November 1, 2017 -- A Quick Run Around the Web

"Flashlight techniques"--Polenar Tactical (7 min.)

Firearms/Self-Defense/Prepping:

• "Behind the Bullet: .308 Winchester"--American Hunter. A look at the .308, including history and different loads and uses.
• "Equally Lumpy on Both Sides"--Active Response Training. To avoid printing or raising suspicion that he is carrying a revolver in his pocket, one of Greg Ellifritz's acquaintances recommends cramming a wadded up sock into each side pocket. The sock makes both sides lumpy, and eliminates the need for a pocket holster. Of course, that only works if you are okay with the rumpled look ... something that is a no-no for business attire.
•  "Avoiding Rookie Mistakes With Your AR-15 Rifle: Guns for Beginners"--The Truth About Guns. Some common problems that the author sees with newbies to the AR system, including not sighting in the rifle, not lubricating the rifle, overloading magazines (he recommends a maximum of 28 rounds), and not knowing the basic manual of arms.

• Related: "Keep Your Carbine Running" by Patrick Rogers at SWAT Magazine. Tips on cleaning and lubricating the AR.

• "The Value of Leaves"--SHTF Preparedness. The author writes:

       ... Leaves make a base for the very best compost. Having access to fallen leaves will assure that you have a great source of compost for years to come.

        There are other great uses for leaves as well. One of my favorites is to cover my beds that are over wintering with shredded leaves. These leaves protect your soil from the harmful winter sun while also protecting the soil from drying out.

• Apparently the Bore-Snake patent has expired: "BATTLE ROPES from Breakthrough Clean"--The Firearms Blog. 
• A good follow up on my recent article on escaping a burning building: "How to Escape From a Building Using Bedsheets"--The Art of Manliness. 
• "JUST THE START Madagascar plague outbreak set to last another SIX MONTHS as health officials warn Black Death pandemic could explode"--The Sun. The concern is that the region is entering a wet season which may aggravate the conditions for transmitting the plague--it is not mentioned in the article, but I presume this is because of more people staying indoors (i.e., in close contact with one another) and possibly other illnesses (like colds) making people more susceptible. Again, though, I would note that we are not seeing anything near the rapidity and lethality of the Black Death. It is possible that the bacteria responsible for this outbreak could mutate, but, at this time, to compare this to the Black Death is just scaremongering. 
• Ruger is going to make another production run of their SP-101 revolvers in 9 mm. 

Other Stuff:

• Herschel writes on the purpose of a Mosque: "When you see a Mosque go up, it means that Muslims have chosen that particular location to build a combat outpost to expand the forcible implementation of Sharia."
• "‘Allahu Akbar’: It Means Almost Everything — Except What The Establishment Media Says"--Breitbart.  Robert Spencer writes:

        The war-cry is mistranslated in the Western media as “God is great.” But the actual meaning is “Allah is greater,” meaning Allah Is Greater Than Your God or Government.

        It is the aggressive declaration that Allah and Islam are dominant over every other form of government, religion, law or ethic, which is why Islamic jihadists in the midst of killing infidels so often shout it.

• "New York Truck Attacker Immigrated Under Obama’s 'Diversity Visa Program'"--Anonymous Conservative. To be fair, the program--which was a lottery program to encourage immigration from countries that had otherwise low rates of immigration to the U.S.--actually was signed into law by Bush Sr., and nothing was done about it after 9/11 ... under Bush Jr.'s watch. Another globalist program run amok. 
• Mark Steyn comments on the New York bike lane attack and similar attacks in Europe, and warns that the problem is not the Muslims that live abroad, but the ones that we have let across our borders: 

But the reason the west's enemies are able to pile up a continuous corpse count in Paris, Nice, Berlin, Brussels, London, Manchester, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Orlando, San Bernadino, Ottawa, Sydney, Barcelona, [Your Town Here] is because they have "safe havens" in France, Germany, Britain, Scandinavia, North America, etc. Which "safe havens" are likely to prove more consequential for the developed world in the years ahead..? In Afghanistan, we're fighting for something not worth winning, and we're losing. In Europe, Islam is fighting for something very much worth winning, and they're advancing. And, according to all the official strategists in Washington and elsewhere, these two things are nothing to do with each other.

• How are you going to be able to assimilate this into the West? "Egyptian lawyer says raping women who wear ripped jeans is a man's 'national duty"--Daily Mail. This might pass for acceptable behavior in Hollywood, but it isn't going to go over too well in "fly over" country.
• "Calling the Cops in Europe? Don't Bother"--PJ Media. From the article:

Even as these establishment functionaries continue to insist that no-go zones are a myth, however, news reports are indicating that in several European countries, the policing problem has advanced beyond the mere fact of no-go zones. Earlier this month, for instance, the Dutch newspaper Het Parool reported that throughout the Netherlands, police departments are now so overburdened by “radicalization, terrorism, and the influx of asylum seekers” that they simply don't have the time to investigate a large percentage of crimes. In Rotterdam, 54% of crime reports are tossed at once, without even a cursory effort to track down a perpetrator; in The Hague, the figure is 48.5%; in Amsterdam, it's a whopping 64.8%. The overall national figure is 56%.

The article goes on to discuss the situation in other countries, including the UK. The author continues:

 In each of these countries, then, the police – presumably on direction from above – have begun to operate by the same suicidal philosophy. Except when dealing with the most monstrous of felonies, they've chosen to use their available resources not to put up a firm resistance to the soft jihad of Muslim lawlessness but, rather, to silence public criticism thereof. So it is that in the Netherlands, Britain, and Sweden, the police – whose job, we all grew up thinking, is to protect citizens and maintain order – are instead systematically abetting the “low-level” disorder and destruction that are part and parcel of the ongoing Islamic conquest of Europe.

All of this means that Europe's vaunted low crime rates are a myth now that they have permitted so many savages to immigrate. 

• Of course, we have our own population that is tearing the social fabric apart which the police dare do nothing about: "Another Victim Randomly Attacked By Group Of Teens At Baltimore’s Inner Harbor"--CBS.
• "Navy SEALs are suspects in the murder of a US Army Special Forces Soldier. Are you surprised?"--SNAFU. The background is that two members of the elite Navy SEAL Team 6 are under investigation after the suspicious death of a U.S. Army Green Beret in Mali. Solomon comments:

       The real question should be how this became news.

       My guess is that you have some pissed off Special Forces troops.

       THAT SHOULD BE THE NEWS!

        If this goes south you could have SF shooting at SEALs!  My guess is that both units have been separated with one probably taken out of country.  But the problem will be that both units will be tainted and won't be able to work together.  Another issue is that SEAL Team 6 gets another black eye as an out of control unit that operates on the edge of legality.

        They really need to take those guys off the line for a couple of years and rebuild it from the ground up.  McRaven really did more damage during his time as SOCOM chief than is commonly realized.

• The Latino Victory Fund created a political ad against Ed Gillespie which portrays a white man in a truck flying a Confederate flag and with sporting a Gadsden flag "license plate" chasing down minority kids, including a little girl wearing a Hijab (video at the link). Of course, in the incident on which this ad was based, the motorist that chased down and killed a Muslim girl was an illegal alien from El Salvador. But you can't let the facts get in the way of portraying white men as evil.
• The real reason that the Left and the Establishment Right so dislike the Alt-Right is because the Alt-Right practices evidence based politics. With that note: "The Global Failure of Globalization"--Sultan Knish. He observes:

Globalization moved jobs and production to countries with the lowest standards of living, the least human rights and the greatest government intervention in their economies. It’s no wonder that China thrived or that America declined in that environment. But at the same time it also moved immigrants with the lowest work ethic to America and Germany to benefit from the welfare programs that were meant to soften the economic impact of globalization on the native population. 

• "The world in 2076: The population bomb has imploded"--New Scientist. "For now, the world’s population continues to rise. From today’s 7.4 billion people, we might reach 9 billion or so, mostly because of high fertility in Africa. The UN predicts a continuing upward trend, with population reaching around 11.2 billion in 2100. But this seems unlikely. After hitting the demographic doldrums, no country yet has seen its fertility recover. Many demographers expect a global crash to be under way by 2076."