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Monday, July 31, 2017

The Sins of Sodom

The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah by John Martin, 1852
       In Luke 17:26-30, the Lord stated:
26 And as it was in the days of Noe [Noah], so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. 
27 They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. 
28 Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; 
29 But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. 
30 Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.
A cursory review of these scriptures would leave one with the impression that the sole subject matter of this passage was that destruction came upon the people of Sodom and those of Noah's time suddenly and without warning, taking them in the midst of their daily activities. And, in fact, a fair reading of the initial outpouring of judgments as related in Revelation is that it will be sudden and take the majority of people unaware. However, this scriptural passage is generally cited not just for the warning that destruction will be sudden, but that the sins of those particular peoples will also be rampant in the last days. (See also Rev. 11:8 which refers to the latter-day Jerusalem as a spiritual Sodom). In particular, in this post, I want to focus on Sodom.

        If Sodom was mentioned because its sins will be repeated in the last days, then there follows the question: what were the sins of Sodom?  In the Spring 1975 General Conference, President Spencer W. Kimball had this to say about Sodom:
       Abraham knew that the cities of the plains—Sodom and Gomorrah and other places—were wicked cities, housing wicked, godless people, saying with Cain, “Who is the Lord that I should know him?” (Moses 5:16.) He was aware that destruction of those cities was imminent; but in his compassion for his fellowman, he begged and pleaded with the Lord, “Peradventure there be fifty righteous within the city,” will you spare the others of the city? (See Gen. 18:24.) That pleading being granted, came Abraham again and prayed that the cities would be saved if 45 were found, or 40 or 30 or 20 or down to ten, but apparently there could not be found even ten, in those vicious cities, who were righteous. (See Gen. 18:24–32.) 
       The evil continued. The sin was too well entrenched. They had laughed and joked about a destruction. The transgressions for which Sodom had apparently been renowned continued on. In fact, the people wanted to take advantage of the pure angel men they had seen come into the city. The vicious men pressed and would have broken down the doors to get to them. (See Gen. 19:4–11.) 
       Everything was done that could be done by Abraham to save the city, but it had become so depraved and wanton that to save it was impossible.
In other words, the sins of Sodom were so great that the Lord treated it much as we might a deadly disease or infestation of some deadly plant or insect: something that had to eradicated quickly and completely before it had time to spread.This tends to repudiate the theories advanced by some people that the sin had to do with something rather mundane. It has become popular to postulate that the sin of Sodom had to do with their treatment and general inhospitality to strangers. However, if boorish behavior was all it took for God to rain fire and destruction on a people, the Earth would have been cleansed repeatedly throughout history.

       Turning to scripture, it is clear that the sins of Sodom were, in large part, sins of sexual immorality. From the account in Genesis, we read:
1 And there came two angels to Sodom at even; and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom: and Lot seeing them rose up to meet them; and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground; 
2 And he said, Behold now, my lords, turn in, I pray you, into your servant’s house, and tarry all night, and wash your feet, and ye shall rise up early, and go on your ways. And they said, Nay; but we will abide in the street all night. 
3 And he pressed upon them greatly; and they turned in unto him, and entered into his house; and he made them a feast, and did bake unleavened bread, and they did eat. 
4 ¶ But before they lay down, the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the house round, both old and young, all the people from every quarter: 
5 And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men which came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know them. 
6 And Lot went out at the door unto them, and shut the door after him, 
7 And said, I pray you, brethren, do not so wickedly. 
8 Behold now, I have two daughters which have not known man; let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do ye to them as is good in your eyes: only unto these men do nothing; for therefore came they under the shadow of my roof. 
9 And they said, Stand back. And they said again, This one fellow came in to sojourn, and he will needs be a judge: now will we deal worse with thee, than with them. And they pressed sore upon the man, even Lot, and came near to break the door. 
10 But the men put forth their hand, and pulled Lot into the house to them, and shut to the door. 
11 And they smote the men that were at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great: so that they wearied themselves to find the door.
This account provides some of the information we need to answer the question. First of all, the men of Sodom wanted to "know" (Hebrew:  יָדַע (yada)) the Angels. That term, "know," is used throughout the Bible (including just 3 verses later) as a euphemism for sex or intercourse. And we know that the term is not being used in its common meaning of "know" or "become acquainted with" because Lot not only remonstrated against the men for behaving wickedly, but also shut his door behind him when he addressed the men, and offered them his two virgin daughters in an attempt to convince them to leave the Angels alone. None of which he would have done if the men of the city simply wanted to greet the Angels.

        Second, it is notable that it was not just 1 or 2 percent of the men of the city, but all of "the men of the city," "both old and young"--that is, the mature men as well as the youth--that wanted to join in the planned gang rape of the Angels. This is further buttressed by the earlier fear that Lot showed when the Angels suggested that they would sleep in the streets; no one was safe on the streets.

        But this is not all. Ezekiel has the following concerning the women of Sodom:
         49 Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. 
         50 And they were haughty, and committed abomination before me: therefore I took them away as I saw good.
(Ezekiel 16:49-50). So, in this verse we are reading that the women were proud (willful) and haughty or wanton (compare with Isaiah 3:16), fat and idle, and uncharitable. In addition, the women were also involved in abominations. Charles Pope explains, as to this latter point:
The Hebrew word is תּוֹעֵבָ֖ה (tō·w·‘ê·ḇāh) which refers to any number of things God considers especially detestable, such as worshiping idols, immolating children, wrongful marriage and also homosexual acts. For example, Leviticus 18:22 uses the word in this context: Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; it is an abomination.
      And from Jude, we learn:
       7 Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. 
       8 Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities.
The Greek word for "fornication" is ἐκπορνεύσασαι which can be translated as "having indulged in sexual immorality." And the phrase "going after strange flesh" is, in the Greek, ἀπελθοῦσαι ὀπίσω σαρκὸς ἑτέρας which is a phrase associated with homosexuality or other abnormal sexual practices. In addition, as verse 8 makes clear, those in Sodom were obsessed with thinking about their loathsome practices ("filthy dreamers"), defiled the flesh (this is probably a reference to immorality, although it could also apply to tattooing or other "body modifications"), and despised standards and spoke evil of God.

       It is very possible that Paul had Sodom in mind when he penned these words:
21 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 
22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, 
23 And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. 
24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: 
25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. 
26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: 
27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. 
28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; 
29 Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, 
30 Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 
31 Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: 
32 Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.
(Romans 1:21-32).

      In his 1975 talk cited above, President Kimball spoke of the spreading immorality of that time:
        Again we see history repeating itself. When we see the pornography, the adulterous practices, homosexuality gone rampant, the looseness and permissiveness of an apparently increasing proportion of the people, we say the days of Satan have returned and history seems to repeat itself. 
        When we see the depravity of numerous people of our own society in their determination to force upon people vulgar presentations, filthy communications, unnatural practices, we wonder, has Satan reached forth with his wicked, evil hand to pull into his forces the people of this earth? Do we not have enough good people left to stamp out the evil which threatens our world? Why do we continue to compromise with evil and why do we continue to tolerate sin?
And I think he put his finger on perhaps the real issue with Sodom: it was not just the fact that they were sinners, but that they forced their degeneracy upon everyone else.

        And we have reached that point. It is not just the fact that photographers and bakers have been punished for not providing services for gay weddings, but that the depravity is everywhere. Consider these headlines from just the past couple of weeks:
       A GP, let’s call her Sue, said: “I’m afraid things are much worse than people suspect.” In recent years, Sue had treated growing numbers of teenage girls with internal injuries caused by frequent anal sex; not, as Sue found out, because she wanted to, or because she enjoyed it – on the contrary – but because a boy expected her to. “I’ll spare you the gruesome details,” said Sue, “but these girls are very young and slight and their bodies are simply not designed for that.” 
       Her patients were deeply ashamed at presenting with such injuries. They had lied to their mums about it and felt they couldn’t confide in anyone else, which only added to their distress. When Sue questioned them further, they said they were humiliated by the experience, but they had simply not felt they could say no. Anal sex was standard among teenagers now, even though the girls knew that it hurt.
Dreher goes on to relate how he has been told that porn addition is rampant among young men preparing to attend a seminary so they can become ministers. He notes that in Japan it appears a large number of men are not having sex with women because it just easier to watch porn. He comments:
 Let’s say that our own children manage to get through childhood without having porn colonize their minds and hearts. One day, we want them to marry and start families, if that is their calling, right? Think about what the ubiquity of porn does to the prospect of finding life partners who are capable of loving them, in soul and body, in a caring, compassionate, righteous way? This is not a crisis that we can face adequately as individual families. We have to do it as a community. We have to do this as a community embedded in Weimar America, where there is widespread indifference or even contempt for our values. We not only have to do our utmost to protect our sons and our daughters from it, but we have to rescue those of our children who have been ensnared by it.
I think Dreher understates the problem. We have reached the point where it nigh impossible to protect our children from this caustic culture centered on sex and self-indulgence.

        Christian writer Scott Lively has pointed out:
Fifty years ago homosexuality was illegal throughout the entire world, except for Sweden which had decriminalized sodomy in 1938.  In the space of just half a century this tiny 1-3% of the population have made themselves a global political power with greater influence in the courtrooms and legislatures of the world than the Church of Jesus Christ.  This astonishing transformation surpasses that of Darwinism, Marxism, and even Islam in its speed and breadth of reach.  To my thinking, this can only have been accomplished by the god of this world (Satan, 2 Cor 4:4) who knows his time is short and is making his move.  What is more alarming is the shocking apathy of the church, which I take as a sign of the apostasy warned about by Jesus in Matt 24:12.  The “love of most” for the truth of God truly has grown cold.
We are the remnant, living, like Lot and his family, among the wretchedness of Sodom. This is no longer something that lies in the remote future. We are living in this world right now, and the crowd is even now pounding on the door to force us to participate in their decadence.
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Sunday, July 30, 2017

July 30, 2017 -- A Quick Run Around the Web

"NFA Guide for AR15s"--Soldier Systems Daily (H/t Active Response Training) (click on photograph to enlarge)
Firearms/Self-Defense/Prepping:
  • If you haven't been there yet, visit Active Response Training's "Weekend Knowledge Dump." That is where I found the infographic posted above, but there are lots of other useful articles. One article, in particular, that I think you should read is "It’s Just A Knife" from the Sharp Defense blog. Among other things, it lists the basic rules of knife safety:
  • Always handle your knife with respect. The knife giveth and the knife taketh away. Particularly when you are hunting, fishing, hiking, and/or camping miles away from the nearest medical facility.
  • Cut away from your body, not toward it. Only always.
  • Let dropped knives fall. Murphy’s law dictates you will cut yourself badly trying to catch a dropped knife. On a hiking/fishing trip a few years ago I dropped a favorite, and expensive, knife while trying to cut a tangled line. I tried to catch the knife before it went into the river. I collected a nice cut and still lost the knife. It would have been better to lose the knife then have to deal with an injury miles out from the nearest aid station.
  • Keep your knives sharp. Bad things happen when we exert too much force due to a dull knife. Also, if you have to use that much force maybe your chosen knife isn’t the right tool for the job.
  • When handing a knife to someone it’s best to set the knife on a flat surface. They can pick it up. If you can’t do that then handing the knife to them handle first, with the blade facing outboard from the palm of your hand is your second best option.
... Ian and Karl’s test proved out Faxon’s claims, with the WWSD rifles experiencing significantly less thermal shift (possibly none) than the legacy SP-1’s M16A1 profile barrel. Truth be told, I was extremely surprised, since thermal shift is something that has plagued lightweight barrels for decades. Thermal shift during extended or rapid strings of fire is the primary reason why heavier barrel contours are now favored for military applications, for example (the other, less important reason is raw thermal load – barrels will eventually give out under too much heat, and heavier barrels have more mass to absorb heat than light ones). A lighter barrel that maintains its POI during and after rapid fire would potentially allow a significant reduction in weapon weight, to the tune of half a pound.
  • Tap, rack and fire: "The Importance of 'Why'--Reactive Weapon Manipulations."--Gabe Suarez. In a deadly force encounter, you don't have time to "assess" why your weapon malfunctioned. Thus, tap-rack-fire. And if the last doesn't work, Suarez indicates that you are either out of ammunition or have a feedway stoppage; in either case, eject the magazine and insert a new one. "If you screw all of the previous up, and the weapon is still non-functional, UNLOAD IT AND RELOAD IT.  Magazine out, retain in the hand since it may be your only magazine.  Cycle the slide a few times (a few is more than once).  This in essence unloads the weapon completely.  Reinsert the magazine, cycle the slide again to reload, and fire at the bad guy."
  • "Building a .308 AR Carbine that works: Carbine Compatibility and Engineering"--The Loadout Room. Basically, there is no "mil-spec" when it comes to the AR-10 style rifles. The article gives a link to an article that discusses the different manufacturers, explains those parts that are not compatible between the AR15 platform and a larger .308 model, and concludes that you may need to do some experimenting to get it to all work right. 
Other Stuff:
  • Cultural enrichment news:
       Mohamed Elmouelhy, the head of Australia’s Halal Certification Authority, publicly commented on Facebook to state that white Australian women need Muslim men to fertilize them and “keep them surrounded by Muslim babies.”
           Elmouelhy’s intolerant views led him to declare that the “white race will be extinct” in 40 years.
      It is important to note that Elmouelhy not only believes the Islam has already won its war against the West, but that he is so sure of victory that he doesn't fear making provocatory statements such as that cited in the article. 
               Millions of migrants mostly from Africa and the Middle East have swarmed Europe in the last three years – the result of what has been explained by world leaders as a war-driven “refugee” crisis.
                 Yet, a United Nations document, prepared in the year 2000 and rediscovered by WND, reveals the U.N. was already promoting the notion of “replacement migration” in Europe with the support of open-borders non-governmental organizations and “progressive” politicians.
                   The document – “Replacement Migration: Is It a Solution to Declining and Aging Populations?” – details the plunging birthrates across Europe and identifies a solution: mass immigration.
                     The 17-year-old document contended mass immigration was necessary to replace the aging populations of developed countries. Without the migration of populations from the developing world, it reasons, economies will suffer because of labor shortages and falling tax revenues.
                        “Therefore, among the demographic variables, only international migration could be instrumental in addressing population decline and population aging in the short to medium term,” the report concludes.
                          The report specifically targets the U.S., Germany, Britain, France, Italy, Japan, South Korea and Russia as prime candidates for replacement migration. It is not an obscure study, written and then ignored, but a founding piece of the pro-migration agenda pushed by the United Nations, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and open-borders advocates.
                    I've said it before, but it bears repeating: the elites believe that people are fungible. 
                      Sitting at the bottom of the United Nations Human Development Index, the children in the former French colony grow up within an infrastructure crippled by decades of misrule, corruption, and coups. The country is beset by poverty, food insecurity and malnutrition, a shortage of qualified teachers and low literacy levels, and poor access to water, sanitation and health services. The recent armed conflict has exacerbated this situation as ongoing insecurity has hamstrung humanitarian efforts. Three years on, a quarter of schools remain closed and only a third of children are enrolled. Many still live in sprawling camps for the internally displaced, with minimal access to healthcare or an education. 
                        Yet these same people, bearing their same culture, are supposed to be such a boon when they immigrate to the West.
                        • "Transgenders in the military - some practical considerations"--Bayou Renaissance Man. Peter Grant discusses various issues, including unit cohesiveness, problems like which physical standards (men or women) will they be tested under, and how it undermines the effectiveness of the troops. As to the latter point, he writes:
                                  There's also the issue of "keeping one's eye on the ball".  Armed forces exist to fight wars.  That's their primary purpose.  ... Training, equipment, organization, and everything else must be focused on and serve that basic purpose, or that armed force will fail when asked to do its job.  Even if it doesn't completely fail, it will take unnecessary casualties, lose far more equipment than necessary, or handicap itself in other ways, before it can get its head out of its collective fundament, re-focus on essentials, and eventually succeed.
                                   It's been my (admittedly limited) experience that most (but certainly not all) transgendered people exhibit greater or lesser psychological or psychiatric issues.  They demand attention;  they demand acceptance;  they demand tolerance.  They aren't willing to shut up and demonstrate, by the way they live, that they're valuable members of society who can be judged and accepted (or otherwise) on the basis of what they do.  Instead, they're vocal in demanding acceptance based on their own (in most cases, medically flawed) definition of what they consider themselves to be.  That can't and won't work in the case of a unit preparing to fight.  ...  There's no time and no place for special snowflakes demanding special consideration and/or treatment.  ....
                                     ...  I've heard many complaints from military friends of mine that so-called 'sensitivity training', and other officially-mandated forms of political correctness and cultural relativity, are consuming so much time out of the training schedule that their units' military preparedness and readiness is suffering.  When you have to take so much time, and make so much effort, in an attempt to change human nature, you have to accept that your warfighting ability will suffer accordingly.  That's reality.  You can't expect your armed forces to be as strong as you want them to be when you're wasting their time on non-military activities like this!  What's more, you can't expect average troops to shed their instinctive cultural and social reactions under the stress of combat, when reactions are automatic and instinctive - because if they're not, you die!
                                Read the whole thing.
                                         On Thursday the Boy Scouts (and those who identify as Boy Scouts) took it upon themselves to apologize for President Trump’s speech delivered to some 40,000 people at the National Scout Jamboree.
                                           In doing so the leadership of the BSA has brought shame and disgrace upon what was once a storied and revered organization.
                                      He continues:
                                               Who – exactly – was offended by the president’s remarks?
                                                  He was greeted with a tremendous welcome – thunderous applause and cheers. Thousands of scouts chanted his name. If there were those who took offense, their numbers were considerably small.
                                                   Quite frankly, I contend the only people truly offended by the president’s remarks were liberals, the Mainstream Media, Hollywood starlets and BSA leadership. And I suspect they were more offended that Trump’s name elicited cheers while former President Obama’s name elicited jeers – with great gusto.
                                                      Surbaugh went on to write in a lengthy blog posting that the Boy scouts have “steadfastly remained non-partisan and refused to comment on political matters.”
                                                        That is a patently false statement.
                                                          The adult leadership of the BSA has allowed the organization to become a playground for the gender and sex revolutionaries. In January, the BSA sacrificed its last vestige of integrity on the altar of political correctness by allowing girls who identify as boys to join scout troops.
                                                           There's an initial Eden, a paradise, a state of grace and unity with nature, there's a fall from grace into a state of pollution as a result of eating from the tree of knowledge, and as a result of our actions there is a judgment day coming for us all. We are all energy sinners, doomed to die, unless we seek salvation, which is now called sustainability. Sustainability is salvation in the church of the environment. Just as organic food is its communion, that pesticide-free wafer that the right people with the right beliefs, imbibe.
                                                               Eden, the fall of man, the loss of grace, the coming doomsday---these are deeply held mythic structures. They are profoundly conservative beliefs. They may even be hard-wired in the brain, for all I know. I certainly don't want to talk anybody out of them, as I don't want to talk anybody out of a belief that Jesus Christ is the son of God who rose from the dead. But the reason I don't want to talk anybody out of these beliefs is that I know that I can't talk anybody out of them. These are not facts that can be argued. These are issues of faith.
                                                                And so it is, sadly, with environmentalism. Increasingly it seems facts aren't necessary, because the tenets of environmentalism are all about belief. It's about whether you are going to be a sinner, or saved. Whether you are going to be one of the people on the side of salvation, or on the side of doom. Whether you are going to be one of us, or one of them.
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                                                        Saturday, July 29, 2017

                                                        Thoughts from the Range

                                                        Savage mark II FV SR Accuracy report
                                                        Derrick B (5 min.)

                                                                  Between work and weekend family obligations, today is the first time in several weeks that I was able to get out and do some shooting, and try some products I've purchased over the last few months.

                                                                In preparation for the trip, I spent part of my Friday evening loading a couple hundred rounds of 9 mm. (I already had the cases prepped, including primers in place, so it went quickly). The load I was using, if you are curious, was Hornady 115 grain HAP over 5.0 grains of Unique. Unique is primarily intended as a shotgun powder, but can be used for handguns loads; and I've even come across blog and forum posts where people of have claimed to have used it for rifle loads. My experience with Unique is that it is good for short cases (such as those for most semi-auto loads), but can be inconsistent where there is a lot of empty case space, such as .38 Special. Unique also has a reputation for being a "dirty" powder--there can be a lot of powder residue--although I see that the manufacturer, Alliant, is advertising that it has a cleaner burning version. I've used it a long time (decades) for 9 mm with good success, and haven't seen any real reason to change to something else.

                                                               Two of my sons and I went out this morning. Being south-west Idaho in summer, the weather was clear, sunny, and hot--even early in the day. All of this is magnified out on the desert.

                                                               I had several goals with this morning's venture. First of all, I wanted to sight in a Burris AR-332 I had purchased for my AR. I had previously bore sighted it using a laser bore sighter, but while generally good enough to get it on paper at short distances, you still have to finish up at the range. The AR-332 is Burris's 3X prism scope. It has an integrated mount, which attaches to a Picatinny rail. It also has its own accessory rails for mounting a small reflex sight as a backup or supplemental sighting system.  Because the AR-332 uses a prism system, it is much shorter than standard scopes--just slightly over 5 inches without the sunshade or flip up covers. However, I recommend using the sunshade.

                                                               The model I have uses Burris's Ballistic CQ reticle. This has a large "doughnut" with a smaller crosshair inside it. It also incorporated a bullet drop compensator (BDC) which is claimed to correct for drop out to 600 yards. The reticle can be illuminated in either green or red, with 5 brightness sightings for each color. I've played around with this scope in different types of lighting and found that, during the daylight, you typically don't need to illuminate the reticle. The lowest red setting is more than bright enough (at least with a fresh battery) for dim light. Using it today, under noon-day sun, the highest green setting was almost too bright. However, it was very useful: one of the targets I used was black, and I was having problems finding the unlit reticle on that target. Illuminating it on green made it easy to pick up the target.

                                                               In retrospect, I probably should have purchased Burris's 5x version of this scope. Three power is still useful for close in work, but not quite enough power for longer ranges. I expect that had I gone with the higher power, I would have been complaining that it was too much magnification for close quarters. Four power (4x) has long been considered a good, all round magnification for hunting, and I am surprised the Burris didn't offer this scope in that power. Nevertheless, 3x is useful for those of us with old eyes trying to hit things at a hundred yards.

                                                               Sighting in is the same as other scopes, so I won't bore you with that process. I had forgot to pack my sighting scope with me, so it involved some walking to the target to verify where I was hitting. Needless to say, although I had boresighted the scope, it was about 10 inches high at 100 yards. I pulled the target back to 25 yards to deal with this, and finished off the process. And this was yet another opportunity to try out my DIY target stand made with sections of PVC, with which I am still very pleased.

                                                                My second goal was to try out new sights on my Glock. As more than one person has noted, the standard factory Glock sights are not the greatest. They work, but that is about all that can be said about them; and I've heard enough complaints of the plastic sights suddenly breaking or coming off the slide that I knew that I would have to eventually replace them. However, I debated for a long time on what to get for replacements. I finally decided on Ameriglo's Glock Spartan Operator sights. These are well constructed steel sights with tritium inserts: one in the front sight, and two on the rear. The front sight, around the tritium insert, is a bright orange, which shows up very well in daylight. The rear sight is plain black. The result is that, in bright light, you have a bright orange front sight framed by a black rear sight which allows quick pickup of the front sight blade. In dim light or the dark you have a standard three-dot arrangement, of course. I thought that these sights would work very well, and they did.

                                                               Third, I wanted to try out an Osprey FL-OSP-230 Tactical Light. I had picked it up near the end of the last day of a recent gun show, and was able to purchase it for $35 since the seller was at that point offering fire sale prices to get rid of stock. The flashlight is advertised as being 230 lumen light, and, having played around with it in dim light and in the dark, I do not doubt it. It slides onto the tactical rail of a handgun, using a quick release system that uses a spring to push a lever up into the rail slot to lock it in place. To remove, you just pull down on the tabs (compressing the spring) and push forward. It fits snugly, with no noticeable movement and literally only takes a couple seconds to install or remove. The light is switched on using a slide switch that is pushed from right to left to turn on the light, and left to right to turn it off. At first, I was skeptical of this as a system, but if you are holding the pistol with both hands, it is actually easy to actuate the switch: your trigger finger (on the right) can be used to push the switch to on, and the thumb of your left hand will easily reach the switch on the other side to turn it off. Of course, my concern today was not to test the light, per se, but its durability. We put about 150 rounds through my Glock (the rest of my handloads went through my R51), and the light still worked, which is a passing grade in my book.

                                                               Finally, although I had taken it out previously to sight in the scope, I wanted to put a few more rounds down range with a Savage Mk II FV-SR. I may write an in depth review later, but I can say that it is, overall, a nice little .22 rifle. American Rifleman did a nice write up, if you want a more detailed review of the rifle. Basically, though, the Mk II FV-SR is a bolt action .22 rifle sporting a 16-inch fluted barrel that is threaded on the end for a sound suppressor. There is a factory installed Picatinny rail sope mount with no provision for iron sights (I put a 3-9x Cabela's .22 rifle scope on mine). The rifle is also fitted with Savage's Accu-trigger, which makes for a nice trigger pull and smooth let off. The bolt has an over sized bolt knob and a very smooth action when cycling the bolt. It uses a detachable box magazine: the rifle comes with a 5-round version, but 10-round magazines are available. The stock is a drop comb plastic stock with two sling attachments.

                                                                As other reviewers have noted, it is strange that Savage put a drop comb stock on a rifle that is intended to use a scope. The result is that you can't get a good cheek weld. Time will tell, I guess, whether this will be an issue for me. Boyds sells replacement stocks for the MK II, and I may go that route myself, although the particular model I have sports the Troy Landry gator camo stock and I really like the camo pattern.

                                                               Today I was using standard velocity 40 grain CCI. Accuracy was pretty good, although I was only shooting at 25 yards. Nevertheless, with the exception of a couple of flyers, I could get groups as small as 1/2 inch, which would translate, in theory, to 1 inch at 50 yards. The American Rifleman review cited to above reported groups under 1/2 inch at 50 yards with some types of ammunition (using a lead sled), and the video I linked to above also reported very small groups, so I will have to experiment with different loads to figure out what is best.

                                                        (Update 7/30/2017: corrected a few typos)
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                                                        Thursday, July 27, 2017

                                                        July 27, 2017 -- A Quick Run Around the Web

                                                        "Home Invaders Stopped by Armed Home Owner"--Active Self Protection (5 min.)
                                                        The homeowner was enjoying an evening on his patio when 3 robbers decided to make their entrance. The homeowner reacted very aggressively, throwing a chair at the robbers before they even get within view of the camera, then using a length of 2x4, and finally running into his house to get a machete. I got a chuckle that only after the robbers had fled or subdued, the owner's little dog finally makes his appearance. You can read a local news account of the incident here.


                                                        Firearms/Self-Defense/Prepping:
                                                        • "Choosing Body Armor: Is Steel Armor Worth Your Money?"--The Firearms Blog. A brief overview of steel plates, what is generally meant by "Level III+," and the pros and cons as compared to ceramic plate. Basically, the pros are price and that steel plate doesn't necessarily need replacement if you get shot (the ceramic will continue to protect you, but it will likely have shattered or splintered). Weight is somewhat of a draw: Level III steel plate weighs more than Level III made from other materials, but Level IV ceramic is about the same weight as Level III+ coated steel plate.
                                                        • "Accurate 5744 Powder Review – Made & Distributed by Accurate Arms"--Ammo Land. The author reviews this powder, which intended for reduced loads in large rifle cases and large magnum pistols shooting heavy bullets. The author found it useful even in more modern rifle calibers for use with heavy bullets. It uses very small amounts of powder for the cartridge: for instance, the author used between 13 and 17 grains of powder under a 220 grain bullet for .30-06, and between 10 and 12.5 grains for various 7.62x39mm loads. It appears, based on the review, to generally give consistent velocities notwithstanding air space in the cartridge. 
                                                        • "The ship captain's medical guide"--The UK's Maritime and Coastguard Agency. The guide is for layman to use. It is available for download at the link listed: there are 14 PDFs, each corresponding to a chapter or appendix.
                                                        • "Improvised Trauma Gear: What’s In Your Range Bag?"--The Loadout Room. Some items you can use as improvised tourniquets (e.g., a bore snake), and some suggestions as to other first-aid trauma gear to carry. The author writes:
                                                                 There are plenty of ways to improvise tourniquets when you’re in a pinch. Think of what’s in your range bag already. Bore snakes, rifle or shotgun slings, anything else you can use to tie around the extremity. Throwing a few first aid bandages or cravats in your range bag is also an inexpensive alternative. The next thing you need is a windlass. A cleaning rod, a strong enough twig or stick, something cylindrical that won’t break.
                                                                    Tie the tourniquet around the extremity that is bleeding uncontrollably. Place the tourniquet as high as possible. This ensures maximum pressure against the artery. After you have secured the tourniquet, take the windlass and tie it on top of the knot you made on the tourniquet. Twist the windlass until bleeding stops.
                                                                      Using the remainder tabs from the tourniquet knot, secure the windlass in place. It’s important to remember that if the bleeding begins again or if the tourniquet comes loose, DO NOT REMOVE IT!!! If this happens, just add another tourniquet ABOVE the existing one.
                                                                       I was fortunate enough to thoroughly test the Leupold LTO Tracker over the course of a few months and test it under a variety of scenarios, including one severe snowstorm and no less than a dozen major thunderstorms. It worked flawlessly. ... Through the downpour from the massive thunderstorms we experienced in the Midwest this spring, I could see the heat signature of a neighbor who made a mad-dash run to his car or another standing on the porch, smoking a cigarette. Both were easily 100 yards away.
                                                                         On a camping trip, several of us were camped out in hammocks and a few more in tents. While you couldn't see a definitive "human" heat signature from the hammocks or the tents, you could easily tell which ones were occupied and which ones were not, and it was evident who had gotten up in the middle of the night to answer the call of nature. You could watch these individuals walk back into camp and even tell who it was within 25 yards. This is a tool every back-country camper, especially those who trek into bear country, would find simply invaluable. 
                                                                           In one test, I held my hand flat against an interior wall for 30 seconds and was able to get a heat-signature reading for 5 minutes. I know because I timed it. The Leupold LTO Tracker will pick up footprints on hardwood floor. A bare foot registered longer than a heavily soled boot, but that is something to think about with regards to wondering if someone is in your house in the middle of the night. 

                                                                      * * *

                                                                                It was also run through actual field use by our private intelligence firm. When we used it on surveillance, it allowed us to judge just how long a vehicle had been parked, based on the heat coming off of the brakes and the engine. The brakes would cool down first, usually glowing less and less within a half hour, while an engine would stay hot for a couple of hours. Metal that has cooled down completely, especially well after dark, gives off a negative heat signature. 
                                                                                   While the Leupold LTO Tracker is a monocular, it's also an extended eye-relief device, which means you don't press it to your eye to see out of it. I hear the tactical gods crying already "Now your face is backlit, and the bad guy can see you!" Well, not really. My business partner and I gave that particular issue the once-over one night on a two-man surveillance. Sitting in my vehicle and he in his, he could not see any discernible back-lighting issues from across the street. Even if one of the color palettes available on the device did appear to give too much of a backlighting issue, there are more to choose from. We found that the White Highlight setting gave off the most backlighting, the Red setting gave off none. In total there are six color palettes to choose from, ranging from White Hot, Black Highlight, Green, Red, Black Hot, and White Highlight. Not one of them was altogether superior, though I found Green to be the setting I used most, while the White Highlight setting was my least preferred. 

                                                                          Other Stuff:
                                                                                 None of this is a surprise for those who see the world through honest and open eyes. In a speech in April 2016, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis (at the time he was merely a retired general) said the U.S. should recognize Iran not as a nation-state but “a revolutionary cause devoted to mayhem…”
                                                                                    He added, “The Iranian regime, in my mind, is the single most enduring threat to stability and peace in the Middle East. For all of ISIS and AQI’s –AQ –al-Qaida’s mention everywhere right now, they’re (Iran) an immediate threat. They’re serious.”
                                                                                     Indeed, the ayatollahs are serious and enduring. They seriously want to pursue global revolution, they seriously want a nuclear bomb to promote and protect that revolution, and they seriously want the money and time to build their nuclear arsenal.
                                                                                        Yet former President Barack Obama claimed the ayatollah regime could be trusted to observe the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) that would assure not quite peace for our time but maybe possibly let’s hope delay Iran’s nuclear weapons program for 10 years—and maybe in the interim create a middle class and maybe moderate Tehran’s behavior and maybe possibly until November 2016 distract American media from Obama’s grand foreign policy failures in Syria, Iraq, Ukraine, Korea and the South China Sea.
                                                                                • As you may know, Imran Awan, a Pakistani IT specialist, had been employed by several House Democrat members as an IT assistant or aide. He was, however, discovered to have been defrauding the government in various ways, and inappropriately accessing data on the House of Representative's network. It is believed that he may have accessed classified information. His wife had previously fled to Pakistan, but he continued to work for Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D) until recently arrested when he tried to flee the country. The Miami Herald reports that "[h]e made $164,000 in 2016 and $170,000 in 2015, according to congressional payroll records." And his attorney released a statement saying, in part, that the reason Awan's wife had returned to Pakistan was because "he and his wife were both abruptly and unjustly fired, leaving them without a reliable source of income to pay typical U.S. living expenses[.]" Yet, according to The Daily Caller, Awan "was arrested Monday attempting to board a flight to Pakistan after wiring $283,000 from the Congressional Federal Credit Union to that country." Seems a substantial amount for someone "without a reliable source of income." 
                                                                                • "Ancient DNA offers clues to the Canaanites’ fate"--Science News. From the article:
                                                                                         Researchers reconstructed the genomes of the 3,700-year-old remains of five Canaanites unearthed in Sidon. Comparisons of these genomes with those of other ancient Eurasian peoples indicate that Canaanite ancestry was split roughly 50-50 between the early farmers who settled the Levant and immigrants of Iranian descent who arrived later, between 6,600 and 3,550 years ago.
                                                                                             “You’d need a lot of migration for roughly half of the population to be replaced by the incoming Iranian-related populations,” says Iosif Lazaridis, a geneticist at Harvard Medical School who was not involved in the study. “This must have been some important event in the history of the Near East.” One possibility is the spread of the Akkadian Empire, which controlled a region spanning from the Levant to Iran between 4,400 and 4,200 years ago. That connection may have presented the opportunity for interbreeding between these far-flung populations.
                                                                                              The researchers also determined that modern Lebanese people can attribute about 93 percent of their ancestry to the Canaanites. The other 7 percent comes from Eurasians who probably arrived in the Levant 3,700 to 2,200 years ago. Study coauthor Chris Tyler-Smith, a geneticist at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Hinxton, England, was surprised by how much Canaanite heritage dominated modern Lebanese DNA. He says he expected to see a more mixed gene pool because so many populations have crossed through the Levant in the last few thousand years.
                                                                                        This should not be too surprising: invasions often only replace the people at the top, but the lower classes (e.g., the peasants) often continue on as before. An example of this was the Norman invasion of England, which didn't see Norman's displace the native populations, but simply replace or supplant the upper classes. Moreover, as another article on this same research notes, the genetics tell us nothing about the culture: it is possible that the Israelites of the time were genetically similar to the Canaanites. 
                                                                                        • "USS Constitution, newly restored, is returning to the water"--Fox News. The ship just finished a 2-year restoration. The article indicates that "[t]he ship enters dry dock about every 20 years for below-the-waterline repairs," and the most recent work included replacing 100 hull planks and installing 2,200 new copper sheets. The copper sheets are intended to prevent or minimize the buildup of barnacles which would, of course, add considerable drag to the hull. 
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                                                                                        Wednesday, July 26, 2017

                                                                                        July 26, 2017 -- A Quick Run Around the Web

                                                                                        "FN Five Seven Pistol Review and Body Armor Test"--Sootch00 (22 min.)
                                                                                        This is an in-depth review covering aesthetics, ergonomics, take down and reassembly, and shooting tests. And, yes, it was able to penetrate Level 2 soft body armor.

                                                                                        Firearms/Self-Defense/Prepping:
                                                                                        • "Preconceived Notions: “The Bugout”"--Mason Dixon Tactical. This is a re-post of an October 2015 article. The author distinguishes between a "bug-to" (travel to a predetermined location that has supplies and shelter, e.g., a retreat) and a "bug-out" (simply getting out of the immediate area with no set location, e.g., evacuating to the nearby mountains). He goes on to describe why "bug-out" should be a last resort, and it comes down to the fact that there is only so much food or other supplies that you can carry or transport, and that most people are simply not trained or inured to that lifestyle. Most people will quickly revert from "survivalist" to "refugee" (or, if the breakdown continues for sufficient time, "bandit"). 
                                                                                        • "Cheetah 12 Shotgun , Cheat the Import Ban ~ Review and Video"--Ammo Land. As the Russian sources for AK style shotguns dries up, China is stepping in to fill the void. 
                                                                                        • "Look Ma, No Milling! JT Defense Pistol Optic Mount"--The Firearms Blog. A red-dot mount for Glock pistols that is secured by dove-tail for the rear iron sight and a replacement for the rear striker plate, and, therefore, doesn't require permanent changes to the handgun. One thing that JT Defense points out at their site is that the mount works with the compact pistols, including the Glock 26. MSRP is $100. The downside, from the reviewers perspective, if that it put the red-dot too high, although that is something that could probably be resolved through practice.
                                                                                        • "Three Self-Defense Myths That Just Won't Die"--Shooting Illustrated. The three are: 
                                                                                        (1)  "Hit him anywhere with a .45 and it will knock him down." As anyone with knowledge of firearms and ballistics know--or even basic high school physics--the energy delivered by any hand held firearms is not enough to knock a person down (the whole action = reaction thing). 
                                                                                        (2)   "There's no need to aim a shotgun, just point it in the general direction of the bad guy and fire."  At short (across the room) distances, the spread of shotgun pellets will be near zero (i.e., about the size of the bore) to the size of a baseball depending on the choke of the shotgun. While the old adage is that you don't aim a shotgun, you point it, this refers to using a shotgun in the field to hunt birds or small game; it still involves alignment of the front site along the barrel or rib and is, therefore, a type of "aiming." It is just that it is a continuous, flowing motion, to bring the shotgun up to the shoulder and sweep up to the target (or just ahead of it) that is different from the steps used to aim a rifle.  
                                                                                        (3)  "If you have to shoot a bad guy in your front yard, drag him into the house before calling the cops." I've heard this in jest many times, but, seriously, tampering with a potential crime scene is a bad idea.  
                                                                                        • "Bullet Trap & Backstop"--M.D. Smith's Reloading Pages. How to construct your own bullet trap.
                                                                                        • "Did the Single-Stack Nine Kill the Carry Revolver?"--Shooting Illustrated. The author discusses the advantages of carrying a backup gun (BUG) or concealed carry weapon that has a similar manual of arms to the your full sized weapon, as well as the advantages as to magazine capacity and reload time for the small single-stack nines. I don't believe that the single-stack 9 mm pistols have killed off the small revolver, but the prices are probably making people rethink which one to use. As the Revolver Guy discusses in this article, when considering the cost of a short-barrel 6-round revolver (a used S&W 66 in this case) versus the cost of compact 9 mm, the balance tips heavily in favor of the semi-auto. In his case, the $2,000 that was being asked for the used Model 66 would have bought two 9 mm Shield pistols, several extra magazines, over two thousand rounds of ammunition, a holster and magazine carrier, and other accoutrements. Even if the price was cut in half, he still could a lot more bang for the buck. However, there is more than just price to consider when picking a concealed weapon, and one of those is the peace of mind that the weapon will use when you need it to. Which is why I don't believe that the small concealed carry revolver will disappear anytime soon.
                                                                                        • In his "Hump Day Reading List" for July 12, 2017, Grant Cunningham has a couple articles involving the reckless use of a handgun to shoot at fleeing thieves which are worth your perusal. In the first one, a man let off a fusillade of shots after a car thief and, unfortunately, struck and killed a neighbor living down the street. He is now going to be spending 10 years in prison for first-degree manslaughter. In the other article, the man fired shots after fleeing shop lifters, but fortunately didn't strike anyone. It is notable that even police officers may not shoot a fleeing felon where the suspect poses no immediate threat to the officer and no threat to others. Tennessee v. Garner, 471 U.S. 1, 7 (1985). 
                                                                                        • Another self-defense myth: Only experts can be trusted to carry firearms. "Secret Service special officer accidentally shoots himself while on duty"--Washington Examiner. No details on what happened, other than it was an accidental discharge. 
                                                                                        Other Stuff:
                                                                                        The initiative would form a commission to recommend avenues for California to pursue its independence and delete part of the state constitution that says it is an inseparable part of the U.S. The measure would also instruct the governor and California congressional delegation to negotiate more autonomy for the state.
                                                                                        With California having issued nearly 1 million driver's licenses to illegal aliens, it is a cinch that they should be able to get the requisite signatures. 
                                                                                        Afghanistan accounts for some 70 percent of the global opium production, according to the World Drug Report 2016 of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Although poppy cultivation is concentrated in southern Afghanistan, it can be found throughout the country. And while opium production is more prevalent in ungoverned areas like Dara-i Mazor, it also exists in government-controlled zones, as security forces, often struggling to keep insurgents at bay, are hardly able to prevent poppy cultivation.
                                                                                        The main point of the article, however, is that farmers are not being coerced into growing opium, such as is sometimes alleged, but something that they freely choose to do. 
                                                                                                 Astronauts from several Apollo missions also brought back geological samples from various parts of the Moon's surface, and in 2008 these samples were re-analysed to reveal trace water locked up in tiny glass beads.
                                                                                                   Those glass beads were found in pyroclastic deposits - rock deposits of volcanic origin from some 100 million years ago when the Moon was still a highly geologically active ball with a bubbling core and surface volcanoes.
                                                                                                      Such water, locked up in the Moon's own geology, is considered to be of local origin or 'indigenous', meaning it could have stuck around ever since the Moon was still a chunk of matter violently torn off our young Earth.
                                                                                                       But scientists couldn't tell whether these beads actually indicated a 'wet' layer right underneath the Moon's dusty crust, in the lunar mantle.
                                                                                                           "The key question is whether those Apollo samples represent the bulk conditions of the lunar interior or instead represent unusual or perhaps anomalous water-rich regions within an otherwise 'dry' mantle," says Ralph Milliken from Brown University, lead researcher of the latest study.
                                                                                                              To answer that key question, Milliken and his team turned to orbital data from India's Chandrayaan-1 lunar orbiter, which carried aboard the handy Moon Mineralogy Mapper.
                                                                                                              Using orbital data from previously mapped large pyroclastic deposits on the Moon's surface, laboratory analysis of Apollo mission samples, and a detailed model of lunar surface temperature data, the researchers found water-rich volcanic deposits all over the place.
                                                                                                                 "They're spread across the surface, which tells us that the water found in the Apollo samples isn't a one-off," says Milliken.
                                                                                                                  Some of these volcanic deposits stretch for thousands of square kilometres, and the team's data shows that there is four times more water in these than the measurable background level we mentioned above.
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                                                                                                          Tuesday, July 25, 2017

                                                                                                          July 25, 2017 -- A Quick Run Around the Web (Updated)

                                                                                                          "Sam Harris Drops the Red Pill on IQ"--Bastiat Report (8 min.)
                                                                                                          Harris argues that it is foolishness to argue that races can (and do) vary physically, but not mentally.

                                                                                                          The IP1 purports to limit who can fire it by requiring that the shooter wear a special Armatix watch. If the gun and the watch can't connect via a short-range radio signal that extends just a few inches, the gun won't fire. That's the idea, anyway. But Plore showed that he can extend the range of the watch's radio signal, allowing anyone to fire the gun when it's more than ten feet away. He can jam the gun's radio signals to prevent its owner from firing it—even when the watch is inches away and connected. And most disturbingly, he can mechanically disable the gun's locking mechanism by placing some cheap magnets alongside its barrel, firing the gun at will even when the watch is completely absent.
                                                                                                                 This so-called "touch DNA" or "trace DNA" has given investigators much more evidence to analyze, but it comes at a cost. We leave traces of our DNA everywhere, in dead skin cells, stray spit and strands of hair. The hardest job for investigators is to differentiate DNA that belongs to the criminal and DNA that randomly finds its way to the crime scene.
                                                                                                                   "There's something called 'accidental transfer' or 'secondary transfer,'" says Phillips. "The DNA on a weapon might come from the person who actually touched the object or the person who shook hands with the person who touched the object."
                                                                                                                     In 2015, forensic researchers asked pairs of people to shake hands for two minutes and then handle separate knives. In 85 percent of the cases, DNA from both people was found on the knives, and 20 percent of the cases showed more DNA from the secondary source.
                                                                                                                       Sometimes it's the forensic investigators themselves who accidentally contaminate the evidence. The guide shares the bizarre example of Adam Scott, a man wrongfully convicted of rape when his DNA was found in a genital swab. Scott's DNA was a perfect match — a one in a billion probability — and it was the only evidence used to convict him, despite Scott's claim that he was more than 200 miles (322 kilometers) away the night of the incident.
                                                                                                                         Scott spent five months in custody before the truth came out. A technician in the crime lab had reused a plastic plate that contained a sample of Scott's saliva from an unrelated "spitting incident." Phone records also corroborated Scott's claim that he was in his hometown at the time of the attack.
                                                                                                                  Yet another article describes how trace DNA was transferred from one scene--where paramedics were responding to a call involving a homeless man--to a murder scene miles away to which the paramedics were called a few hours later. Even flies, feasting on blood or semen at one location, can contaminate a crime scene at a different location--transferring DNA from the first scene to the second. 
                                                                                                                           Reports of the FBI seizing computer hard drives form the home of the congressional IT director and aide of Florida Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz are accurate, according to FBI sources: with the exception of one major detail. The computer hard drives were not damaged when they were confiscated, FBI sources said.
                                                                                                                             The FBI, who is working in some capacity to assist with the Capitol Police on the Awan investigation, confirm the hard drives and other computer equipment have been damaged but are pointing the finger at the Capitol Police’s chain of custody with the evidence. The FBI, they said, would not damage evidence and stressed if someone went to the trouble of destroying evidence before a seizure they normally would discard of it as well, federal sources said.
                                                                                                                               Capitol Police officials would not respond to requests for comment.
                                                                                                                        • True colors: "Trump messes with Sessions, and Senate Republicans are not pleased"--McClatchy. Top Senate RINOs are upset over Trump's criticism of Sessions and his failure ot investigate voter fraud involving Hillary Clinton. The article notes, in not so many words, that the problem is that Trump doesn't understand where Session's loyalty lies, mistakenly thinking that it lies with the American people, the Constitution, or, at a minimum, his boss. Instead, as the article states:
                                                                                                                        Sessions spent 20 years in the Senate, winning a reputation for affability and party loyalty. He understood and doggedly practiced the code of what's been called the world's most exclusive club: You can disagree without being disagreeable, but you protect the institution and its members.
                                                                                                                        • A new Woodpile Report. Lots of good comments and links, as usual. One portion leaps out in particular: the author's warning for those prepping for when this house of cards comes down:
                                                                                                                                 ... The signature event of survivalists is bugging out ... to their fortified bolt hole as society collapses in a fiery heap behind them. For preppers it's the remote homestead with gardens and solar panels.... Either may be part of a militia, bands of brothers training to defend their own in Mad Max times. All are responding to a partial, almost optimistic understanding of the coming disaster.
                                                                                                                                   DC has plainly stated, in public documents, they will requisition food, transportation, equipment, supplies and involuntarily servitude of any kind, in any amount, to whatever extent that pleases them in a "national emergency". Their control of the cities would rest on food distribution and essential services, then as now, and the rest of America would be stripped to make it happen. This is, plainly said, calculated annihilation, held as not only necessary but just.
                                                                                                                                     DC considers their power base—the urban west and east coasts and a few colonies in between—to be the real America, supported unwillingly but rightly by deplorables [aka, the fellaheen] living elsewhere who would otherwise act solely from pathologies born of willful ignorance and native ill will. ...
                                                                                                                                       Compliance with DC's quotas would become law enforcement's number one priority. It would fall to the military to deal with organized resistance, which history suggests is a near-certainty. Calories and survival are nearly the same thing. The European undergrounds of World War II grew into effective forces only when workers and foodstuffs were transferred to Germany. ...
                                                                                                                                         DC needn't target survivalists and prepper communities directly, they'd feel the follow-on effects. Towns and villages forced to ante up their quota to support the cities wouldn't endure famine when known stores of food and supplies were retrievable. Those preppers who didn't voluntarily hand over their deep larders "for the common good" would find armed committees at their door. Nor should they expect equitable treatment, they'd be condemned as unconscionable hoarders, feasting while toddlers with empty stomachs cry the night away.
                                                                                                                                  It is the fellaheen, as Oswald Spengler terms them, that always have to pay for the delusions of the globalists. Spengler explained (underlines added):
                                                                                                                                  All world-improvers and world-citizens [e.g., progressives and socialists] stand for fellaheen ideals, whether they know it or not. Their success means the historical abdication of the nation in favour, not of everlasting peace, but of another nation. World-peace is always a one-sided resolve. The Pax Romana had for the later soldier-emperors and Germanic band-kings only the one practical significance that it made a formless population of a hundred millions a mere object for the will-to-power of small warriorgroups. This peace cost the peaceful sacrifices beside which the losses of Cannae seem vanishingly small. The Babylonian, Chinese, Indian, Egyptian worlds pass from one conqueror's hands to another's, and it is their own blood that pays for the contest. That is their peace. When in 1401 the Mongols conquered Mesopotamia, they built a victory memorial out of the skulls of a hundred thousand inhabitants of Baghdad, which had not defended itself. From the intellectual point of view, no doubt, the extinction of the nations puts a fellaheen-world above history, civilized at last and for ever. But in the realm of facts it reverts to a state of nature, in which it alternates between long submissiveness and brief angers that for all the bloodshed world-peace never diminishes that alter nothing. Of old they shed their blood for themselves; now they must shed it for others, often enough for the mere entertainment of others that is the difference. A resolute leader who collects ten thousand adventurers about him can do as he pleases. Were the whole world a single Imperium, it would thereby become merely the maximum conceivable field for the exploits of such conquering heroes. "Lever doodt al s Sklav (better dead than slave)" is an old Frisian peasant saying. The reverse has been the choice of every Late Civilization, and every Late Civilization has had to experience how much that choice costs it.
                                                                                                                                  Update (7/26/2017): I initially had misapplied the fellaheen definition, because when Spengler wrote about it, he used the term to describe the peasants of any late stage civilization, and so I wrongly attributed it to the "deplorables." However, Spengler was speaking of "the great mass of peasants who adapt and survive from one civilization to the next without becoming part of any, thus remaining separate from the great movements of history." But Spengler does not use the term when referring to the pre-civilization peasants, which in his mind, encapsulate the culture; rather, it is always in reference to late-stage civilization or, even, post-civilization people that live in virtual slavery to whomever asserts dominion over the land on which they live. For instance, in another part of his book, speaking of the spread of Islam among the then-Christian, Jewish, and Persian nations of the Near- and Middle-East, he wrote:
                                                                                                                                  With the end of the first millennium of our era these nations one and all pass over into the form of fellah peoples, and it is as fellaheen that the Christian peoples of the Balkans under Turkish rule, the Parsees in India, and the Jews in Western Europe have lived ever since.
                                                                                                                                  (Decline of the West (Kindle location 13280)). Thus, the fellaheen are those that will tolerate being subjected to the rule of a more aggressive peoples. The fellaheen, in our case, would include the rabbity left: the left-wing hipsters, pajama boys, and others uninvolved in and uncaring of their nation or national fate.
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                                                                                                                                  Weekend Reading

                                                                                                                                   First up, although I'm several days late on this, Jon Low posted a new Defensive Pistolcraft newsletter on 12/15/2024 . He includes thi...