March 12, 2017 -- A Quick Run Around the Web

"Top 5 Ways To Reload From Slide Lock"--TFB TV (8 min. 45 sec.)

5 different techniques to release a locked back slide and chamber a new round after you insert a fresh magazine. I'm sort of a simple guy, I guess. If I can reach the slide release with the thumb of my shooting hand, such as on my Glock 34, I will do that. Otherwise (e.g. when using a 1911 style handgun), I use the overhand method to pull back on the slide and release, although the two handed method sounds like it would be faster.

• "A Kid's First Rabbit Hunt, Plus Cleaning and Cooking Cottontails: Tips and videos for finding, hunting, dressing, and roasting bunnies"--Outdoor Life. (Warning: video plays automatically). An excerpt:

       Here’s a way to clean a rabbit in less time than it takes to describe it. First, place your foot on the rabbit’s head, and pull it free. Discard. Then, beginning at the hind legs, peel the skin forward and free. Pull off the tail, and peel the remaining skin down to below the leg joints. Cottontails usually have fleas, so work rapidly, get rid of furry parts quickly, and inspect your hands and sleeves when done. If you find any little creepy-critters, just blow them off with a sharp breath.

       Next, open the abdomen and pull out the entrails and organs and discard them. Inspect the body and liver for abnormal spots or blisters. (If you find any, don’t eat the rabbit and wash up thoroughly.) Clear the pelvis and remove the sphincter.

       Lastly, clip or cut off the four legs just below the meat. Clean the rabbit in snow, water, or whatever’s handy, and you’re done

• Speaking of rabbits:  "Police blast protesters with water cannons in Rotterdam after Turkish ministers are refused entry to Holland, prompting Erdogan to label the Dutch 'Nazi fascists'"--Daily Mail.

       The basic background is that Turkish expatriots living in Holland wanted to hold a rally in support of Turkish President Erdogan and invited a couple of Turkish ministers to speak at the rally. However, for whatever reason, Holland decided against allowing the rally (not sure if it was merely failure to obtain proper licenses or what) and, for that reason, refused entry to the Turkish ministry. Of course, the Turkish rabbits were upset, and instead violently protested the decision to not allow the rally and the ministers of what is a foreign government to speak. Europeans have given so much lee-way to their Muslim immigrants that if they are discomfited in the least, they now riot.

       Geert Wilders apparently told the rioters that something to the effect of  they were not Europeans and "they [Turkey] aren’t getting into the Eurpeaon Union and that they only have themselves to blame after voting in an Islamic thug like Erdogan." Vox Day notes that we face a similar problem with the influx of aliens from Latin America, and that the probable result will be a continent wide war.

       I don't know if we face as dire a predicament as Europe, but there is the issue of incompatible cultures and conceptions of what "freedom" means. Although this article, "America’s Lost History of Border Violence", from Slate is obviously skewed in support of aliens from Mexico, it does note various periods of border violence between Mexicans and Americans in Texas, including the so-called "Salt War" of the 1870s and the "Bandit War" of 1910-1920. In the first case, the conflict was over access to important salt deposits north of the Mexican-American border. The conflict was partly cultural: the Hispanics in Texas and the Mexicans believed that the salt deposits should be a common public resource, while certain white Americans had obtained title to the land from the United States government and were planning on charging for access. The Bandit War arose from a civil war in Mexico spilling over into the United States (together with a plot, the Plan de San Diego, to "liberate" the border states and join them to Mexico). In both cases, a key problem is that the Latinos on both sides of the border essentially ignored the border--it was completely porous--and the white Americans were viewed as invaders.

       The Plan de Sand Diego is instructive. Apparently drawn up in 1914 by Venustiano Carranza, the de facto ruler of Mexico, it "called for a popular uprising of American blacks, Hispanics and Indians in February 1915. They would capture Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado and California—which would all revert to Mexican control. But even more alarming to American residents living near the border, the Plan ordered all Anglo males over the age of 16 to be killed." The plan failed, but not after numerous cross-border raids by the Mexican "bandits," and assistance from Latinos in Texas.

• "Migrants Grow More Violent At Spanish Border"--Anonymous Conservative. Spain has two small enclaves on the coast of North Africa: Ceuta and Melilla. Illegal aliens from Africa have been making increasingly bold attempts to cross into the enclaves and, thus, gain access to the European Union. The article AC cites reports: "In one incident last month, 496 immigrants managed to get across the border fence leaving 15 police officers injured." It will only get worse as the population in Africa is set to explode this century. 
• More global warming: "Massive nor’easter set to slam NYC with up to 18 inches of snow"--New York Post.
• While on the topic of global warming, I have noticed a lot of criticism this past week of Scott Pruitt, the new EPA director, because of his statement that he did not believe that CO2 is causing global warming. An example is this article from The American Interest. The mistake being made by Pruitt's critics is that they really don't understand the relative proportions of green house gases in the atmosphere, and, so far, there are no accurate models of how these gases interact with other factors to result in heating (or cooling) of the earth. A big problem is that these models fail to take into account Solar activity. But, getting back to Pruitt's comment, he is probably correct for the simple reason that CO2 is not the dominant green house gas. That distinction lies with water vapor. And the impact of water vapor for the greenhouse effect is so great that it completely overwhelms any influence from CO2.
• "Deadly Drug Resistant Fungal Infection Outbreak Causing Concern In U.S."--Relia Wire. From the article:

       A highly drug-resistant deadly fungal infection, first warned against by U.S. health officials last summer, has been cropping up in hospitals around the country. Over 30 patients have been diagnosed with the emerging pathogen Candida auris since that time, with 28 of the 35 documented U.S. cases located in New York state., according to the CDC.

       It is difficult to know just how dangerous the fungus is, since thus far it has mostly infected patients who were already seriously ill, but the majority of people diagnosed with Candida auris have died.

       First reported in 2009, the fungus has been linked to invasive infections in nine countries, including the United States. It has caused at least two hospital outbreaks involving more than 30 patients each.

Here is the link to a CDC statement about the infection.

• The war on boys: "Want to Raise Successful Boys? Science Says Do This (but Their Schools Probably Won't)"--Inc. (H/t Instapundit). From the article:

       News flash: Most boys are rambunctious. Often they seem like they're in a constant state of motion: running, jumping, fighting, playing, getting hurt--maybe getting upset--and getting right back into the physical action.

       Except at school, where they're required to sit still for long periods of time. (And when they fail to stay still, how are they punished? Often by being forced to skip recess--and thus they sit still longer.)

       It's not just an American issue. Researchers at the University of Eastern Finland recently tried to document whether boys actually achieve less in school when they're restricted from running around and being physically active.

       They studied 153 kids, aged 6 to 8, and tracked how much physical activity and sedentary time they had during the day. Sure enough, according to a report by Belinda Luscombe in Time, the less "moderate to vigorous physical activity" the boys had each day, the harder it was for them to develop good reading skills[.]

 And many teachers are just not good with children--even the least bit of physical activity from a child results in the teacher recommending the child be put on Ritalin. 

• For those of you living in rural retreats: "Bandits, Mad Men, and Suicides: Fear, Anger, and Death in a Troubled Iowa Landscape, 1929-1933" (PDF), by Lisa L. Ossian, published in the Summer 2006 edition of Agricultural History. From the abstract:

Iowa experienced two well-known incidents of rural violence in the early 1930s with the "Cow War of Cedar County" during 1931 and the Farmers' Holiday Movement Strike in northwest Iowa in August 1932. However, the violence in rural Iowa from 1930 to 1933 became far more widespread, insidious, and personal than these two nationally cover ed mob incidents. The most extensive violence during the early Depression years involved hired hands and family members attacking and killing each other on scattered farmsteads, bandits robbing vulnerable country folk for their hidden money, gangsters stealing from small town banks, prohibition officers raiding rural stills, or farmers hanging themselves from barn rafters. The climate of financial fear, whether real of exaggerated, added to this overall morbid tension, and mid-western rural society no longer projected an idealistic image of strength, peace, and prosperity but rather one of fear and violence. 

• "The 6mm Creedmoor: The Next Big Thing in Long-Range Shooting"--Outdoor Life. A history and review of the 6mm Creedmore cartridge.