December 31, 2016 -- A Quick Run Around the Web

Hayley Westenra - "Prayer"

Firearms/Prepping:

• "A Short Discussion on AR-15 and AK Safety Levers"--Nathaniel F. at The Firearms Blog. The history of safety and selector levers isn't as straightforward and logical as you might think. Nathaniel links to a video from Forgotten Weapons entitled "Why is the AR Safety Lever Designed That Way?" which you should also watch. Interestingly, the AR safety was original "auto-safe-semiauto" in its configuration, but during field tests, while low-crawling with the weapon on the ground, they discovered that not only could dragging the weapon on the ground shift the selection lever, but would shift it to the "auto" setting. Of course, after that, it only took something to catch on the trigger ....
• "Pest Control For The Chicken House - Keeping pests out of the chicken house"--All Outdoor. A short discussion of the author's experience with three different designs of coops, and some discussion of a few of the predators you will face. Although I don't raise chickens myself, in talking to others that live close by and do, the primary predators in this area (south-west Idaho) are, first and foremost, raccoons, followed by foxes. I've never heard anyone of them complain about snakes. I suppose that in more rural areas, that the primary threat would be from coyotes.
• "Hunting With Airguns: A New Frontier"--Outdoor Life. This article notes that some states have changed their regulations to allow hunting larger game (e.g., deer) with larger caliber airguns. Using pre-charged, high-pressure tanks, some of the modern airguns can shoot slugs of up to .50 caliber. I've seen some other articles recently on this topic, and the downside seems to be pumping the tanks to the required pressure. The author of one of the articles purchased a SCUBA tank that he has filled up at a dive shop to use to fill his air rifle's air reservoir. It isn't a new frontier, however, but a revival of old one: the Lewis and Clark expedition took an air rifle with them, and the same rifle was used by the Austrian army.
• Sounds like a good idea to me: "Indian Army wants 36,000 Thermal Optics for GPMGs"--The Firearms Blog.
• "The Legendary Rifle That Fought World War II"--Popular Mechanics. A fairly lengthy article covering the history of the development and use of the M-1 Garand.
• "Review: Armagon G12, an AR-Pattern Shotgun"--Oleg Volk at All Outdoor. Based on a Turkish shotgun, this shotgun looks like an AR weapon on the outside, although the author indicates that internally it is like a Remington 1100 designed to shoot from magazines. It uses 5- and 10-round magazines. The rifle is priced at $700, while the magazines are $35 and $40, respectively. It doesn't come with sights, however, so you would want to add a reflex or red dot.
• "DI Optical RV1 Review"--The New Rifleman. This is a civilian version of the optic used by the South Korean armed forces. The author thinks it is pretty much the equal of the Aimpoint, but at $230, substantially lower in price.

Other Stuff:

• "California Legalizes Child Prostitution"--Anonymous Conservative. According to the article:

SB 1322 bars law enforcement from arresting sex workers who are under the age of 18 for soliciting or engaging in prostitution, or loitering with the intent to do so. So teenage girls (and boys) in California will soon be free to have sex in exchange for money without fear of arrest or prosecution.

The law is supposed to take affect on January 1. Ostensibly, the purpose of the law is to protect child sex workers from being exploited, but it seems that its actual result will be to encourage the practice.

• Merkel remains unrepentant: "Merkel: Islamist terror is 'greatest threat' to Germany"--BBC. The article reports:

     She said 2016 had been a year of "severe tests".

     But she also said she was confident Germany could overcome them.

      "As we go about our lives and our work, we are saying to the terrorists: 'You are hate-filled murderers, but you do not determine how we live and want to live. We are free, considerate and open'," Mrs Merkel said.

According to the article, Merkel also pointed to the destruction in Allepo as justification for accepting refugees. (More on her speech from The Daily Mail). I'm sure that the families of the victims of the terrorist attacks will rest more easy knowing that their lives were sacrificed so that Merkel could feel better about herself.

• And Merkel's virtue signaling keeps on giving: "Knife-wielding Afghan migrant 'stabs Christian woman, 50, because she was reading the Bible at the Austrian refugee centre where he lives'"--Daily Mail. The victim had been invited to the center to discuss the Bible with some of the residents.
• Speaking of which: "Obama Drops 502 Refugees on Nebraska in Final Weeks Before President Trump"--Breitbart. The charts accompanying the article show that, on a per capita basis, Republican dominated states are receiving more of the refugees (mostly Somali Muslims) than Democratic states. The author suggests a political motive behind this, but I suspect that it is more a result of faith-based organizations that are competing for the business of resettling refugees. It's a considerable source of revenue for these organizations and the municipalities involved.
• The clash of civilizations: "Hardline Islamists Gain Ground in Indonesia"--American Interest. Meade writes:

For many years, the world’s most populous Muslim nation has resisted the siren call of fanaticism. That increasingly appears to be changing, with the rising influence of hardcore forms of Islam. Apart from its effect on Indonesia’s domestic politics, this changing climate could have significant effects on the Asian power balance. Indonesia is a key link in the group of coastal Asian countries, from India to Japan, that have tried to balance China’s rising power. Even shifts in the political balance in relatively small countries like the Philippines can ripple across the region; a shift in Indonesia would be a much bigger deal.

The ongoing radicalization in Indonesia also suggests that the intellectual foundations behind Obama Asia’s policy were weak. Obama’s pivot was grounded in the belief that non-Chinese Asia could be rallied around Western ideas of international law and democratic development. This is conspicuously not happening.

Asia appeared to be becoming more “Western” as it modernized in the 1990s, but that is much less clear today. Military rule in Thailand, Buddhist and nationalist resentment against the Rohingya in Burma, ethnic polarization in Malaysia, populism in the Philippines and the rise of radical Islam in Indonesia: in each country the specifics vary based on local history and culture, but the larger trend is clearly away from European and North American ideas about post-historical cosmopolitan modernity.

The trapping of civilization is not the same as civilization. Many countries wear the trappings of Western civilization, which have led the simpletons to erroneously conclude that these countries must be Westernizing. Unfortunately, this attitude has infected our foreign policy for decades.

• "The European Migrant Crisis or a Prequel to Civil War"--Modern Survival Online. This is a lengthy article about the current immigration crises in Europe, but well worth read. One point that the author makes that is key to the whole issue is that European governments have abandoned their duty to protect their own citizens in favor of succoring aliens. Anyway, read the whole thing.
• This is why liberals and neocons should never be allowed to control our immigration policy: "Mexican man charged with raping a 13-year-old girl on a bus had NINETEEN deportations and removals"--Daily Mail. It makes me wonder if a solution to crime by illegals might include the revival of the concept of "outlaws"--that alien criminals could be declared outside the law and without protection under the law, fair game to anyone that catches up to them. And bounties, of course, to encourage free enterprise solutions.
• Obama's strategy to undermine Trump: "How Trump clears Obama's minefield"--Washington Examiner. Taking a play from Bill Clinton's playbook, Obama is issuing regulations and making other decisions that, if reversed by Trump, will open Trump to claims that he is in favor of "poisoning children" or doesn't care about the environment, and similar. However, the weakness to this strategy is one that Obama used for most of his presidency: Trump can simply blame his predecessor. 
• Although I suspected this was the case, I couldn't find anything definitive in the news reports I had seen: "Judging by video evidence, the participants in the violent mall brawls over the Christmas weekend were overwhelmingly black teens, though white teens were also involved. The media have assiduously ignored this fact, of course, as they have for previous violent flash mob episodes." The author goes on to blame this on the Obama Administration's policies intended to discourage schools from punishing delinquent black youth. This policy, as you may remember, was couched in terms of disparate treatment discrimination against blacks because they were more likely than white students to be suspended or expelled, even though the reason was because of the higher rates of anti-social behavior from young black males. It isn't racism if it is true.
• The banality of evil: "EPA To Alaskans In Sub-Zero Temps: Stop Burning Wood To Keep Warm"--The Federalists. 
• We're from the Government, and we're here to help you: "India sees long bank queues as rupee deadline passes"--BBC. India outlawed the use of its 500 and 1,000 rupee notes (representing 86% of the currency in circulation) and now many people are still stuck with the notes, unable to exchange them, as the deadline passes. 
• This is why you don't let them in to begin with: "Mali sends back migrants deported by France"--BBC. They were returned because France couldn't provide documentary proof that the illegal aliens were from Mali.
• Birds of a feather: "Violence spreads like a contagious infection among friends"--Yahoo News. People that are predisposed to violence tend to socialize with others that are also predisposed to violence. It is how gangs form and sustain themselves.
• The wages of sin socialism: "The communist cannibals: Shocking images reveal the depravation suffered by peasants forced to eat HUMANS during the 1920s Russian famine"--Daily Mail. A famine caused by Lenin and his policy of killing the most successful farmers and stealing the food from everyone else.
• "Eight charts that show 2016 wasn't as bad as you think"--The Guardian. The number of death due to warfare fell (notwithstanding what the media was feeding us from Syria), crime in the UK fell, and some other statistics.