A Quick Run Around the Web -- November 5, 2015

November 4, 2015, Picture of the Day from The Telegraph

• "Freshman Faisal Mohammad identified as man who went on 'smiling' stabbing spree that injured four at California college"--Daily Mail. Law enforcement is reportedly still trying to determine a motive. 
• "Murdered for their guns, Venezuela's police are now victims of crime"--The Guardian. (H/t The Captain's Journal).

When President Maduro launched a disarmament plan in 2014, and security forces were also ordered to destroy weapons seized during the police operations, the government’s intention was to reduce violence by making it harder for people to obtain guns. His predecessor had already made private gun ownership illegal in 2012.

But these actions have only increased interest in the people allowed to carry weapons. “There are now fewer deals in black market arms but that has made anyone in uniform a more popular target for criminals than before,” says Eliseo Guzmán, the general commissioner of the Miranda state police force. “They will identify a police officer and take away his life just to take his gun.”

• "Yes, They Want to Take Your Guns Away"--The Daily Beast. The article notes that the unspoken assumption behind gun rights and gun related deaths is that the deaths are an unfortunate, but acceptable consequence of the right to bear arms (and why not--we, as a society, accept many more deaths for the convenience of using automobiles or the pleasure of drinking alcohol); much as pornography and KKK demonstrations are an unfortunate but acceptable consequence of the right to free speech. But the author also adds that Democrats are delusional if they think that gun confiscation would be possible in the United States, writing: "Clinton can joke all she likes about Americans fearing 'black helicopters' taking their guns away, but it is no exaggeration to suggest that civil war could erupt on American soil were the U.S. government to attempt anything remotely resembling what was done in Australia."
• "Debunking – or Proving – Urban Home-Defense Legends With Hickok45"--The Firearms Blog. A video from Hickock45 testing bullet penetration against a dryer. Useful for knowing what is cover and what is concealment.
• "Trolls Live Under Bridges"--Western Rifle Shooters Association. Warning against using railroad right-of-ways as routes post-SHTF. An excerpt:

By far the biggest, most dangerous, and, even now, most immediate problem is the troll community. By troll, I mean the hard core homeless that seem to live all the way up and down the rail lines, even in remote locations. I saw several squatters camps along the rail lines, seemingly well away from any major or minor urban areas, some of which are even away from roads. These people aren’t panhandling and have no visible means of support. In addition, every bridge I saw except two seemed to show signs of at least temporary habitation recently. The security implications here are obvious. Any move along the rail line, even after traffic ceases, will bring one into contact with bands of feral people who have the means to scavenge and live off of the land in hostile conditions. I highly suspect that many of the people that I saw in these camps are people who do not want/can’t afford to be found by anyone, thus making them even more dangerous.

• "Husband and wife the world left behind: Couple who've lived alone in Spanish village for 45 years after everyone else moved away"--The Daily Mail. "The couple, now aged 79 and 82 respectively, work the land and take care of a few dozen cats and dogs in a town that was once home to 200 residents."
• CDNN has a sale on Remington 870 barrels (20 inch) for $59.99 or for a Mossberg 500 (same price and same length). 
• "Army Lacing"--Ian's Shoelace Site. "This inside-out version of Bow Tie Lacing is used on combat boots by various armies. With the crossovers on the insides, the sides of the boots can flex more easily." Instructions at the link.
• "Private Security Firms Fill a Void in Haiti"--War is Boring. Video.
• "The High Cost of Cheap Oil"--War is Boring. The potential for destabilizing countries which rely on oil exports.
• "ISIS forms what they're calling the '3rd Armored Brigade'"--SNAFU. Mostly using U.S. vehicles seized from Iraqi forces. 
• "MELTDOWN MYTH: Antarctic ice growing is just the first EVIDENCE global warming is NOT REAL"--The Express.

• Related: "China Massively Undercounts the Amount of Coal It’s Been Burning"-- PJ Media. "They have been burning, on average, 17% more coal a year than they’ve reported since 2000." According to the article, this difference--just the extra amount burned--is more than the total carbon output of Germany, and equals 70% of the total carbon emissions from the United States.

So if China’s emissions have been much greater than believed, researchers will want to understand where the extra carbon dioxide output ended up — for example, how it might have been absorbed in natural “sinks” like forests or oceans, said Josep G. Canadell, executive director of the Global Carbon Project, which studies the sources and flows of greenhouse-gas pollution.

“If the emissions are partially wrong,” Mr. Canadell said, “we’ll be wrong in attributing carbon sources and sinks.”

• "ISIS are medieval barbarians but by bombing a passenger jet they have evolved into very modern monsters - deal with them now, Mr Obama, before they nuke a U.S. city"--by Piers Morgan at the Daily Mail. After the Sandy Hook shooting, and every similar tragedy since, Piers Morgan has called for gun control as a means of protecting innocent children. Now he calls for direct military action to destroy ISIS. A kind of hypocrisy, I think. I am reminded of Mark Twain's "The War Prayer" (PDF). After a congregation prays for the protection and victory of their troops in battle, a stranger then comes to the pulpit to offer the unspoken half of their prayer:

"O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle —be Thou near them! With them — in spirit — we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe. O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with their little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it — for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen."

Morgan is similarly, although unspoken, calling for the destruction of many innocent lives, including children, which will be the inevitable consequence of military action. It is interesting to observe that Morgan is apparently fine with the death of innocents when it for something important to him, but not acceptable for causes or people for which he cares not (such as the right and ability of common men and women to protect their lives).

Update: Sorry, I didn't have a chance to see the whole Hickok45 video before trying to get this posted, and didn't realize that he only was testing against a dryer. I've corrected this above. As penance, I found a video showing a refrigerator being decimated by a shotgun; and a demonstration of how easily steel doors (common on apartments and some homes) are penetrated by even hollow point 9 mm.