August 20, 2017 -- A Quick Run Around the Web

"China’s Urbanization Plans Are Going Wrong"--China Uncensored (9 min.)

China purportedly wants to reduce rural poverty by forcing rural workers to move to cities. Problem is, migrants from rural cantons are not entitled to social services (including medical care or education) in the cities, nor is there sufficient inexpensive housing. At the same time, authorities are shutting down schools in rural regions. I'm sure that the real motive of Chinese authorities is to reduce wages in order to make China more competitive and keep their "economic miracle" going. 

Firearms/Self-Defense/Prepping:

• Caliber Wars! Richard Mann, writing at American Hunter, has penned an article entitled: "The .30-06 Sucks." The gist of his article is that the increased recoil of the .30-06 compared to the .308 (or other similar short action cartridge) is not worth any advantage in performance. He notes, for instance, that comparing Hornady’s Precision Hunter ammunition, the .30-06 will deliver about 9 % better performance than the .308 (although he doesn't define what he means by "performance") versus a 16% increase in recoil. Similarly, he argues that ammunition advances in terminal performance means that the heavier 200+ grain bullets (which the .308 cannot use) are no longer necessary. His belief is that the continued popularity boils down to emotion or nostalgia, rather than any real benefits. 

        Jon Wayne Taylor at The Truth About Guns responds to Mann in his article, "The Truth About .30-06." Taylor points out that the 9% performance to which Mann refers is at the muzzle. He continues:

Using the exact same data provided, comparing a 178gr ELD for the .30-06 vs. the 155gr ELD in the .308, the gulf in energy delivered widens the farther out we push the round. By 300 yards, there’s a 13 percent advantage to the .30-06. At 400, it’s 16 percent. And at 500 yards, we see an 18 percent advantage in the long action vs. the short action cartridge.

He also notes that .30-06 is the handloader's dream: "There’s a full 100 grains of play in bullet choice for the .30-06, depending on what you want to do with it. Recipes abound, with an extremely wide choice of components available, and available all over the world."

        The problem with Mann's argument is that it is an argument that can be made almost ad infinitum with different calibers. For instance, I can make the same argument for choosing the .30-06 over the .300 Win. Mag. Then, if we have talked someone down to the .30-06, make Mann's argument to trade down to the .308. And if we are there, and talking about hunting deer, well, then, the .243 has less recoil than the .308 while still being perfectly viable for hunting deer. Of course, we've now dropped from a rifle round that could be used for any large game in North America for one that is only suitable for white tail and antelope or smaller game animals. In short, it all depends on what you are hunting, the range at which you will likely be shooting, and the versatility you are seeking from a single firearm.

         If you can afford a different rifle for virtually any different game you might be hunting, Mann's argument makes more sense. But if you have one rifle for which you may use for everything from small white tail deer, through mule deer, to elk or larger, then you need more versatility than you can get out of some of the short action rounds. For instance, those 200+ grain bullets that Mann argue are no longer relevant are relevant if you need deeper penetration for use against a larger animal. This versatility is where the .30-06 shines, and why it has remained one of the most popular hunting rounds of all time.  

• "World War II vs. Today: Comparing the Soldier’s Load in Two Eras"--The Firearms Blog. Nathaniel Fitch has another article on how the modern soldier is overly weighted down. This time, he compares the Approach March Load (AML) of the Rifleman and Automatic Rifleman (SAW gunner) from 2017 versus the Rifleman and Automatic Rifleman of 1944-45. The modern rifleman's AML is 96 pounds, of which 13.5 pounds is ammunition and 8.7 pounds for the weapon (unloaded), although this weight seems low if the weapon is outfitted with the modern optics, lights, lasers, etc. In comparison, the WWII rifleman with his M1 Garand had an AML of 68 pounds of which 11.6 pounds was ammunition and 10.7 pounds was for the rifle.

       Turning to the Automatic Rifleman, the modern AML is 128 pounds, of which nearly 25 pounds is for ammunition, and the weapon is 18.9 pounds. His WWII counterpart, armed with the BAR, had a combat load of 84.3 pounds, of which 19 pounds was his ammunition, and his weapon was 21.9 pounds.

• ".22 LR for Self-Defense?"--Shooting Illustrated. Another article from Richard Mann. However, this one explores the terminal ballistics of various .22 LR rounds. Although Mann is not suggesting that the .22 LR is a good choice for a self-defense round, he is acknowledging that it is a caliber that is often used for self-defense either because it is cheap and available (how many people own a .22 rifle) or the pistols for it are small and light (e.g., the Beretta Bobcat or North American Arm's mini-revolvers). The problem with these very tiny guns, in my mind, is the general lack of accuracy--something critical for a round that requires exceptional accuracy to be effective. It is true that Mosad has, in the past, used .22 pistols successfully for assassinations, but this involved multiple shooters surrounding a single target at bad breath distance, all emptying their handguns into the target, not a single individual trying to shoot a bad guy across the room or down a hallway.
• "YouTube Demonetizing Gun Channels"--The Truth About Guns. You may want to start downloading your favorite videos. I've used KeepVid with success. It is not just firearms video, but conservative videos more generally. Patreon has also targeted some conservative or right-wing content providers, such as Laura Southern. Some alternative products (such as Hatreaon) have arisen, but they are under attack as well. For instance, Google Play is no longer offering Gab for Android, which was intended as a Twitter alternative. Of course, you can strike back by demonitizing Google by using a different search engine, such as Duck Duck Go or Start Page.

Other Stuff:

• The New Puritanism: Increasingly, I see pundits compare political correctness and its thought police described in terms of religion:

• Martin Gurri has an extremely interesting article called "The revolt of the public and the 'age of post-truth'," which attempts to explain the current panic about "fake news" and why the nation has lost a shared consensus or "truth." Echoing some of the themes explored by Oswald Spengler, Gurri notes that the elite are not only supposed to trade in power and money, but also serve as examples to establish a common national consensus or narrative. However, according to Gurri, the elite have failed at their duty, and, in the current Internet age, it has allowed the narrative to become shattered, with different groups and individuals clinging to different versions of the "truth." (Spengler would not be surprised at this, as the West has moved into a period of Imperialism and Caesarism, and the old political forms are just spectacle).  I recommend reading the whole article, but for purposes of my theme expressed above, Gurri notes:

“Social justice warriors” have fortified their subjective sliver of the world into a “new religion,” according to Haidt.  These young people, weaned on smart phones and the web, share an exaggerated narrative about oppression in the US, and wish to purify our society until only their transcendent truth is fit for polite talk.  Deviant perspectives, even in history or literature, make them feel frightened and angry.  The response is to hide in “safe spaces” or to shut down the offending speaker.  Since Trump’s election, the “warriors” have resorted to violence to silence Republican and conservative opinions.  In their actions I discern the possibility of a bleakly illiberal future, in which national narratives are thrown into the bonfire without regret, and the war-bands impose their claustrophobic visions by means of threat and fear.

• Rod Dreher wrote in June that "[t]he rising Left is bound and determined to crush or at least permanently sideline people it deems heretics — in particular, whites, males, orthodox Christians, and skeptics of the LGBT project. It does not want a pluralistic modus vivendi; it wants total domination." This month, he takes the simile farther, stating:

       The evangelist (so to speak) who taught the session at A.B.’s [diversity] workshop is no outlier. This kind of thing is common at universities, and within corporate culture. It teaches the Chosen that they are free from sin because, in the metaphysics of the diversity religion, they have no power. It tells people outside of the camp of the Chosen that they are bad by virtue of their race, sex, sexual desire, gender identity, physical ability, and, at times, religion. They were born into this state of defilement, and can never fully cleanse themselves of it. The only way they can redeem themselves is by agreeing to accept dhimmitude — second-class status — as their just desserts.

       The clerical class keeps close watch over the words the dhimmis speak, and if they question the religion in any way, or violate any of its taboos, they will be punished severely. The clerisy polices doctrinal purity by declaring any dissent to be a manifestation of bigotry, which is to say, evil. The clerisy teaches the Chosen that they do not have to monitor their own consciences, because they cannot sin. Rather, their job is to scan relentlessly the lives of the others, the Deplorables, and root out sin when they find it by reporting them to the religious authorities.

       These “diversity” programs, such as the one A.B. had to endure, amount to catechesis in the righteousness of dhimmitude. Is there any wonder that people disadvantaged by this religion are sick and tired of it? Having taught the masses to think of themselves in terms of identity categories, the clerisy is shocked to find that the unclean, the Deplorables, are doing just that, but rejecting the idea that their identity defiles them. In fact, they are coming to see that this religious system, which refuses to admit to any rational criticism, is in fact a structure designed to dispossess them. What started as an effort to teach people in the majority demographic categories to empathize with minorities, and to treat them more fairly, has devolved into a re-education program telling majorities that justice requires them to despise themselves, because they can never really overcome the original sin of being white, male, heterosexual, and politically or religiously conservative.

• 44,000 leftists protested against free speech in Boston on Saturday. The leftists also showed their moral superiority by pelting police with rocks, bottles of urine, and other objects. 

• Related: "New York Times Applauds Far-Left Violence"--Powerline. Of course. The New York Times represents the elites, and the elites are preoccupied with destroying the uncooperative part of America, aka, Conservatives. And the Times reasoning: "You need violence in order to protect nonviolence.” And they are willing to destroy the village to protect it.

• Related: "Is America Headed for a New Kind of Civil War?"--New Yorker. From the piece:

In March, Mines was one of several national-security experts whom Foreign Policy asked to evaluate the risks of a second civil war—with percentages. Mines concluded that the United States faces a sixty-per-cent chance of civil war over the next ten to fifteen years. Other experts’ predictions ranged from five per cent to ninety-five per cent. The sobering consensus was thirty-five per cent. And that was five months before Charlottesville.

The piece also notes that "Mines’s definition of a civil war is large-scale violence that includes a rejection of traditional political authority and requires the National Guard to deal with it." And he isn't talking about Antifa.

• Heh. "I Celebrated Black History Month… By Finding Out I Was White"--Huffington Post. Christine Carter decided to celebrate her black heritage by having a genetic test. The results showed that she was 31.5% European. And to prove that white privilege is real, she expressed her feelings about when she read the results: "Of all the emotions which materialized from the results, the two strongest were disorient [sic] and shame."
• Speaking of diversity: "Barcelona Terror Cell Originally Planned to Target Sagrada Familia Cathedral With Massive Truck Bomb"--PJ Media. The author reports: "The terror cell that struck Barcelona on Thursday originally intended to target the city's famed Sagrada Familia cathedral with a massive truck bomb, as investigators have revealed they've discovered 120 gas canisters that are believed to have been intended for the attack." Unfortunately for the terrorist, one of their crew suffered a premature detonation:

       The plans of the terror cell were apparently derailed after the explosion Wednesday of the safe house in Alcanar an hour south of Barcelona, where the terrorists were apparently building the vehicle bombs and where they had stored the gas canisters and the explosive TATP [Tri-Acetone Tri-Peroxide].

        One of those killed in that blast is believed to be imam Abdelbaki Es Satty, who has become the one of the primary subjects of the investigation.

• Ideocracy in action: "Dozens demonstrate in Detroit against white supremacy, Christopher Columbus"--Detroit Free Press. According to the article, "[o]rganizers said they were unaware of any Confederate monuments in the city, so were focusing on memorials to other historical figures tied to a white supremacy mind-set." A spokesman for the group added:

       "Christopher Columbus has a real disturbing legacy in the United States," said demonstrator Antonio Cosme. "He's a central central [sic] narrative to white nationalism. He's one of the key figures in this whole Western identity. This whole idea that the civilization of the world started in England, that it started in France, that it started in Germany." [???]

       "Instead of making it Columbus Day, we want to make it indigenous and African peoples day," Cosme said. [No appropriation there!]

Per the article, "[a]long with railing against Columbus, the demonstrators denounced water shutoffs in Detroit, gentrification in and around downtown, and the proliferation of downtown security cameras." You can't make this stuff up.

• "43% Of Some Refugees Have Latent TB"--Anonymous Conservative. 43% of Sub-Saharan African refugees in the San Diego area have latent TB compared with only 4% of the general population--which includes migrants from TB rich South America.
• "June was unusually chilly" according to the Finnish Meteorological Institute. The western part of the country saw temperatures .5 to 1.5 degrees Celsius lower than normal, while the eastern part saw temperatures as much as 2.5 degrees Celsius below normal.
• "Warm periods in the 20th century are not unprecedented during the last 2,000 years"--Watts Up With That. Chinese researchers developed proxy data for the past 2,000 years and compared it against more modern measurements:

“We found four warm epochs,” says Prof. Ge, “which were AD 1 to AD 200, AD 550 to AD 760, AD 950 to AD 1300, and the 20th century. Cold periods occurred between AD 210 and AD 350, AD 420 and AD 530, AD 780 and AD 940, and AD 1320 and AD 1900. The temperature amplitude between the warmest and coldest decades was 1.3°C”.

Also, "reconstruction showed records for the period from 981 to 1100, and again from 1201 to 1270, were comparable to those of the present warm period."

• Remember those Pakastani IT specialists hired by the House Democrats? "IT staffers may have compromised sensitive data to foreign intelligence"--New York Post. According to the article, "[i]nvestigators now suspect that sensitive US government data — possibly including classified information — could have been compromised and may have been sold to hostile foreign governments that could use it to blackmail members of Congress or even put their lives at risk."
• "Charlottesville: The Hypocrisy of My Fellow Conservatives"--Medium. Someone writing under the nom de plume "Thomas Jefferson" calls out more mainstream conservatives for their hypocrisy as to issues of race and identity politics.
• "From the edge of the solar system, Voyager probes are still talking to Australia after 40 years"--Phys Org. From the article:

       The Canberra tracking station continues to receive signals from both Voyager spacecraft every day, and is currently the only tracking station capable of exchanging signals with Voyager 2, owing to the spacecraft's position as it heads on its southward path out of the solar system.

         Due to their respective distances, tens of billions of kilometres from home, the signal strength from both spacecraft is very weak, only one-tenth of a billion-trillionth of a watt.

         In 2012, Voyager 1 became the first spacecraft to have entered interstellar space, the region between the stars. Lying beyond the influence of the magnetic bubble generated by our Sun, Voyager 1 is able to directly study the composition of the interstellar medium, for the first time.

       Voyager 1 is still receiving commands that can only be sent from Canberra's dishes. It is the only station with the high-power transmitter that can transmit a signal strong enough to be received by the spacecraft.

        It has been an epic voyage for two spacecraft no bigger than small buses, two brilliant robots with an eight track tape deck to record data and 256kB of memory.