would have to buy on the black market although they were actually perfectly legal to buy over the counter or through the mail in the 1920s (assuming no state or local restriction); but there is no similar list or rules for the same or similar items in the modern weapon lists even though they would now be covered by the NFA or be illegal to purchase (e.g. a post 1986 automatic weapon).
That aside, the game can be quite fun. And, of course, not every adventure needs to be Cthulhu mythos related. For instance, one of the more memorable adventures my friends and I played when I was in high school was one where the characters encountered a traditional vampire. And of course the difference between the aggressive, combat oriented play of the standard RPG and the more careful and thoughtful approach needed in this game can be a good change of pace.
The Seventh Edition can be quite complex. however. Fortunately, Chaosium still sells Second Edition boxed sets--a basic set and a deluxe set that includes everything in the basic set plus several supplements.
The video below from Seth Skorkowsky is the introduction and overview to a series of videos going over the 7th Edition rules:
Paul Joseph Watson has some video about the two-tier policing in the U.K., highlighting the difference of how police are reacting to the protests over their treatment of Henry Nowak versus how they treat minority groups protesting anything. As I noted recently, governments operating under international socialism--at least as it plays out in the West--hate their own people.
John Correia dives into the statistics of the number of people that own firearms and the number of defensive gun uses to calculate your odds of having to use a gun for self defense in any given year and over your lifetime. In any given year, your odds to need to use a firearm in self defense (not necessary shoot anyone but, as in his case, displaying the weapon to drive off a burglar) is approximately 1.6% per year and about 60% over your lifetime.
He also delves into the odds of someone who lives in a household with firearms committing suicide with a firearm and it is 0.02% per year. In other words, your needing a firearm to protect yourself or your family is 50 times higher than the risk of someone using it for suicide.
First Edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D) originally had three core books, one of which was the Monster Manual which was first published in 1977, making it the first of the core AD&D books that was published. As the name suggests, it was an illustrated compendium of the monster, beasts, and common foes (e.g., bandits) which the player characters might encounter in their adventures.
In 1982, the UK division of TSR--the company that published AD&D--had put together an additional or supplemental collection of beasts and monsters titled Fiend Folio. It also included updated random encounter tables for different environments.
Finally, in 1983, TSR released the Monster Manual II with many more monsters and beasts including a large number that had been introduced in various published adventures and articles in the Dragon magazine since the publication of the original Monster Manual. It also included updated random encounter tables with the monsters and beasts from the prior two volumes.
The videos below present a series of AI generated, photo realistic illustrations of each of the creatures from the respective books.
The Daily Mail has some summary of some witness testimony to the murder of Austin Metcalf by Karmelo Anthony. Anthony's defense has rested on his claim that he stabbed Metcalf in self-defense after Metcalf shoved him. However, witness testimony was that Anthony was attempting to provoke Metcalf who initially said he didn't want to fight Anthony; and that Anthony already had the knife out before Metcalf finally went to shove him.
Leveraging more than $140 million in private capital fundraising, over 322,000 square feet of operational manufacturing space, and multifaceted partnerships with the Departments of Energy and Defense, reactor start-up Antares has become the first company involved in the Reactor Pilot Program to achieve zero-power fueled criticality—a full month ahead of the July 4 deadline set by President Trump’s Executive Order 14301.
This milestone, announced yesterday, was achieved with the company’s Mark-0: a sodium heat-pipe-cooled, TRISO-fueled microreactor. The Mark-0 is a forerunner to the company’s flagship design, which it calls the R1. For Antares, this development represents a key validation of its reactor physics, control systems, and supply chain.
For Idaho National Laboratory, where the Mark-0 is sited, this development represents the first novel reactor to achieve criticality at the lab in more than 50 years, according to laboratory director John Wagner. Mark-0 is the 53rd reactor to be built at INL since 1949.
The microreactor did not produce excess power, but this was just a test to show that the design works. They are a few months from testing the power conversion system.
Henry Nowak died the same way a civilization dies: abandoned, handcuffed by authorities who neither trusted nor cared for him, and accused of hate crimes he did not commit. His murder is as tragic as it is enraging. He should still be alive today, and he would be if the last few generations of European elites had stood their ground against the politics of self-hatred and the mass invasion of migrants, many of whom despise the West and the people who love it.
Henry was far from the first to so needlessly lose his life, and I fear he won’t be the last. Each time a life like his is lost, the proper response—the only response—is righteous anger. One of the most important things the Trump administration has proven to the world is that stopping the flow of mass migration and defending national sovereignty is a matter of political will and leadership. Anything else is an excuse.
It is because we love the West that we want to preserve it. We love our civilization. We love our country. We love our children. And nobody—nobody—should ever die the way that Henry Nowak died. May God comfort those who loved him, and may God rest his soul.
Yesterday, Vox Day linked to this article, "Confirmed — Donald Trump Believes Iran Has The Bomb," by Larry Johnson at Son of the New American Revolution. Supposedly, in a phone call between Iranian President Pezeshkian and Pakistani Prime Minister Shariff was over a non-secure line, Pezeshkian outlined an ultimatum should U.S. airstrikes continue which includes this:
3. The Detonation of a Nuclear Device on Iranian soil—executed not as a weapon of war, but as an undeniable demonstration of sovereign capability and ultimate control over the escalation ladder.
Assuming this is true, I'm not sure why the Iranian president would say this because it now gives plausible deniability if Israel were to nuke some remote facility in Iran. If nothing else, it will justify to the rest of the world the attacks on Iran.
Jon links to a piece from John Farnam titled "Apex Predator?" which is a reminder to those who go out into the forest and field that there are plenty of animals out there that are more than capable of crippling or killing an unarmed human. The key word, of course, is unarmed.
And another John Farnam article, "Mobs!", discussing mobs and the modern euphemisms like "flash mobs" or "teen takeovers". Farnam urges that "[t]his summer, when you see people, on-foot and/or in vehicles, coming-together in one place suddenly, it is time to exit without delay, while you still can!" Jon also relates a personal incident:
Pay attention to crowds forming and immediately leave.
If you don't, you may end up as I did in Printer's Alley in Nashville, TN refilling an ATM with cash while 50 youths started throwing tables and chairs around. Not willing to turn my back on them, to close and lock the ATM, I stood facing them with my pistol out. Not pointing at anyone, just watching. You bet they were watching me. Tens of thousands of dollars in 20's, an armed guard in uniform with a pistol in a two handed low ready. I was surprised no one was taking pictures of me. Maybe they were.
In a few minutes they all left. But I know I came very close to a lethal force incident.
If I had been paying attention, I would have locked up and left when they started congregating. Should have had two guards on such jobs, but company policy was one man.
Another interesting piece was this from Revolver Dispatch: "Lessons From Argentina’s Collapse--What American Survivalists Still Get Wrong." A couple points raised in Jon's excerpt were (a) most of the violence was due to criminals, not the military, so you needed to be armed at all times; and (b) gold was impractical for day-to-day survival. As the author of the Revolver Dispatch noted: "You cannot shave a few dollars’ worth of gold off a coin to buy bread, fuel, medicine, or diapers." I will note that FerFal, writing about his experience in Argentina's collapse, noted the usefulness of junk gold, such as common jewelry--it could be sold for cash as needed for much smaller amounts than the cold coins or bars. Of course, there is a use for gold coins (or Rolex watches) which is to bribe officials, which might be important when trying to get on that last flight out of some third world revolution.
Jon links to a few articles discussing shooting faster, but offers his own thoughts on the danger of shooting too fast or hurriedly, using the analogy of driving a car:
... You learn to drive a car, you practice by driving everyday, eventually you are able to drive with automaticity. Pushing yourself to do things more quickly than automaticity (not speeding on the highway), as starting the car and pulling out of the parking space, does not serve you well. Because you will naturally go as fast as you can safely go, as fast as you can comfortably go, as fast as you can competently go, as fast as you can confidently go.
To push yourself to go faster, risks going faster than you can see (faster than you can process visual information), faster than you can think. [Out running your head lights. (Running past the target in a match and not shooting it because you didn't see it. Hitting the deer at night because you didn't see it in time.) Out running your GPS. (The GPS tells you to take exit 26, but you've already passed exit 26.)]
Operating faster than you can think is not safe. And the older you get, the slower you go. A person has got to know their limitations. If you shoot faster than you can think, you could easily shoot the wrong person.
Or as Jon comments later in his newsletter: "Never shoot faster than you can see. Never shoot faster than you can think."
The reality is that our reflexes and ability to process information is not instantaneous--there is a lag. It shows up sometimes when a defensive shooter shoots a criminal in the back. The general situation is that the criminal turns to flee, but because of the lag time in seeing, processing, and stopping from pulling the trigger, the criminal will have turned before the defensive shooter is able to perceive the changed circumstances and not fire the weapon; with the result being the criminal is shot in the back.
This was interesting: the Crime Prevention Research Center a poll of voters and found that "[t]hirty percent of likely voters report carrying a permitted concealed handgun at least occasionally, while 13.2% say they carry all or most of the time. Even in Constitutional Carry states, where a permit is not required, a substantial share of voters carry concealed handguns: 34% report carrying, and 21% report carrying with a permit."
Jon has a lot more, so be sure to check it out--I can assure you that you will find many useful links, tips, and advice.
Greg links to this month's Range Master newsletter. It includes a good article--written by Greg, by the way--that discusses "How to Spot a Bad Guy- A Comprehensive Look at Body Language and Pre-Assault Indicators."
Greg comments about an article on after action scans:
Some thoughts on an after-action scan. I actually favor the technique taught by Craig Douglas. Instead of merely looking by turning the head or turning your back on your attacker, MOVE. Imagine the battlefield as a clock. You are in the center of the clock. The down bad guy is at 12 o’clock. You need to see behind you (six o’clock). By aggressively moving to either nine o’clock, or three o’clock you will be able to see both the bad guy and the area previously behind you.
An article on "The Allure of Accuracy" which begins by noting:
We should teach shooting in four distinct parts: what is important(safety and manual of arms), how to hit the target (accuracy and precision), how much time it takes (speed and efficiency), and what is meaningful (novel
or complex context). Unfortunately, many shooters only receive the
first two lessons—or choose to ignore the last two—focusing on safety
and accuracy while avoiding the tension between time and information.
From an article discussing some of the downsides of AIWB carry:
It saddens me that the gun community has developed its own form of “cancel culture” where a person can no longer express an opinion without being shouted down. It seems social media has brought out the “ugly” in people. These attacks go beyond the opinion itself and attack the person, in some cases trying to ruin their reputation. At a minimum, if you are in my age bracket, you are called a “Fudd” regardless of your training, experience and background. Name calling is easy when you don’t have to face the person, and it’s a tactic often used by folks who lack real experience or who can’t articulate intelligent counterpoints. Let’s just say, I won’t be surprised if it happens to me after this article.
I have to admit that once I hear or read the word "Fudd" from someone, I tend to be more dismissive of them out because it merely underscores that they are the type of person to tear down a fence without understanding why it was there in the first place.
Greg includes a link to an article on flashlight skills, which is more than just being able run your flashlight with your handgun.
A detailed article on what types of construction or objects in or around a house can stop a bullet. Less than you might think.
Unfortunately, we humans would be powerless against a rare giant
projectile many miles in diameter. Unlike the dinosaurs, we might well
see the approach of a six-mile-wide killer asteroid, like the one that
collided with Earth 66 million years ago. However, stopping it or
deflecting its course is out of the question: It would be like trying to
stop an oncoming truck by throwing ping-pong balls at it. And although
we’ve discovered the vast majority of near-Earth objects (NEOs) larger
than about two-thirds of a mile across, finding that none are on a
collision course with Earth, astronomers could very well discover an
enormous comet next week that will crash into the planet in a few years’
time. And again, there’s nothing we could do to stop it.
If we do
want to protect ourselves from cosmic impacts, we need to focus on
medium-sized objects, ranging from about 100 yards to about a half a
mile. These are relatively numerous, and they can easily cause many tens
of millions of casualties. Earth is hit by a 400-yard asteroid on
average once every 100,000 years. If the collision occurs in Europe, a
country like France will disappear completely from the map, and the
entire continent will become an unimaginable disaster area. Such an
impact is, in theory, preventable, so we would be crazy not to explore
the possibilities of doing just that.
[snip]
When it comes to protecting Earth from a fatal collision, there are a number of ideas currently under consideration, ranging from good to bad to very bad.
For example, blowing an asteroid up with an atomic bomb, as happened in “Armageddon,” is not a smart idea. It is an option that Edward Teller, known as “the father of the hydrogen bomb,” proposed long ago, but it simply wouldn’t help. The numerous fragments created in such an explosion would still be moving through the solar system in more or less the same direction and at the original high speed. As a result, Earth would then have to endure not one big impact but a whole series of smaller ones, with all the attendant consequences.
A more practical solution would be to slightly deflect the approaching celestial body so that it passes close to Earth rather than colliding with it. Particularly if you can see the impact coming many years in advance, a small nudge can be enough to avert disaster. When astronomers discovered the 1,100-foot-wide near-Earth object Apophis, which for a while looked as if it would wreak havoc on Earth in 2029, they were already calculating that a minimal change in speed of just a few micrometers per second would be enough to prevent that anticipated catastrophe. Luckily, in the case of Apophis, there’s no need to intervene: The asteroid will safely fly by the Earth on April 13, 2029, at a distance of some 20,000 miles.
In the annals of Deep State WTF-ery, is there a stranger case than CIA officer David Rush turning up with $40-million in 303 one-kilogram gold bars, plus $2-million in cash, plus a stash of 30 mostly Rolex watches? Well, yeah, the stranger story is how the guy got hired by the CIA in the first place.
Rush was arrested on Monday, May 18, by an FBI SWAT team at his home in Loudoun County, VA. Agents searched the house all day long and found the stash. Rush is currently charged with theft of public money and allegedly falsifying his military and academic credentials to obtain federal employment benefits, including roughly $77,000 in improper military leave pay. He’s scheduled to make a federal court appearance in Alexandria today.
Rush first applied for a job at the CIA in March 2006. He claimed to have a bachelor’s degree in math from Clemson University and a master’s from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI). He was rejected. He reapplied later that same year. Bumped again. He reapplied again in 2009, adding a new credential: that he’d been a US Navy test pilot and flight trainer. This time, he was hired.
But as Kunstler goes on to relate, Rush's background was a fabrication: his college credentials were fake; he had never been a pilot for the Navy. So how did he pass the rigorous vetting process needed to be hired and given a security clearance? Rush was hired at the start of the Obama Administration when Leon Panetta was the newly appointed director of the CIA. Panetta, if you remember, was one of the 51 former intelligence officials who signed an October 2020 Public Statement on the Hunter Biden laptop falsely claiming it was Russian disinformation in order to interfere with the outcome of the 2020 Presidential Election. So is this evidence of more Deep State shenanigans?
Beginning with the stimulus of a cup or two of strong coffee, fifteen-year-old Columbia College sophomore George Templeton Strong started a diary in 1835. He continued to make entries until his death in 1875, toting up to around four million words, an extraordinary document of life in mid-century America as seen from the commercial and cultural capital of New York. Especially for the terrible years of the Civil War, Strong’s job as Treasurer of the U.S. Sanitary Commission, a charity dedicated to fighting the “third army” of disease, gave him a wide perspective on the war, making his diary one of the most visceral portals into understanding the destruction of American slavery.
