October 5, 2017 -- A Quick Run Around the Web

"How To Make A Soup Can Stove"-- NightHawkInLight (~8 min.)

Firearms/Self-Defense/Prepping:

• "Aluminum Fishing Boat Refurbishing Project: Part One, Fixing the Leaks"--Security & Self-Reliance. My dad had a small aluminum boat that he used for fishing and occasional puttering around on the Snake River. Simple and rugged. The author here recounts his purchase of a similar style boat for a good price on the used market. The only problem was a small leak through a cracked or broken seal of a seam at the bow. He describes how he used marine epoxy and Rustoleum Sealant to fix the leak. 
• "AR15 Trigger Buyer’s Guide: No Clickbait Edition"--The New Rifleman. The author provides some recommendations as to AR triggers based on use and preference, including a budget 1-stage (Spikes Tactical Battle Trigger or ALG Defense QMS and ACT), budget 2-stage (Larue MBT), Geissele (he gives them their own category, noting that they make triggers for any type of "job" you need your rifle to perform), drop-in triggers (basically, anything Elfman), and the Wisconsin Trigger Co. MKII for someone who wants to be able to tinker with any and all settings on their trigger.
• "Recent images of Rio’s drug war"--The Firearms Blog. The various police, military, and para-military units used to fight criminal gangs in Rio de Janeiro and its surrounding slums regularly showcase a large variety of different combat weapons. This article has a number of photographs showcasing some of the weapons, with links to high definition versions of the photographs.

Other Stuff:

• "Some Quick Thoughts on the Las Vegas Shooting Police Radio Traffic"--Active Response Training. This is oriented toward law enforcement, but all readers may find the discussion of the different issues that arose during the police response to be interesting.
• "FBI Agent: We Have ‘Multiple Leads’ In US And ‘All Across The World’ In Vegas Shooting"--Daily Caller. 
• The shooter had been watching too many movies: "Las Vegas Strip shooter targeted aviation fuel tanks, source says"--Las Vegas Review-Journal. 

        The bullets left two holes in one of two circular white tanks. One of the bullets penetrated the tank, but did not cause a fire or explosion near the Route 91 Harvest country music festival, another knowledgeable source said late Wednesday.

        The tanks are roughly 1,100 feet from the concert site, where Paddock killed 58 people and wounded almost 500. Several airplane hangars belonging to prominent corporations are also near the tanks.

* * *

       “A machine gun is not going to blow up a tank of fuel,” Boyd said. “Jet fuel itself sitting there in a big wet pile is very hard to ignite. You have to be a very amateur terrorist to think anything like that.”

• Yesterday, I predicted that the Republicans would race to embrace a bill banning bump fire stocks and similar devices so they could virtue signal to the left. Today, The Hill reports that "[a] Democratic proposal to ban a special accessory known as a bump stock, which allows semi-automatic guns to fire several hundred rounds a minute, is gaining unexpected support from Republicans in both chambers." I don't know that it was unexpected to anyone. However, Say Uncle warns the cucks GOP Congressmen supporting this bill that if the bill passes, "the pro-gun side damn well better get something in return. Or the Republicans will lose a lot of voters."
• "A Theory on Las Vegas"--John Ringo. The author advances the theory that Paddock's actions were not because he was a member of ISIS or Antifa, but because he suffered a homicidal psychotic break likely due to medications and/or a brain disorder. He notes that a psychotic break doesn't always or necessarily result in a frenzied, violent response, but may result in obsessive behavior with planning violence and presenting few noticeable outward signs to loved ones or neighbors; especially if the person is smart and methodical, as Paddock's background suggests. This article is worth the read.
• Sad: "Passengers Flee in Panic as Commuter Reads Bible Aloud on London Train"--Breitbart. Passengers on a commuter train were so "triggered" by an older gentleman wanting to talk to them about Christ and reading passages from the Bible, that they panicked and some even pried open the doors to get away. Of course, we won't hear one peep about Christian-phobic behavior.
• "Norwegian Army Chief: Europe Must Destroy Islam in Order to Survive"--Truth Revolt. From the article: 

       “I think we must be ready to fight, both with words, actions – and if necessary weapons – to preserve the country and the values we have in common,” said Odin Johannessen in a speech to the Oslo Military Society last week, according to Freedom Daily.

        “Europe can no longer expect to live in peace and security, without having to defend its interests and values,” he added, noting that well-trained and adequately-equipped soldiers would be crucial. “You can not win wars without having people on the ground,” he asserted.

• As you know, the Spanish Government didn't take too kindly to Catalonia's attempt at holding a referendum on independence. Writes David P. Goldman:

        ... For the first time since the end of the Second World War, a revolutionary movement has asserted its power over an important European region. The conduct of the Catalan independence referendum was a thoroughly organized insurgency involving the whole of civil society, from the region’s Catholic Church to the organs of public safety. Unlike the failed independence movements of Quebec or Scotland, it was not a top-down affair promoted by a small political elite with the sentimental support of a popular minority. Unlike Italy’s Lega Lombarda, it was not a regional lobby fighting for more control of tax revenues. Catalan’s independence movement is the genuine article.

         Never in postwar European history have tens of thousands of citizens collaborated in a campaign of civil disobedience so well planned that it successfully countered the mass deployment of national police and the paramilitary Civil Guard, and with sufficient grit to take nearly 1,000 injuries requiring medical treatment. The Catalans kept more than 2,000 voting stations open and saved their ballots from seizure, allowing more than 2.4 million of the region’s 7 million residents to vote.  Ninety percent of them supported the establishment of an independent Catalan republic.

          To frustrate the Madrid government’s attempt to suppress the referendum, the independence movement coordinated the occupation of hundreds of polling stations by ordinary citizens, including families with children. It persuaded the regional police, the Mossos d’Esquadra, to stand off the Civil Guard and National Police, as in this video published by the Catholic-Monarchist newspaper ABC:

         It organized the fire brigades of Catalan towns to form human shields between the polling stations and the Civil Guard. It established mechanisms to hide the ballot-boxes from the national police and transport them to a secret site for counting. Where the national police forces broke through, ordinary citizens defended the vote with their bodies, resulting in nearly 1,000 injuries, against roughly a dozen injuries for police, in a display of determined but non-violent resistance.

He goes on to explain the economic and social factors underlying the push, so please read the whole thing. However, you should also note the continued heavy-handed actions of the Spanish government. Vox Day has been following this, and notes that the on Tuesday, Spain's Ministry of Defense had "ordered the sending of the Army to Catalonia with material and to provide logistical support to the Civil Guard and the National Police."  The EU has refused to intervene or even offer assistance to mediate the matter. And so, Catalonian officials are prepared to declare independence. In short, having suffered a major blow to its legitimacy, Spain is prepared to double down and lose the rest of its legitimacy. 

• Diversity means less happiness: "Happiness in modern society: Why intelligence and ethnic composition matter"-- Journal of Research in Personality. From the abstract:

Recent developments in evolutionary psychology suggest that living among others of the same ethnicity might make individuals happier and further that such an effect of the ethnic composition on life satisfaction may be stronger among less intelligent individuals. Data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health showed that White Americans had significantly greater life satisfaction than all other ethnic groups in the US and this was largely due to the fact that they were the majority ethnic group; minority Americans who lived in counties where they were the numerical majority had just as much life satisfaction as White Americans did. Further, the association between ethnic composition and life satisfaction was significantly stronger among less intelligent individuals. The results suggest two important factors underlying life satisfaction and highlight the utility of integrating happiness research and evolutionary psychology. 

•  Single women in their 30s and 40s are often heard to repeat the refrain: "Where are all of the good men?" "They’re back in your 20s where you left them," responds Dalrock.