September 26, 2018 -- A Quick Run Around the Web

"MMA Fighters try Women's Self-Defense: episode 5"--Ramsey Dewey (2-1/2 min.)

The producer of this video "tests" out what a self-defense "expert" advises women for self-defense--getting on your back and kicking with both legs to fend off one or more attackers. I put the "tests" in quotes because it didn't look like Dewey and his crew were putting a lot of effort into it, but he does accurately illustrate that if you are on the ground and there are multiple opponents, you are going to get stomped into the ground. I put "expert" into quotes because there are a lot of people out there selling security theater to women, and this expert advised women to do one of the worst things you can do in a fight against multiple attackers. In any event, having been the subject of much ire from one of my older brothers growing up, I can tell you from personal experience that a two legged kick delivered while you are on your back can be effective against a single attacker. However, it is best delivered from an elevated position, such as a couch or bed, so it can strike the hips or torso; it must be both feet at the same time intended to push or knock the attacker back; and it must be sudden so that the attacker can't grab your legs ... and then, when they are off balance, get up and run like hell. 

• There is a new Woodpile Report. He has some discussion regarding the potential of a civil war and what it might be like which are worth an extra look.
• And, since it is Wednesday, Grant Cunningham has Your Hump Day Reading List including links to articles on keeping your family safe when you are in public, what to do if you arrive home and discover that your front door has been kicked open, using the lever action for self-defense, and more.
• "Why the .308 Sucks – And the Military Knew It"--Abe's Gun Cave. Similar to the video from the other day on the M-14, this article discusses why .308/7.62 NATO was a poor choice for a military rifle round, starting with the military knew that the .30-06 was overpowered, but selected a new round that was almost the equivalent weight and recoil. However, the positive point overlooked by the author is that .308 was designed for fire from automatic weapons, so it shorter and better able to handle the stress of feeding and extraction than the .30-06. And military considerations aside, it is a nice hunting cartridge, and anyone that uses a bolt-action rifle should appreciate the shorter action that the .308 allows over the .30-06 or .270.
• "10 Tips for Using a Generator"--The Family Handyman. Some of these should be self-evident, but, as the saying goes, common-sense isn't all that common. The points are: (1) never use a generator inside or too close to your house because carbon monoxide and other fumes; (2) never "backfeed" power into your home because it isn't nice to shock the linesman trying to repair power lines; (3) let the generator cool down before refueling because hot engine + gasoline; (4) store and pour safely because gasoline can be dangerous; (5) run the generator on a level surface; (6) keep enough oil and filters on hand to get you through an extended power outage; (7) don't use too long of an extension cord because Ohm's law, with the author recommending 100 feet or less; (8) adequately secure your generator so it can't be stolen; (9) don't let your generator run out of gas and shut off; and (10) make sure that you are using good fuel, which means either rotating your fuel or using a stabilizer.
• "Chicago Police Department Plan for Dealing With the Van Dyke Verdict Has Some Gaping Holes"--The Truth About Guns. Jason Van Dyke is a Chicago PD officer on trial for murder for shooting and killing a drug crazed, knife wielding black thug named Laquan McDonald. McDonald's family has been agitating for protests no matter the verdict. The Chicago PD plans on having more boots on the ground to deal with possible unrest, including longer shifts, but there are two gaping holes according to the author of the cited article: the two shifts planned do not overlap, and so there will be time around the shift changes when there will effectively be no police on patrol.
• "Shotgun Target Leads – Four Techniques Explained"--Guns America Blog. The author concludes:

In my opinion, the two most consistent types of leads are swing through and pull away. These two leads already have the gun speed and lead built into the shot and it is much easier for the shooter to recognize the angle and placement of the shot. They both work very well across all of the clay target sports as well as in the field. These also require the least amount of practice, which allows the weekend warrior and everyday outdoorsmen to have great success on the range and in the field.

• "8 Affordable Home-Defense Shotguns Under $200"--Shooting Illustrated. I appreciate the efforts to bring affordable firearms to the market, but I also think that if you are going to spend your hard-earned money on something like a firearm, you should get what you want, even if that means trying to find a less expensive, used version, or saving up for a longer time.

"FACTS | Part 4: Data Selection Matters"--Suspicious Observers (4 min.)

There is an old saying that the data will confess to anything if you torture it enough. This video covers some of the data "torture" for global warming, which is essentially that most climate "scientists" cherry pick their data set to confirm what they set out to prove--that there is recent global warming due to increased CO2 production. But, if you start looking at things longer term, like the last 1,000 or 2,000 years, the correlation doesn't hold up. In addition, we've had lower volcanic activity and, therefore, less cooling aerosols from volcanoes, over the past several hundred years.

• The modern inquisition: "Northwest Side priest who burned rainbow banner removed from church effective immediately, 'must take time away from the parish': Cupich"--Chicago Tribune. Another priest off to have a psychological evaluation for expressing opposition to the lavender mafia. 

• Related: "The Cost Of Protecting The Lavender Mafia"--Rod Dreher at The American Conservative. Key point: "It is entirely possible that law in the U.S. could move in directions that would undermine the bishops’ legitimate authority over their priests and their dioceses."

• Speaking of the Lavender Mafia, let me introduce to you the future business and government leaders of America: "More Harvard, Yale freshmen identify as LGBTQ than as conservative, surveys find"--NBC News. According to a survey, "23 percent of the freshman class identify somewhere along the LGBTQ spectrum." So, given that the percentage among the population at large is only 1-2%, how did Harvard and Yale wind up with 23% of their incoming class being LGBTQ? Were they giving preferential admissions to homosexuals, or does this simply illustrate the moral degeneracy of the elites?
• And this is why Jeb Bush will never be president: "Jeb Bush: Americans Urging for Immigration Controls ‘Threatened’ by ‘Less White’ Country"--Breitbart. He thinks that attempts to slow or stop immigration is foolhardy, and that some form of immigration reform (i.e., amnesty) is required for sustained economic growth (i.e., he thinks we need more people working at the minimum wage).
• "Logan Circle jogger's murder may have been racially motivated: Investigators are looking into the possibility that Martinez's murder might have been 'racially motivated' because Crawford 'does not like white people.'"--WUSA9. The victim was buried yesterday. And, although the suspect was arrested several days ago, there is still no photograph of the suspect at the several news sites I visited other than the still from the grainy surveillance video originally circulated by police. It's like there is some form of self-censorship being imposed on this story.
• And some more cultural enrichment: "LA 'baseball bat serial killer' is an illegal immigrant from El Salvador who's been deported SIX TIMES since 1988 - but was allowed to STAY in the US after being caught again in 2016"--Daily Mail. 
• Another cultural enricher in California was arrested for possession of IEDs: "Man Who Allegedly Had 2 IEDs in His Car in Brea Is Charged With 4 Felony Counts"--KTLA5. His name, Saleh Ali, pretty much tells you all you need to know. He was pulled over for an expired registration which suggests that either the officers were really bored, or that they were following this guy and just looking for an excuse to pull him over. (H/t Anonymous Conservative).
• Diversity is our strength: "NSA staffer who took top secret files home so he could do extra work and get promoted is jailed for five years 'after they were stolen by Russians'"--Daily Mail. Nghia Hoang Pho was passed over for promotion he thought he deserved while everyone else in his team was promoted, so he took extra work home in order to improve his prospects for promotion and then the infamous Russian hackers stole it. And if you believe that, I may have a bridge for sale....
• "Horror as car ploughs into 'crowd of 100 children and teachers' - police manhunt underway"--The Express. I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that this is another case of cultural enrichment. (H/t Anonymous Conservative).
• News from our neighbor to the south: "Entire Acapulco police force disarmed due to links to drug gangs"--NBC News. And, according to the story, two top Acapulco police commanders were arrested on charges of homicide. Law enforcement duties will be taken over by the Mexican Marines, one of the few government organizations believed not to be beholden to the drug cartels, and state police. "The homicide rate in Acapulco rose to 106 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants last year, one of the highest rates in the world."
• "The Palpable, Existential Danger Among Us"--The American Spectator. The author is referring, of course, to the harm that the Democrats are doing to the confirmation process. The author explains:

       What consequences do we impose on the Democrat Party for stooping to this level? Let’s understand that this isn’t just about Brett Kavanaugh — though if it’s restricted to him the events of the past week are destructive and outrageous enough. Who will consent to running for office now? Who will stand for a federal appointment confirmable by the Senate?

       Who will be willing to crawl through the mile of rancid sewer-pipe that is the American political process just to achieve a government job?

       The answer is the one the Democrats want it to be. Namely, that no conservative will tolerate what Kavanaugh is fighting through. In the future, as National Review’s Andrew McCarthy said, our options will be restricted to polite progressives or the Democrats’ pet RINO’s, if not the hard-core socialists and cultural Marxists the Left would like to impose on us. There is a stark choice — either to go gently into this good night of American dissolution, or fight. Hard. Now.

Frankly, the actions of the Democrats and the Left remind me of Kyle Reese's warning in Terminator: "Listen, and understand. That terminator is out there. It can’t be bargained with. It can’t be reasoned with. It doesn’t feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead." With the exception of fear, it pretty accurately describes the Left and its current war on all that is good.

       I think that what we are seeing is not just the normal conflict between opposite political viewpoints, or even the socialist revolution of which the Left has dreamt, but something civilizational and primal. I've tried to address in this blog some of the more prominent thinkers about comparative civilizations and the decline and fall of civilizations. Whether you focus on the natural life cycles of civilizations as espoused by Spengler, the breakdown of societies due to overwhelming complexity as theorized by Tainter, or other theories of civilizational collapse, they all point at our being at or near an inflection point. What has puzzled me is this: what comes next? For there ought to be some sign of the culture that will replace ours, but it just doesn't seem clear to me what it is. If Spengler's ideas have merit, the new culture will be vital, not stagnant, and rooted in the people and the land, not the dead world cities. 

       Today, at the Z-Blog, the author discussed that what is coming is revolutionary, not conservative--at least, not conservative in the sense of returning to the past. He writes:

       This age may be another such confluence. Like the interwar period, there are many forces in conflict with one another today. You have global capitalism, which is disrupting the normal functioning of western societies. There is the collapse of the Cold War political order, that is collapsing the domestic political arrangements within nations. There’s mass migration, where hundreds of millions seek to move from the fringe of civilization into the heart of it. Of course, there are the various reactions to these forces, as well.

* * *

       For example, the alt-right is not about restoring an old order. To assume that misses the fundamental point. Richard Spencer has spoken for years about how the past is what caused the current crisis. To return to 1950’s America, for example, means replaying the 1960’s and 1970’s with the same outcomes. His concept of the ethno-state, even if it is limited to North America, results in an America that is completely different than anything imagined by conventional politics. His idea is a complete departure from the liberal past.

        I don't know much of what Richard Spencer stands for and, therefore, won't comment on it. However, I am familiar with Vox Day's Fourteen Points. And what stands out to me is that Day's summary of the Alt-Right positions suggests a return to biological reality, and, therefore, offers a glimpse of something that may represent a root culture with ties to the land and nature. If so, what we are witnessing may not be a war between the Left and the Right, but between the ossified world city civilization and the young culture that may replace it.  

       I don't look outside the United States for any such culture because there are no outside, dynamic civilizations currently extant. Arab Civilization, for instance, has been essentially dead for centuries, even if its carcass twitches now and again.

       China, I believe, is also a civilization that is on life support. The input of Western technology and industry gives it a semblance of vitality, but its just a veneer. The moral and religious base is long gone, its demographics are crashing, and it, too, depends on women being workers rather than mothers--all signs of civilization in its winter.  

       India has similarly been stagnant for centuries. While its birthrates suggest vitality, it is just a dead cat bounce resulting from Western technology; in particular, medicine and agriculture. 

       Like China, Russian civilization was killed off by Communism. Whether something new is shaping up remains to be seen. 

       Sub-Saharan Africa has never produced any civilizations of note, and I don't see that changing any time soon. 

       Looking to Spengler for guidance, the hallmarks of a new vibrant culture will be: a deep connection to the land and its people; man and woman fulfilling biological roles of provider and mother, respectively, together with a high fecundity rate; a vital and strong religion and faith; a confidence and hope in the future that disdains hedonism and nihilism.