June 19, 2017 -- A Quick Run Around the Web

Look at his trigger finger. Is that normally taught in NRA firearms courses? (Source: "NRA Disallows 1911s As 'Primary Handguns' From Its 'Carry Guard' Classes"--The Firearms Blog).

Firearms/Self-Defense/Prepping:

• "Hiding in secret underground bunkers, eating wild birds and pets and saving secretaries but not wives: How government elites planned to survive a nuclear attack"--Daily Mail. The article discusses the history of federal government plans to evacuate and shelter key members of government and their staff in the event of a nuclear strike. A long article, but an interesting read for those interested in the history of government bunkers and continuity of government, or the Cold War in general.
• "BAE Systems Develops Liquid Armor for Canadian Troops"--The Firearms Blog. Earlier this month, there was a spate of articles touting a "breakthrough" idea of an Air Force Academy student to use shear thickening fluid and Kevlar to craft body-armor for troops. I had noted that the idea was not as groundbreaking as it seemed because others were working on the same idea. This TFB article reports on such an effort. From the article:

According to BAE, liquid armor has an advantage of being lighter than other armor materials at comparable protection levels. When combined with Kevlar, it also allows 45% of body armor thickness reduction as well as allows more motion freedom for the soldiers. So when the projectile hits such armor, the special liquid media (similar to non-Newtonian fluids) immediately hardens at the point of impact and restricts the motion of Kevlar yarns making it harder and more resistant to the impact. At the same time, when there is no stress of impact, it keeps the armor flexible enough not to constrain the dexterity of soldier’s motions.

• "An Introduction to Revolver Reloads"--Revolver Guy. He links to a video on methods of reloading a revolver, but instead focuses on some other factors: using a cartridge that is amenable to rapid reloading in a revolver because of the bullet shape and nickel plated brass: sharp angles on a bullet can catch on the edge of the cylinder and slow a reload. Also, he reminds readers to keep their cylinders clean to facilitate both loading and ejecting spent casings. Finally, he discusses some of the speed loaders on the market. 

• Related: "The Safariland Comp II Speedloader"--Revolver Guy. His review of the Comp II and why it is his favorite speed loader for everyday carry. 

• "NEW 30mm: Primary Arms Advanced Full Sized Red Dot"--The Firearms Blog. It runs on either a single CR1/3N or two LR44 batteries, features a 2 MOA dot, 10 brightness settings (including 3 intended for night vision equipment), and the MSRP is $130. Two things stick out: it has an estimated 14,000 hours run time at a medium setting, and the adjustment knob is designed to shut the unit off whichever direction you turn it.
• Immigrants is a source of strength ... unless you drink the water: "A chlorine-resistant parasite could be lurking in your swimming pool this summer, CDC warns"--Market Watch. The protozoa at issue, Cryptosporidium, can, according to the article, "cause 'profuse, watery diarrhea that can last up to two to three weeks' and can lead to life-threatening wasting and 'malabsorption' in people whose immune system is compromised." Unlike most bugs that are quickly killed in chlorinated pool water, Cryptosporidium can survive for several days. According to the CDC, "this parasite can be spread in several different ways, [but] water (drinking water and recreational water) is the most common way to spread the parasite. Cryptosporidium is a leading cause of waterborne disease among humans in the United States." The CDC also reports that Crypto outbreaks linked to swimming have doubled since 2014. Unsurprisingly, it is associated with people traveling into the United States from other countries, particularly Turkey and Mexico.
• "Incinerated alive: Drone footage shows the burned out cars where people died as they fled Portuguese forest fires that have killed 62 - as 12 locals survive by hiding in a WATER TANK"--Daily Mail. The 12 vehicles were apparently caught in the flames as the fire passed over a road. Just a reminder of deadly fast forest and range fires can be.

Other Stuff:

• The New York Times has called for the mass deportation of blacks. Bret Stephens, in an op-ed entitled "Only Mass Deportation Can Save America," observes that "[t]he United States has too many people who don’t work hard, don’t believe in God, don’t contribute much to society and don’t appreciate the greatness of the American system." He goes on to describe these people in round-about terms, saying that:

I speak of Americans whose families have been in this country for a few generations. Complacent, entitled and often shockingly ignorant on basic points of American law and history, they are the stagnant pool in which our national prospects risk drowning.

He then goes on to discuss these Americans' high crime and incarceration rates compared to immigrants, poor educational achievement--especially in STEM fields--and the rate of out-of-wedlock births. While he attempts to obfuscate the identity of these Americans he wishes to deport, it is pretty clear which group he is talking about if you have studied the relevant statistics: within the United States, and compared to other groups, blacks have the highest incarceration rates (higher than Hispanics and far higher than whites), they have the highest rates of out-of-wedlock births and the lowest educational achievements. They generally claim a greater religiosity, but if crime statistics and out-of-wedlock births are any sign, are not ones that take the teachings of the Bible very seriously. While Stephens is certainly audacious, I have to wonder what his friends and colleagues would think of his plan to deport blacks.

• Liberals and Neo-cons ecstatic: "Russia vows to target US and coalition planes and drones west of the River Euphrates in Syria after American navy downs regime bomber"--Daily Mail. 
• Liberals and Neo-cons ecstatic--they finally got what they have so long wished for: a retributive attack against Muslims.: "London terror attack on Muslims spurs officials to try to ease tensions"--CBS.  Darren Osborne drove a van into a group of Muslims in Finsbury Park, a suburb of London. 11 people were injured in the attack. The group of Muslims were allegedly providing first aid to another man at the time of the attack. That man later died, although it is not clear if it was a result of the attack or whatever afflicted him before the attack. While witnesses indicate that Osborne meant to target Muslims, there is no indication that he did so in the name of Christ, nor has any Christian group claimed responsibility for the attack. (More from BBC). 
• After the recent leftist terrorist attack on a group of Republican Congressmen, extremism experts are finally getting around to the idea that leftists might be dangerous, according to Vice. From the article:

       In the spring of 2016, Brian Levin found himself in an uncomfortable position: trying to save the life of a Ku Klux Klan member.

       Levin, a former New York City cop who studies domestic extremism as the director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, was documenting a Klan rally in Anaheim, California, when a counterprotest suddenly took a violent swing — forcing Levin to physically place himself between a Klansman and a furious, anti-fascist mob that seemed ready to kill.

       It made Levin wonder if in his focus on the obvious subject — the white supremacists — he’d overlooked a growing source of extremism: the far left. “At that point, I said we have something coalescing on the hard left,” Levin told VICE News.

Well, to be honest, how could they have guessed that the left might be dangerous? I mean, they've only had thousands of terrorist incidents in the 1960's and 1970's, every presidential assassination or assassination attempt since Lincoln, millions in damaged and destroyed property by groups such BLM, Antifa, and various animal rights and environmental groups, while only a handful of incidents from what could be considered the political right (and none from Republicans). With anti-terrorism people like this, 9/11 was not just possible, but a given.

• Related: "Incitement to Violence"--City Journal. The author observes:

Democrats may be horrified by [the] attempted massacre of the GOP House baseball team by an avowed progressive, but their incendiary demands for “massive resistance” since November have been an open plea for the escalation of words into violent action. The daily repetition that President Trump is an illegitimate usurper who stole the election through collusion with foreign powers has been a hypnotic incantation in search of an Oswald: a siren call for an assassin.

• Tolerance and inclusion at work: "East Lansing Bans Apple Farmer From Market For Being A Faithful Catholic"--The Federalist. What got the man kicked from the farmer's market? He had posted on Facebook his support of traditional marriage.
• I think I just busted my gut: "Muslims Are the True Feminists"--Huffington Post. The author explains:

       As American women, many of us have an idea of what feminists are; freelancing women with all the sexual freedom in the world. But this is exactly the problem with American feminism; it is all about sex and the liberation of our bodies. Certainly, things like abortion and contraception is a part of that freedom, but in today’s society the fight has taken on a much different tone.

       Hip Feminist campaigns like Free the Nipple only encourage a gullible behavior of disrespect for our own bodies, leading to everyone else around us disrespecting our bodies as well. If we want to be respected as women and taken seriously in all our endeavors we should look to a new source; Muslim women. Muslim women, as well as Muslim men, see every body as a sacred temple, especially the female body. Opposed to exposing themselves, it is through modesty. When we think of modern feminists we should stray away from the new American trends and start looking to what we have always thought as a contradiction; Muslim feminists.

       While I don't disagree that Feminism has taken women down a long and lonely road of carnal fulfillment to replace their spiritual impoverishment, the rest of the article is pure bunk. For instance, this line that "Muslim women, as well as Muslim men, see every body as a sacred temple, especially the female body." If that is so, why have Muslim men turned Sweden into the rape capital of Europe (the whole world if one discounts Africa)? Why the widespread rape of young children (boys and girls) among Muslims? Why the female genital mutilation? Why must women be covered from the top of the head, to the tip of the toes in shapeless clothing? 

       And where does the reference to our bodies being a temple come from? Oh, yeah: 1 Corinthians 6:19 -- a Christian scripture. 

• Religion of Peace: "The dramatic moment a known extremist is pulled out of a smoking car containing weapons and explosives after RAMMING a police van in a ‘terror attack’ on the Champs-Élysées before an officer checks him for a suicide bomb"--Daily Mail. The driver is dead. The article indicates that "[h]is car burst into flames moments after impact having deliberately aimed at a line of police vans with a boot full of Kalashnikov rifles, handguns and gas bottles." I see that Europe's vaunted gun control laws are working. And, of course, this is another incident of a "known wolf" attack.
• Refugees Welcome! "Swedish Police Attacked By 100 Masked Migrant Youths"--Breitbart. According to the article, "Swedish police in the city of Trollhattan were attacked by up to a hundred masked migrant youths armed with sticks and bats during a riot in the Kronogården suburb on Thursday." More specifically, the rioters were Somali men.
• It shouldn't be too long until we see polio return to the United States and Europe: "Polio Breaking Out In Syria"--Anonymous Conservative. The outbreak is in ISIS controlled territory, but soon those people will be displaced, and some of them may very well end up "refugees" heading to Europe or the United States. 
• Diversity is our strength: Daniel Greenfield writes about the rising Muslim insurgency: 

       2,000 cases. 

       That was the most overlooked revelation to come from the testimony of the former FBI director. While the media parsed every Comey hiccup to bolster its election conspiracy theories, it ignored that number. 

        Comey stated that there were around 2,000 terrorism investigations. 1,000 of those came from “home grown violent extremism” with no evidence of contact with foreign terrorists. Another 1,000 had "some contact with foreign terrorists". 300 from that 2,000 had come to America as refugees. 

         Two-thirds of the refugee terrorists were from Iraq. The other third were mainly from the six countries named in President Trump’s travel pause which left-wing activist judges have unconstitutionally halted. 

These numbers are just for the United States. The numbers in Europe are much worse: the UK alone has 3,000 potential terrorists that are being investigated.

• The return of tribalism: "Our narrowing world"--Richard Fernandez at PJ Media discussing terrorism in Europe and attacks on our troops in Afghanistan by supposed allies:

       Government is losing its credibility as an effective protector.  Under these circumstances "carrying on exactly as before" is likely to have a meaning opposite to Independent's intention.  For most people it will mean continuing to batten down the hatches and rebuilding the trust networks so foolishly discarded when they put their trust in the State. The vision of future may prove to be not the borderless EU after all -- but Israel.  If government fails to protect people they are likely to fall back on tribalism and wire instead.

        The issue is whether order can recover before the world fragments into a patchwork of affinity groups. Tribes have considerable advantages after all. They are designed to provide trust, a commodity often more valuable than the theoretically greater military potential of an open group.  An open group without trust is a kill zone. ...

         Tribes and clans are still used when information security and omerta are paramount.  No technical solution yet devised can beat treachery.  Only loyalty can do that -- and we have made loyalty, to nation at least, a bad word.  ...

       You can't operate without trust.

       If we are to prevent a new medievalism finding the right balance between an open society and maintaining loyalty and allegiance is necessary.  It is a difficult task under any circumstances.  But rarely has anyone failed more dismally at it than the leaders of our multi-culti world.  By stigmatizing calls for reasonable loyalty as bigotry they have climbed out on a limb and sawed themselves off; by their dogmatic insistence on mindless inclusion they've foreclosed all attempts to bring things back to even keel.  They have reduced themselves to the level of hapless bystanders, unable to either prevent or explain an onslaught they themselves -- were they honest enough to admit it -- should have foreseen.

• The Two-Faces of Tomorrow: "Artificial Intelligence Develops Its Own Language"--Anonymous Conservative. He quotes the following from an article:

In the report, researchers at the Facebook Artificial Intelligence Research lab describe using machine learning to train their “dialog agents” to negotiate. (And it turns out bots are actually quite good at dealmaking.) At one point, the researchers write, they had to tweak one of their models because otherwise the bot-to-bot conversation “led to divergence from human language as the agents developed their own language for negotiating.” They had to use what’s called a fixed supervised model instead.