May 11, 2018 -- A Quick Run Around the Web

"The Mossberg Shockwave is Mostly Useless"--Lucky Gunner (7 min.)

In this piece, the producer reviews the Mossberg Shockwave, paying particular attention to its shootability--i.e., aiming and operating the weapon. And his conclusion is that the Shockwave is not a very good weapon when if comes to shootability in that it requires the user to employ a push/pull type of operation to aim and fire the weapon which is just slower. The "mostly useless" rating comes from the producer noting that it does make a great foundation for building a short barreled shotgun--pay the tax and replace the Raptor pistol grip with an actual stock. Of course, not everyone thinks the idea of a stakeout shotgun style firearm is bad. Gabe Suarez, in various posts at his blog, has spoken very highly of the concept, calling it the "The Ultimate Weapon For The Urban Citizen." Of course, there are "pistol braces" available for such weapons. I also linked to other articles from Suarez on using pistol gripped and stakeout style shotguns last year which you should check out, too.

• TGIF:This week's Weekend Knowledge Dump by Active Response Training. Links and comments on numerous self-defense and survival related articles, including appendix carry, patterning a shotgun, using a tourniquet, identifying someone carrying a concealed weapon, and more.
• One of the reasons that most of my AR magazines are steel: "Marine Corps Quick Fix for Tight Pouches"--The Firearms Blog. Even with the third generation PMAGs being somewhat slimmer to fit in magazine pouches, they are still too thick to fit in many pouches used in the military. This article links to a video by Underground Gunner (Chief Warrant Officer 4, Jesse M. Schertz) on how to get your pouches to loosen up. This advice applies to the Marines pouches made by Eagle Industries which use a hemp type material. Basically, you wet down the hemp fabric, allow the fibers to expand, and then insert two magazines with a spacer (thin plywood works) between them, and allow the pouch to dry.
• "THE NAVY SEALS ALLEGEDLY LEFT BEHIND A MAN IN AFGHANISTAN. DID THEY ALSO TRY TO BLOCK HIS MEDAL OF HONOR?"--Newsweek (h/t SNAFU, who has some comments regarding the article). Long article, but makes for interesting reading.
• How's that gun control working for ya? "Seven Dead in Western Australia Mass Shooting. Yes, Mass Shooting."--The Truth About Guns. Expect Australia politicians to respond, not by admitting that they were wrong all along, by doubling down and seeking even more gun control.
• Meanwhile, back in the United States: "Another Month, Another Sales Record…and Another Million Guns Find Homes"--The Truth About Guns. Buyers may be suffering from AR fatigue, but gun sales are still going strong--the NICS records indicate that a little over 1 million firearms were sold in April 2018. Also, I would note that the table of NICS background checks goes back to November 1998, and from then to the end of April 2018, there were nearly 288 million NICS checks. Even if not all of these checks resulted in a purchase, it still suggests that over 250 million firearms were sold in the past 20 years, which makes an estimate of 400 million or more firearms in civilian hands much more likely than the 300 million that the media likes to report. Which, again, begs the question of: if firearms cause crime, why doesn't the United States have the highest crime rates on the planet?
• This is what we are importing: "Kidnapping, extortion down but drug dealing soars 113% in CDMX"--Mexico News Daily. These statistics are just for the Mexico City area. Oh, and according to the article, homicides were up 15.5%. Should you worry? Maybe. Half of all Americans reside in cities, counties or states that have implemented sanctuary policies  stymying federal efforts to apprehend and deport illegal aliens.
• No. Next question. "Is There Room in Diversity For White People?"--Quillette. Money quote:

And yet wholesome is not the word that comes to mind when one assesses the newest wrinkle in academia’s attempt to balance the scales: an all-out, unapologetic assault on ‘whiteness’ itself. Today’s college administrators increasingly frame diversity and inclusion as lessons that must be learned by whites alone—and they’re lessons that too often unfold as interventions that force whites to regard themselves less as full partners in diversity than an obstacle to be overcome so that other constituencies might thrive. (This flows from another favored academic trope, the concept of the zero-sum society, wherein white success necessarily comes at the expense of non-white failure.) Colleges require the injection of units—if not whole introductory courses—on diversity in major subject areas “from physics to forestry,” as the Atlantic put it, and syllabi confirm the prevailing view of whiteness as something of an anachronistic disease that, like cholera, has no place in modern life.

Fortunately minorities never experience racism from other people of color ... except when they do: "Ostracised and fetishised: The perils of travelling as a young black woman"--BBC News.

• "Pro-President Trump sign in Calvert County targeting liberals has residents up in arms"--Fox News (h/t Anonymous Conservative). The sign reads: "Hey liberals, better get your guns if you try to impeach President Trump.” Is is signed: “From all of your deplorables in Calvert County.” Unfortunately, the owner of the property took down the sign after a visit from local law enforcement.
• If you have been following the news lately, you probably have heard that New York State's Attorney General Eric Schneiderman resigned his position after being accused by several women of violently and sexually assaulting them, although Schneiderman is confident that he won't face criminal charges. However, Anonymous Conservative dug up some interesting articles from the past concerning Schneiderman. First, Schneiderman, in his role as the New York State AG was key to forcing the Boy Scouts to accept openly gay leaders in 2015, and, in 2016, the public learned that Schneiderman let the Clinton Foundation skip identifying foreign donors, "making it impossible to know if it got any special favors while Hillary Clinton was secretary of state." Of course, we know that Schneiderman had the hots for gun control, including running active investigations in other states, although he privatively thought that gun control advocates were "losers."  And it is interesting that in March 2018, his office suspended its investigation of a nonprofit foundation associated with the NXIVM corporation, which has been implicated in a sex cult.
• "Democrats' worst nightmare about Kanye West just came true"--American Thinker. Key point:

The shift in black opinion represents a major break in the cultural firewall that has kept black people from embracing the Republican Party and left them taken for granted by Democrats.  Do Democrats pay any attention to widespread black views on gay marriage or transgenderism, for example?  Do they pay any attention to whether black teenagers need jobs and how calls for minimum wage hikes shut them out of the market?  Do Democrats pay any attention to how gun-free zones facilitate violence in black neighborhoods in places such as Chicago?  Do they pay any attention to how illegal immigration has driven down the wages of black unskilled workers?  Not in the least: The only thing they ask themselves is where else black people can go – and well, now they have their answer, because Kanye opened that door.

• When you run out of other people's money: "'No one wants to be last in line.' Seizure of Venezuela oil assets may start wave."--Miami Herald. Venezuela hasn't been paying its bills and has threatened oil companies (including recently charging two Chevron employees with treason), so there is, perhaps, a feeling that there is nothing to lose. From the article:

        The decision by ConocoPhillips to seize the Caribbean assets of PDVSA, Venezuela's state-owned oil company, has established a dangerous legal precedent that could swamp the South American country's already impoverished oil monopoly under a wave of similar claims and cut deeply into its ability to operate, experts said.

        The decision, which came amid the accelerating deterioration of Petroleos de Venezuela S.A.'s production capacity, could lead creditors to try to seize other Venezuelan assets abroad, including oil exports, to recover the more than $40 billion they claim they are owed.

         “Creditors are now saying to themselves, 'Look, we now have confirmation that you can go out and embargo PDVSA,' and many of them are going to rush into court to ask for their own seizures,” said Antonio De La Cruz, executive director of Inter American Trends in Washington, D.C.

         “We are at the start of a snowball” rolling downhill, added Russ Dallen, managing partner of Caracas Capital Markets, an investment bank in Miami. “Now that people have started to file lawsuits, we are going to see a run because no one wants to be the last in line.”

• "The Potential for Revolutionary Activities in 2018, 2020, and Beyond"--Samuel Culper at Forward Observer. From the article:

         Shortly after the 2016 election, I started tracking 20 early warning indicators of revolutionary movements in the United States. We started with six or eight indicators around Thanksgiving 2016, and by Thanksgiving 2017, we had moved up to 12 of 20 active indicators, either strong or weak. As of this morning, I’ve added another, which brings us to seven strong indications and six weak indications, for a total of 13 out of 20.

          For those new to understanding indicators, they’re a way intelligence analysts can judge how near or far we are from an event, or how dull or intense an event or condition is becoming. If three or four of 20 indicators are exhibited, then we’re on the low or unlikely end of the spectrum. If that number starts ticking up to 10 or 12, then we’re seeing moderate growth in likelihood or intensity. If the number of indicators grows to 15 or 17 or more, then we could produce a warning that a situation is serious or dire, perhaps imminent, or of a high intensity. At 13 of 20 today, this is a moderate issue and it’s something we’re actively tracking.

• "Rending the Rainbow Veil: How to Make Your Church a Safe Space for Christians with Same-Sex Attraction"--Public Discourse.  An article that begins by arguing that we need to make our churches "safe spaces" where people can talk about issues or problems with sexual identity, but then urges that in doing so, churches and congregations cannot water down their standards. The author notes:

         Most likely, you are among the vast majority (at least 89 percent) of people who do not personally deal with any degree of same-sex attraction. Nevertheless, you are under relentless assault. Over two decades ago, psychologist Marshall Kirk and marketer Hunter Madsen wrote After the Ball: How America Will Conquer Its Fear and Loathing of Gays in the 90’s. This book outlined a PR campaign strategy that has been so well-implemented and long-sustained in the media that its success is breathtaking. Kirk and Madsen advised desensitizing the American public to homosexuality through a constant shower of gay images so that they would “get used to being wet.” Now, we are inundated to the point of drowning.

          This campaign is designed to make anyone who upholds traditional Christian teaching on sexuality look hateful and foolish. It seeks to “muddy the moral waters” by continually highlighting reports of Christian “epiphanies” about changing theological understandings. Through it all, the enemy of all souls wants to extinguish the light of God’s truth in every quarter, including you and your church. You need prayer as much as I did, and do, to resist the spirits of deception. Our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against powers and principalities. Fight accordingly.

 She also warns about entering into a dialogue about matters clearly settled in scripture or nature if the dialogue includes the possibility of revising God's commandments and order, writing:

You must remain utterly clear and settled about where the boundary lines are regarding sexual activity. You cannot be a safe space if you are open to suddenly throwing us all back into the sea.

She raises some other good points as well: i.e., that admonishing a sinner is an act of mercy, be discerning and of sound mind; and be consistent and witness (testify) for God's truths regarding sexuality. Read the whole thing.