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.

• Another (relatively) inexpensive long-range rifle hits the market: "TFB Review: Lithgow Arms CrossOver LA102 Rifle"--The Firearms Blog. 
• "Power outage on North Carolina islands forces 10,000 tourists to cut short vacation as governor declares state of emergency that could last WEEKS"--Daily Mail. The article reports that a construction company, building a new bridge to link the Outer Banks to the Mainland, drove a steel casing into an underground electrical cable, severing electricity to Ocracoke and Hatteras Islands. The North Carolina governor declared a state of emergency, ordering 10,000 tourists to leave the Islands as it could be days, or even weeks, before power is restored. In the interim, generators were brought to the islands to provide limited power for the 5,000 permanent residents. Residents, however, were asked to limit power consumption to just fans (for cooling) and refrigerators. The article notes that "[t]wo restaurants on Ocracoke were using generators to stay open, but the motel Lazure booked for her vacation closed when its generator exploded minutes after it was started." It also highlighted a restaurant that was still open because it used propane for cooking, but its chefs were having to use flashlights for light. The shut down will probably devastate the local economy, which depends on summer tourism.
• "Oroville Dam's 'green spot' raises new worries that the nation's tallest dam could be facing a breach danger from a slow motion leak five months after it overflowed"--Daily Mail. There is a section of the dam that is "green" from vegetation relying on water seeping from inside the dam. The Oroville Dam is upstream of the Sacramento Valley and "impounds Lake Oroville, the second largest man-made lake in the state of California, capable of storing more than 3.5 million acre-feet (4.4 km3)." This could go bad very quickly if the water seepage is eroding the interior of the dam. 
• Yes. "Can a Modern Pencil Barrel Take the Heat? InRange TV Puts Faxon’s Stress Relieved Barrels to the Test"--The Firearms Blog. From the article:

... 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:

• The spoils of war: "Australia’s Halal Chief Says White Women Need To Be Fertilized By Muslim Men"--Daily Caller. The article reports:

       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. 

• "Four terror suspects arrested in plot to bomb a PLANE over Sydney after police breakup a Islamist cell in raids across the city – as security is boosted at airports around the country"--Daily Mail. And this: "Shocked neighbours have told AAP the family living in the property were 'perfectly nice and normal people.'" That is what people said about Jeffrey Dahmer. This is the result of people confusing being polite with being kind or considerate. There are many reasons why someone may act polite that have nothing to due with kindness. In Japan, for instance, I noticed that while the Japanese were very polite, it was because they didn't want to cause offense; whereas Americans are generally polite out of kindness or consideration. This is why Japanese won't hold a door open for someone behind them, but a goodly portion of Americans will.

• "Machete-wielding man 'screaming Allahu Akbar' kills one person and injures several others during rampage in Hamburg supermarket"--Daily Mail. The article notes: "One officer said there was 'no valid information on the motive of the attacker' who has yet to be identified." 

• Even paranoid people have enemies: "Plot To Replace Europeans With Refugess Exposed"--WND. It reports:

       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. 

• "The Central African Republic is one of the worst countries in the world to be a child," according to an article at The Huffington Post. The article continues:

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.

• The wages of sin socialism: "Venezuelan protestors strip National Guardsmen naked and beat them in revenge for deadly street violence ahead of crucial weekend vote to rewrite constitution"--Daily Mail. 
• Never, ever, apologize to Social Justice Warriors: "Dear, Boy Scout Leaders: Apology Not Accepted"--Huffington Post. Conversely, Todd Starnes suggests that "It's Time for Patriots to Break Ties with Boy Scouts" because of the apology. Starnes explains:

       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.

• The U.S. has followed a process of diplomacy combined with economic sanctions for decades to prevent North Korea from developing nuclear weapons. This is the result: "South Korea considers a nuclear arsenal to counter the North"--McClatchy. The article reports that, "[n]o longer sure they can rely on the United States, an increasing number of South Korean lawmakers say their country should develop its own nuclear arsenal to deter an attack by Kim Jong Un, their belligerent neighbor to the north." This is because of "North Korea’s rapid missile advances, including successful tests of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) in July and again on Friday...." Good job Bush, Clinton, Bush, and Obama. I used to believe that it was Democrats that started wars and Republicans that ended them, but I've had to revise that to it being Progressives (Democrats or RINOs) that cause wars.
• Because he is a cuck: "Why John McCain voted against ‘skinny’ repeal of ObamaCare"--New York Post. His explanation was that the proposed bill didn't extend health care coverage to enough Americans. Nothing conservative in that comment: he obviously believes that it is the role of the American Taxpayer to provide, at the point of a gun (because that is ultimately how laws are enforced), health care for whoever finds themselves inside the borders. Here is what I know: before Obama Care, the business for which I was working was seeing decreases to is premiums; afterward, we have seen huge increases year after year. 
• This explains the global warming fanatics: "Religious people 'cling to certain beliefs' even when they contradict evidence because they are overly emotional and irrational, study claims"--Daily Mail. It has been noted by many thinkers that environmentalism has increasingly replaced traditional religions in the West. The late novelist Michael Crichton, in a speech given in 2003, made the following observations about environmentalism:

       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.