September 18, 2018 -- A Quick Run Around the Web

"Fast First Shot: Micro-Drills 3 (Mantis Dry Fire Monday)"--Active Self Protection Extra (6 min.)

In this "micro-drill," you are to practice presenting the firearm in a standard isosceles stance, paying particular attention to not dipping the head. 

• A new Woodpile Report.
• "Ask the FFL – What Gun for a New Female Shooter?"--The Truth About Guns. The author begins this piece by castigating gun dealers that, instead of offering useful advice, purposefully sell a woman a gun that the seller knows that she will hate in hopes that she brings the gun back to trade in for a different gun ... rinse and repeat. These are probably the same sellers that hoped that Hillary Clinton would have been elected President, and would sell you the rope for their own hanging. 

       In any event, while I appreciated the author's insights on unscrupulous gun dealers, I always question the need for special advice for women shooters versus male shooters when it comes to selecting a handgun. I understand it makes for good marketing, but is it really necessary? If you are approached by a new shooter for advice on buying a firearm, does it really matter--should it even matter--if that person is a man or woman? You still will need to find a gun that the person could carry, maintain and, if necessary, shoot accurately, which will depend to a large extent on the size of hands, recoil sensitivity, and life style/personality. The person's budget and certain medical issues, such as arthritis, may also need to be considered. You will need to know whether the person will put a lot of training or practice into the weapon, or purchase it, maybe shoot a few times to get the hang of it, and then dump it into a drawer or other container until such time as he or she might need it. You will need to know how that person intends to carry the weapon, if it is being purchased for that purpose. The problem is that a new shooter might not provide much of this information, nor can you necessarily intuit the information you need. 

       The real difference between men and women is not so much the firearm, but the method of carry and advice that should be given on a holster or concealment system. In addition to the options available to men, women can carry the weapon in a purse, a thigh holster, or even a flash-bang holster if they really want to be daring. Women are, obviously, shaped differently, and, therefore, women's clothing is cut differently which brings its own complications to determining a good concealed carry method and holster. A few good articles on this topic is "ABOUT CONCEALED CARRY HOLSTERS FOR WOMEN" at The Well Armed Woman, and "WHICH HOLSTER IS THE RIGHT ONE FOR A WOMAN?" at the Daily Caller (I believe both articles are by the same author), and "Concealed Carry Holsters For Women: What To Know Before You Buy" at Down Range Daily. Also check out "WOMEN & SHOOTING, PART 3: HOLSTER SELECTION" at Personal Defense Network.

• "US Army Selects 6 Companies for Sub Compact Weapon Programme"--The Firearm Blog. Gone are HK or any company offering an HK clone. The remaining all appear to use a weapon with a layout similar to the AR.
• "Ten Ruger Mini-14/30 Accessories That Are Actually Worth the Money"--The Truth About Guns. I haven't used the products listed, so I can't offer an opinion. But I would note that some of the links do not take you to products for the Mini-14. Read carefully before you click to buy.
• "Range Review: Winchester SXP Defender Pump Shotgun"--Shooting Illustrated. The review is of a 20-gauge version of the shotgun, which is notable in itself since most defensive shotguns are 12-gauge, and if there is an alternative gauge, it is, for some inexplicable reason, typically a .410. 20-gauge is great if excessive recoil is an issue for you. The downside is that there are not as many self-defense loadings available as with the 12-gauge, but since 99% of people will only be picking up buck-shot, it probably won't be an issue.
• "Powder Measuring Redefined: The Revolutionary AutoTrickler V2 & AutoThrow Powder Dispenser Review"--Guns America Blog. This is a good idea. The manufacturer has paired a quality electronic laboratory scale with a motorized Lee powder trickler to give an automatic powder dispenser that is better than others on the market. Of course, it also costs more: $900. My father-in-law had purchased an RCBS model which quickly failed after only a handful of uses (by quickly, I mean the number of times it was used rather than age--he only hand loads once a year or so), and is now using a Hornady model. However, I haven't seen the accuracy or speed from his demonstrations to justify buying one.

"Self Defense Is Necessary Because Of Evil Like This"--Active Self Protection (6 min.)

The surveillance video in this shows an incident where a woman is stabbed to death, so if you are squeamish, don't watch. There are a few important points to take away from this incident. First, it is a reminder that there are evil people in the world as evidenced by the attacker and his actions. Second, if you are unarmed, there may be no best courses of action. In watching this video, absent the victim being armed with a firearm, I don't see any circumstances where she could have successfully protected herself. She was simply outclassed by a larger, stronger male armed with a knife. Third, as mentioned in the video, is the aspect of "security theater," which in this case was the false security offered by the windows and partitions. 

• The wages of sin socialism: "The Results Are In After Socialist Venezuela Dramatically Raised Its Minimum Wage — It Ain't Pretty"--IJR.com. The article reports that 40% of stores closed after the mandated minimum wage was implemented.
• "Is the accusation against Kavanaugh the culmination of a set-up from 2012?"--Bookworm Room. Short version:

In 2012, Romney might have won the election. In 2012, Toobin stoked Democrat fears that Kavanaugh, a conservative, might get on the Supreme Court and overturn Obamacare. And in 2012, Ford, a psychotherapist who undoubtedly had years of prior therapy herself, suddenly can’t stop talking about her hitherto undisclosed claim that Kavanaugh was a bad boy almost 30 years before.

• Diversity is our strength: "The Loneliness of the Anonymous Neighbor"--The American Conservative. From the article:

       Americans are increasingly unfamiliar with their neighbors. In 2010, Pew found that only 46 percent of its respondents talked face-to-face with neighbors about community issues. Presumably a significant portion of those not talking to neighbors about community issues are also not talking to neighbors about anything else. Additional results from that survey support that conclusion: even fewer people discussed community issues over the telephone or via email, social media, or texting. Keep in mind that “community issues” is like the weather—it’s one of the safest conversation topics available.

       Many sociologists have argued that increasing anonymity in American society is tied to decreasing trust. According to one recent survey, only three in 10 Americans trust others. That same anonymity is also likely responsible for increased rates of loneliness. Despite heightened digital connectivity via social media, loneliness rates have doubled since the 1980s, from 20 percent to 40 percent. I’d be willing to bet a lot of those lonely people are the ones who don’t have any relationship with those living in their neighborhoods (or anywhere else, for that matter!).

(Underline added). And what is responsible for decreasing trust? Ethnic diversity. 

• Diversity is our strength (part 2): "Delingpole: ‘Civil War Is Coming to Europe’ Warns German Politician"--Breitbart. A German politician told James Delingpole, off the record, that Germany was headed for a civil war. Apparently the number of refugees, a significant majority of which are military age men, numbers closer to 3 million--double the official statistics. So why risk it? The first reason commonly heard is that Germany (and Europe generally) need immigrants as workers to offset the demographic decline. This is based on the fallacy, that I have discussed before, that people are fungible, economic units--e.g., an ignorant goat herder from Afghanistan is interchangeable with a skilled technician from Hamburg. The second is the Cultural Marxist goals "promoted and funded by George Soros and his acolytes, an article of faith for many on the hard left." That is:

Encouraging immigration from apparently inimical foreign cultures will ultimately make us better people. It will solve the disgusting problem of white privilege. We will interbreed and cross-pollinate and abandon our unhelpful nationalistic identities which have led to so much chauvinism and war in the past. Sure there might be the odd blip, but because this New World Order is so self-evidently desirable, no sacrifices are too great in order to achieve it.

(H/t Anonymous Conservative).

• Diversity is our strength (part 3): "Is this the worst sex grooming case of all? Abducted as a teen and held prisoner for 12 YEARS, Sarah was repeatedly raped, twice forced into marriage and had EIGHT abortions"--Daily Mail. Money quote: "The all-pervading culture of political correctness at the time of her abduction meant the gangs, often of Pakistani-British heritage, were ignored by police forces that were terrified of being called racist if they pursued them."
• Diversity is our strength (part 4): "Muslim Migration and Rape Statistics in Europe"--Sultan Knish. Greenfield relates that "[a]t 120.79 violent sexual assaults per 100,000 people, and 56 rapes per 100,000, the otherwise bleak socialist country [Sweden] ranks as having the second highest rate of sexual violence in Europe." Conversely, "Finland has a third of Sweden’s rape rates and a quarter of its sexual assault rates." The difference? "Finland has a third of Sweden’s Muslim population proportion and a third of its rape rate." He also notes that "[t]he UK’s sexual assault and rape rates are roughly four times as high as those of Ireland. And at 6.3% versus 1.4%, the difference in Muslim population percentages is in almost perfect proportion." This is the result of importing large numbers of military age men from a culture that places no constraints on their sexual aggression.
• The threat facing the Catholic Church is of a loss of legitimacy, but the Pope doesn't seem to grasp it: "The Very Big Deal Catholic Crisis"--Rod Dreher. Key part:

It wasn’t the pedophile priests that did in my faith. It was the bishops who protected them. That is, the men who ran the system were so morally and spiritually corrupt that in most cases they went out of their way to protect pedophile priests at the expense of children and their families. A priest friend back in 2002 told me that it was impossible to understand the sexual abuse scandal apart from a more general crisis in the Catholic Church. For example (he said), bishops protected these pedophile priests in part because they had lost a sense that the Church is supposed to be about something greater than serving the perceived interests of its ruling class (the clergy). The failure to react like any normal human being would to a sin as horrific as child molestation was in part a manifestation of a loss of sense of sin, period. Bishops had come to see themselves primarily as managers of an institution — an institution whose chief goal was its own perpetuation.

• "The Catholic Church Is Breaking Apart. Here’s Why."--Jonathon V. Last at The Weekly Standard. He writes:

        The abuse itself is terrible, of course. We should say that out loud, because while the details are unspeakable they must be spoken of. Without the release of the Pennsylvania grand jury report, we would know much less about the evil inside the church. (It is also instructive to note that authorities within the church opposed the release of this report.) But individual priest-abusers aren’t catastrophic to the church in any structural way. Predators will always be among us. It is a human pathology from which not even priests are immune. But the remedy for predation is straightforward: Whenever and wherever such men are discovered, they should be rooted out and punished.

        The institutional damage is done not by the abusers but by the structures that cover for them, excuse them, and advance them. Viewed in that way, the damage done to the Catholic church by Cardinal Wuerl—and every other bishop who knew about McCarrick and stayed silent—is several orders of magnitude greater than that done by McCarrick himself.

He goes on to explain that there are no mechanisms in the church for dealing with errant bishops or cardinals, who are independent of one another, except through the Pope. "And the structure of the church has no remedy when a pope is foolish or wicked." Which is Pope Francis--foolish or wicked--is open to question, according to the author, but he makes two important points. First, Pope Francis's ascension to the Papacy was the result of political mechanizations, which have produced a Pope that is busily engaged in tearing down orthodox positions and reposition the church on issues such as divorce, abortion, and, most ominously, homosexuality. Second, the Pope and his advisors are incredibly tone-deaf about the current crises. The author observes that American cardinal is Blase Cupich said, in reaction to the current scandal, that “the pope has a bigger agenda. . . . he’s got to get on with other things” such as “talking about the environment and protecting migrants.” Read the whole thing.

• A reminder that we live in the 21st Century: "Elon Musk just revealed who will fly to the moon on SpaceX's new rocket ship"--Business Insider. Yusaku Maezawa, a Japanese billionaire, together with his guests (he purchased all available seats on the first flight) will be the first tourists to ride Space X's Big Falcon Rocket around the Moon.