August 14, 2017 -- A Quick Run Around the Web

"SKS: Dos and Don'ts"--Plains Prepper (7 min.)

The author of this video goes over some of the problems with accessories to make the SKS into a modern sporting rifle. His conclusion is much like mine: stick with the standard configuration. He also notes that the prices of SKS rifles continues to increase, such that they have now entered the lower bracket of prices for AR rifles. In other words, they are no longer the low cost alternative for a defensive rifle.

Firearms/Self-Defense/Prepping:

• "Realistic Emergencies- Money not Guns and Gear and Buckets O Food"--Total Survivalist Blog. The author raises a point that I have made many times before: the need to first prepare for the more probable or more likely emergencies over the less likely. In this case, the author notes that most emergencies that someone will experience--such as medical issues, automobile repairs, or legal issues--require money, not bullets or buckets of wheat. Have cash set aside, or funds in a savings account.
• "Don’t Dig the Rig #11"--Active Response Training. Greg Ellifritz occasionally comments on Concealed Nation's "Dig the Rig" where readers can post photographs of their personal concealed carry rig. In this case, "the Rig" he comments on is one where Concealed Nation's post featured a compact Springfield XD in a Sticky Holster. Ellifritz does not particularly care for the XD, having seen too many malfunctions in his classes and because it uses a grip safety; nor does he like the Sticky Holster, which is advertised as a holster that can be used in the pocket or inside the waist-band, although it lacks clips, loops, or other attachment points. While he acknowledges that the holsters can work okay as a pocket holster, they fail as to inside-the-waistband carry because they will not stay in place in extreme movement. And his complaint about grip safeties is that a person that is fatigued after a struggle may not have enough grip strength to actuate the safety.
• "Omaha Outdoors Drop Test Follow Up: Dropping More Guns!"--The Truth About Guns. One of the many complaints by people commenting on articles about the Sig P320 is that no one has done a comparison against other popular handguns to see if the P320 is less safe. Well, now someone has. Omaha Outdoors tested several models of Glocks, a couple HK models, a Smith & Wesson M&P, and a Springfield 1911 style pistol, and none of them had a discharge on the same test that had led to a discharge in the P320. However, I think that some writers have been too focused on the angle of the drop rather than the general problem. That is, the problem is not the angle, per se, but that a hard blow to the back of the slide could cause the P320 to discharge. Patrick R. at The Firearms Blog demonstrated this by setting off a P320 by striking the rear of the weapon with a plastic mallet.
• "A Rifleman’s Support Bag"--The New Rifleman. The author writes:

The bag is comprised of elements that will support your marksmanship. Even the bag itself is a tool to support your marksmanship. The bag and its contents are universal in nature. It is intended to assist you regardless if you are packing a M16A2 or a modern DMR build.

As such, the author recommends: a basic, non-electronic range estimator (specifically, he uses the Vortex Solo R/T); a mil-dot master (a slide rule type device to help with adjusting for range); a first-aid/trauma kit; data book; basic tools for your weapon, its mounts, sights, etc.; spare small parts; and extra ammo. 

• "AccuChannel Groove Technology of Federal Edge TLR Ammunition"--The Firearms Blog. From the post:

Federal Premium has released a video explaining the AccuChannel Groove technology seen on the bullets of their Edge TLR ammunition. Based on the conducted tests, they’ve found out that if placed in a specific location, a single groove on the projectile will have the advantages of multiple grooves. They also have a different groove geometry which according to Federal Premium reduces the pressure on the groove as well as decreases the drag of the bullet thus improving its performance.

I don't have the equipment and/or long range shooting skills to take advantage of these, but some of you might.

• "The Sawyer Extractor"--Blue Collar Prepping. A review of the Sawyer Extractor, which is a suction tool intended to remove the stinger and venom from a bee sting or an insect bite (including mosquitoes) or a snake bite. It looks like the price runs between $15 and $20 for the kit.
• "Bowfishing for Survival"--American Preppers Network. A brief overview of bow fishing.
• "Feared Peruvian hitman is gunned down at point-blank range while waiting for a trim at his local barber shop by rival assassin"--Daily Mail. I included this in the self-defense category because of the lesson it offers: that a sudden attack when the victim is distracted (in this case, using his smart phone) can be very successful. 

Other Stuff:

• "TERROR BENEATH THE SEA Chilling satellite images suggest North Korea is about to launch missiles from submarines as nuke crisis with US escalates"--The Sun. Satellite photographs appear to show North Korea loading its test ballistic missile submarines. Nets or tarps have been suspended over the vessels to conceal what exactly is going on, but the last time this was done was just prior to a test of their missile launch capabilities.

• Related: "Are We Going to War With North Korea?"--The Silicon Graybeard. He notes that, technically, we have been at war with North Korea since the beginning of the Korean War--the 1953 armistice did not end the war.

• Related: "Trump’s Full-Court Press Is Squeezing the Nukes Out of North Korea"--Austin Bay at the Observer. He discusses the Trump strategy for dealing with North Korea, and believes that it may be having success--at least greater success than Clinton, Bush II, or Obama ever achieved. Bay writes:

       Has the Trump pressure strategy produced positive results?

       North Korea has blinked, but the sensationalist mainstream media, from The New York Times to CNN, have missed it.

       But the sharp minds at 38north.org didn’t. They reported, “Anyone familiar with the North’s statements knows that over the past month there has been a major shift in Pyongyang’s formulation about negotiating.”

       Yet CNN quoted North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho as saying “…We will, under no circumstances, put the nukes and ballistic rockets on the negotiating table…”

       38north provided the correction:

       “Unless the hostile policy and nuclear threat of the U.S. against the D.P.R.K. are fundamentally eliminated, we, under no circumstances, will put the nukes and ballistic rockets on the negotiating table and will not flinch even an inch away from our path of strengthening of the nuclear forces, which is chosen by ourselves.”

        To interpret Pyongyang’s statement as the “we just might talk about getting rid of the nukes” signal it is requires that the interpreter possess certain skills.  The interpreter must know the relevant history, have common sense (a skill related to historical knowledge), pay close attention to current developments, and maintain an open mind free of ideological and emotional-political distortion. Unfortunately, the contemporary U.S. mainstream media fall short in all four skill sets.

        Responding to Trump’s rhetorical fireworks, Kim threatened to fire missiles at Guam. Remember, Guam is U.S. soil.

        It’s where America’s day begins.

        Following that North Korean threat, Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull said his country would immediately come to the aid of the U.S. if North Korea attacks Guam.

        Japan announced it may intercept the North Korean missiles with anti-ballistic missiles.

        But here’s the big news: now China is warning North Korea that it’s on its own “if it launches missiles threatening U.S. soil and there is retaliation…” China, however, “would intervene if Washington strikes first. ”

        China is clearly separating itself from the Kim regime and saying it will not defend North Korea if North Korea attacks U.S. territory. China is no longer North Korea’s shield.

• "Amazing moment boat carrying dozens of African migrants arrives on Spanish beach in front of shocked tourists and scatter before police arrive"--Daily Mail. The invasion route into Europe is shifting from the Libya-Italy route to the Morocco-Spain route.
• Can't Stump the Trump: "Trump calls out 'KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists' following violence in Charlottesville"--Washington Examiner. Deftly distancing himself from the objects of the hate in Charlottesville while not alienating his base.
• It is not just the water that is bad: "10,000 gallons of illicit alcohol are seized from 31 Mexican resorts, restaurants and nightclubs in tourist hot spots after death of 20-year-old Wisconsin woman"--Daily Mail. 
• "The Myth of the Peaceful Woman"--According to Hoyt. If you have ever been friends with women (and I mean friend in the platonic sense), you know how catty and vicious they can be amongst themselves. The (female) author of this piece attempts to explain the female social milieu in order to advise putative authors to stop trying to portray women as cuddly, nurturing and so forth. She concludes: 

        So what would a world made up totally of women really be like? It would be tyrannical beyond belief. No one would be willing to speak against the accepted narrative unless they were willing to be unpersoned or killed. Think of a mix between 1984, the very worst social aspects of socialist regimes, and the Borg. ...

       ... If any thinking individualist finds themselves in a society run by women, may God have mercy on their souls because those women will have none at all.

• "Wrong Turn"--originally from the New Yorker Magazine. A history of how we wound up with air bags: those hideously expensive, somewhat dangerous, and generally useless devices mandated for most motor vehicles in the United States. Basically it comes down to one serious mistake, though: air bag proponents seriously underestimated how willing Americans would be to buckle up in the face of seat-belt laws. From the article:

There is no question that the improvements in auto design which Haddon and his disciples pushed for saved countless lives. They changed the way cars were built, and put safety on the national agenda. What they did not do, however, is make American highways the safest in the world. In fact--and this is the puzzling thing about the Haddon crusade--the opposite happened. United States auto-fatality rates were the lowest in the world before Haddon came along. But, since the late nineteen-seventies, just as the original set of N.H.T.S.A. safety standards were having their biggest impact, America's safety record has fallen to eleventh place. According to calculations by Leonard Evans, a longtime General Motors researcher and one of the world's leading experts on traffic safety, if American traffic fatalities had declined at the same rate as Canada's or Australia's between 1979 and 1997, there would have been somewhere in the vicinity of a hundred and sixty thousand fewer traffic deaths in that span.

• "Mexico fast becoming the US's largest market for energy exports, report says"--Washington Examiner. Mexico has some of the largest oil reserves in the world, but "[m]ore than 50 percent of Mexico's energy imports now comes from the U.S. as Mexico's national oil and gas company, Pemex, struggles to reinvest in its own production, according to a new report due out this week from S&P Global Platts that underscores the large stake Mexico has in buying fossil fuels from the United States." Average IQ in Mexico is 88. Its corruption rating was 123 last year--almost that of Russia, and much higher than the United States score of 18.
• "Government theft"--Vox Popoli. A graph showing how, beginning in 2014, the value of asset forfeitures by the government exceeded the amount lost to burglary.