June 15, 2018 -- A Quick Run Around The Web

"Bersa Thunder .380"--Personal Defense Net (1-1/2 min.). 

Just a quick look at this popular handgun.

• TGIF: Active Response Training's Weekend Knowledge Dump for this week. Greg Ellifritz went above and beyond this week with a long and excellent list of articles and videos for self-defense, firearms, and better living. Links to articles on body language and what it communicates to criminals, better training, shooting steel, why you should answer but not open the door for strangers, push button locks, and a whole bunch more. Definitely check it out!
• "Skill Set: A Confident Mindset"--Tactical Wire. Not just confidence achieved through developing your skills, but also faith:

Faith is another important component.  Having faith in your skills and abilities is important, but it’s nothing compared to the confidence created through a solid religious foundation.  I have faith that I will win.  I don’t have to fret over the outcome of the battle.  If it is my Lord’s will that I should personally be defeated then I am assured it’s still a victory - towards a greater glory.  I cannot lose.  Faith creates confidence.

I was watching a documentary last night on the P-51 Mustang, which included interviews of pilots that had flown the plane in WWII, and they said much of the same thing: you had to go into a fight believing you would win, seeking and taking the initiative, or, otherwise, you would lose.

• "Self-Defense: The Importance Of Shot Placement" by Patrick Sweeney at Gun Digest. An excerpt:

What matters most, and what someone will invariably bring up in any discussion of stopping power, is placement. A hit to the correct spot works faster, and a hit to a non-correct spot works slower, if at all. There’s a classic cartoon on this from the cartoonist Gary Larson, in one of his The Far Side cartoons. The scene: a mammoth, on its back, all four feet in the air, with an arrow sticking out of it. One caveman says to the other, “We should write down that spot.”

• "Farm Rifles Rimfires Rule" by Dave Anderson at Guns Magazine. The author notes that most of the pest control on a farm will be small critters such as gophers or rabbits, that are easily dispatched with .22 caliber rifles. However, because there will generally only be one shot, after which the weapon must be made safe, he recommends a bolt action .22 with a detachable box magazine over other types for this chore. 

       The only time I want my firearms loaded is when they are under my direct control — in my hands, in a holster, or slung over my shoulder. If I’m working outdoors and a gopher pops up in the garden, I want to be able to pick up the rifle, load it with a magazine from a pocket, fire a shot, then unload, hang up the rifle and go back to work.

      Semi-auto .22s are great for plinking and hunting, but the convenience aspect makes them less attractive as a farm rifle. After firing a shot I have to remove the magazine, clear the chamber, find the ejected round on the ground if I dropped it (which happens a lot), then reload it into the magazine.

       Rifles with tubular magazines are likewise inconvenient. Unless you want to use them as a single-shot, it takes time to load cartridges into the magazine tube, and to unload unfired cartridges. It can work if you’re comfortable having the chamber empty and magazine tube loaded all the time, I’d just rather not.

       What I like is a rifle with a manually operated action and a detachable box or rotary magazine. 

• "Calibers for Beginners: .308 Winchester Rifle Ammunition"--The Truth About Guns. As the author notes, it is hard for a beginner to go wrong with getting a .308 rifle for hunting or around a ranch, or even for target shooting. The ammunition is found everywhere, with loadings for everything from light, fast loads for varmints, to heavy loads for taking elk. And for plinking or practice, there is still relatively cheap surplus ammunition for sale. 
• "Another Bloody Weekend"--Second City Cop. 10 dead and 30 shot last weekend in Chicago. 
• "REALISTIC REDUNDANCY PRIORITIZATION AND SELECTION"--American Partisan. From the article:

When people in the Civilian Survivalist/LEO/Mil arena think about redundancy, it’s usually tied to the phrase “Two is one, one is none.” There’s a lot to be said for that mindset, but taken to the extreme, it will do nothing but add extra crap (that you don’t need readily available), and probably slow you down in the process, due to the extra weight it adds to your gear. Whether you are a Civilian, LEO, NPT (Neighborhood Protection Team) member, or member of the Military, understanding the need for redundancy in you essential gear, and how to prioritize it is essential to giving yourself the best chance at survival in a non-permissive environment. First we will talk about prioritization of gear that needs redundancy, then we will talk about a method to use when looking for redundant gear options.

• Stupid is as stupid does: "The Gospel Humanity of MS-13"--Chronicles Magazine. The author takes issue with Trump's reference to members of MS-13 as animals, and suggests that we need to embrace them as follow humans. From the article:

As a gospel community, we Christians should always strive to love the unlovable, to lift up the marginalized, and to bring near the outcast. We are to shower people with our gospel love. This is why we vehemently take issue with President Trump’s dehumanization of MS-13. We fully concede that these image-bearers mutilate their enemies’ children and sell young girls into prostitution, but they nevertheless possess inviolable, infinite dignity—a spark of divinity is in every person. No matter how irrational they might be, no matter how lacking in reason and judgment, no matter how devoid of natural human affection, no matter how unfit they are for human civil society, no matter how far they go in extinguishing in themselves the fundamental principles of human relations—they remain fully human. Indeed, they are just as human as you and me, and only by the grace of God are we not one of them.

No, no, and no. It is not by the grace of God that were are not one of them. It takes a whole level of evil above and beyond a typical person to rape children and hack people apart over gang disputes. At some point, they made a conscious decision to be evil--they didn't just stumble into it--and the worst of them lack the divine spark of which you speak. They have snuffed it out. Is it possible for a gang member to reform? Yes, in theory. But the Lord doesn't call on us to be stupid and just accept anyone into our congregations or homes. First comes repentance, then baptism. And when the Lord says that the wages of sin is death, sometimes it necessarily is a physical death.

•  The sky is not falling: "New Bird Flu Strain Kills 38% of Those It Infects"--The Daily Beast. Scientists are warning that the H7N9 virus could become a deadly new killer. However, the virus currently is incapable of being transmitted human to human, and less than 2,000 people in China, where it has originated, have been infected.
• The wages of sin socialism: "Workers Flee and Thieves Loot Venezuela’s Reeling Oil Giant"--WRAL.com. The article reports:

        Thousands of workers are fleeing Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, abandoning once-coveted jobs made worthless by the worst inflation in the world. And now the hemorrhaging is threatening the nation’s chances of overcoming its long economic collapse, union leaders, oil executives and workers say.

       Desperate oil workers and criminals are also stripping the oil company of vital equipment, vehicles, pumps and copper wiring, carrying off whatever they can to make money. The double drain — of people and hardware — is further crippling a company that has been teetering for years yet remains the country’s most important source of income.

• "Nicaraguans flood migration offices in bid to flee crisis"--AFP via Yahoo. Political violence has got an increasing number of people seeking refuge in neighboring countries, including many that want to flee to Costa Rica.
• Peak oil: "‘Stunning’ West Texas Oil Production to Double by 2023, Says Report"--Breitbart. I've argued before that the Saudi oil embargo crashed our economy in the 1970s and that we have never really recovered. It is nice to see us develop domestic production that could insulate us, to some extent, from a similar incident. 
• "Still Parched: California’s failure to store water dramatizes the dysfunctional character of its political leadership."--City Journal. California has, belatedly, decided to fund water projects which will partly offset, but not completely resolve, its water deficit. Unfortunately, these projects are not even scheduled to be completed until 2029 and 2033, respectively. In the meantime, California will still be siphoning off more water from the Colorado River than it actually has a right to, impacting other southwestern states. But at least it can afford a multi-billion high speed rail from nowhere to nowhere.