April 14, 2019 -- A Quick Run Around the Web

"Arms Wonders For Local Wars - Lessons From Rhodesia"--South Front (8 min.)

Area-denial weapons have been and continue to play an important part in warfare. Basically, these are weapons that delay or prevent opposing forces from capturing a specific area. Examples vary from passive weapons as primitive as caltrops or barbed wire, to modern land mines; and active weapons systems such as rocket launchers and artillery. I bring this up because I recently read someone suggesting that shotguns are ineffective as area denial weapons. Well, the standard shotgun, anyway. This video shows some defensive systems made using multiple shotgun barrels intended to shoot outward over an arc (up to 360 degrees depending on the type of system and where it was located). While not an area-denial weapon in the classic sense, it will certainly clear an area around it when it goes off.

• First up, Marcus Wynne's novel, No Other Option, is currently being offered for free for the Amazon Kindle. I've read a few of Wynne's books, and this was the first. The subject matter may be disturbing to some of you, because it involves a manhunt to capture a serial rapist. But the character development is very good, so if you like a psychological thriller, I think you will like this book. And even if you don't like psychological thrillers, the novel is about a federal manhunt for an escaped fugitive and provides some insights into both how the hunters and the hunted (at least a highly trained hunted) act, and would be of interest to those of you interested in escape and evasion in a developed country.
• If you haven't done so already, remember to check out Greg Ellifritz's Weekend Knowledge Dump for this weekend. He links to one of my posts (Thanks Mr. Ellifritz!) as well as a plethora of good articles on survival, self-defense, and other topics of interest to one prepping in these last days. A couple things in particular I want to focus on. 

        First, Ellifritz links to an article on "The Parts of SHTF Medicine You Might Be Forgetting." The gist of this article is that most preppers have a good handle on basic first aid, and a fair number are prepared for things such as gun shot wounds, broken bones, and bacterial infections, but almost all (including women) fail to learn about gynecology, pediatrics (including basic stuff on how first aid for children might differ from that for adults), and many other ailments that are all too typical to those living in primitive environments. So this is where I'm going to make a plug for the Hesperian Foundation's book, Where There Is No Doctor. The paperback version of the book sells for $27, but you can also purchase the book in electronic formats for less (e.g., for the Kindle) or much less (the PDF version). You can also find copies of the PDF version for free on the Internet (the Hesperian Foundation used to distributed the PDFs for free). This book was written for a village health care worker that was assumed to not have much, if any, background in medicine. It covers a lot of topics, including making good medical records, to diagnose and treat many common health problems in austere environments, including women's and children's health issues. The Hesperian Foundation also sells similar books on other topics such as dentistry.

      Second, Ellifritz links to an article about a "Cop Reprimanded For Holding Door For Woman." While the incident happened to a police officer, in this world of female derangement, this should be a warning to all men. Basically, the officer was going into a cafe, and stopped and held the door open for a woman that was entering behind him, and insisted she go first when she demurred. She subsequently made a complaint to the police department, stating in her letter that "He turned around and gave me a sneer, then stepped back and forced me to go in front of him.  I have no doubt he did it so he could check out my ass." She proceeded with even more nonsense about how the incident left her sexually violated. Consequently, the officer was thrown under the bus by his agency, receiving a reprimand. 

      I'm not suggesting that we should stop holding doors for others (I hold doors for both women and men, even if I go through first--it is common in this part of the country). But if someone objects, particularly a women, just say "okay" and go about your day as if she wasn't there. You have to understand that the modern feminist is completely driven by her id. As such, female SJWs are controlled by their feelings of envy, vanity, and lust. In this case--and it is not uncommon--the woman probably believed she was (or wanted very strongly to be) an object of sexual desire by men. Her puritanical feminism informed her that all men are evil and simply want sex, so the officer glancing at her (and probably unconsciously scanning for possible weapons) was, in her vanity, him mentally stripping off her clothes. So, if a woman doesn't wanted to be treated like a lady, just say "okay," and maybe hum a few bars from Carly Simon's "You're So Vain." 

• Related: Dalrock’s Law of Feminism:  Feminism is the assertion that men are evil and naturally want to harm women, followed by pleas to men to solve all of women’s problems.

• "New Zealand Police Expecting Massive Non-Compliance"--The Truth About Guns. "Police Deputy Police Commissioner Michael Clement told a news conference on Thursday that they are not sure how many guns they would receive as New Zealand has no law requiring people to register firearms." 

• Related: "Gun Restrictions Have Always Bred Defiance, Black Markets"--J.D. Tuccile at Reason. I've linked to this article before, but it lays out the basic problem, which is that gun control is a failure. From the article:

       As it turned out, the illicit rifle [an AK style rifle] was not only cheaper and easier to obtain than the legal pistol, but the seller was much more pleasant to deal with than the cops administering the official process. The police officers at New York City’s One Police Plaza, once I actually got into the place, were flat-out rude. They weren’t abusive as much as surly in a special bureaucratic way, backed up by the implied threat that they could punish back-talk with a simple nudge of your papers into the trash can. I bit my tongue, but everybody has their own limit. A “customer” at an adjoining desk in the cramped warren stood up, announced loudly that rather than put up with this treatment he’d buy his gun on the street, then stalked from the room.

      Maybe he did. Maybe he didn’t. I’ll never know if that guy went to the black market. But plenty of New Yorkers have chosen to own guns outside the official system. In a city that, as I write, has roughly 37,000 licensed handgun owners and about 21,000 rifle and shotgun licenses, the running guesstimate of illegal firearms stands at two million, give or take a bit. That’s the number the U.S. Department of Justice has used in its official publications in recent years.

      Basically, far more guns are owned illegally within the boundaries of New York City than are held legally. Government officials wanted tight restrictions on firearms, and they got them—but that doesn’t seem to have deterred many people from owning the things.

• Speaking of pent up demand: "Californians Purchased Over ONE MILLION Magazines In One Week of Freedom"--The Truth About Guns. 
• A reader recently asked me to include more articles about hunting, so here goes: "15 Must-Have Tools for Any Hunting Expedition"--The Survivalist Blog. Before going into his list, the author discusses considerations, including that what equipment you take with you will depend on the terrain and the type of hunting you expect to do:

      What equipment falls into the category of “necessary” is somewhat dependent on the animal you are after. A folding saw is of great use in any woodland area but nearly useless in the desert or plains. Hiking poles are invaluable in broken, hilly terrain, but may not seem worth it on flat land.

      Keep in mind there are very few truly universal pieces of equipment. Sometimes carrying a certain piece of gear may simply seem indulgent or a waste of space and weight. But before leaving it out, ask yourself if that item might take on an important new role in a survival situation, might be valuable enough to warrant its inclusion.

• "The myth of military hand-to-hand combat systems"--Wim Demeere's Blog. Interesting article. An excerpt:

       There is no doubt that members of military special units kick ass and take names. No doubt at all because they have proven just that for hundreds of years. The underlying attraction of the hand-to-hand systems they practice is rooted in that fact. But does that mean they are the best hand-to-hand fighters in the world? No, it doesn’t. They simply don’t spend enough time training hand-to-hand combat.

      If you look at the total amount of training hours for instance the Marine Corps Martial Arts Program requires to reach their black belt level, you end up with about 150 hours. To put that in perspective (and I know I’m oversimplifying, no need to get upset over it.): 150 hours means you train two hours a day for a couple months. Hardly enough time to qualify as the best at anything… Elite units no doubt spend more hours training hand-to hand combat but still not as much as you’d think is necessary to make you a world-class specialist on this subject.

One of the greatest values from military training is the self-confidence and aggressiveness that recruits are taught. 

• "OUT OF THE DARKNESS: TAKING CONTROL AFTER SEXUAL VIOLENCE: ONE WOMAN’S STORY ON REGAINING HER VOICE, CHANGING THE NARRATIVE, AND OVERCOMING A BRUTAL SEXUAL ASSAULT"--Recoil Offgrid. An interview with Kim Corban, a rape survivor and advocate for women's self-defense. A couple points from the interview:

      Prior to the rape, I was sheltered. I just didn’t think this could happen to me. I never actually even considered that this could happen to me. That mentality is a psychological defense to make us feel like we have control, but unfortunately, we don’t always have control. Sexual violence is not a discriminatory crime — I know that now and am very situationally aware of my immediate surroundings.

* * *

        [After the rape] I made the decision to carry a firearm, not because I fear what can happen, but because I know what can happen. Carrying gives me control. I’m still recovering mentally and emotionally, and that means a lot of therapy and someone to talk to even on those days when you don’t think you need it. For me, it’s also about speaking up and being a voice for other survivors. After my experience, I didn’t want to just find a way to live as a survivor, I wanted to find a way to thrive. I found I was able to do that by becoming an advocate, sharing my story, and helping other victims.

• "Unconsciousness and Death - Surviving an Edged Weapon Attack"--Real Fighting. An excerpt:

Dr Porayko advised that based upon the above noted link:

- A class II shock category (750-1500ml) would leave “most” dizzy and very weak

- a Class III or Class IV shock category (1500ml-2 litres of blood loss) would leave "most” with the inability to stand up right

The author goes on to discuss possible lengths of time a person might survive significant blood loss. And for the macabre:

In fact Dr Pryayko brought to my attention that during the French revolution when thousands of people were beheaded by guillotine, the attending doctors documented the presence of vital signs in the body for up to two minutes.

The author concludes:

Those who teach others how to fight with a knife, and state that if you cut or stab a person here or there an attacker will die in seconds, are both willfully blind and being  irresponsible to their student in most cases. Those who teach others how to fight with a knife need to absorb the information in this article, and start teaching from a medically researched knowledge base.

"Tucker: Trump calls Democrats' bluff on illegal immigrants" (9 min.)

I'm currently reading Lawrence Freedman's book, Strategy: A History. And while reading the section discussing Saul Alinsky, I became convinced that Trump must also be a student of Alinsky--at least his tactics. Freedman notes, for instance, that "From [John] Lewis he [i.e., Alinsky] learned how to provoke and goad opponents, promote conflict and then negotiate its resolution, using power to best advantage at all stages." 

• Our ongoing Civil War: "WATCH: No One Had A Problem Watching A Man Get Beaten Up Until He Pulled Out His Gun"--Red State. The article reports:

Two black young men were assaulting an older white man in Chicago outside a McDonalds where one of its patrons was filming the whole thing. People from inside watched the struggle happen outside through the window and were more or less quiet until the white man pulled out a firearm, and that’s when people seemed to have the problem.

• Related: "REVEALED: Hero bystander helped apprehend the Mall of America suspect who 'threw boy, five, off a balcony' while his mom screamed for help, as wellwishers raise $400K for the youngster who is still in hospital"--Daily Mail. The victim was a white 5-year old boy named Landen Hoffmann. His attacker was 24-year-old Emmanuel Deshawn Aranda, a black man that had previously been "banned" from the Mall of America where the attack took place. There is no connection between Hoffmann and Aranda. It should be investigated as a hate crime.

• The Boston Globe publishes an op-ed by Luke O’Neil encouraging food service workers to poison food prepared for officials in the Trump Administration. Why isn't this being treated as terrorism?
• "The Plague of Radical Feminism Descends upon the Nation"--PJ Media. David Solway reviews Carrie Gress's book, The Anti-Mary Exposed: Rescuing the Culture from Toxic Femininity. Solway begins by observing:

        Despite its many falterings and regressions, the Judeo-Hellenic-Christian West over the long and tortuous course of its evolution has produced the most advanced civilization known to history. Characterized by the rule of law, scientific discovery, technological invention, educational opportunity for the masses, economic prosperity, individual autonomy and relative freedom from the harsh exactions of nature, it is now collapsing under the attack of forces rising from within its own existential frontiers.

      Its internal assailants are myriad: domestic Marxism, “social justice,” global warming, Islam in its various avatars, anti-Semitism and hatred of Christianity, anti-white bigotry, educational decline, media malfeasance, and economic illiteracy leading to the willful accumulation of unpayable debt. But perhaps the most sinister and destructive of its homegrown adversaries is radical feminism, which seeks the ruin of motherhood and the breakdown of the relation between the sexes. It is a plague the Pharaoh was fortunately spared.

The review continues:

       “Almost overnight,” writes Carrie Gress in The Anti-Mary Exposed: Rescuing the Culture from Toxic Femininity, “our once pro-life culture became pro-lifestyle, returning to an epicurean paganism that embraces everything that feels good.” How is it, she asks, that the women’s liberation movement “has demolished so decisively the moral and social structures of American society?” “There must be something more,” she answers, “than simple human vice behind the fact that millions of women have betrayed the most sacred and fundamental of relationships, that of mother and child,” leaving “husbands wondering what happened to their wives, fathers wondering what happened to their daughters, and children wondering what happened to their mothers.”

       Never in history, she continues, “have mothers been so willing to kill their children”—3000 per day in the U.S. in an abortion frenzy of more than Herodian proportions. The biblical template of Mother and Son, subsumed in the sacred nexus of Mary and Jesus, has been shattered. Gress concludes that a demonic force—the anti-Mary—is at work, sundering women from their God-given roles as mothers and caregivers. Evil is neither a construct nor a concept; it is real, according to Gress, and the Prince of Darkness is among us.

• Related: "Former Pope Benedict blames church’s scandals partly on the ‘60s"--New York Post (h/t Vox Popoli).  Benedict discusses the cause of the scandals involving gay pedophiles:

       Benedict blames clerics and theologians who, in the ­aftermath of Vatican II, abandoned natural law — the notion that morality is written into ­human nature itself and can therefore be grasped by human reason — in favor of a more “pragmatic” ­morality.

       Under the new dispensation, “there could no longer be anything that constituted an ­absolute good, any more than anything fundamentally evil; there could only be relative moral judgments.”

       The real world result was that “in various seminaries, homosexual clubs were established, which more or less openly and significantly changed the climate in seminaries.”

      The new morality also encouraged a “critical or negative attitude toward hitherto existing tradition,” he writes, in favor of a “new, radically open relationship with the world.”

• Related: "Oprah Winfrey, Brie Larson Kick Off Women in the World Summit"--Hollywood Reporter. Oprah Winfrey wants to take away your right to self-defense and ability to resist a tyrannical government. The article reports:

"We live in a country that has somehow confused cruel with funny, serious with intelligent, attitude with belief, personal freedom with stockpiling assault weapons, and what is moral with what is legal," Winfrey, the evening's keynote speaker, told the crowd at Lincoln Center's David H. Koch Theater. "So it is time for women in the world to set the agenda. It's time for women to redefine the message. We need to make that message a positive one. Let's make it ambitious, and inclusive, and brimming with hope." 

Or, as Heartiste puts it: "The shitlib knows the maxim gun is the only thing between losing her religion and continued rule over her Fake Fiefdom." 

• "The Totalitarian Train Is Rolling Down the Tracks"--Sarah Hoyt. She writes about the "inclusiveness" on the Left:

       If I could communicate just one thing, across the increasing divide of language and thought to the left it would be this: that warm and fuzzy feeling you get when you’re running someone down is not righteousness.

      It’s just the feeling apes get when they run off another ape.

     If you’re part of a band and all of you were piling on an outsider — or an insider who was just declared an outsider and run off — you’ll also feel very connected to your band, and a feeling of being loved and belonging.

      It’s not real. It’s the result of a “reward” rush of endorphins, oxytocin, serotonin, and dopamine that flood your body after stress and a perceived “victory.”  Oxytocin, particularly, promotes a feeling of bonding with those around you.

      Just remember, as you’re high fiving each other and believing that something that feels so good has to be good and morally “just” you could be the victim tomorrow.  Because the feelings don’t last, and that rush of “righteousness and victory” is addictive. Those who are your comrades today will be looking for someone to kick in the face tomorrow. And it really could be you.

• California is a foreign country: "Putting American flags on police cars sparks backlash in Laguna Beach"--Los Angeles Times (h/t Anonymous Conservative). In February, the Laguna Beach city council agreed to repaint its all-white squad cars in black and white with the image of American flag running through the word “police” on the doors. The American flag image was not popular with all residents:

       “People are screaming that the American flag on a police car is somehow or another ... hurting people’s feelings who might be immigrants or visitors,” said Councilman Peter Blake. “People are actually ridiculous enough to bring up comments about our cop cars having American flags on them.”

      Artist Carrie Woodburn went to the podium at the March 19 council meeting and said it was “shocking to see the boldness of the design” when the newly painted Ford Explorers rolled out.

     “We have such an amazing community of artists here, and I thought the aesthetic didn’t really represent our community,” Woodburn said. “It feels very aggressive.”

• So c may not be a constant? "Researchers develop way to control speed of light, send it backward"--Phys.org. The article explains:

       The new technique, however, allows the speed to be adjusted for the first time in the open, without using any pass-through material to speed it up or slow it down.

      "This is the first clear demonstration of controlling the speed of a pulse light in free space," said study co-author Ayman Abouraddy, a professor in UCF's College of Optics and Photonics. "And it opens up doors for many applications, an optical buffer being just one of them, but most importantly it's done in a simple way, that's repeatable and reliable."

      Abouraddy and study co-author Esat Kondakci demonstrated they could speed a pulse of light up to 30 times the speed of light, slow it down to half the speed of light, and also make the pulse travel backward.

•  Just because it's an interesting story: "Chickens 'gang up' to kill intruder fox on French farm"--BBC. 

       Chickens in a school farm in north-western France are believed to have grouped and killed a juvenile fox.

      The unusual incident in Brittany took place after the fox entered the coop with 3,000 hens through an automatic hatch door which closed immediately.

      "There was a herd instinct and they attacked him with their beaks," said Pascal Daniel, head of farming at the agricultural school Gros-Chêne.

      The body of the small fox was found the following day in a corner of the coop.

      "It had blows to its neck, blows from beaks," Mr Daniel told AFP news agency.