October 26, 2018 -- A Quick Run Around The Web

"A basic bug out bag"--Survival Prepping for Normal People (14 min.)

The author discusses and demonstrates what items to put into a basic bug-out-bag (BOB).

• TGIF: Greg Ellifritz's Weekend Knowledge Dump for this week. Lots of good prepping, self-defense, and firearms articles as always, but one I want to mention in particular is this critique of the Life Straw entitled, "Mythbusting: Your LifeStraw isn't good enough" from Integrated Skills Group. I know that a lot of people pack these in bug-out-bags or get-home-bags, but the Life Straw and similar systems have drawbacks. According to the article, which tested some, these can be a much lower amount of water they can filter than claimed. For instance, in their testing, a Sawyer filter only was able to filter 100 gallons before needing replacement. And, although not mentioned in this article, Survival Russia (a YouTube channel) has had issues with some of the mini filters breaking, and found the LifeStraw to be particularly susceptible to breakage. Anyway, read the article.
• "Prepared for Anything: As the global future grows more unpredictable, some people are staking out their own worlds and learning how to take destiny into their own hands"--New Hampshire Magazine. An article about some preppers/homesteaders in New Hampshire. An excerpt:

        At the property line I asked about the NO TRESPASSING signs and the prepper obsession with security. He said the signs were to ward off a poaching neighbor; he has no problem with respectful people on his land. As for security, things aren’t getting any better, and when they get really bad, he said, two things will be important: keeping away people who are trying to steal what you’ve had the foresight to stockpile and fighting to protect your freedom and your family. “I don’t like violence,” he said, “but you have to protect your wife and kids.”

      “Don’t you think Christianity demands pacifism?” I asked.

       He said he knew Jesus said to turn the other cheek, but added that he also said to sell your cloak and buy a sword if you don’t have one. “I’m not going to be meek,” he said.

      “The meek will inherit the earth,” I said.

       “I know, I know,” he said, and looked at the ground.

       When I hazarded that prepping seemed misanthropic, Tory countered, “I love people. I wouldn’t have you here if I didn’t. I wouldn’t have a store. Without people there’d be no community, no survival. A lone survivor in the woods? Good luck with that!” His voice was warm.

I have to admit that I used to struggle with understanding what Christ meant by "the meek" ... until I read Marcus Wynne's novel, The Sword of Michael. (You can read my review here). Wynne described a character that is meek and loving, yet also strong and willing and able to protect his friends and, for that matter, humanity as a whole. What the character illustrated was that "meekness" and "humility" for Christians was to submit to the will of God and recognize that God is the source of our gifts and abilities, rather than seeking glory for ourselves. This is very different from what the secular world wants us to believe constitutes "meekness" or "humility." The secular world wants us to believe that the meek person is essentially a dumb animal willing to put up with anything and everything, but that is far from the truth. Even if you don't like modern fantasy novels, I would suggest reading Wynne's book just because it is such a good example of what is real meekness. And then, for my LDS readers, consider the example of Captain Moroni.

• Another non-shotgun firearm: "Black Aces Tactical announces a $449 Shockwave Semi & It’s Non-NFA"--Ammo Land.
• "BEST COLD WEATHER SLEEPING BAG? GEAR REVIEW: WIGGY’S THULE"--Survival Common Sense.
• A pocket .45 that isn't a 1911 clone: "Heizer Defense PKO – 45 Defines Big Bore Slim"--Guns America Digest. It is an interesting design because the recoil rod is above the barrel, giving it a low bore axis. 
• "Faced with looting, neighbors arm each other vigilante-style in Panama City suburb"--Bradenton Harold. Three main take-aways from the article. First, the article reports a fair amount of looting with police arresting, on average, 10 per day. 

        Second, one man fired warning shots into the ground to scare off some looters ... and was arrested and jailed for discharging a firearm within city limits. The lessons here is that the government is not here to help, and don't use your firearm unless you can claim self-defense.

        Third, one of the men interviewed had distributed firearms to his neighbors who were defenseless. A few points in this regard. (a) You had better have neighbors you can trust before you hand them a weapon; not only that they won't turn and use the weapon on you, but that you can trust them to be responsible in their handling and use of the weapon. (b) Be careful of running afoul of laws regarding the transfer of weapons. As illustrated by the guy firing the warning shots, the police are not necessarily give you a pass just because you are in the midst of a disaster. And, (c), be aware that if the person missuses the weapon, you could be held legally liable under various theories including, but not limited to, negligent entrustment. 

"How Seamless Steel Tubing is Made: "Walls Without Welds" ~ 1950 US Steel Pipe Manufacturing"--Jeff Quitney (3 min.). Nothing particularly special about this video. I just thought it was a fascinating process. 

• The so-called "MAGAbomber" has been captured, but don't expect this story to stay in the news for long: the suspect is a Native American named Cesar Altier Sayoc, so it doesn't really fit the narrative.
• Liberals really are crazy:

• First of all, they can't empathize: "The Psychology of Progressive Hostility"--Quillette. Key part:

In his remarkable book The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion, Haidt recalls a telling experiment. He and his colleagues Brian Nosek and Jesse Graham sought to discover how well conservative and what Haidt terms ‘liberal’ (ie: progressive) students understood one another by having them answer moral questions as they thought their political opponents would answer them. “The results were clear and consistent,” remarks Haidt. “In all analyses, conservatives were more accurate than liberals.” Asked to think the way a liberal thinks, conservatives answered moral questions just as the liberal would answer them, but liberal students were unable to do the reverse. Rather, they seemed to put moral ideas into the mouths of conservatives that they don’t hold. To put it bluntly, Haidt and his colleagues found that progressives don’t understand conservatives the way conservatives understand progressives. This he calls the ‘conservative advantage,’ and it goes a long way in explaining the different ways each side deals with opinions unlike their own. People get angry at what they don’t understand, and an all-progressive education ensures that they don’t understand.

• Second, liberals exist in a type of hive-mind with much less diversity of thought than you will find among conservatives. See "¡SCIENCE!: The NPC Leftoid Hivemind Is Real"--Château Heartiste.

• The wages of sin socialism: "Venezuela: Corpses Exploding in Morgues Due to Power Shortages"--Breitbart. No electricity means no refrigeration means that corpses do what they tend to do in hot conditions: decay, bloat and rupture.
• "Sicario Human Sacrifice to Santa Muerte"--Captain's Journal. Herschel Smith writes about the spread of the Santa Muerte death cult in Mexico and among Mexicans. I've written about this before (see here, here and here) as well as noting the odd article here and there about MS-13 gang members being involved in "Satanic killings" or cops coming across a shrine to Santa Muerte.
• "Border SHUTDOWN: Trump is 'preparing an executive order' to ban ALL Central American migrants - even those seeking asylum - from entering the U.S via Mexico amid caravan chaos"--Daily Mail. 
• I blame knives: "Horror in China as cleaver-wielding woman slashes children inside a kindergarten, leaving 14 pupils injured"--Daily Mail. 
• I think the British have become wusses: "Posing with a dead peacock: How unrepentant US big-game hunter whose trail of slaughter appalled Brits crosses the globe in search of new species to kill"--Daily Mail. Upset because someone hunts, enjoys hunting, and posts trophy pictures. As I've noted before, a definition of a progressive is someone living in fear that somewhere, someone is enjoying life.