April 28, 2016 -- A Quick Run Around the Web

Abandoned Synagogue (Source: Daily Mail). 

Self-Defense/Firearms:

• "Triggering a Lockdown"--Active Response Training. Thoughts on when school lock downs can be effective, and the best method for announcing a lock down to students and staff. Basically, the author notes that to be effective, locking doors to class rooms must actually provide protection to the children and staff, and that there should be a means of escape. The author also suggests that rather than using code words or phrases to announce lock downs (or the types), announcements should include concise but clear descriptions of the type of lock down, the reason for the lock down, and any instructions. This is a just a brief overview of a couple points--read the whole thing.
• "Difference Between Rifle and Handgun Red Dot Systems"--Suarez International. Tips on quickly acquiring the dot when using a pistol (hint: use the iron sights as an assist).
• "Pistol Optics: The Trouble with the Dot"--Breach Bang Clear. Discussing issues with picking up the dot when using a red dot sight with a handgun, and some tips to make it easier and quicker. The take away I get from these two articles is that the red dot is best used to augment your iron sights, not replace. Use the iron sights (or some other fixture on your hand gun) to get your eye roughly in position, then use the dot for fine tuning.
• "4 Effective Ground Submissions That Every Man Should Know"--The Return of Kings. 4 ways of ending the ground fight. 
• "Concealed Carry With A Tucked In Shirt."--Alien Gear Holsters Blog.  
• "Self-Defense Myths That Just Won’t Die: 11 Experts Weigh-In"--Lucky Gunner.

Other Stuff:

• "Venezuela Declares 5-Day Weekends Due to Electricity Shortage"--PJ Media. The government cuts the work week for its workers, figuring its better for them to wait out the blackouts at home than in a government office building. From the article:

This is socialism at its best: trying to share scarcity and failing miserably. The country is close to a total implosion because the huge Guri Dam that supplies 60% of electricity for the country is barely operating due to the El Nino-caused drought. Venezuela is sitting on an ocean of oil but long ago decided to invest in hydroelectric power instead.

But lack of maintenance of its infrastructure and the drought have combined to produce a critical situation that may actually plunge the country into darkness in a few weeks unless the rains come.

• "The Surprising Weakness of Invincible Institutions"--Richard Fernandez at PJ Media. Eventually, even the largest, most powerful institutions, run out of other people's money. Although he begins with the public pension mess, he moves on to address the issue more generally, including a reference to Venezuela:

Venezuela is a country floating on oil with a climate where anything grows and yet it is doomed. Yet even that agony has been eclipsed by the crisis in Brazil, where a presidential impeachment is in progress. "Founded by Portuguese monarchs who moved their court to Rio de Janeiro in 1808, Brazil has experienced almost every conceivable sort of rule over the past two centuries. Its leaders have run the gamut from emperors and dictators to democrats and former Marxists. Regardless of their politics, however, almost all of them have shared a commitment to the Leviathan state as the engine of progress."

“The problem is, from time immemorial, Brazil’s political leaders only see one way forward, the growth of the state,” said Fernando Henrique Cardoso, a former leftist intellectual.  The European Union saw the march of progress through the prism of institutional expansion also. And they too are running out of money.  Recently the EU told Palestine that its stipend will wind down though Brussels expressed the hope that Israel would pick up the slack.

He goes on to explain why nation after nation repeatedly falls into this same trap:

When Barack Obama recently endorsed Angela Merkel's proposal to admit more refugees into Europe he justified it with a curiously Marxist phrase. "She's on the right side of history on this," Obama said.  Perhaps the key to understanding why leaders repeat the same mistakes lies in Obama's remark.   Leaders live within their own mythical histories and climb hierarchies within them.  The phrase "I have had a dream," was uttered long before Martin Luther King -- by King  Nebuchadnezzar in the Bible.

“I have had a dream that troubles me and I want to know what it means,”  said Nebuchadnezzar and he sent far and wide for someone to explain things.  It comforted him greatly when Daniel told him the dream meant he had a place, albeit a transient one, in cosmic history.

Read the whole thing.

• "Mexican Liberation Flag Flown Over San Diego Public Park"--Independent Sentinel. 

There are numbers of immigrants, many here illegally, who have no interest in assimilating. Their interest is taking over.

At Chicano Park Day, flags are raised for the mestizo race (La Raza) and for Aztlán, the part of the U.S. claimed for the Chicano (Mexican) people.

Chicano-ism is a neo-Aztec, pagan, Mexican nationalist, brown-supremacist movement. It is a cultic mixture of Marxism and ethnic nationalism.

Chicano Park is on State land, maintained by San Diego.

• "Trump's Foreign Policy Address: Not Bad"--The Diplomad.