Some Music: "Pirates"

One of my favorite pieces from Emerson, Lake & Palmer:

"Emerson, Lake & Palmer - Pirates (lyrics)" (13 min.)

Video: "What is Your Price?" Something to Think About

"What is Your Price?"--Black Pilled (4-1/2 min.)

March 29, 2019 -- A Quick Run Around the Web

"Eyewitness to a Massacre"--Bill Whittle (9-1/2 min.)

Bill Whittle gives his thoughts and impressions from watching the video of the Christchurch shooting. His primary takeaway is amazement at how unemotional was the shooter. My takeaways from watching the video of the shooting was more pragmatic. First of all, and Whittle makes a mistake here, the firearm used by the shooter when he first entered the mosque was a shotgun; and the video once again demonstrates the awesome power of a shotgun at short range. Second, a guy runs around a corner during the shooter, taking the shooter by surprise. If the guy had had been intending to attack the shooter, the guy could have probably taken the shooter to the ground. As it was, he was simply trying to get past the shooter, and was shot in the back for his efforts. Third, most the people that died had simply gathered into the corners of the room, cowering. It does not appear that anyone had tried to break windows to escape, and no one attempted to attack the shooter.

• TGIF: This week's Weekend Knowledge Dump from Active Response Training. Among the articles and videos to which Ellifritz has linked are a few on active shooter events, including one on the lessons to be learned from the Christchurch shooting.
• Just a reminder that Baugo Blades is closing, and has their forager knives on sale. They also sell elderberry seeds and have instructions on how to germinate the seeds. They have been a great friend to this blog for a long time.
• "OUT OF THE BOX PRODUCT REVIEW: FALCON 37 ADVANCED ENGAGEMENT CHARGING HANDLE"--American Partisan. The author gives his initial take on this interesting produce. Essentially, the product is an AR charging handle, except that rather than terminating with the T-shaped handle and locking mechanism as on most charging handles, it has an adjustable cheek piece that extends from the back of the handle. This does two things: it provides, as expected, a cheek rest. The other, however, is that you can simply grip the cheek rest and rack the charging handle, just like a racking a slide on a pistol, to chamber a round/cock the hammer. The article has an embedded video showing off the product which you need to watch to fully appreciate how it works.
• "Keep Your Head in the Fight"--Recoil Magazine. The article notes that medical advances means that headshots that previously would have been fatal are now treatable. It also discusses what happens if you get shot in the head: 

         So what actually happens when a bullet hits the skull? The one thing that Hollywood may have gotten right is that bullet strikes to the head produce a wide array of different outcomes. There is no “typical” wound pattern associated with headshots. Factors like trajectory, angle of impact, deflection caused by the skull, and bullet velocity all affect what the wound looks like once the bullet has come to rest or exited the skull. However, there are a couple things worth noting. One is that bullets don’t bounce. Over the years, we’ve probably all heard a lot of “gun store wisdom” or so-called anecdotal evidence about how small, light bullets will enter the body and just sort of rattle around, tearing up everything in their path. This is inaccurate. Bullets can deflect if they hit the inside of the skull after entry, but the idea of a bullet bouncing back and forth like a ping-pong ball is pure, unadulterated bullshit. It’s also possible for a bullet to strike the head, but miss the brain entirely. This is especially relevant in the context of a frontal shot to the face. The orbital bones of the eyes, nose, teeth, and jaw bone may deflect a bullet or even stop it completely from entering the brain.

         If a bullet does actually penetrate the skull and enter the brain, what happens then? There are three primary mechanisms that can kill a person who has sustained a gunshot wound to the brain. The leading cause of death in these cases is blood loss. There are a number of large blood vessels located in the brain. The internal carotid artery provides blood to parts of the cerebrum, and the vertebrobasilar arteries supply part of the cerebrum, part of the cerebellum, and the brainstem. These two arteries are joined at the base of the brain, forming a large blood vessel known as the Circle of Willis. Then there are smaller, penetrating arteries deep inside the brain, known as lenticulostriate arteries. These are all thick, pumping vessels filled with oxygen-rich blood that the brain needs to function. Damage to any of these caused by the physical impact of a slug, or by cavitation, will cause rapid, severe hemorrhaging. Since you cannot employ a tourniquet, surgical intervention is the only way to treat this.

       The second leading cause of death is physical destruction of the brain itself. Specifically, any type of damage to the brainstem is considered catastrophic. This is the part of your brain that controls basic life support functions like breathing, blood pressure, and heartbeat. Gunshot wounds that result in damage to the brainstem are effectively 100 percent fatal, with death often occurring at the scene. This is the closest thing to that “magic light switch” we see on the big screen.

      The third major mortality factor in headshot patients is increased cranial pressure. This over-pressure may be caused by swelling of the brain itself or by the presence of a hematoma (blood clot) inside the skull. Though its effects are not immediate, increased pressure can lead to oxygen starvation, which will cause permanent brain damage. It can also cause brain herniation, where the brain actually squeezes out through openings in the skull. Part of the brain may swell out through an entry or exit wound, or through natural openings in the brain like the foramen magnum — the opening in the base of the skull where the spinal cord connects to the brain.

Read the whole thing.

• Gabe Suarez's company is now offering for sale the book GUERRILLA SNIPER II by "Sua Sponte". Sua Sponte is the nom de plume of a sniper that contributes to Suarez's forum.

• Related: "Improving The Remington 700–Part 1–Buy a Rifle"--Ammo Land. The author notes that the Remington 700 makes a good base for building an accurate long-range rifle. He discusses the rifle, some of the features, and ideas for improving the system.

• "The Renaissance That Isn’t There."--Quietly Armed. The author cites to an article by Claude Werner comparing the number of snub-nosed revolvers sold versus the number of compact .380 pistols to make the point that there is no resurgence of interest among revolvers for defensive handguns. This is somewhat confusing to me because I read a lot of articles on shooting, and I have not noticed any particular trend of articles suggesting that we are in a renaissance of revolvers for defensive carry. Revolver sales have fallen since the 1980's when the "wonder 9s" first became popular (as well as shows like Miami Vice popularizing semi-auto handguns). The more interesting question is not why have revolver sales fallen over the last few decades, but why the revolver continues to sell as well as it does. Because, although I have not seen any articles arguing for a revolver renaissance, I have seen many articles over the last decade proclaiming the imminent demise of the revolver. Instead, what we see is revolver manufacturers continuing to offer new models, and have seen manufacturers enter or return to the revolver market (e.g., Kimber and Colt).
• "The Perfect Cartridge for Pelts"--Outdoor Life. It's one thing to shoot varmints simply to kill them, and quite another to shoot them to preserve the value of a pelt. The author notes that "[t]he goal of any fur-taking cartridge is simple. We want a round that will instantly incapacitate the animal we shoot with it while doing little or no damage to the pelt. On top of that, it should do that every time, on every animal." Of course, the size and build of the animal will have a lot to do with dictating the cartridge: a cartridge that is perfect on a larger animal may blow a smaller animal into smithereens. For instance, the author relates:

Anything that would be considered an adequate coyote rifle, such as a .223, will usually damage fox or cat hides badly. On the other end, the .22 LR, .22 Win. Mag., and .17 HMR do very little hide damage but lack the oomph you need to knock them down consistently. The sweet spot for foxes and cats seems to be in the .17 Win. Super Mag., .17 Hornet, and .22 Hornet, with the .17 Hornet being top dog in my experience.

• "Stop practicing shooting!"--The Street Standards. The author wants to impress on his audience that accurately shooting a firearm is only one of many considerations in surviving a defensive shooting (without facing jail time). For instance, the author lists 25 considerations and skills, of which shooting an assailant is only number 13. He explains:

        I’ve probably missed a few things, but 25 is enough.  Of course at this point the fun’s just beginning; you still have an investigation, court appearances, and possibly a trial to go through.  As well as other things that are even less fun.

       And yet, almost all American training focuses only only on element 13.  That is, one out of 25+ things you need to be competent at to truly survive a violent encounter.  This out-of-whackedness has only gotten worse over the last 20 years.  One of the pioneers of civilian deadly-force encounter training, Massad Ayoob, did (and still does) teach almost all of these elements in his flagship course.  But almost no one else does, certainly not the plethora of young “trainers” these days with no real-world experience at all.  They can shoot (in some cases), but they aren’t teaching you how to survive: they don’t know how to; they don’t even realize that they aren’t.

      Ditto most competitively-focused instructors.  Whenever I point out the limitations of competitively-focused training, I invariably get someone whose only significant experience is in elements 8 and 13 lecturing me about how those elements are critically necessary.  No shit.  As much as I admire (indeed, covet) the skill of competitors, it’s not enough.

      So why do we (Americans) focus almost exclusively on just shooting?  I submit it’s because, unlike our South African friends, the high level of safety in most of our country allows us to get away with it.

• Only professionals can be trusted with guns: "How terror unfolded inside Scientology church lobby after a Bentley-driving man 'acting crazy' burst in with a Samurai sword before being fatally shot in the head by police"--Daily Mail. The relevant part for my purposes:

     Police said one of the officers was shot in the hand and the other suffered a gunshot wound to the arm during the standoff.

* * *

      They are investigating whether the officers who were injured accidentally shot each other when gunfire erupted. 

• "'Gun therapy' eases symptoms in Parkinson's sufferer: Competitive shooter who was diagnosed at just 38 trembles constantly unless he's firing"--Daily Mail. From the article:

         Parkinson's leaves the 46-year-old from Georgia helpless to control his tremors. 

        Except, that is, when David shoots. 

        In the many videos David shares to his Instagram, his violent tremors slowly subside as he raises a gun, takes a few deep breaths and pulls the trigger. 

        He's remarkably accurate, and instead of keeping David from his favorite sport, Parkinson's has inspired David to turn professional, he told Fox.  

        It's not just good for his collection of prizes. Practicing shooting eight hours a day, seven days a week may actually be encouraging David's brain to form new connections, one of the few ways patients can combat Parkinson's symptoms.

• "Federal Judge Rules New York’s Dumb ‘Gravity Knife’ Law Is Unconstitutionally Vague"--Reason. The article reports:

        The law was passed in 1958 to criminalize knives that rely on gravity to open and lock into place. It was intended to address knives modeled after World War II paratrooper knives that opened by depressing a button, whereafter the knife blade fell and locked into place by force of gravity. However, New York City police interpreted the statute to mean any folding knife that can be opened by a flick of the wrist.

       As Crotty's ruling notes, a gravity knife, unlike many other weapons, is defined not by its design but by its function, as determined by the "wrist flick test."

      Martin LaFalce, a staff attorney at the Legal Aid Society, a legal aid group that has released several reports on the gravity knife law, says in an interview with Reason that the Cracco decision "recognizes the basic principle that criminal liability cannot turn on the flick of an officer's wrist, and it's impossible for New Yorkers to comply with the gravity knife statute."

• "Gun Review: Savage Arms MKII FV-SR Threaded Barrel 22 LR"--The Truth About Guns. The author reviewing this rifle thought it to be a great little rifle, especially if you want to put a sound suppressor on a .22 rifle. It also comes with an Accu-trigger, and a Picatinny rail for mounting a telescopic sight. From my experience with this rifle, I agree that it is a great little rifle, but ... the comb on the rifle stock is intended for shooting using iron sights, such as found on the standard MKII, and is too low for optics mounting on the optic rail provided with the rifle. This means that you must either replace the stock, or fit some type of cheek riser to it. The rifle comes with a 5-round detachable magazine, but you can buy 10-round magazines to fit it.
• ".38 S&W (The Other .38)"--Forgotten Weapons.  From the article:

     The .38 Smith and Wesson cartridge enjoyed a respectable 100 year service life as it evolved from the weaker black powder pocket pistol cartridge to a more potent military round in its day using heavy bullets and smokeless powder. Other names for the cartridge exist like “.38 Colt New Police”, “.380 Rim”, and “.380-200” depending on the market and manufacturer.

       While the guns slowly fade into obscurity, so many have been made and remain serviceable that new ammunition can still be found if you look hard enough. This author is aware of no firearms currently produced in this caliber and the few sources of factory ammunition available can universally be counted on to be of the type safe enough for use in the least common denominator of those guns. Fragile break top revolvers from the end of the black powder era were often made by companies that did NOT make a name for themselves in the pages of gun-making history and the phrase “wall hanger” is frequently applied to them if they show functional imperfections.

      When it can be found, expect to pay a lot for new factory ammunition which will consist of a ~146 grain lead round nose with muzzle velocities in the 600-700 feet per second range. Such rounds will be accurate, have low recoil, and tend to cause a report that’s very mild, even if the shooter forgets their ear protection. While these may perform on par with modern cartridges like .380 ACP or 9x18mm Makarov, reloading is essential if affordability or enhanced performance is desired. 

• More: "Consider the Forgotten .38 S&W"--Chuck Hawks. The author writes:

        Eventually the U.S. Cavalry would give the .38 S&W field trials, and it was officially adopted as a service cartridge by Great Britain, most of her former colonies, and Israel during its war for independence. Countless police departments in the U.S. and around the world also adopted the cartridge.

      The 38 S&W was still in official use as late as the 1970s in those parts of Africa and Asia once controlled by the Brits and, even today, artisans in the troubled border region of India and Pakistan still turn out the notorious "Khyber Pass Specials," handmade reproductions of the Webley and Enfield revolvers designed more than a century ago. Some of these, long considered dangerous to fire, have been brought into the U.S. recently as battlefield pickups by returning Afghanistan veterans.

"Has Our Culture Hit a Dead End?"--Paul Joseph Watson (14 min.)

Watson has done other videos on how bad is what is considered "art" and "architecture." This video focuses more on popular music and movies, noting that there is a general decline in originality. We have literally entered an era when pop music basically sounds alike and our blockbuster movies seem to follow the same script. As Watson notes, the creativity seems gone, replaced by the need to make a movie non-offensive to the largest possible audiences. This should not surprise students of Spengler, since he noted that with the rise of the world cities, the separation of the civilization from the root culture would cause art to stagnate and that culture would be replaced by money and techniques.

• For a further explanation of why movies are all the same: "Save the Movie!The 2005 screenwriting book that’s taken over Hollywood—and made every movie feel the same"--Slate. From the article:

         If you’ve gone to the movies recently, you may have felt a strangely familiar feeling: You’ve seen this movie before. Not this exact movie, but some of these exact story beats: the hero dressed down by his mentor in the first 15 minutes (Star Trek Into Darkness, Battleship); the villain who gets caught on purpose (The Dark Knight, The Avengers, Skyfall, Star Trek Into Darkness); the moment of hopelessness and disarray a half-hour before the movie ends (Olympus Has Fallen, Oblivion, 21 Jump Street, Fast & Furious 6).

      It’s not déjà vu. Summer movies are often described as formulaic. But what few people know is that there is actually a formula—one that lays out, on a page-by-page basis, exactly what should happen when in a screenplay. It’s as if a mad scientist has discovered a secret process for making a perfect, or at least perfectly conventional, summer blockbuster.

     The formula didn’t come from a mad scientist. Instead it came from a screenplay guidebook, Save the Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting You’ll Ever Need. In the book, author Blake Snyder, a successful spec screenwriter who became an influential screenplay guru, preaches a variant on the basic three-act structure that has dominated blockbuster filmmaking since the late 1970s.

      When Snyder published his book in 2005, it was as if an explosion ripped through Hollywood. The book offered something previous screenplay guru tomes didn’t. Instead of a broad overview of how a screen story fits together, his book broke down the three-act structure into a detailed “beat sheet”: 15 key story “beats”—pivotal events that have to happen—and then gave each of those beats a name and a screenplay page number. Given that each page of a screenplay is expected to equal a minute of film, this makes Snyder’s guide essentially a minute-to-minute movie formula.

• More fallout from the Mueller report:

• "Spygate: The Inside Story Behind the Alleged Plot to Take Down Trump"--Epoch Times. The author argues that "[t]he weaponization of the intelligence community and other government agencies created an environment that allowed for obstruction in the investigation into Hillary Clinton and the relentless pursuit of a manufactured collusion narrative against Trump." Read the whole thing.

• "On Point: The National Security Impact of Mueller's Russia Investigation"--Austin Bay at Strategy Page. He writes:

       Hard evidence exists that a serious national security crime was committed during the election and early 2017. Trump and his campaign were spied upon, not by foreign adversaries but by America's security agencies. Moreover, criminals in these agencies colluded with media compadres to mislead the American people.

        The security agency corruption and media collusion produced a cold, hard totalitarian horror committed in and against America, the world's paramount democracy.

        Here are some of the Obama administration narrative warfare extremists who waged war on America: Former FBI Director James Comey, his deputy Andrew McCabe, former CIA kingpin John Brennan, and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.

       These corrupt men corrupted their institutions and damaged U.S. security.

• "You’re A Sucker For Not Believing That The System Is Rigged"--Kurt Schlichter at Town Hall. The author, referencing the Russian collusion fairytale, Hillary getting off Scott free after exposing state secrets, and Smollet getting charges dropped after his charade, contends that:

       The American dream has morphed into the American grift. And we normal people are the marks.

       Let’s stop pretending. Let’s stop accepting the ruling class’s lies. And let’s stop lying to ourselves. America has changed. There used to be one standard, one set of laws, one set of rules. Now, there are two.

      The one set of rules for normal people is designed to jam us up, to keep us down, to ensure that the power of the powerful never gets challenged.

     And the one set of rules for the elite can be summed up like this: There are no rules.

• Related: "What happens after rich kids bribe their way into college? I teach them"--The Guardian. Remedial education in the Ivy Leagues. 

• It's an invasion--time to treat it as such: "U.S. Projected to Add 1.5M Illegal Aliens to Population this Year"--Breitbart. Pres. Trump was pushing the Overton Window on Hannity the other night, by referencing how many countries have successfully used machine guns to deter illegal aliens, but he doesn't want to do that. Now the thought is out there in the public sphere.

• Related: "Mexico braces for new caravan of Central American migrants"--AP. A caravan of 20,000+ migrants from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala could be forming.

• "French spy found dead in Alps after being accused of plot to assassinate exiled Congolese politician"--The Independent. From the article:

        The body of Daniel Forestier was discovered last week by police in a car park in the remote Alpine town of Ballaison, close to the French border with Switzerland.

        The 57-year-old had been shot five times in the head and chest. Prosecutors said the calculated nature of the shooting meant it was being treated as a professional hit.

       French media have widely reported Mr Forestier was a retired agent for the DGSE, France’s external intelligence agency, comparable to MI6.

       Mr Forestier had been under investigation by authorities in connection with a plot to kill Ferdinand Mbahou, an exiled military general and high-profile opponent of the Congo-Brazzaville government.

• A follow up to an news item I had linked to last week: "Playboy model, 25, is charged with murdering 71-year-old psychiatrist who was found bludgeoned to death in the trunk of a car in Nevada"--Daily Mail. 
• Of course: "How ‘Green’ Electric Cars Are Killing Congo’s Child Miners"--Principia Scientific.
• How predictable: "Eat, Pray, Love author who left her husband for a woman before losing her to cancer reveals she is now in a relationship with her late girlfriend's male friend"--Daily Mail. If your spouse ever forced you to watch this film, you probably know that the "Eat, Pray, Love" story is about a woman's journey of discovery ... after she discovered that she was bored with her dependable, loving husband. By the way, the "husband" mentioned in the headline is not her original husband, but the exciting lover she encountered while in South East Asia.

• Related: "Coveting sin: The Law of the Double Standard."--Dalrock. He explains:

        It has long been obvious to me that whenever the topic of the sexual double standard is raised the end result is a rush towards female sexual immorality.  The correlation here is perfect, but the mechanism had until just recently eluded me.

       The reason for the perfect correlation is that when women raise the topic of the sexual double standard they are not expressing a revulsion for sexual sin, they are expressing envy for men.  Envy of men is at the core of feminist rebellion, and envy is an exceptionally powerful temptation for women. ...

• Flashback: "Inside the ‘Q Group,’ the Directorate Hunting Down Edward Snowden"--Daily Beast. From the article:

       The people who began chasing Snowden work for the Associate Directorate for Security and Counterintelligence, according to former U.S. intelligence officers who spoke on condition of anonymity. The directorate, sometimes known as “the Q Group,” is continuing to track Snowden now that he’s outed himself as The Guardian’s source, according to the intelligence officers. ...

       The security and counterintelligence directorate serves as the NSA’s internal police force, in effect watching the agency’s watchers for behavior that could pose an intelligence risk. It has the authority to interview an NSA contractor or employee’s known associates, and even to activate a digital dragnet capable of finding out where a target travels, what the target has purchased, and the target’s online activity.

• "THE VAMPIRE AND ITS LINEAGE"--Tony Thorne. The author explains:

In fact the figure of the bloodsucking or life-draining revenant is recurrent and attested in almost all prehistoric and most early modern cultures. There are examples from China (so-called ‘hungry ghosts’), Malaysia, the Americas, and, most interestingly from a linguistic point-of-view, the Kipchaks and Karachays of Caucasia and their relatives, the Tatars, and other Turkic-speaking peoples of Anatolia. Their languages give us yet another possible ancestor for the many names, culminating in today’s ‘vampire’, listed above. In modern Turkish obur denotes a glutton or greedy person, but in older folklore the Obur (Tatar Ubyr) was a bloodsucking night-demon that could shapeshift into a cat or dog or a beautiful woman. Here, then, is another possible – and rather plausible – antecedent for later slavonic upirs or vampirs.

• A reminder that we live in the 21st Century: "DEA Never Checked If Its Massive Surveillance Operations Are Legal, Watchdog Says"--Nextgov.  The article reports:

       In a heavily redacted, 144-page report published Thursday, the Justice Department Inspector General revealed the administration failed to fully assess the legal basis for three massive international surveillance operations that ran largely unchecked from 1992 to 2013. Two of the programs remain active in some form today.

      Under one initiative, which investigators called “Program A,” the administration used “non-target specific” subpoenas to force multiple telecom providers to provide metadata on every phone call made from the U.S. to as many as 116 countries with “a nexus to drugs.” Investigators found some companies also provided the officials with data on all calls made between those foreign countries.

       The administration also conducted two other bulk surveillance programs during that time without assessing their legality, investigators found. Under “Program B,” officials used similarly sweeping subpoenas to collect information on anyone who purchased specific products from participating vendors. Through “Program C,” DEA purchased telephone metadata for targets of ongoing investigations through a contractor for a separate government agency.

      Program B ran from 2008 to 2013, and Program C began in 2007 and remains active today, according to the IG.

March 27, 2019 -- A Quick Run Around the Web

"Short Barreled AR15's are Stupid"--The Wound Channel (10 min.)

The author suggests that the short barreled ARs, whether an SBR or pistol, have no benefits over a longer barreled AR (say 18- or 20-inch). That may be true if you are only looking at intrinsic factors, but once you consider extrinsic factors, the author's analysis begins to fall apart. First of all, I acknowledge that there is a ballistic disadvantage to using a shorter barrel versus a longer barrel, particularly if you stick to 5.56. However, a short barrel AR can be stowed in a smaller pack than you can fit a longer weapon, and you can turn around in tight spaces (e.g., an interior hallway of house) with a short-barrel weapon shouldered where you would have to lower the longer barrel weapon to execute the same maneuver. 

• "Lindsey Graham: The Government Isn’t Coming to Take Your Guns"--The Truth About Guns. Graham is attempting to allay fears of so-called "red flag" laws. He also has a bridge in Brooklyn he'd like to sell you.

• Related: "Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: Time to Ban ALL Semi-Automatic Guns"--The Truth About Guns.

• Related: "Bump Stock Ban – This Is What Modern Gun Confiscation Looks Like"--The Truth About Guns.

• Related: "Chief Justice John Roberts Refuses to Block Bump Stock Ban"--The Truth About Guns. Turned down a request to enjoin the enforcement of the ban during the pendency of the litigation.

• Modern political theory holds that the State has a monopoly on the use of force: "NZ Confiscations Begin: Police Going to Gun Owners’ Homes, Jobs…One Gun Owner Dead"--The Truth About Guns. From the article: "According to members of New Zealand’s largest firearm forum, Kiwi police are starting to go to gun owners’ places of employment, homes, and even visiting gun ranges in an attempt to gather information and get gun owners to relinquish their firearms."  Police are also going through social media posts to locate prohibited firearms. In fact, a photo of a boy holding an airsoft rifle led them to the boy's father, who committed suicide rather than face going to prison--police found the airsoft rifle as well as an SKS.

• Related: "The Pillars Of Gun Confiscations"--The Captain's Journal. The three are (1) licensing of gun owners, (2) registration of the firearms, and (3) a definitive rejection of the right to bear arms.

• "'Receiver Hunting' And Similar Stories"--The Silicon Graybeard. From the lede: "In case you didn't read this or don't know what it's talking about it concerns locating receivers by searching for their spurious radio emissions, in particular, the local oscillator." He discusses this topic and a related article from Sparks31 (aka, Outland Tek Musings). 
• If you haven't read this week's Woodpile Report, go check it out. Ol 'Remus has this to say about the Southern Poverty Law Center's kicking out its two founders:

       This has "hostile takeover" written all over it. The SPLC is a well honed scam with a huge pile of money in offshore accounts, and a glittering reputation among the incurious and opportunists alike. Their replacements will be from the Clinton-Obama syndicate, in fact, fixer Tina Tchen  is already on site.

       With reliable leadership in place, the Department of Justice—politically corrupt to the point of illegitimacy—will give it cover as an in-house but off-books agency. Look for a recast SPLC more muscular and aggressive than before.

• Rory Miller has moved his Chiron Training blog to Patreon. His old blog is still up, but who knows for how long. I suspect that this will be the wave of the future as content creators decide to monetize content rather than offering it for free (or for whatever ad revenue they can pick up) on a regular blog. On the other hand, it is $60 per year for the bare bones access to the blog, so Miller will be under a lot more pressure to produce more content. In the meantime, we should appreciate those who still put stuff out there for the general public.
• Speaking of which, Greg Ellifritz recently posted a thought experiment entitled "The Gas Station Clerk" designed to make you think about the cost of becoming needlessly involved in an incident, and whether you really want to do so. The gist of his article is what would you do if you happened to enter a convenience store when it was being robbed, and had the opportunity to safely back up and leave the scene before the robber noticed you? Would you intervene or look to your own safety? Not intervening doesn't necessarily mean that you completely walk away--you could try to get a description of the perp and his/her vehicle, license plate number, etc. This ties in with my 2017 post concerning the dangers of white knighting.
• "'One Month' Food Buckets – Good? Bad?"--Beans, Bullets, Bandages & You. The author explores some of the, shall we say, exaggerated claims of these food bucket kits. And one of the main exaggerations has to do with the quantity--i.e., servings--of food. The author explains that many of these companies "want it to sound like there’s a lot of food in the bucket, [so] they just list lots of (really small) servings!" The author continues:

 But how much do the kit producers expect you to eat? I waded into the information on several kits, and came up with values ranging from 1000 to 1,650 calories/day/person. 1000 calories a day isn’t just a ‘weight loss diet’, it’s considered a starvation level diet in the nutrition community; meaning calorie intake is so low the person isn’t just using a lot of body fat, but is probably burning a lot of their own muscle protein just to survive. 1,650 is considered a moderate weight loss diet; and might keep a smallish woman who was sedentary from losing weight at all. I’d call 1,650 calories a reasonable ‘day’, but not 1000/day.

The author goes on to discuss some example food labels and how to figure out what type of value you may, or may not, be getting from a product.

• Related: "WISE FOOD STORAGE: IS IT A WISE PURCHASE?"--American Partisan. The author notes some problems that have been identified with Wise Food products, including too much oxygen (promoting decomposition), and a class-action lawsuit that alleged that "Wise Company fails to disclose that if the consumer in fact eats the number of prescribed servings each day necessary to make the food kits last for the advertised period of time, the consumer will effectively starve or suffer adverse health effects given that the food kits provide drastically fewer calories and nutrients than are needed to adequately sustain adults for the advertised periods of time."

• "The RATS Tourniquet Debacle"--Blue Collar Prepping. If you've been following my humble blog, you know that I have posted about tourniquets quite a bit over the last few months, including discussing that there are only two rapid deployment tourniquets recommended by the Committee on Tactical Combat Casualty Care (COTCCC). The RATS tourniquet is not one of them. The author of this article reports that "the inventor of the RATS has been caught engaging in shady practices," and describes some of those. Buyer beware.
• "THE WINDOW OF JUSTIFICATION"--Gabe Suarez discusses one of the important elements of a claim of self-defense, that being that the perpetrator poses an imminent threat. Not posed an imminent threat, not will (or may sometime in the future) pose a threat, but right now. As Suarez explains it:

Your claim of justified self defense...or defense of others, must fit inside the justification window. Your actions must be contemporaneous to the event...to the assault, attack, etc. Contemporaneous means "close to" in terms of timing. So using our framework of decision-making, you can't legally justify shooting a prospective and potential attacker because you thought, one day, he might seek to harm you. Similarly, you can't justify seeking a subsequent contact with a past aggressor and claim retro-active self defense.

Now, I know of an incident where a shop owner chased an armed robber into a back alleyway and shot the guy (and also shot at an innocent bystander), and wasn't charged. But that is an outlier from a different time and what, in reality, should be considered a different country. You can't depend on that happening in your case. Read the whole article.

• "Night Vision PSA: It’s Not Easy Being Green. Tritium, Green Lasers and ANVIS Don’t Mix"--The Firearm Blog. 
• "Smith & Wesson Model 610 Reintroduced for Spring 2019"--Ammo Land. This model shoots 10 mm and .40 S&W.

"Secret Trap You Have Never Seen Before"--Survival Lilly (11 min.)

An alternative to the standard triggers you generally see in survival books/videos.

• This smells to high heaven: "'I do not believe he is innocent': Prosecutor who dropped charges against Jussie Smollett ADMITS that he thinks he is guilty but says he got off because he has no criminal background as cops and Chicago mayor slam the decision as a 'whitewash of justice'"--Daily Mail. Makes you wonder what is so important about Smollett. As to the prosecutor contending that there was nothing dangerous, that is B.S. If Smollett's plan had played out as he intended, there would have been riots.

• Related: "As If It Never Existed:' Cook County Clerk's Office Stunned as Smollett Case File Vanishes From Records System"--Town Hall. 

• An inconvenient truth: "Melting Greenland glacier appears to be growing again"--New York Post. From the article:

        The Jakobshavn glacier around 2012 was retreating about 1.8 miles and thinning nearly 130 feet annually. But it started growing again at about the same rate in the past two years, according to a study in Monday’s Nature Geoscience.

       Study authors and outside scientists think this is temporary.

Of course they do--there is more research money and tenured positions available to those who espouse anthropogenic global warming.

• Flashback: "Seven New Papers Forecast Global Cooling & Mini Ice Age"--Principia Scientific (Dec. 2017). The author observes:

        It has been increasingly established that low solar activity (fewer sunspots) and increased cloud cover (as modulated by cosmic rays) are highly associated with a cooling climate.

        In recent years, the Earth has unfortunately left a period of very high solar activity, the Modern Grand Maximum.  Periods of high solar activity correspond to multi-decadal- to centennial-scale warming.

       Solar scientists are now increasingly forecasting a period of very low activity that will commence in the next few years (by around 2020 to 2025).  This will lead to climate cooling, even Little Ice Age conditions.

On the subject of cloud cover being modulated by cosmic rays, keep in mind that the Earth's magnetic field acts as a shield against cosmic rays, but the magnetic field has been weakening and continues to weaken. More clouds equals a greater albedo, which means more sunlight reflected back into space.

• The real collusion: "US Embassy pressed Ukraine to drop probe of George Soros group during 2016 election"--The Hill. Ukrainian authorities were investigating an NGO known as the Anti-Corruption Action Centre (AntAC), but were warned off by the Obama Administration. The article explains:

        It turns out the group that Ukrainian law enforcement was probing was co-funded by the Obama administration and liberal mega-donor George Soros. And it was collaborating with the FBI agents investigating then-Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort’s business activities with pro-Russian figures in Ukraine.

       The implied message to Ukraine’s prosecutors was clear: Don’t target AntAC in the middle of an America presidential election in which Soros was backing Hillary Clinton to succeed another Soros favorite, Barack Obama, Ukrainian officials said.

• "No Crisis At the Border? – Mexican Cartels Using Grenade Launchers Near Texas Border"--The Lid. The author cites to this Breitbart article. The Breitbart article reports:

        Convoys of cartel gunmen in armored SUVs from a faction of Los Zetas called Cartel Del Noreste rolled into Miguel Aleman, Tamaulipas, over the weekend. The cartel gunmen sought to take control of the region from Mexico’s Gulf Cartel. The Gulf Cartel countered with its own army of gunmen that rolled out through the city streets in an attempt to fight off the CDN gunmen.

       According to local residents, each time the two cartels clashed, the fighting went on for hours at a time without military forces from a nearby base arriving to stop the violence.

      Both cartel factions used numerous grenades and incendiary devices in order to disable the other sides armored SUVs. The clashes left several burned-out vehicles throughout the city and the surrounding areas. Despite the raging violence, officials only found the body of one gunman left outside of a local funeral home in a pool of blood. The deceased gunman wore military-style clothing and carried several pieces of tactical gear but is not a Mexican military member.

       The fighting in Miguel Aleman comes just days after cartel gunmen left an unidentified headless body and a burned-out SUV near that city. The fighting also follows several other fierce clashes in and around the region. In one of those clashes earlier this year, more than 30 cartel gunmen died with most of them incinerated in a two-day span. Last month, CDN gunmen left a chest with two human heads and a banner threatening the Gulf Cartel and Cartel Jalisco New Generation (CJNG). The CDN gunmen leaked the identity of Bartolo “El Primito” Rodarte Castillo, the leader of a Gulf Cartel faction called “Los Metros.” This is the faction currently in control of Miguel Aleman.

• Related: "Immigration System At The 'Breaking Point,' Homeland Security Official Warns"--NPR. 

• The wages of sin socialism: "Infectious Diseases Spike amid Venezuela’s Political Turmoil"--Scientific American. The article notes that: 

Venezuela was once a leader in vector-borne disease prevention and control. In 1961 the World Health Organization certified the South American nation as the first in the world to eliminate malaria from the majority of its territory; in fact the WHO used the malaria-eradication program Venezuela developed in the 1950s as a public health model. 

Now, not so much:

       Cases of malaria, dengue fever, Zika and other serious illnesses have reached alarming levels in Venezuela and are spilling over into neighboring countries, according to several recent studies.

       These so-called vector-borne diseases—transmitted by mosquitoes or other organisms—have increased by as much as 400 percent in Venezuela in the last decade, according to a review study published in The Lancet in February. Spiraling economic and political turmoil have worsened the situation, as has the government’s apparent hostility toward researchers who publish epidemiological data—with reports of pro-government paramilitary groups smashing labs and even stealing experimental mice. “Last year we had more than 600,000 cases [of malaria] reported by the government,” says study co-author Maria Eugenia Grillet, a tropical disease ecologist at Central University of Venezuela in Caracas. She and her co-authors estimated there were actually around 1.2 million cases, taking into account underreporting and disease relapses, Grillet notes. (Relapses occur when a patient has recovered but still carries the malaria-causing parasite and later suffers a recurrence of symptoms.) She blames the increase on a lack of antimalarial surveillance, treatment and control, partly due to funding cuts. “Research in our universities and laboratories is almost completely paralyzed because there are no financing programs that allow us to cover the basic needs to carry out our experiments or fieldwork,” she says.

• Flashback: "Mueller’s Art of War: He’s playing the long game, just like Sun Tzu"--Ryan Casey at Medium (Oct. 11, 2018). Casey begins by asserting that "[u]sing strategies of warfare, Mueller has likely already conceived an endgame, setting the stage for Trump’s downfall." This is a long read, but essentially Casey contends that Mueller approached his investigation like an organized crime case, and was building the foundation for criminal charges to be brought against Trump for alleged past financial dealings, both at the state and federal levels. Specifically, Casey contends that Trump's recover from bankruptcy in the 1990s was because of his receiving cash infusions from Russian oligarchs seeking to launder money, and that these same Russians still have control over Trump: ergo, the alleged coordination between the Trump Campaign and Russia. It's a nice story, but the coordination never occurred. However, that does not mean that Mueller has not left landmines to bedevil the Trump Administration in coming months or years.
• "We're from the Government and we're here to help": I've seen several of the blogs I visit regularly cite to this article from Quillette, "The French Genocide That Has Been Air-Brushed From History." It supports my position that more people have been killed in the cause of atheism than any religion. Some of the background:

         On July 12 the NCA passed a law, the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, that completely subordinated the Catholic Church to the Revolutionary government, and forbade Catholic allegiance to any foreign authority (for example, the Vatican, or the Pope). There would be no more recognizing the authority of bishops who had been appointed by non-French powers. Clergy were also ordered to swear allegiance to the Revolutionaries. They were now to be made civil servants, completely subject to the new French state.

        Most priests and bishops not only condemned the new Civil Constitution of the Clergy, but refused to swear the oath that would subject them to civil officials. Revolutionary authorities were concerned that people were still loyal to the clergy rather than them. In October the Directory of the Lower Loire was compelled to remind the clergy that they were being stubborn and had to do as they were told. But most priests remained disobedient.

       On November 10 1790, 103 priests from the diocese of Nantes signed a sharply-worded letter of protest to the NCA condemning their authoritarianism. Legislators were shocked and angry at the ingratitude. A few months later the Bishop of Nantes ordered his clergy to reject the Civil Constitution. Nine out of ten did not need to be told. The Revolutionary authorities had no choice but to appoint new bishops from among those few priests who had sworn to subject themselves to the NCA.

        On June 26 1791, the NCA declared its right to deport or exile “refractory” clergy who had refused to swear the oath. Only obedient “constitutional” clergy who had pledged their allegiance to the NCA were allowed to carry out any duties. Soon there was a shortage of priests; most parishes now had nobody legally to carry out baptisms, weddings, or funerals. Churches were locked up by authorities. Yet citizens continued to show up to church on Sundays, even when the doors were sealed and the priest was imprisoned or in hiding. Force was necessary to maintain the NCA’s new regulations on religion.

        The people refused to show up to Masses celebrated by “constitutional” priests. Indeed the “constitutional” clergy were widely ridiculed as cowards, traitors and infidels. Frequently they were subjected to physical assault. But they were public officials now, and could be protected by the armed forces if necessary, particularly when the faithful showered them with dirt, manure and rocks, or kicked them and spat in their faces.

        On September 20 1792, the National Convention (NC) replaced the NLA, which had supplanted the NCA, which had been formed in July 1789 from the original National Assembly (established in June 1789). The Revolutionaries’ position on the clergy remained consistent. They did not want good priests, or intelligent priests, or well-educated priests, or priests who knew their parishes and the needs of their parishioners: they wanted priests who would obey them, follow orders and not talk back. The clergy stood in the way of their plans to conscript three hundred thousand men for the Revolutionary army.

The Revolutionary Government persisted with their demands, that led to the outbreak of riots on spring 1793. Government forces responded with arresting protesters (labeled brigands), burning their houses, and confiscating anything that could be used as a weapon. In June, the government forces began to spread their reign of terror by destroying churches, windmills, and any structure they believed could be used to hide the so-called brigands. 

          The Committee for Public Safety sent Jean-Baptiste Carrier to Nantes: he arrived on October 20 1793 and stayed there until the middle of February. Carrier pioneered the technique of drowning brigands to save money on bullets. During his four months as the Committee’s representative in Nantes, 452 alleged brigands were acquitted and released from prison, 1,971 were executed by normal means, 3,000 or so died of disease, and 4,860 were drowned. Perhaps 3,000 prisoners survived.

        At first, drowning was used to deal with “refractory” clergy. On November 16 1793, 80 priests were drowned together in a boat; on December 5 or 6 a further 58 were disposed of in the same manner; 10 days later drowning was opened up for brigands more generally, and 129 Vendéens were drowned.

         It became customary to drown brigands naked, not merely so that the Revolutionaries could help themselves to the Vendéens’ clothes, but also so that the younger women among them could be raped before death. Drownings spread far beyond Nantes: on 16th December, General Marceau sent a letter to the Revolutionary Minister of War triumphantly announcing, among other victories, that at least 3,000 non-combatant Vendéen women had been drowned at Pont-au-Baux.   

        The Revolutionaries were drunk with blood, and could not slaughter their brigand prisoners fast enough—women, children, old people, priests, the sick, the infirm. If the prisoners could not walk fast enough to the killing grounds, they were bayoneted in the stomach and left on the ground to be trampled by other prisoners as they bled to death.

        General Westermann, one of the Revolution’s most celebrated soldiers, noted with satisfaction that he arrived at Laval on December 14 with his cavalry to see piles of cadavers—thousands of them—heaped up on either side of the road. The bodies were not counted; they were simply dumped after the soldiers had a chance of strip them of any valuables (mainly clothes).

        No brigand would be allowed to return home: Westermann and his men slaughtered every possible brigand they could find, until the roads of the area were littered with corpses. December 29 was a particularly successful day, with a bumper crop of 400 Vendéens who were butchered from behind. But General Westermann’s single finest day of slaughter took place at Savenay, on December 21. As he announced, to an appreciative and grateful Committee for Public Safety:

Citizens of the Republic, there is no more Vendée. She has died beneath our sabre of freedom, with her women and children. I have buried her in the woods and marshes of Savenay. Following your orders, I have crushed her children under the hooves of my horses, and massacred her women … who will give birth to no further brigands now. There is not a single prisoner who could criticise my actions—I have exterminated them all….

         At Savenay, 3,000 brigands were killed, with another 4,000 taken prisoner to be shot later on.

        The Revolutionary generals also decided to end the lives of Vendéens who had stayed home during the rebellion or had somehow managed to return home. As early as December 20 soldiers were combing the countryside in search of candidates for extra-judicial executions. Some compared the process to hunting rabbits: none of the prey was armed. They were never guillotined, because these were mere peasants and artisans; there were few onlookers who would be particularly interested in watching them die.

In 1794, the government sent more troops:

         On January 17 1794, General Turreau set out with two armies of six divisions each on a ‘Crusade of Liberty’ to deal with what remained of the brigands. He ordered his lieutenants to spare nobody: women and children were also to be bayoneted in the stomach if there was the slightest hint of suspicion. Houses, farms, villages and thickets were all to be set on fire. Anything that could burn would have to burn. Soldiers in the ‘Infernal Columns’ of the Crusade had explicit instructions to wipe out every last possible trace of resistance or rebellion.

       Crusaders for Liberty were relatively sparing in their use of the bayonet. Men, women and children were more often shot, or burned alive in their houses. Some of the Crusading soldiers had the idea of lighting ovens, stoking them and baking Vendéen families in them. Babies were not spared; nor were toddlers or small children. The usual practice was to kill babies in front of their mothers, then kill the mothers. Young girls were often drowned, after first being raped. Widows were usually beaten, insulted and drowned. Though there was no established standard procedure.

       Not all brigand corpses were dumped, or left in the ruins of their homes. Many bodies were skinned for their leather. On April 5 1794 at Clisson, General Crouzat’s soldiers burned 150 women alive to extract their fat to use as grease. Though on the whole the soldiers of the Crusade for Liberty were rarely so enterprising: they were well paid, and any profits they made were incidental. ...

The article notes that out of a population of 815,000 people, 117,000 "disappeared." This is probably what would have happened to the Mormons in Missouri if they had not fled to Illinois after the Missouri governor issued his extermination order. 

• Speaking of the government's help: "9 Years Into Common Core, Test Scores Are Down, Indoctrination Up"--The Federalist. The author reports:

        ACT scores released earlier this month show that students’ math achievement is at a 20-year low. The latest English ACT scores are slightly down since 2007, and students’ readiness for college-level English was at its lowest level since ACT’s creators began measuring that item, in 2002. Students’ preparedness for college-level math is at its lowest point since 2004.

       SAT scores also dropped post-Common Core until it fully implemented a new version tailored for Common Core. How convenient. Even after the test was overhauled to match Common Core, average test scores increased by 0.7 percent in the most recent results. It represents almost no difference to pre-Common Core results, and the public can’t know exactly how the scores were recentered and altered, either.

       In all the previous SAT overhauls, average scores technically went up but statistical analyses show they’ve actually been steadily losing ground over the past 60 years. In other words, the SAT has a history of score inflation, and Common Core is doing nothing to reverse that.

• This is why you shouldn't allow SJW's to remain in your church: "Five Days after the Christchurch Shootings: Subversive Compassion"--Gina Colvin at Patheos. Colvin writes about how churches in New Zealand have responded to the Christchurch shooting, including this: "At our local LDS meeting the Stake President talked about the Five Pillars of Islam." I don't care how much you want to reach out to the victims, it is completely improper for a Church leader to be preaching another religion's tenets as part of a worship service.
• A reminder that we live in the 21st Century: "Pence calls for NASA to land astronauts on the moon within five years"--Spaceflight Now. I know, I know. Its been over 50 years since the original moon landing, and we should have seen regular travel to the moon by the 1980's or 1990's. But, at least we were able to win Johnson's war on poverty, right? And I'm sure that the trillions of unaccounted dollars to the DoD went to something useful. Nevertheless, it is nice to see some real commitment to move ahead with a manned space program. And I love this statement by Pence: "If our current contractors can't meet this objective, then we'll find ones that will."

VOTD: Chuck Norris Shooting Everyone (just for giggles)

"Chuck Norris Shooting Everyone" (4 min.)

POTD: Remains of Chinese Pesticide Plant Destroyed in Explosion

Source: "Death roll of China's devastating chemical explosion rises to 78 as incredible video shows rescuers pulling a survivor from the rubble 40 HOURS after the blast"--Daily Mail. The article also says that 28 remain missing and 566 have been hospitalized.

March 25, 2019--A Quick Run Around The Web

"witnessed a robbery today NO MORE SINGLE STACK CCW FOR ME"--Zadrian (11 min.)

I just came across this 2014 video. The video producer ("Zadrian") relates how he saw a robbery that involved 5 or 6 perps after the getaway driver showed up. The basic facts is that he and his girlfriend had just left a restaurant and gotten into their car when they saw a group of young black men approach the restaurant, go inside and apparently steal wallets or smart phones and fled. As they fled, they accosted another customer sitting at an outside table and tried to take her cell phone as well. Zadrian decided to follow the perps (who were on foot at this point) with his car, while calling 911. He finally drove past them to allay suspicion and watched them duck behind a dumpster to hide. So he parked and turned off his lights to see what happened. Shortly thereafter, a vehicle pulled up, and the whole group drove off. Zadrian took this incident as a demonstration that he was undergunned with a single stack 9 mm, and determined that he was going to need to carry a Glock 19.

While I can't fault Zadrian for believing that he might need more rounds on hand, I think it is a mistake to base your defensive needs on a single incident. A data point of one does not provide you much information. Beyond that, however, if he believed that the perps were potentially dangerous, why did he follow them? It should be a basic rule of self-defense to not go chasing after a perp ... especially, as in this case, where no one was injured and Zadrian did not know if they were armed.

• "SURRENDERING YOUR BUMPSTOCK UNDER PROTEST ON MARCH 25, 2019 (IF NECESSARY) – BUMP-STOCK REDEMPTION DAY!"--Prince Law Offices.
• "Gaining the Defensive Advantage in a Home Invasion"--Sheriff Jim Wilson at Shooting Illustrated. Key point:

The smart move in [home invasion] incidents is not to go hunting through your house. Instead, you arm yourself, roll off the opposite side of the bed—using it for cover—and make them come to you. This also gives you time for you or your spouse to call 911 and get help on the way. It also gives you time to determine if this really is a home invasion or a situation similar to what I outlined in the beginning of this article. In short, while it’s not something that Rambo might do, it is a technique that gives you just about all of the advantages that are available to you. Just as we did in that force-on-force exercise, the chances of beating the bad guys goes way up in your favor.

Of course, none of this matters if you aren't alerted to someone breaking in. Lock your doors and windows. Get an alarm system or a yappy dog. Strengthen your doors and/or install security doors. 

• "AN INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY"--Tiger McKee at American Handgunner. He observes:

The best way to avoid trouble is to simply pay attention. Watch the people around you since 90 percent or more of our communication is non-verbal. Learn how to read body language to understand what people are “saying.” Large groups of people also have non-verbal ways of communicating. Reading individuals and groups isn’t as difficult as it sounds, and we’ll discuss this, more specifics and some great resources in the future.

• "Military presents plan to manufacture replica of 50-caliber Barrett"--Mexico News Daily. The Mexican military figures that they can make their own copies of the Barrett M82s for $3,700 a piece, or a 73% savings over purchasing the weapons from Barrett.
• "Book Review: Heavy Laden: Union Veterans, Psychological Illness, and Suicide"--Strategy Page.

        Veterans of the Civil War were perhaps the first to draw attention to the possible psychological consequences of combat. At the time, veterans with psychological problems, including criminality, alcoholism and addiction, violent behavior, and suicide were attributed to “nervous trouble”, “nostalgia”, “soldier’s heart”, and other vaguely defined conditions which are now known as post-traumatic stress disorder.

       In this work, the authors, respectively the Senior Fellow and the Chairman of the Burton Blatt Institute at Syracuse University, devoted to the advancement of persons with disabilities, examine the effects of the war on a sampling of Union veterans, both black and white, with particular attention to the suicides now recognized as a frequent result of PTSD.

       Their results, bolstered by an impressive mass of statistics, indicate that veterans had a notably higher suicide rate than men in the same social cohorts who had not served. Moreover, men who had been injured in combat or who had undergone the ordeal of being prisoners of war were even more likely to commit suicide than veterans who had been wounded or imprisoned.

      While they uncovered these grim statistics, Logue and Blanck also found that veterans were more likely to be unmarried or have marital problems, more frequently suffered insanity commitments, and even were relatively less wealthy than non-veterans, though oddly African-American veterans appear to have been somewhat more prosperous than black non-veterans.

• "Ancient, Unknown Strain of Plague Found in 5,000-Year-Old Tomb in Sweden"--Live Science. An article from a few months back. The article reports:

         In a nearly 5,000-year-old tomb in Sweden, researchers have discovered the oldest-known strain of the notorious bacterium Yersinia pestis — the microbe responsible for humanity's perhaps most-feared contagion: the plague.

        The finding suggests that the germ may have devastated settlements across Europe at the end of the Stone Age in what may have been the first major pandemic of human history. It could also rewrite some of what we know of ancient European history.

• "Entertainment After SHTF"--Modern Survival Blog. The author points out that after a significant disaster, "[p]ersistent stress nibbles away at the mind, corroding reason and morale until a perfectly normal person is rendered a perfect basket-case, unpredictable and not much good to anyone. Games and other activities are excellent for both bonding and stress relief during rest times. The social value of all kinds of simple games should not be underestimated, as this little bit of fun and normalcy can go a long way toward maintaining group cohesion and morale." It will be a necessity for children or those that can't physically work at cleaning up or other physical tasks. The standard fall back is, of course, card games, board games, and various pen and paper games (e.g., hang-man or tic-tac-toe). While the author notes that board games can be a problem to use during a bug out, there are travel versions of games available that can be set up and played in the small space of a car. Also, if you can keep electronic devices charged, you can play some electronic games. Party games like charades can also be fun. Over the long term, physical sports will become popular, like baseball (other other forms of stick ball), soccer, football, etc. I also would throw in the favorite of my younger self--paper and pencil role playing games.
• "A History of Cane Self-Defense in America: 1798-1930"--Martial Arts New York. From the lede:

During the eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries, America could be a dangerous place, and knowledge of self-defense was often necessary for use in both urban and rural environments. To those ends, fencing masters and instructors often modified and applied fencing techniques to the cane or walking stick, creating their own systems of self-defense. This article proposes to look at various methods of cane defense, taught by fencing masters and instructors, that were specifically intended for practical use in self-defense encounters in the everyday world.

A long read, but interesting.

• Salon magazine proposed to start going after bolt-action rifles: "Assault rifles are insane: New Zealand came to its senses and banned them. When will we?"--Lucian K. Truscott IV at Salon Magazine (h/t The Truth About Guns). In the midst of his rant about "assault rifles," the author takes note of a certain bolt action rifle intended for long range shooting:

       ... The experts in “tactical” firearms at Tactical Life magazine are telling you that this Scorpio rifle, with its “AR-style pistol grip, an infinitely adjustable folding stock and an octagonal handguard with removable rails … chambered in .300 Norma Magnum … sport[ing] a match-grade 26-inch, AISI 416R barrel lapped for accuracy and capped with a large three-chamber muzzle brake” is “insane.” And according to them, it’s just the thing you want for “long range, soft target” shooting.

      Take a minute and look at all the military-speak gun-culture nomenclature babble they slap down: “match-grade” and “muzzle brake” and “infinitely adjustable folding stock” and all the rest of that crap. That’s the way they market guns like the “Scorpion,” and you know what it is? It’s insane.

      OK, their use of “insane” is a kind of gun-lover-hipster-speak, and the Scorpio isn’t a semiautomatic assault rifle.... But it’s the same style of weapon, with the same style aluminum stock and ventilated “rails” alongside its barrel, and it’s got capabilities far in excess of what would be necessary for  any sort of legitimate civilian usage. “Loaded up with the faster 230-grain Berger round, I got hits on a 3-by-3-inch steel target at 2,000 yards,” the reviewer boasted. That is 1.13 miles, folks. This guy claims he hit a target about the size of your forehead from over a mile away. 

        Who the hell needs to hit something, anything, from over a mile away? I’ll tell you who: an Army or Marine sniper, that’s who. They’re selling military-grade rifles to the general public. That’s what this sniper rifle is, and that’s what all the various iterations of the AR-15 style assault rifles are. Military-grade killing machines. ...

I'm sure it doesn't escape Truscott that the Second Amendment isn't about hunting. It is about defense, including defense against an oppressive or corrupt government. That is why Truscott hates it.

• Free download: "The Medical Implications of Nuclear War"--The National Academies Press. Please not that this is a 37 Mb pdf file.

"Why Johnny Can't Think"--Bill Whittle (7-1/2 min.)

• The mountain turned out to not even be a mole hill: "Mueller report: Collusion by the news media, not Donald Trump, but don't expect apologies"--Glenn Reynolds writing at USA Today. 

       After two years of hype, special counsel Robert Mueller has reported to Attorney General William Barr that there was no “collusion,” as Donald Trump would put it, between Trump or the Trump presidential campaign and the Russians regarding the 2016 election. 

      There will be no new indictments from Mueller beyond the few already issued, none of which charges a U.S. person with anything related to collusion. This is a big disappointment to the people in politics and the press who were openly hoping to see Trump, and his family, kicked out of the White House and thrown into jail.

• When you come at the king, you best not miss: "Trump team turns tables after Mueller report, calls for investigation into probe's origin"--Fox News. The article reports that:

        Trump himself slammed the probe as an “illegal takedown,” as he called Mueller’s report a “complete exoneration” and said it was a “shame” his presidency had to deal with the investigation for two years.

       “Hopefully somebody is going to look at the other side,” Trump said. “This was an illegal takedown that failed and hopefully somebody is going to be looking at the other side.”

• More: "Kimberley Strassel: Mueller's investigation is done. Now dig into the real scandal -- missteps of Comey, FBI"--Fox News. Discussing the investigation, Strassel writes: "None of this should ever have happened absent highly compelling evidence—from the start—of wrongdoing. Yet from what we know, the FBI operated on the basis of an overheard conversation of third-tier campaign aide George Papadopoulos, as well as a wild 'dossier' financed by the rival presidential campaign. Mr. Mueller’s no-collusion finding amounts to a judgment that there never was any evidence. The Papadopoulos claim was thin, the dossier a fabrication."

• Mexico is already seeing record murder rates this year: "At 4,826 in first two months, homicide numbers continue to break records"--Mexico News Daily. From the article:

         A total of 4,826 intentional homicide cases were reported in the two-month period, according to the National Public Security System (SNSP), an increase of 14% compared to January and February of last year when there were 4,234 cases.


       Compared to the first two months of earlier years of the previous government’s six-year term, the increase is even greater: the number of homicides in January and February of 2019 is almost 30% higher than the same period of 2017, 65% higher than 2016 and 89% above the 2015 figure.

Lest you think it is just murders, the article also reports that "kidnappings were up 80% to 270 cases and extortion rose by 58% to 1,414 cases." And there is this:

       The centerpiece of the government’s strategy to combat the high levels of crime is the creation of a national guard, which has now been approved by both houses of Congress and legislatures of all 32 states.


      The new security force is expected to be made up initially of around 80,000 members but Public Security Secretary Alfonso Durazo has said that he hopes its size will swell to 150,000 by the end of the year as a result of intense recruitment.

• Immigration is a subsidy for the rich: "White House Economic Staffers Suggest No Need for More Immigrant Workers"--Breitbart. From the article:

      Overall, in 2019, the U.S. government will allow at least two million new foreign workers into the United States to compete for the starter jobs sought by the latest wave of four million U.S. graduates. The new migrants also undermine the 24 million other Americans and the roughly three million legal immigrants who have joined the workforce since 2014.

      This federal policy of using legal and illegal migration to boost economic growth for investors shifts enormous wealth from young employees towards older investors by flooding the market with cheap white-collar graduates and blue-collar foreign labor.

       This cheap labor economic policy forces Americans to compete even for low wage jobs, it widens wealth gaps, reduces high tech investment, increases state and local tax burdens, hurts kids’ schools and college education, pushes Americans away from high-tech careers, and sidelines millions of marginalized Americans... .

• "Our Founders’ Common Sense Understanding of Equality"--Real Clear Books. An excerpt:

      Early on in his review, Anton addresses the question of how we are to understand the claim in the Declaration of Independence that we are all equal. In what way are we equal? After all, we are certainly not equal in intelligence, strength, beauty, or virtue; we do not all have the same gifts and talents.

      The Declaration teaches that all men are created equal. But do we today understand equality as the Founders did? 

      In his book, West presents Harry Jaffa’s explanation of the Founders’ declaration that all men are created equal.  Anton puts the Jaffa/West account like this:

“The idea is elegantly simple: all men are by nature equally free and independent. Nature has not—as she has, for example, in the case of certain social insects—delineated some members of the human species as natural rulers and others as natural workers or slaves.”

This account will be familiar to any reader of Jaffa’s work. Because it was a favorite of Jaffa’s it shows up again and again in slightly different versions in his writings. Here is one: 

“The queen bee is marked out by nature for her function in the hive.  Human queens (or kings) are not so marked.  Their rule is conventional, not natural.  As we have seen Jefferson say, human beings are not born with saddles on their backs, and others booted and spurred to ride them.” 

Jaffa’s now iconic account of equality is true and important, and a tenet of my own civic faith. The claim can even be made that it has established a reasonably secure beachhead on the vast continent of America’s forgetting of the thinking of the American founders.

• Secret combinations: "Baltimore Bookgate Continues: Where Are All The Books?"--Hot Air. Mayor Catherine Pugh (D), supposedly “sold” 100,000 copies of her self-published children’s book, Healthy Holly, to the University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS)  to be distributed to hospitals and schools in the city. Pugh was to receive $500,000 for the books. A tiny problem has cropped up: no one knows where the books are, or if they were even published. And there is this:

Bear with me here, because the details get even worse. First of all, 100,000 copies of a twenty page, self-published children’s book is a ridiculous number. As the Sun notes, the first run of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone in the United States was 50,000. (Yes, they printed many more later, but only after the demand was established.) The entire population of the city of Baltimore is just over 600,000 and census estimates show that less than 7% of them are in the target age group for a book like this. That means there are roughly 42,000 kids living in the region. The original order would have been enough for every child in that age bracket to have two copies of the same book.

• You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you: "Twelve French Churches Attacked, Vandalized in One Week"--Breitbart. From the article:

      A dozen Catholic churches have been desecrated across France over the period of one week in an egregious case of anti-Christian vandalism.

      The recent spate of church profanations has puzzled both police and ecclesiastical leaders, who have mostly remained silent as the violations have spread up and down France.

     Last Sunday, marauders set fire to the church of Saint-Sulpice — one of Paris’ largest and most important churches — shortly after the twelve-o’clock Mass.

The article adds that, on average, two Christian churches are profaned every day in France.

• A reminder that we live in the 21st Century: "Unstoppable Stealth: Why F-22s, F-35 and New B-21 Bombers Should All Be Feared"--The National Interest. From the article:

        While there is broad agreement that these newer air defenses do make it harder for stealth platforms to remain fully undetected, there are a variety of reasons why actually destroying a stealth platform - and completing the entire “kill chain” - will remain extremely difficult, if not impossible, to accomplish, according to a former 3-Star Air Force weapons developer.

        “Bi-static radar can help detect low observable aircraft. However, to intercept a stealth aircraft requires transfer of detection from a large acquisition radar to a much smaller interceptor radar either on an aircraft or a missile that can track—or maintain continuous “lock-on” of the low observable aircraft. When you transfer track from an acquisition radar to a weapons interceptor necessary to engage at longer ranges than the stealth aircraft can detect and fire at the interceptor, that dramatically reduces the probability of the stealth aircraft being engaged. Detection is not what it is all about, you have an entire kill chain where every element must be successful to intercept and destroy a low-observable aircraft,” Ret. Lt. Gen. David Deptula, Dean of the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, told Warrior Maven in an interview

        Deptula explained that moving beyond a ground-based radar with a very large aperture to a much smaller “engagement” radar presents substantial challenges for attackers.

       “Even if a radar can detect, it now has to track, and when it transfers that data to engage it will have to shoot a missile using much smaller radar than that used for detection. Also, fusing of the interceptor weapon can be affected by low observability technology,” Deptula said. “At every level, low observability decreases the probability of successful intercept.”