April 1, 2018 -- A Quick Run Around the Web

"He is risen"--Mormon Channel (7-1/2 min.). A short video of Christs death and resurrection.

• First off, Happy Easter to all of you. Christ died and was resurrected. Spread the good news. And God bless you and your loved ones. 
• Gabe Suarez has a few articles and videos posted at his site on pistol kata, including his first one: "Suarez Pistol Kata - 'Diagonal Lines'." Those of you with martial arts backgrounds know what is a kata, even if that term was not necessarily used in your particular school. But for those that don't know:

A Kata is born in battle when a successful teacher arranges a collection of concepts that he has used against other men in a way that his students can practice them alone. A kata is a catalog of combat proven information, techniques and movement patterns distilled into its purest from in a repeatable and established pattern. Practicing them leads to internalized understanding of movement and a mindless execution of technique.

• The other articles/videos published are "Pistol Kata: Watch Your Back" and "On Kata - And A Few Other Things." 
• Clever: "Nemo Equipment's Newest Ultralight Tent Weighs 23 Ounces"--Kit Up! Rather than using standard poles to support the tent, it makes use of your trekking pole to act as the vertical pole.
• FerFal describes his current every day carry (EDC) items. Note the redundancies, especially in knives (he has a folder, a multi-tool, and a small Swiss Army knife) and flashlights.
• "The Car Emergency Bag"--Dreaming of Sunsets Over Ochre Dunes. The author has put together a great list of emergency items--food, water, utensils, emergency shelter, a crowbar, etc.--to keep in the trunk of a car. One I had never before considered is a fold-up portable toilet. The author also points out that he can throw this in a bike trailer as well, if he should need to evacuate using bicycles.
• "The Tactical Use Of The Shotgun"--Gabe Suarez. He notes that "[t]he shotgun is not as precise, but will allow you hit under situations where with a rifle you would miss. A shotgun allows for easier hits in low light, and in circumstances where you don't have the time to use traditional marksmanship principles." This article was from January, but Suarez revisits this issue in an article from earlier this month entitled "What Is A Shotgun For?" He writes: "The shotgun is for deploying the maximum amount of force possible to destroy as much of the adversary as possible in the shortest time frame possible." He goes on:

The shotgun is not good for shooting people at long distances, nor is it a high sustained fire weapon. Close range, high likelihood of hitting even when the speed of the fight exceeds the users ability to deploy traditional marksmanship principles, high likelihood of destroying/killing the intended target with few rounds fired, fast into action from inaction (exceeded only by the pistol), and simple manual of arms that requires minimal maintenance. Those are the attributes of the weapon and its utility is in urban confrontations inside of fifty yards where pistols are usually encountered.

He also discusses his opinions as to high-capacity magazines and detachable box magazines for shot guns.

• "Upgrading/Improving Your Rifles"--Mason Dixon Tactical. The author discusses the Holosun HS515C red dot, the PA 1-6×24 SFP riflescope with the ACSS reticle, and XS Sights' full length rail for the Ruger Gunsite Scout Rifle. The author chose these items not because they are necessarily the best, but because they were reasonably priced and "good enough" to do the job.
• "Apartment Dweller Prepping" (Part 1) (Part 2) from the Survival Blog. The author moved into an apartment in a large city, and discovered some of the trade-offs and problems with prepping when living in a small apartment.
• "308 vs 30-06 vs 300 Win Mag: Which Cartridge Should You Be Hunting With?"--The Big Game Hunting Blog. From the article:

       When using the right bullets, all three cartridges are great choices for hunting medium to large sized game like whitetail deer, mule deer, black bear, feral hogs, pronghorn, caribou, elk, javelina, bighorn sheep, mountain goat, impala, kudu, wildebeest and other species of African plains game. The same goes for mountain lion and leopard. While they’re far too light (and not legal) for use on thick-skinned dangerous game like Cape Buffalo and elephant, you could use any of these cartridges to hunt other really big species of game like eland, moose, bison, and brown bear (Roy Lindsley used a .30-06 Springfield to take the current Boone & Crockett record Alaska brown bear back in 1952) under the right circumstances.

        Picking the right cartridge out of the three really depends on your personal desires and what/where you’ll be hunting.

         Do you primarily hunt deer in a thickly wooded area where shots past 200 yards are uncommon? The .308 Winchester is probably the best choice in this case. Having a short, light rifle is a big plus when moving through thickly wooded areas. The .308 Winchester is absolutely deadly on medium game like deer and the other two cartridges do not have a significant ballistic advantage over the .308 Winchester until ranges get past 300 yards.

        Are you very sensitive to recoil? Do you do a lot of mountain or backcountry hunts where it’s really nice to have a lightweight rifle? Again, consider going with the .308 Winchester, which is the lightest recoiling cartridge of the bunch and is available in the smallest and lightest rifles. ...

        Do you hunt in an area where shots past 300 yards are more common? Then consider the .300 Winchester Magnum because you’ll be able to take advantage of the cartridge’s flatter trajectory and superior power at longer ranges under those circumstances.

         Do you prefer to hunt with a semi-automatic rifle? There are a ton of good semi-automatic rifles chambered in .308 Winchester, but very few in either .30-06 Springfield or .300 Winchester Magnum. [Ed. note: Browning's BAR is available in .30-06 and .300 Winchester Magnum].

        Do you want to hunt really large game like moose and eland? All three cartridges will work, but the .30-06 Springfield and .300 Winchester Magnum offer a clear advantage since they can use the heavier 190gr, 200gr, and 220gr bullets that are better suited for extremely large animals.

        Do you want a “Jack-of-all-trades” or “Swiss Army Knife” type rifle that can accomplish the widest possible variety of tasks well? Then the .30-06 Springfield might be the best choice for you.

The article has more discussion about each cartridge and some other points, so be sure to read the whole thing.

• It is an invasion: "'If we all protect each other we'll get through this together': Army of more than 1,000 Central Americans fleeing violence and unrest march unchallenged through Mexico towards the US border"--Daily Mail. (See also "Caravan Of 1,500 Central American Migrant Families Crossing Mexico To Reach U.S. Border"--Weasel Zippers). There are a couple of notable points about this event. First, Mexico is allowing these people to proceed, unimpeded, through Mexico. It should be considered an act of war. Second, unlike illegals crossing individually or in small groups, this article illustrates that mass Latin American immigration to the United States is, in fact, an invasion. They should be considered invaders for two reasons: (i) it more accurately describes what are illegal aliens, and (ii) it provides the legal justification for denying citizenship to anchor babies of illegal aliens. That is, prior Supreme Court precedent acknowledges that the children of invaders are NOT citizens of the United States simply because they are born on U.S. soil.
• Immigrants welcome: "Sixty-Nine Percent of U.S. TB Cases in 2017 Were Diagnosed in Foreign-Born Residents"--Breitbart. 

• Related: "What I Learned in the Peace Corps in Africa: Trump Is Right"--American Thinker. The author begins by noting how Africa is, in many places, literally a sh**hole. Then she goes on:

        The Ten Commandments were not disobeyed – they were unknown.  The value system was the exact opposite.  You were supposed to steal everything you can to give to your own relatives.  There are some Westernized Africans who try to rebel against the system.  They fail.

        We hear a lot about the kleptocratic elites of Africa.  The kleptocracy extends through the whole society.  My town had a medical clinic donated by international agencies.  The medicine was stolen by the medical workers and sold to the local store.  If you were sick and didn't have money, drop dead.  That was normal.

         So here in the States, when we discovered that my 98-year-old father's Muslim health aide from Nigeria had stolen his clothes and wasn't bathing him, I wasn't surprised.  It was familiar.

         In Senegal, corruption ruled, from top to bottom.  Go to the post office, and the clerk would name an outrageous price for a stamp.  After paying the bribe, you still didn't know it if it would be mailed or thrown out.  That was normal.

         One of my most vivid memories was from the clinic.  One day, as the wait grew hotter in the 110-degree heat, an old woman two feet from the medical aides – who were chatting in the shade of a mango tree instead of working – collapsed to the ground.  They turned their heads so as not to see her and kept talking.  She lay there in the dirt.  Callousness to the sick was normal.

         Americans think it is a universal human instinct to do unto others as you would have them do unto you.  It's not.  It seems natural to us because we live in a Bible-based Judeo-Christian culture.

         We think the Protestant work ethic is universal.  It's not.  My town was full of young men doing nothing.  They were waiting for a government job.  There was no private enterprise.  Private business was not illegal, just impossible, given the nightmare of a third-world bureaucratic kleptocracy. 

• Yes. "Did John Paul Stevens Lie About the Second Amendment?"--American Greatness. From the article:

In the 19th century, leading constitutional scholars considered the right to arms inviolate against federal and state overreach. St. George Tucker wrote that the Second Amendment is “the true palladium of liberty” and that “[t]he right of self defence is the first law of nature: in most governments it has been the first study of rulers to confine this right within the narrowest limits possible. Wherever standing armies are kept up, and the right of the people to keep and bear arms is, under any colour or pretext whatsoever, prohibited, liberty, if not already annihilated, is on the brink of destruction.”

• Hmm. "Pilots report close encounters with UFO over Arizona: 'Something just passed over us'"--ABC News. A pilot of one flight encountered something and, checking air traffic control, discovered it wasn't on radar. Air traffic control asked another airliner to double check, and they also saw the object. It could have been a mylar balloon or some other highly reflective weather balloon.
• "The Federal Government And War With The American People"--Captain's Journal. Musings about the expansion of SWAT units within the federal government. 
• I can see where this is headed: "Germany: ISIS beheading videos increasingly popular among Muslim migrant school children"--Jihad Watch. He quotes:

        The problems at Germany’s migrant majority schools are spiralling out of control, The President of Germany’s Teachers Association, Heinz-Peter Meidinger, tells BILD newspaper.

        In an interview, Meidinger says that the number of attacks on teachers at migrant majority schools is increasing and several schools already need private security. Several children also possess knives and ‘gas sprays’.

       When the Teachers Association President is asked if the circulation of an ISIS beheading video at a Berlin school is an isolated case he says:

       “Unfortunately, these are no longer individual cases, not even among very young students at elementary schools. Such incidents now exist at many schools in Germany. One thing is certain: Cruel violent videos in social networks have long since arrived in student life. In chat forums like WhatsApp, movies like the described ISIS beheading video are spreading like wildfire.”

• The elephant in the room: "London murder rate is HIGHER than New York's for the first time ever after TWELVE killings in just 19 days"--Daily Mail. Did this happen because Londoners suddenly were allowed access to weapons which were previously banned? No. Instead, the increased violence is because of the "browning" of London's population. While this may anger some of my readers, the truth of the matter is that London historically had a lower murder rate than New York not because of the national gun control regimes of the UK and the USA, respectively, but because the London was whiter. I've discussed this before, but it is well documented that there is a clear link between race and violent crime rates. The most murderous peoples on the Earth are blacks and Latinos. It took a long time for me to accept it because I didn't want to believe it, but even a cursory investigation of crime statistics shows this to be the case. I'm sorry, but that is just the way it is, and it does no good to bury our heads in order to ignore the issue.




Related: "South African Convicted of Murdering Four Children to Sell Ears to Witch Doctor"--Breitbart. Not just any children, but his nieces and nephews. The article also has a good overview of the more general problem in sub-Saharan Africa of people being killed or maimed for body parts to be used by witch doctors.

• Related: "'We're seeing Third World violence in what we are calling a civilized society': Pastor who rehabilitates former gang members says MS-13 must be stamped out after four are arrested for 10 Vegas murders"--Daily Mail.