The Real Motive For The Shooting In Minnesota?

Breitbart reports that "Thomas Massie Introduces Repeal of Gun-Free School Zones Act." The article explains:

    The Gun-Free School Zones Act was put in place by President George H.W. Bush (R), barring the possession of a firearm in a “school zone” and thereby creating myriad gun-free soft targets in places filled with defenseless children, teachers, and school staff.

    Massie wants to see the Gun-Free School Zones Act repealed as a way of removing the soft target moniker from schools around the country.

Something that will be much more difficult after this recent school shooting in Minnesota. It has not escaped my notice that highly publicized shootings seem to occur at the times that important gun-related legislation is being considered or about to be considered by Congress or in key states. 

    While we are on the subject of the Minnesota shooting, Rod Martin makes some good points in his essay, "When Identity Becomes Idolatry - What the Minneapolis Catholic School Shooting Reveals About Our Age." He notes that the shooting is part of a trend in increasing attacks against Christians both here and abroad, adding (bold in original):

    Whenever tragedy strikes, the reflex is predictable: calls for more laws, tighter restrictions, and new regulations. But here’s the reality: Minnesota — the site of the most recent shooting — already has some of the most stringent gun laws in the nation. Ranked 14th in gun law strength, Minnesota requires universal background checks for all gun sales, has a “red flag” law allowing courts to disarm those deemed dangerous, imposes waiting periods for handgun purchases, and prohibits certain firearm accessories like binary triggers.

    In other words, Minnesota had all the “commonsense” laws the gun-control lobby keeps demanding. And yet, two children are dead, seventeen are injured, and a community is scarred. Why? Because evil cannot be legislated out of the human heart.

    The problem is not fundamentally about access to a firearm. The problem is about access to the truth. When a culture rejects the God who is truth, it embraces lies. When it denies the image of God in man, it cheapens life. And when it elevates identity and notoriety as ultimate, it ends in blood.

    This is more than a policy debate. It is a spiritual crisis. The rejection of truth. The acceptance of a lie. The ending of precious life created in the image of God. 

    And I found the following article from the Daily Mail to be interesting: "Twisted secret network behind disturbed transgender Minneapolis school shooter - and they hunt for more teen victims every day." It begins:

    The transgender killer who shot up a Catholic Church, killing two children, was inspired by a dark extremist network of nihilistic terror groups that prey on and exploit young people, experts believe.

    Groups with names like 764, COM, No Lives Matter and the Order of Nine Angles have been spawning school shooters and other violent actors for years, but are mostly unknown to the general public – especially to the parents of kids drawn into their sinister web.

    All the groups are sometimes called part of the '764 network', an umbrella term covering a dark mishmash of fringe communities – some satanic, some accelerationist and many obsessed with Nazis and mass shooters.

    Robin Westman, 23, who came from what has been described as a nice family, displayed the same traits, symbolism and beliefs espoused by the groups.

    These groups often target very young kids, transgender people and other marginalized communities by encouraging them to self-harm on camera, abuse animals and even kill themselves while live-streaming.

    David Riedman, creator of the K–12 School Shooting Database and a professor at Idaho State University, told the Daily Mail that Westman's use of coded symbols, inscriptions on weapons and disturbing references leading up to the attack align with the online lore surrounding past school shooters and violent extremist communities.

    'There are very clear references in the photos and videos from the shooting,' said Riedman, a long-time authority on school shooters.

    'It's almost like this is the postmodern representation of a template of violence – if you're going to commit mass violence, you need to draw on all of these other pieces that exist in the lore around it.'

 Andy Ngo has also noted the possible role of organizations in the rise of transgender shooters. In his piece entitled "Why Are There So Many Trans Mass Shooters Now?" he posits that a couple of the reasons are pro-trans political propaganda that emphasizes "grievances" and leftist organizations that encourage violence, i.e.:

Across the U.S., trans militias and proto-paramilitaries have emerged within far-left, anarchist, and Antifa-aligned networks (sometimes branded “Trantifa”). They openly train for violence, urge insurrection, and have been celebrated in glowing liberal media profiles. 

Trump Administration Walks Back 600,000 Chiinese Students Statement

Recent news reports indicated that Trump had agreed to admit up to 600,000 Chinese students, which I posted about last week. Breitbart is now reporting that "Trump Deputies Curb Student Visas, SInk ‘600,000 Chinese’ Claim." The main focus of the story is that the Administration is are capping foreign student visas to just 4 years.

    The new rule will make it harder for foreigners — mostly Indians — to hopscotch their way from job to job to green cards via various college courses and President George Bush’s huge Optional Practical Training work permit program.

    The modest curbs are good news for American graduates and their parents.

    The changes were denounced by pro-migration groups, especially by pro-Indian advocates. “The most brutal I’ve seen … over the last 40 years,” claimed one Indian advocate. “The new F1 rules effectively closes the F1 [to] H1B [program] pipeline,” lamented one Indian advocate.

    The F-1 visa currently has no expiration date. That quirk allows young foreigners to snag short-term work permits by paying tuition to colleges. In turn, they use the work permits to jump from one white-collar job to another, often via co-ethnic hiring networks.

    Many of the migrants take the low-salaried jobs because they are seeking permanent legal status — and are willing to push many American youths out of university slots and American graduates out of career-track professional jobs.   

Unbelievable. No expiration; allowed to take jobs from Americans. Exactly what I would expect from a Bush. 

    As for the backlash against the reports of allowing 600,000 Chinese students into the country, the Administration "clarified" that Trump wasn't suggesting an increase of the number of Chinese students per year, but was discussing the number over a two year period, which would be about the number currently being allowed into the country. That still means 300,000 per year of which, as I noted the other day, at least 18% are acting as spies.

    And speaking of governments walking back immigration deals, after news that Japan might have reached agreements with several African countries to import workers from those countries, public outcry in Japan forced the government to clarify that "its 'African Hometown” program is not a backdoor scheme to set up mass migration from Africa to Japan." The article notes that despite its demographic crises, the Japanese public remains strongly opposed to mass immigration, which apparently is deeply disappointing to globalists in Europe: "the left-wing UK Guardian rushed to denounce the Japanese public as 'xenophobic' for their 'ugly backlash' against migration."

Evolution In Action: Kevlar Helmet Test

 From the New York Post: "Two friends agree to shoot each other in head while wearing kevlar helmets — and one now charged with murder." The article relates that the two were shooting at each other with rifles when one of the men was injured. He was taken to a hospital but died of his injuries. 

The Future Belongs To Those Who Show Up

Interesting graph:

 

(Source)

I've Heard This One: The Cain/Bigfoot Legend

Like most large organizations that have been around for awhile, the members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS Church) have their own stories, myths, legends, folklore, or whatever you want to call them, outside of events recorded in official histories. A recent article at the Daily Mail looks at one of the most widely known ones (at least in the LDS Church): "The secret legend linking Bigfoot to the Bible's first murderer." An excerpt:

    The connection between Cain and Bigfoot was first popularized by Spencer W Kimball in his 1969 book 'The Miracle of Forgiveness,' which retold Patten’s 1830s account. 

    Abraham Smoot, an early leader of the Mormon Church, is said to have written down Patten's encounter years later, which was then used in Kimball's book.

    Smoot described how Patten claimed he was riding a mule when he noticed a giant stranger walking beside him.

    The being came up to Patten's shoulders despite the Mormon leader being high off the ground in his saddle.

    'His head was about even with my shoulders as I sat in my saddle. He wore no clothing, but was covered with hair. His skin was very dark. I asked him where he dwelt, and he replied that he had no home, that he was a wanderer in the earth and traveled to and fro,' Patten said, according to Smoot.

    'He said he was a very miserable creature, that he had earnestly sought death during his sojourn upon the earth, but that he could not die, and his mission was to destroy the souls of men,' the Mormon leader added.

As the article mentions, this is not official doctrine or belief. Just one of those spooky type of stories that gets passed around; similar to some of the stories of miracles and visitations that get passed around but aren't part of any official history, and sometimes are very personal.  

    Here is another article--"When Cain Appeared to Joseph Fielding Smith's Brother & Talked with an Apostle" from LDS Living--that discusses Patten's account as well as another, similar incident. And "Do Latter-day Saints Believe that Cain Is Bigfoot?" at Saints Unscripted delves into the origin of the association between Patten's account and Bigfoot, which wasn't until the 1980s. 

Weekend Reading

•  Greg Ellifritz, over at Active Response Training, has a new Weekend Knowledge Dump available. Some of the articles and links that caught my eye included: an article from Massad Ayoob entitled "When Burglars Attack: The Stiffler Case," which goes over a defensive shooting and the subsequent prosecution of the homeowner (Ayoob was one of the experts for the defense); in the save vein, an article with 36 rules for armed defenders; a link to a repository with easily over 100 downloadable and printable targets; an article going over how to rapidly reload a revolver; some thoughts on carrying a smaller pistol for self-defense (although, as the revolver reloading article points out, small revolvers don't suffer from the loss of reliability that you see with small semi-autos); an article on restoring leather holsters; and a lot more.
• While you are at Active Response Training, be sure to check out a couple other recent posts:
• ".22s for Self Protection?"
• "SWAT Raid or Home Invasion?"--some clues as to whether the person trying to bust down your door in the middle of the night are police or criminals masquerading as police. 
• On the topic of police coming to your door, you might want to check out this article from Concealed Nation: "Do You Have to Open the Door for Police? Know Your Rights." The author includes some special considerations for those that own firearms.
• And just for something different: "How Elite Special Operations Troops Created a Drug Cartel"--Reason.  

And Now For Something Completely Different: When Squirrels Were Popular Pets

 Atlas Obscura's article "When Squirrels Were One of America’s Most Popular Pets" notes that "in the 18th- and 19th centuries, squirrels were fixtures in American homes, especially for children." 

    By the 1700s, a golden era of squirrel ownership was in full swing. Squirrels were sold in markets and found in the homes of wealthy urban families, and portraits of well-to-do children holding a reserved, polite upper-class squirrel attached to a gold chain leash were proudly displayed (some of which are currently at the Metropolitan Museum of Art). Most pet squirrels were American Grey Squirrels, though Red Squirrels and Flying Squirrels also were around, enchanting the country with their devil-may-care attitudes and fluffy bodies.

    By the 19th century, a canon of squirrel-care literature emerged for the enthusiast. In the 1851 book Domestic pets: their habits and management, Jane Loudon writes more about squirrels as pets than rabbits, and devotes an entire chapter to the “beautiful little creature, very agile and graceful in its movements.” Squirrels “may be taught to jump from one hand to the other to search for a hidden nut, and it soon knows its name, and the persons who feed it.” Loudin also waxes on their habits, like jumping around a room and peeping out from wooden eaves, writing that “an instance is recorded of no less than seventeen lumps of sugar being found in the cornice of a drawing-room in which a squirrel had been kept, besides innumerable nuts, pieces of biscuit.” Loudon’s advice: when your squirrel is not running around the room, provide it with a tin-lined cage that has a running wheel.   

    Leisure Hour Monthly, meanwhile, in 1859, advised to feed it “a fig or a date now and then,” and that you should start your squirrel-raising adventure with those procured “directly from the nest, when possible.” The unnamed author’s own pet squirrels, Dick and Peter, had the freedom of his bedroom and plenty of nuts to store away. “Let your pet squirrels crack their own nuts, my young squirrel fanciers,” the author wrote.

    While many people captured their pet squirrels from the wild in the 1800s, squirrels were also sold in pet shops....

This changed in the early 1900s with squirrels increasingly being viewed as pests and the passage of wildlife laws prohibiting the keeping of wild animals as pets. 

Major License Plate Camera Company Stops Cooperation With Feds To Protect Illegals

 An Associated Press/Atlanta News First article reports that "Flock Safety, whose cameras are mounted in more than 4,000 communities nationwide, put a hold last week on pilot programs with the Department of Homeland Security’s Customs and Border Protection and its law enforcement arm, Homeland Security Investigations, according to a statement by its founder and CEO, Garrett Langley." Is this over concerns for American's privacy? Not really. Rather, the article relates, it  is "reject[ing] searches that include terms such as 'abortion,' 'immigration,' or 'ICE.'" 

Drunk Indian Truck Driver Had To Be Removed From Vehicle At Gun Point

From Revolver News: "Watch: Drunk Indian truck driver going WRONG WAY removed from cab at gunpoint…" Per the article, Harvinder Singh's BAC was .15%, more than 4 times what was allowed for commercial truck drivers, "which would explain why he was driving on the wrong side of the road." 

Witnesses say he swerved across lanes, scraped concrete barriers, and literally barreled the wrong way across the I-55 bridge before police finally forced him off the road. When officers ordered him out, he resisted and refused to cooperate, and that’s when the guns came out.   

The article also adds:

Mr. Singh works for a company called Raj Transport. According to public information, the business was started in 2014 by a man named Partap Singh, and his son, Pardeep Singh, joined the operation in 2020. The company now runs a fleet of 200 trucks… and you have to wonder how many unqualified foreign drivers are behind those wheels right now. 

Are There Any Major News Outlets Not Carrying Water For The CIA?

While I liked the movie Three Days of the Condor I've always considered the ending to be the weakest, most fake part of the film. If you don't remember, it ends with Robert Redford's character going to the New York Times to expose a CIA scandal. It was fake because even when the movie was made the lead media outlets were beholden to the CIA, if not actively carrying water for the CIA. The Washington Post is the most obvious example, but the Times is up there. 

    And so is the Wall Street Journal, evidenced by its hit piece on Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard pulling the security clearance for certain current and former CIA personnel that used their positions to advance certain partisan politics. As the Last Refuge relates, "[t]he substance of the story is that among the 37 current and former Intelligence Community officials Tulsi Gabbard recently stripped of their security clearances, was an 'undercover CIA agent' located within one of those agencies." 

    It is another deep state lie. There was no "undercover" agent because the person in question--Julia Gurganus--has been very open about her ties to the CIA.  As The Federalist relates:

    For years, Gurganus has flaunted her intelligence community credentials to harvest speaking engagements, public articles, and positions with prestigious organizations.  

    “Julia Gurganus is a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. She is on sabbatical from the CIA,” the left-wing Atlantic notes on its webpage. 

    She previously served as a nonresident scholar with the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, according to the organization, which notes Gurganus’ “decades working in the U.S. intelligence community on issues related to Eurasia.” 

    Her photo is included in a Women’s Foreign Policy Group report on Gurganus’ presentation at a 2018 “Beyond the Headlines discussion.” 

    She spoke at AFCEA’s 2025 Spring Intelligence Symposium, a fact once again promoted online. The nonprofit identified her as senior executive manager for Europe and Eurasia Mission Center, Central Intelligence Agency. 

 The WSJ piece instead seems to be a consequence of Gabbard catching flak for being over her target. For instance, one of the key sources for the WSJ pieces is Larry Pfeiffer, "one of 50-plus deep staters who signed the infamous 2020 letter claiming the Hunter Biden laptop story breaking in the weeks before the election was Russian disinformation." And Gurganus, herself, "was deeply involved in the infamous and highly politicized Intelligence Community Assessment, the antecedent to the Russia Collusion hoax that the accomplice media played a leading role in. She actively oversaw the production of the politically driven ICA, a fact publicly known in 2020, well ahead of Gabbard’s unsealing of intelligence community records exposing the sham report." 

    And this brings me back to the Last Refuge piece cited earlier. The author notes that if a mistake had been made with including Gurganus among those getting security clearances pulled, it would have been quietly resolved.

    The CIA complaining about it to the Wall Street Journal is what makes the issue a problem.  That’s how you can identify this story as an organized Intelligence Community political hit against Tulsi Gabbard.

    Increasingly, it is becoming more and more clear that Tulsi Gabbard is factually doing what the Intelligence Community feared she would be doing. 

    DNI Gabbard is targeting all of the political weaponization within the Intelligence Community, and she is methodically removing the corrupt people within the system who participate. In short, she’s doing the thing we wanted her to do – and that’s a problem for the system. 

FBI Forewarned About Oklahoma City Bombing?

The Daily Mail suggests that the FBI had been tipped off about the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. The article begins: 

    The FBI received a warning about the Oklahoma City bombing seven months before the 1995 attack took place, but failed to act on the tip-off, a new book reveals.

    Officials at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) were told by an informant that an attack was coming and that the Oklahoma City federal building was among the targets.

    The source, Carol Howe, had impeccable credentials and had infiltrated a white supremacist compound which had ties to Timothy McVeigh, who carried out the deadly truck bombing, which killed 168 people and injured around 700.

    But according to Blowback: The Untold Story of the FBI and the Oklahoma City Bombing, by journalist Margaret Roberts, the federal government ignored the intel, allowing McVeigh to carry out his evil plot.

    She says the FBI hushed up Howe's story after the bombing because it contradicted their own narrative that McVeigh was a 'lone wolf'.

    In fact he had significant links to white supremacist groups who could have been to blame, writes Roberts, a former news director of the true crime TV series America's Most Wanted.

The article goes on to describe how McVeigh and a small clique of white supremacists had picked three federal buildings as possible targets including the Oklahoma City's Murrah Building, and had carried out multiple planning trips. A final warning was given to the FBI five days before the bombing, according to the article. 

    It's hard to gauge assertions like these. Questions will always arise over the quality and specificity of the intelligence. And, of course, hindsight is 20/20, as the saying goes. On the other hand, I could see the FBI dropping the ball and then covering up their fumbles. And there are the reports that the ATF agents were strangely absent from the Murrah Building on the day of the bombing. 

New Material For Solar Thermoelectric Generators

The Debrief reports that "Scientists Turn to ‘Black Metal’ to Make Ultra-Powerful Solar Thermoelectric Generators." From the article:

    Unlike traditional photovoltaic solar panels that convert light into electricity, STEGs convert heat from the sun into power. The technology relies on the transfer of heat energy between a “hot” side and a “cold” side, which can be converted into electricity through a physical phenomenon known as the Seebeck effect. Still, the best STEG only converts around 1% of the solar energy they absorb. For comparison, the best photovoltaic-based residential solar panels on the market can achieve conversion rates exceeding 20%.

    According to Chunlei Guo, a professor of optics and physics and a senior scientist at Rochester’s Laboratory for Laser Energetics, efforts to improve STEG efficiency have focused on semiconductor materials used in their designs. Unfortunately, the researchers note that these efforts have made “modest gains” in overall energy conversion efficiency.

    To develop a STEG that could approach a photovoltaic level of efficiency, the Rochester team took a different approach. In their published study, the researchers explain that they “don’t even touch the semiconductor materials” used in STEGs. Instead, the team said they “focused on the hot and the cold sides of the device” by employing a multi-stage approach.

The article goes on to describe the process, but basically the researchers etched the "hot" and "cold" sides with femtosecond laser pulses to increase the surface area, then covered the "hot" side with a plastic layer to simulate a greenhouse effect. 

Once completed, the team demonstrated their black metal STEG by powering LEDs. Tests of the device’s output showed it generates 15 times more power than previous solar heat energy conversion devices. 

Also:

 Although still in the lab, the team stated that a commercial version of the technology could provide off-grid power to remote and rural locations at a lower material cost compared to photovoltaic panels. Smaller versions of this black metal technology could also power low-demand applications like wireless sensors for the IoT and wearable devices.

Stephen King Blames The Gun

In a recent twitter post about the tranny that shot and killed Catholic school children, King wrote: "Whether he was transgender is beside the point. The point is he had a gun." In other words, its not the killer's madness that drove him to kill, it was the "evil" gun.  

    King has written novels and short stories involving possessed machines and objects. One of King's more famous novels is Christine, about a demonic entity that possesses a car.  His short story (later made into a film) "Maximum Overdrive" features cars and trucks that come to life when exposed to radiation from a comet. His short story, "Mangler," features a possessed laundry machine that eventually breaks loose from where its bolted to the floor to become a mobile killing machine. His short story "Chinga" is about a possessed doll. 

    Is this what King believes happened here? That the gun was possessed by a malevolent spirit and somehow convinced the killer to spew leftist talking points and then act on them by attempting to slaughter innocent Christian children? 

The Scorpian And The Frog

From the New York Post: "Homeless man kills mom of 3 with mallet after she invites him to stay in her London apartment." From the article:

    A London woman was killed by a mallet-wielding homeless man who she welcomed into her apartment in a posh neighborhood earlier this year, according to a report.

    Victoria Adams, 37, a mother of three, was fatally bashed in the head by Apapale Adoum, 39, who was living in a homeless shelter prior to being invited to stay in Adams’ Hammersmith home, The Times of London reported.

    Adoum pleaded guilty to murder charges in court on Tuesday. 

    Investigators found Adams face down in her bedroom with a black garbage bag over her head and pillow placed on top of that, according to the report. 

    She was smashed in the skull at least ten times both from behind and from the side on Feb. 9, the report stated.   

Minneapolis Shooter Identified--Another Leftist Killing Christians

Earlier today, Catholic school children were mercilessly shot down as they attended mass at the Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis. Reports indicate that two children, 8 and 10 years old, were killed and 14 more children and 3 adults were injured. "Police said at least two of the church doors appeared to have been blocked by two by fours before the shooting, suggesting the gunman wanted to trap the people inside."

    The shooter has been identified as a transgender male (i.e., a guy pretending to be a girl) calling himself Robin Westman (previously going under the name Robert). According to news sources, Westman shot through stained glass windows at the children sitting on the pews inside Annunciation Catholic School's church on Wednesday morning, before turning the gun on himself. "It has since emerged that her [sic] mother was an employee at the school before she retired in 2021," the article adds. 

    Westman also left a 20-minute video manifesto and a clip posted to YouTube (the YouTube video has been taken down, but it is still available here). 

    The video appeared to show a drawing of a church. It then showed someone stabbing the drawing repeatedly as he quietly says 'I'm going to kill myself.'

    Other clips posted to the YouTube account show gun parts and semi-automatic rifle and a shotgun. The gun parts had the names of other mass shooters written on them.

    One of the parts has a message on it aimed at President Donald Trump, calling for him to be killed. 

And "[o]ther phrases written on the magazines included 'for the children' and 'where is you God?'" The latter article also relates:

    Seven people were shot, one fatally, in a separate mass shooting near a Catholic high school in south Minneapolis yesterday reported Kare11.

    Police said the suspect, who escaped in a vehicle and does not appear to have been arrested since, fired around 30 rounds from a high-velocity .223 rifle.

    Authorities have not confirmed any connection between the shootings. 

Wilder: Standing Up To The Invaders

 John Wilder has a new post entitled "A Serious Post: Courage And Inspiration Against Invaders In Scotland, or, BFYTW." He hits some serious topics:

• The 14 year old girl in Scotland, arrested for protecting her 12-year old sister from advances by a foreign invader.
• The record number of rapes in the UK (up nearly 10x over a period of just a few years) after they started admitting Muslims and blacks in large numbers.
• The Rotherham rape gang scandal where British police covered up the systematic rape of thousands of white children by Muslim invaders.
•  And finally considering unassimilable invaders here in the U.S. including from Somalia and India. 

Read the whole thing.  

Related: "Diversity Enriches Switzerland"--Vox Day. Riots after a migrant criminal died in a scooter crash after fleeing police. They aren't interested in living in a safe and prosperous society; only one which they control. 

Related:  "Ideological differences in the expanse of the moral circle"--Nature Communications. With a graph proving what Anonymous Conservative argued years ago in his seminal work, The Evolutionary Psychology Behind Politics--that liberals have no in group loyalty, favoring foreigners and strangers over their fellow countrymen, tribe, kin, and family. That is why leaders in Europe and the UK will welcome foreign invaders into their countries and sit back while those foreign invaders take jobs, suck up welfare, prey on their fellow countrymen and women, including raping and killing them, and do nothing. It is why they have more compassion toward a criminal than toward the victims. They--liberals--literally don't care about their own nation. 

 

(h/t "the most important idea in current politics"--bad cattitude)

Uppity Whites Will Not Be Tolerated

 From the New York Post: "Minnesota mom who called 5-year-old with autism the N-word in viral video now facing criminal charges months later." You might remember this incident: Shiloh Hendrix was at a park with her child and, as soon as her back was turned, a Somali kid immediately started rummaging around in her bag and ran off with her baby's food. Unfortunately, in her anger, she called the kid a variant of the Latin word for "black". Then a black man, Sharmake Omar, confronted Hendrix, videoed  her, berated her, tried to shame her, and challenged her to repeat what she had said, and published it to the world. And so the full force of leftist cancel culture came down on Hendrix.  

    But there was sufficient backlash to the attempted cancellation that it failed. The leftists in the local government needed to prosecute her. But the case was so weak that the best they could come up, even after months of study, was a charge of "disorderly conduct". The galling point about this whole incident is that her "offensive" language "will, or will tend to, alarm, anger or disturb others or provoke an assault or breach of the peace" only because it was broadcast by Omar.

More Chinese Students--What Could Go Wrong?

The Washington Examiner reports that "President Donald Trump announced the United States is prepared to accept up to 600,000 Chinese students as part of a trade deal his administration is trying to strike with China." What could go wrong?

• "Chinese doctor accused of stealing confidential US-funded cancer research"--New York Post. 

Court records show he was secretly conducting research for Chongqing Medical University while employed and in the US on a non-immigrant scholar exchange visa – and never disclosed the conflict of interest despite signing a non-disclosure form that he had no foreign research ties or funding. 

• "2 Chinese nationals accused of smuggling "dangerous biological pathogen" into Michigan"--CBS. One of the two was a researcher at the University of Michigan. 
•  "How the Chinese Communist Party steals science"--U.S. Embassy in Georgia. Among other things, it quotes this from a State Department tweet: "The Chinese Communist Party is seeking to build its military by exploiting American research institutions, academia, and private firms for their key technologies." It also notes that "[t]he CCP acquires others’ research by co-opting Chinese nationals, secretly paying foreign scientists to recreate research in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), and sending military officers abroad disguised as civilians to steal technology and information to advance the PRC’s military and economic development goals." And that "[t]he CCP recruits and incentivizes both foreign and Chinese overseas nationals who have access to sensitive technology and information."
• "Experts warn China uses students to steal U.S. research"--WNG. From the article's lede: "There are about 277,000 Chinese students studying at American colleges and universities, and up to 18% of them—nearly 50,000—are funded by a program suspected of espionage." 

On top of the espionage, this agreement represents 600,000 university slots that potentially could have gone to Americans.  

Gun & Prepping News #44

 Just some gun and prepping related links that I thought interesting or useful:  

• "In the Modern Era, Iron Sights Aren’t Marksmanship Fundamentals"--Everyday Marksman. The author basically argues that using iron sights is a skill, not a fundamental of marksmanship. Thus he doesn't believe it is necessary to teach someone to use iron sights before "graduating" to optics. He writes:

Iron sights are tool for aligning the point of aim and point of impact. That is their sole purpose in life, the same as any other sighting device be it a red dot or a magnified optic. There is nothing special about them in that regard. In fact, they actually complicate the process by introducing additional variables.  

 

And, he adds: "The simple truth is that optics makes learning marksmanship easier. Optics remove a few variables from the equation, which simplifies the whole process." 

• "Shot Placement: Simple But Realistic Targeting"--Tactical Wire.  An excerpt:

    I came away with two “truths” regarding gunfights. One, every time you enter conflict you run the risk of losing. Being highly trained is an advantage, but it doesn’t mean you will always prevail. Two, while the human organism is not hard to kill, it can be difficult to stop quickly. To do this, you must violate specific areas of the body that are small and might require multiple hits. It’s true that any hit can stop an attacker, but there are few locations that ensure rapid incapacitation.

    The medulla oblongata, located in the back of the head connecting the brain and spinal cord, is the most critical. Face forward, it is behind the nose. It is a key conduit for nerve signals and controls vital processes like breathing, heartbeat, blood pressure and reflex actions like coughing and swallowing. It controls life functions. If damaged, incapacitation is almost instant.

    A head shot is not the same as shooting the medulla. The brain is the body’s most vital organ and it is well armored. Most everyone has heard of people shot in the head without penetration, especially with handgun rounds. I have seen it on several occasions and all looked quite similar; the victim went to the ground. A shot to the head, even without penetration, is a serious situation. The victim won’t likely have a round bounce off his head and keep going as if nothing happened. Head shots are “noticed.”

The author goes on to discuss heart shots before moving on to the size and types of targets he uses to simulate the size and location of vital organs. 

• "Real-World Testing Reveals Critical Safety Issues with Car Holsters"--Concealed Carry. Short take:

After subjecting these products to real-world testing conditions – all of which were less severe than actual vehicle accidents – the evidence is overwhelming: car holsters present unacceptable safety risks. They transform firearms into dangerous projectiles during accidents, potentially injuring occupants or making the firearm inaccessible when needed most.

And, the author adds, "[t]he safest and most reliable method for carrying in a vehicle remains on-body carry in a proper holster."

• "Safariland Gravity Holster 3-Month Review"--The Truth About Guns. A positive review. This holster uses an injected polymer material rather than Kydex, which the author liked because it gave a bit of flex. He also states:

    The Gravity is OWB style holster with an open top design. The low-cut sides are designed for an easy draw. The size of the holster is also compact, with no extra material to jab you when you move a certain way, and no extra bulk. It features a passive trigger guard detent with adjustable tension, ensuring the gun stays securely in the holster.

    One test is to insert an unloaded gun into the holster, turn it upside down, and shake it. The gun should stay in place and not free-fall. One screw adjusts retention. You should also be able to go about your normal routine while wearing the holster, regardless of the activity, and the gun should remain in place. 

    The paddle is a wide and smooth polymer that conforms to your body, pulling the pistols close to your body. It flares at the top to contour around your hip. A hook bolted to the back of the holster clips under your belt and locks it in place during a draw. It comes preinstalled for the strong side hip. The paddle can be adjusted to tilt the grip forward or backward via two screws located at the back of the holster.

• "Guest Shot: The Paddle Rig Returns"--The Tactical Wire. The author discusses the history of the paddle holster and then continues:

According to industry insiders, we are seeing a renewed interest in the paddle holster. Not everyone wants to carry forward of the hip, but they do like the on and off convenience offered by such rigs so shooters are looking, once again, at the paddle holster. Most holster manufacturers offer such a rig and they share similar features. I decided to look at two of the more popular rigs to get an idea of where this classic holster design stands today.

The two holsters he tried were the C & G Holsters Trinity holster and the Safariland Gravity holster with the paddle. 

• "Diamondback SDR Review | The 6-Shot Snub-Nose Done Right"--The Truth About Guns.  This is a 6-shot stainless steel snub-nosed revolver in .357 Magnum which sports modern fiber-optic sights (front and back), and is reasonably priced. The author indicates it will fit J-frame holsters. 
• "An Ode to the Old Ways: Returning to a 1911 Journey" by Matt Robertson, Everyday Marksman. I've seen a lot of articles and videos on my YouTube feed over the last couple of months on this topic: returning to using the 1911 style pistols. 
• "WHY CHOOSE 1911 – ONE MORE TIME"--Massad Ayoob, Backwoods Home Magazine. He comments:

The short, straight-back press of the 1911’s trigger is conducive to accuracy. Its .45 ACP cartridge – I use Federal HST 230 grain hollow points at the +P velocity of 950 feet per second – is ample for power. Speed is facilitated by the pistol’s natural pointing and low bore access, which reduces muzzle jump. 

He also links to a video he did for Wilson Combat on "Why Carry A 1911?" 

• "When Owning an AK-47 Becomes a Courtroom Liability" by Scott Witner, The Truth About Guns. The author points to a couple court cases where mere ownership of an AK, even though it was not related to any charges, were used as evidence that the owner was extraordinarily dangerous.
• "Africa 101: The Gear, Training and Know-How Needed for an African Safari"--American Hunter. I'll never be able to afford an African hunting trip, but it can still be interesting to read about the process.  
• "Is It Legal to Hunt With a Thermal Scope?"--The Truth About Guns. An overview of what states allow hunting with thermal scopes. Make sure to check the hunting regulations before you try it, though. For instance, the author lists Idaho as a state that allows thermal scopes, but I'm not sure how useful it would be since it is illegal to hunt before sunrise or after sunset. 
• "Thompson/Center Buys Green Mountain Rifle Barrel Company"--The Firearm Blog. Supposedly it will not impact Green Mountain's business or other customers.
• "Rook Armor Plates"--Guns & Ammo. A review of a couple models including this one:

 Rook Armor’s Bass Reeves is a Level 3++ plate that is rated for the M855 and M193 (5.56 NATO), M80 (7.62 NATO), mild steel core 7.62x39 rounds, as well as the M855A1. It was developed for a federal agency solicitation. It’s only a half-­inch thick and weighs just 3 to 3½ pounds. ...

• "Prepping Uses for Trash & Plastic Shopping Bags"--Blue Collar Prepping. The author has several uses for each beyond their obvious intended uses. For instance, trash bags can be used as impromptu rain gear or to make a solar still (plus additional uses); while the plastic shopping bags can be used as cordage, among other things. 
• "Best Survival Flashlight – The Ultimate Guide"--Modern Survival Blog. The features that the author looks for in a survival flashlight are: Brightness; Battery Life; Build Quality; and Utility. He discusses each of these in more detail. As to brightness, for instance, he discusses that brighter is not necessarily better, because brighter lights are generally bigger and heavier; and, sometimes, you want a more "normal" level of brightness (several hundred lumens) or even something fairly dim (to conserve power or to avoid being seen). He does recommend something water tight--IPX7 or better. He concludes with some recommendations both as to brands and for specific flashlights. 
• "My Experiment in Small-Scale Pig Farming" by SaraSue, Survival Blog. A look at what the author's experience including what she did wrong. An important learning resource for someone interested in raising pigs. 
• "Prudent Prepping: Building an EDC First Aid Kit"--Blue Collar Prepping.  An excerpt:

 The Contents

•     Generic triple antibiotic cream, for minor cuts.
•     6 band aids, 1" size, generic.
•     6 fingertip band aids, generic.
•     2 non-stick gauze pads, generic
•     Two Quick Clot sponge, 25g size. This is about 50% of the normal Celox Quick Clot size.
•     Small roll of duct tape, to replace any other tape.
•     Primacare CPR face Shield.
•     Two pair blue surgical gloves, from the 100 count box used for car maintenance.

Everything but the Quick Clot is contained in zip lock bags, since the phone case is not waterproof. Gauze is in a separate bag, band aids and antibiotic are together, gloves and duct tape are also separated. The smaller items are in small, 'snack size' zip lock baggies, and the 2"x 3" gauze pads are in regular sandwich bags. 

•  "How to Create a Bug Out Bike"--Urban Survival Site. A detailed article on putting together a survival bike, including accessories, upgrading parts (and tires), etc. It's lengthy but probably worth the read if you are interested in this type of thing. The author discusses the upsides:

    In many countries around the world a bike is the most common form of transportation for many people.  This seems to be particularly true in Asia. The fundamental benefit is that a bike can get you somewhere faster than walking and there’s no need for fuel or the cost of an expensive vehicle. 

    The challenge is that you can be limited with how much you can transport with you, but there are many clever solutions that can make bikes as effective as pack mules for transporting things. 

    The greatest benefit is that it can get you somewhere faster than walking when the roads are jammed or compromised by natural disasters. Bikes can go off road and off the beaten path to keep you going. It also helps that they don’t need gas at a time that may present a lot of challenges with fuel availability. 

    And it case you’re concerned about it –they are impervious to EMP’s.

 And the downsides:

•     You won’t be protected from the elements like you would be in a vehicle.
•     It may be harder to quickly flee a dangerous or threatening situation on a bike rather than in a car.
•     If you’re not in good physical condition or haven’t done any training for long-distance biking you may be limited by how far you can go on any given day.
•     Adding saddlebags and bike buggies can help you transport more gear in addition to other add-ons, but what happens when you get to that steep hill?
•     Like everything, bikes break and if you’re not prepared for repairs you’ll end up bugging out on foot.
•     Families bugging out on bikes versus a vehicle can be a challenge depending on the age and health of the family members. 

 Check it out.

VIDEO: Japan's Demographic Collapse--Europe Is Next

 An overview of Japan's demographic disaster and why Europe is next. 

VIDEO: "Why Japan’s Population Collapse Is Europe’s Next Disaster"
The Invisible Hand (15 min.)

Walmart, Indians and Kickbacks

CTOL Digital, a Swiss consultancy firm, recently reported that "Walmart Fires VP for Taking Daily Kickbacks Starting from $30K" and, consequently, severed ties with certain contractors. The article relates:

    Over a single weekend in August, 1,200 technology contractors found themselves locked out of their systems, their access badges deactivated, their projects suspended indefinitely. The mass termination wasn't the result of budget cuts or strategic pivots—it was the fallout from a corruption scheme that reached into the highest echelons of Walmart's Global Tech division.

    The retail giant's abrupt severance of ties with Caspex-sourced contractors followed the firing of a Global Tech vice president who had been orchestrating an elaborate kickback operation. Daily payments starting from $30,000 flowed from contracting agencies seeking preferential treatment in Walmart's vast technology ecosystem, sources familiar with the investigation revealed.

* * *

    The financial mechanics are straightforward yet devastating. Technology executives with authority over contractor requisitions and interview processes can direct substantial volume toward "preferred" staffing shops. In exchange, these vendors provide kickbacks that, in Walmart's case, generated what sources estimate as millions in illicit payments over multiple years.   

Walmart had admitted to terminating one vendor and a small number of U.S. based associates, but denies any link to a larger H1B scandal.  Most of the reports I could find on this maintain that the allegations have not been confirmed by Walmart, and mostly focus on how Indian workers are concerned about increased scrutiny of the H1B and H2B visa programs. However, most of these reports appeared to either directly reproduce or heavily rely on a couple articles on the subject from the Hindustan Times, so not an unbiased source. 

Air Force Returns Sig Pistols To Service

From Cowboy State Daily: "After Fatal Wyoming Incident, Sig Sauer M18 Pistol Back In Use At Air Force Bases." The Air Force had paused use of the weapons after a July 20 shooting death. During the pause, the Air Force inspected the weapons:

    The inspection identified discrepancies with 191 weapons across the command’s M18 inventory, chief among those related to “component wear.”

    “The most frequent issues centered on problems with the safety lever, striker assembly and sear,” says the AFGSC’s statement. “Weapons exhibiting these discrepancies were immediately tagged and are undergoing necessary repairs.”

    None of the weapon discharges AFGSC reviewed were attributed to weapons malfunction, the statement says.

    As to the enhanced inspection measures, “We assess that any issues found with the safety lever, striker assembly and sear will be identified during semi-annual and annual inspections,” said Lt. Col. George Hern, AFGSC chief of security forces, in the statement. “As we execute M18 inspections in the future, we will be taking a particular interest in these components to ensure these methods address the issues we found and make adjustments as needed.”

    The pistols that passed inspection were back in use Monday, the statement says. 

Gun Control In Action: Australian Criminal Kills Two Police Officers, Injures Third

Australians gave up their right to firearms in the 1990s for what they perceived as greater safety. Under Australian law:

The NFA [National Firearms Agreement], which still applies today, requires Australians to wait 28 days before they purchase a gun, as this is the time required for extensive background checks. Applicants must obtain a licence and permit, be over 18 years old, provide documentation on where they will store the weapon and complete firearms safety training. Most notably, they need to provide a “justifiable reason” for owning the gun, which, unlike in the US, does not include self-protection.   

How is that working? The Daily Mail reports: "Australian 'sex offender' shoots dead two cops 'execution-style' and then takes his wife and children hostage in the bush." During a police raid involving 10 officers, the killer killed two police officers with a shotgun and injured a third, and then fled after taking the officers' firearms. "Heavy gunfire prevented local police from entering the property as they waited for Special Operations officers to arrive." 

Refugees Welcome! Reaping What You Sow

 A couple articles describing cultural enrichment in Holland, where a 22-year old asylum seeker has been arrested for the stabbing death of a 17-year old girl who had been bicycling home. (New York Post article here; Daily Mail article here). The murderer "was arrested four days ago for a rape in Amsterdam on August 15, and allegedly assaulted a third woman five days earlier." "The suspect, identified on August 22, was staying at a site run by the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA) in Amsterdam, reported Dutch media outlet NOS." 

    The victim was apparently calling the emergency number for police assistance when she was attacked. Based on the timeline in the articles, it took police 45 minutes to arrive at the scene after the attack, although it appears that they were no responding to the victim's call for help, but from calls made by people who discovered the victim's body. 

    In any event, the feminists that several years ago were welcoming refugees with arms full of flowers and welcoming signs are now protesting. But are they protesting the refugees and migrants that brought this criminal crises? No. Instead, they are blaming all men for the fact that they can no longer safely walk or bike home after dark. 

    On a related note, the New York Post reports: "Heroic American tourist brutally stabbed while protecting two women in Germany is a model from Upstate NY." According to the article, John Rudat, 21, was hospitalized with gruesome knife wounds to his face after stepping in when he saw two women being attacked by a cultural enricher in the eastern German city of Dresden early Sunday. Per the article, "[o]ne of the suspects, a 21-year-old Syrian national, was arrested on suspicion of beating up Rudat before his partner came back and stabbed the EMT," but "[h]e was later released by prosecutors in Germany because there was no evidence he carried out the stabbing, German outlet Bild reported on Sunday." Rudat had the following to say:

    “If y’all didn’t think Europe had an immigration problem, especially Germany, let me drop some knowledge on you,” he said, his voice muffled by the heavy bandaging to his nose and above his mouth.

    “It is 11:57 a.m. right now. In three minutes, that man that assaulted that young woman will be released from custody. He’ll be released from custody because he’s not a citizen of Germany, he’s not a citizen of the EU for that matter,” Rudat said. 

VIDEO: Why Don't Modern Revolvers Exist?

Chris Baker raises a good question in this video: with all the developments to modernize level action rifles and shotguns, and the advancements in mounting optics, why do we not see any modern revolvers? There was a halfhearted attempt from S&W years ago, and Chiappa came out with the Rhino line of revolvers, but most revolvers today are indistinguishable from models offered decades earlier. Even advancements such as better sights would be welcome (although, to be fair, more companies seem to be offering models of revolvers where it is easier to switch out sights, so that something more modern can be installed--for instance, I recently read that XS Minimalist night sights are now available for Colt Python revolvers). 

 VIDEO: "Why Don't Modern Revolvers Exist?"
Lucky Gunner Ammo (15 min.)

Shotgun Armed Ukrainians Shooting Down Drones From Airplanes

The New York Post reports that Ukrainians armed with shotguns and rifles, flying in old prop-driven Yak-52 airplanes are accounting for 10-12% of all drones shot down by Ukrainian forces. The article describes the tactic:

    The Yak-52 is so basic that it has no radar, with the pilots only guided by radio before having to rely on their own eyes to spot the Russian drones soaring over the border.

    The prop planes fly within 200 to 300 feet of the drone before the gunner opens his plane’s canopy to fire.

    One of the gunners of the 11th likened the experience to an extreme version of a soldier having to fire his gun while riding on a horse.

    The cockpit gets so cold that the pilots and gunners need thick jackets and fur-lined helmets to stay warm, yet another detail that harkens back to the beginnings of aerial combat.  

DHS Confirms First Travel Related Human Screwworm Case

Reuters has the article. The person carrying the screwworm had returned from a trip to El Salvador. The article notes:

    Screwworms are parasitic flies whose females lay eggs in wounds on any warm-blooded animal. Once the eggs hatch, hundreds of screwworm larvae use their sharp mouths to burrow through living flesh, eventually killing their host if left untreated.

    The maggots' feeding is similar to a screw being driven into wood, giving the pests their name.

Is Japan Throwing In The Glove On Immigration?

     Japan has preserved its culture (and its low crime rate) by careful control of foreigners and the number of foreigners admitted to the country. But that may be at an end. Business Insider reports that "4 African countries get official hometowns, special visa category in Japan under migration deal." The article reports that "[t]he government of Japan has designated four cities as official 'hometowns' for residents of four African countries from Nigeria, Tanzania, Ghana and Mozambique, offering a special visa scheme." 

    Director of Information at the State House, Abiodun Oladunjoye, confirmed for the Nigerian side that the partnership will include a special visa category for highly skilled, innovative, and talented young Nigerians wishing to live and work in Kisarazu. Artisans and other blue-collar workers willing to upskill will also benefit from the special dispensation visa.

    Similar arrangements are anticipated for Tanzania, Ghana, and Mozambique, providing structured pathways for professional development while supplying Japan with needed workforce talent.

The justification given in the article for such arrangements are two fold: to counteract growing Chinese influence in Africa, and to provide foreign labor necessitated by Japan's demographic decline. In the latter regard, the article mentions:

Japan faces an aging population, with nearly 30% of its citizens aged 65 and above, and fewer than 60 working-age individuals per 100 retirees. This demographic shift has intensified the country’s need for foreign labour to support key sectors such as technology, manufacturing, agriculture, and healthcare.  

Japan has long used imported laborers from Pakistan and the Philippines, but with strict controls on permanent immigration. Perhaps this is more of the same. Nevertheless, it seems to be opening the door to greater immigration. And as we have seen in the West, temporary immigration can often turn into something more permanent, while also bring in forces of chaos and disorder. The protests in the U.K. over immigration are a direct response to the heightened crime caused by immigrants. 

    Historically, the fight between good and evil is often seen as a conflict between order and chaos, or law and lawlessness. For instance, the creation of the world can be seen as God creating order out of chaos. Civilization is a process of bring law and order to a world that previously was full of violence, murder, and distrust. One of the attributions that made the West and certain other countries, such as Japan, so successful was that they are generally are high trust societies with low levels of corruption. 

    But the West entered a period of growing chaos in the 1960s and '70s with declining trust following. There are several reasons for this, but one of the factors identified by Robert Putnam, a researcher at Harvard, was racial diversity. His research showed a correlation between greater ethnic diversity and lower social capital, which he defined as "features of social organizations, such as networks, norms and trust that facilitate action and cooperation for mutual benefit". Some examples of social capital identified by Putnam are:

When a group of neighbors informally keep an eye on one another’s homes, that’s social capital in action. When a tightly knit community of Hassidic Jews trade diamonds without having to test each gem for purity, that’s social capital in action. Barn-raising on the frontier was social capital in action, and so too are e-mail exchanges among members of a cancer support group. Social capital can be found in friendship networks, neighborhoods, churches, schools, bridge clubs, civic associations, and even bars. The motto in Cheers “where everybody knows your name” captures one important aspect of social capital.

 When people are nostalgic for "the old days," much of what they miss is the social interaction and social capital they remember from that time period or believe existed. The same when people long for a small town atmosphere. 

    What Putnam's research revealed was that greater ethnic diversity resulted in lower social capital, including trust. Another way to put this is that diversity brings more chaos beyond just the protests and crime that come from importing people from low-trust societies. Preppers should be particularly concerned because mass immigration, particularly from societies that are incompatible with the norms of the civilization into which they are moving, is a bell weather of the decline and fall of a civilization. It is the deliberate introduction of chaos into what was a previously ordered system, much like what the serpent did in the Garden of Eden. 

Does This Explain Why Liberal Women Are Crazy?

 A couple articles I came across about research recently published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research revealing that women that have an induced abortion are more than twice as likely to be hospitalized for a mental condition than woman that give birth.

• "Study: Abortion Doubles Women’s Risk Of Psychiatric Hospitalization"--The Federalist.  
• "This Must Be Why Liberal Women Are Bonkers"--PJ Media. 

The Federalist article explains:

Researchers found that, per 10,000 person-years, 104 women who had an abortion were hospitalized for mental health problems such as psychiatric disorders, substance abuse, and suicide attempts, versus 42 women who did not have abortions. A person-year (think man-hour) represents the number of people studied over the course of a year. As a whole, the study followed more than 1.2 million pregnancies for up to 17 years after either an abortion or birth.

Actually, the question I have is whether women that are crazy more likely to have an abortion, or does having the abortion make them crazy.  

Weekend Reading

Greg Ellifritz has posted a new Active Response Training "Weekend Knowledge Dump" with a new collection of firearm and self-defense related links. Some of the articles (and video) that caught my attention included:

• An article on corrosive ammo (which is really a matter of corrosive primers) going into the history and chemistry, a discussion of headstamps to look for, and instructions on how to clean your firearm to remove the salts that create the conditions for corrosion. I have a couple of issues with the article, though, which may seem somewhat nitpicking. First, the author mentions potassium chlorate and describes it as "plain old salt". Well, it is a salt, but it is not "plain old salt" which is sodium chlorate [sic: chloride]. Potassium chlorate, on the other hand, is toxic. 

Second, he indicates that ammo that uses Berden primers is corrosive, while ammo with Boxer priming is not. The design of the primers has nothing to do with whether they are corrosive. The U.S. has historically used Boxer primers, but older ammunition (e.g., WWII surplus) will be corrosive (the U.S. military transitioned to non-corrosive primers in the 1950s). Berden priming is more common in Europe including in the former East Bloc. The Soviet Union and its allies used corrosive primers longer than did Western militaries, which is why you are more likely to come across corrosive surplus ammo from the East Bloc. China also produced corrosive ammo for longer than used in the West.  

And although not mentioned in the article, I would also mention that ammonia (including Windex with ammonia) can be used to neutralize the potassium chlorate salts.

• And some firearm history about the Remington Model 8 rifle.
• Some advice on teaching your children to shoot.  
• An article discussing the steps in the semi-automatic firearm operating cycle.
• Power setups for grid down emergencies. 
• The firearm industry's "big lie": that you need a different firearm for each task. The author suggests that preppers actually can get by with between 1 and 3 different firearms, with an AR rifle being the key one and the other two being from the following: a .22 LR firearm, a handgun, or a shotgun. 

 And a lot more, so check out the whole thing.

Acts of Defiance in England

When I was a kid, one of my brothers had a poster--one of the gaudy velvet covered posters that was intended to be lit by a black light--emblazoned with the word "Defiance" and showing an eagle swooping down on a mouse, which mouse had raised one hand (paw) with the middle finger extended.

    We are seeing much of the same attitude on display in England with more and more residents seemingly willing to show their defiance against what can only be described as a tyrannical government. Spike! magazine took a look at one expression of this defiance in its article "How flying the flag became a symbol of revolt," by Tom Slater.  He describes the situation:

    Hot on the heels of the pink ladies’ protests outside migrant hotels, Operation Raise the Colours is the latest organic, decidedly patriotic, social-media-driven initiative whose success can be measured in the outsized, outraged, utterly predictable reaction it is receiving. While councils continue to remove the flags, on health-and-safety and property-maintenance grounds, identitarian rent-a-gob Kehinde Andrews was invited on to Good Morning Britain yesterday to insist that the Saint George’s Cross is racist and this campaign is a faux-patriotic stunt by the fash. Presumably, Dr Shola was busy.

    The sudden, nationwide explosion of Operation Raise the Colours is basically all the proof you need that this isn’t being driven by the far right – a pathetic fringe in British political life that has long struggled to fill a minibus. Apparently beginning in Birmingham, the campaign has since spread to Swindon, Bradford, Newcastle, Norwich and London. Like the migrant-hotel protests, it seems to be decentralised, leaderless, rallied on Facebook and group chats.

    It’s a fascinating, bottom-up campaign against a now undeniable, galling double standard – that in ‘multicultural’ Britain all identities are to be celebrated except for Englishness and Britishness. Tellingly, England and Union flags began emerging in Northfield in south Brum around the same time that the Library of Birmingham was lit up in green and white for Pakistan’s independence day. While Birmingham City Council was quick to take down the England flags – insisting these fluttering pieces of polyester, zip-tied 10-feet-high on to lampposts, posed an intolerable risk to public safety – a leaked email has revealed local officials were so scared to remove the ubiquitous Palestine flags that have emerged in the city since the Israel-Hamas war began that council workers were given extra security.

     So it is in Tower Hamlets. Since 2022, the east London borough has been run by mayor Lutfur Rahman’s Aspire party, a pro-Gaza, overwhelmingly Bangladeshi outfit that is always happy to play pork-barrel identity politics, in an area that is 40 per cent Muslim and 35 per cent Bangladeshi. Hence, when Palestine flags began to appear across the borough, the council dragged its feet for months, claiming removing them would ‘destabilise community cohesion’. It only relented when forced to by an independent lawyers’ report, arguing the flags contravened planning laws, and threats of legal action. Rahman, begrudgingly announcing their removal, insisted the flags weren’t divisive and lamented ‘Islamophobic smears’ on the borough.

    Wouldn’t you know it, Tower Hamlets council was markedly more decisive when those England and Union flags began appearing on those selfsame lampposts. For much of the past week, locals have been playing a game of cat and mouse with council workers, with flags appearing, being taken down, before being raised again. There have also been some ugly shouting matches. Call me a cynic, but I dare say this more robust response isn’t entirely down to the council’s new, hard-earned understanding of the Town and Country Planning Act. Rahman, for one, has been noticeably hesitant to defend the flag-hoisters this time around. 

It seems like good fun. But since the UK seems to have the most surveilled people on the planet (with some estimates putting the number of CCTV cameras in the UK at 21 million), I would expect to see some sort of crackdown at some point. 

Related: 

• "Epping has shown the way to win" by Nigel Farage, reporting that "[t]he High Court has ruled that illegal immigrants can no longer be housed at the Bell Hotel. This is a great victory for the parents and concerned residents of Epping. Let it also be an inspiration to the rest of Britain." And this, "[d]espite being slandered as 'far-Right' by the establishment and attacked by Left-wing 'Antifa' thugs[.]"

Shell Shock Technologies Introduces Empty Cases For .308

For all you people that like to load virgin brass but don't care to ever reuse that case, Shell Shock Technologies has a deal for you. The Firearm Blog notes that Shell Shock Technologies has released unloaded cases for the .308.  

    If you don't know who is Shell Shock, they developed bi-metallic cartridges using a nickel allow wall and a stainless steel base, which they say weighs half that of normal brass cases, and is supposed to offer better lubricity for easier feeding and extraction. Those are all great features, and probably worth the 76 cents per case price but for one issue: Shell Shock says they cannot be reloaded (and, yes, I double checked this on the FAQ at their website). Specifically, it states, in response to the question of whether the cases can be reloaded:

 No, Shell Tech’s rifle cases are precision-engineered, military-grade ammunition cases and are not designed to be reloaded. Reloading these cases can compromise their performance and safety, so we do not recommend or support reloading them.

Which, unless you are a manufacturer or have deep pockets, pretty much defeats much of the purpose of loading your own ammunition.  

Bombs & Bants #164

 John Wilder and the Mrs. carried on despite my absence:

 VIDEO: "Bombs and Bants Episode 164" (48 min.)

Some Words Of Wisdom About Hot Drinks

 Even those of you that are not members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (hereinafter, "LDS Church") probably are aware that members of the LDS Church are commanded not to use illegal drugs, smoke or use other tobacco products, or drink alcoholic beverages, coffee or tea (actual tea; herbal teas are permitted). These prohibitions come from what is commonly referred to as the "Word of Wisdom". 

    The Word of Wisdom doesn't specifically reference coffee or tea, but instead simply states: "And again, hot drinks are not for the body or belly." This was interpreted as meaning coffee or tea because those were the hot drinks commonly consumed at the time the Word of Wisdom was promulgated. As one article on the subject relates:

    There’s one source that ties this interpretation back to Joseph Smith himself. I’m inclined to believe it’s accurate, based on what Hyrum is teaching, but it’s a later recollection, so do with it what you will. This is what Joel H. Johnson wrote in 1881:

    “I well remember that soon after the publication of the Word of Wisdom, the same excuse was made, by some of the people, for drinking tea and coffee that is now made— that hot drinks did not mean tea and coffee. On a Sabbath day, in the July following the giving of the revelation, when both Joseph and Hyrum Smith were in the stand, the Prophet said to the Saints: ‘I understand that some of the people are excusing themselves in using tea and coffee, because the Lord only said “hot drinks” in the revelation of the Word of Wisdom. The Lord was showing us what was good for man to eat and drink. Now, what do we drink when we take our meals? Tea and coffee. Is it not? Yes; tea and coffee. Then, they are what the Lord meant when He said “hot drinks.”’ Brother Hyrum Smith spoke to the same effect.”

    Tea and coffee are also specifically mentioned in some 1837 meeting minutes, where Joseph Smith was present, and in this 1839 book written by the former member, John Corrill.

    In an 1871 discourse, Brigham Young said, “I have heard it argued that tea and coffee are not mentioned in the Word of Wisdom; that is very true; but what were the people in the habit of taking as hot drinks when that revelation was given? Tea and coffee. We were not in the habit of drinking water very hot, but tea and coffee—the beverages in common use.” 

Nevertheless, there has been substantial debate among members over the years (particularly in private) over why coffee and tea and not other hot drinks. For instance, when I was a child and even into my teens, it was commonly believed (and taught by many members) that the prohibition was because of caffeine being found in coffee and tea. This led to certain absurd results, with some members arguing that it was okay to drink decaffeinated coffee because it lacked caffeine; and others arguing that colas and other caffeinated sodas were prohibited. The latter even rose to the level of official policy in Japan, where I served a mission, to the extent that drinking a Coke could prevent you from obtaining a "temple recommend" (permission to enter the LDS temples). While I was there, however, the Church authorities in Salt Lake finally acted to put a stop to that. Nevertheless, there are still a substantial number of members that hold to the belief that the prohibition is related to caffeine to the extent that caffeinated sodas are not sold in vending machines at church facilities. One of the more interesting examples to me is that Barq's Root Beer typically contains caffeine, but those bottled or canned in Utah are caffeine free. (Living in southwest Idaho, stores will sometimes stock Barq's from Washington and sometimes from Utah, depending, I suppose, on what was available or the cheapest to purchase). 

    As for myself, I've long believed the key to understanding the meaning is the use of the term "hot drinks," reasoning that if God had intended coffee and tea he would have said so. So it is with interest when I started noting the occasional article about the dangers posed by drinking too hot of drinks, particular the growing evidence linking such practices to cancers of the throat.  The most recent is a Daily Mail article entitled: "How you drink your morning coffee could increase your risk of cancer by up to SIX times." It reports:

     A study published earlier this year by researchers from the National Cancer Institute found that someone who drank eight or more cups a day of very hot tea or coffee was 5.6 times more likely to develop esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC), compared to someone who didn't drink hot drinks.

* * *

     Having up to four cups of 'very hot' liquids a day increased the risk of ESCC by 2.5 times. Four to six cups of very hot liquids carried a 3.7-times higher risk of the cancer, and six to eight cups was associated with 4.8-fold increased risk. 

    For hot beverages, up to four cups a day carried an increased risk of 1.6 times. Four to six cups a day was associated with an increased cancer risk of two times; six to eight cups carried a 2.5-fold higher risk; and more than eight was associated with a three-times higher risk.

 * * *

     The ideal brewing temperature for coffee is generally between 195 to 205F. For tea, the optimal brewing temperature varies by type, but is often around 175 to 212F. 

    This places hot beverages in the same risk category as things like emissions from indoor wood smoke or consuming high amounts of red meat.

* * *

     According to one study in 2018, the ideal temperature for drinking coffee, taking into account both the risk of esophageal injury and the preservation of flavor, was found to be approximately 136F. 

    Researchers said this temperature allows for a pleasant drinking experience while minimizing potential harm to the esophagus. 

    Offering some other tips to safe drinking, Professor Ho adds: 'Slow down, take your time and enjoy.

    'Allowing time for a very hot drink to cool is important and research has shown a hot drink’s temperature can drop by 50F to 59F in five minutes.

    'Finally, small sips are a good idea to test the temperature, given we know having a large amount has a significant impact on the temperature inside the esophagus and potential damage to its lining.'

 So it appears that the reason that the Word of Wisdom said "hot drinks" is because it meant "hot drinks". While we are stuck with the "coffee and tea" interpretation for now--I don't see the LDS Church allowing members to drink iced teas or coffees within my lifetime--that doesn't mean that we can't exercise common sense and refrain from drinking scalding hot cups of cocoa/hot chocolate or herbal teas. Let it cool off, add a bit of ice, or whatever, and enjoy a warming, not hot, drink. 

Wilder: Time To Send Indians Home

 John Wilder's latest post, "India: It’s Time For Them To Go Home," explains how Indians make America worse and should be sent home, including a detailed look at how Indian nationals scam the H1B system to keep Americans from getting jobs. But he also explains some ways to strike back that don't require the assistance of a spineless Congress critter. An excerpt:

    Many hiring practices are outright fraudulent.  Companies hide job listings behind opaque systems or fake “internal” postings to favor H-1B candidates.  A website, Jobs.Now (LINK), has driven Indians crazy.

    How?  By finding and posting thousands of jobs meant for H-1B Indians that were previously hidden.  How were they hidden?  Here’s one way:  Let’s say a nationwide company has a jobs page on their website or a presence on LinkedIn®.  If I was looking for work, I might go there and see that there’s only one job available.

    I’d [sic] be as Ghandi if all he had to eat was a bacon cheeseburger.

    But in some tiny newspaper in the middle of BFE, the company puts out a want ad.  This ad isn’t meant to be seen by anyone nationwide, rather, its sole purpose is to be “proof” that the company looked for an American.  The idea is that only their preferred Indian candidate will know about the opening and the very specific procedures and job code to apply.  Then, bang, the company has proof that no qualified American exists and they can hire Poojeeta Ramdash whose uncle runs the division.

    Jobs.Now (LINK) has exposed this, sparking thousands of Americans to apply for roles illegally reserved for foreigners by companies who want to hire Indians.  So far, tens of thousands of applications have gone in for these jobs in the last month.  The tears are glorious, since with (sometimes) hundreds of qualified Americans applying for the role, the company can’t fill it with their pet Indian.  Jobs.now is claiming to, right now, be stopping 25% of applications by Indians for permanent status.

Read the whole thing. And spread the news about Jobs Now far and wide.