Lucky Shot

I finally got a chance to try out the Shield Arms red dot sight that I mounted on my Glock 43x MOS. I think I'll keep it. 

 

 

The Rainbow Fish and Buffalo Gill

I hated this book because of its socialist/communist messaging, but the host of this video points out that it is far worse than just that.

VIDEO: "The Rainbow Fish is a Dystopian Nightmare"
The Children's Literature Podcast (10 min.)

Video: Update on Thai-Cambodia Conflict

 This video has some updates on the conflict between Thailand and Cambodia which has seen Thailand capture some strategic territory and mobilize it air force and navy; while Cambodia apparently shelled Laos for reasons that are not clear. Outside of that the area, the video mentions fighting between Iranian forces and some sort of internal rebel group; and some notable updates from the Russian-Ukraine war.

 VIDEO: "BREAKING: Thailand MOBILIZES Full Military Force; Iran ATTACKED By Armed Insurgents | EnforcerNews" (21 min.) 

The Thai-Cambodian Conflict

 It seems that Thailand and Cambodia may be on the verge of war. The casus belli in this case are accusations by Thailand that Cambodia has been laying land mines along the border, but this appears to be a continuation of old disputes over the border. PBS News reports:

    The Southeast Asian neighbors have longstanding border disputes that periodically flare along their 800-kilometer (500-mile) frontier and usually result in brief confrontations, only sometimes involving the use of weapons. The last time a major armed confrontation over the issue took place was in 2011, causing 20 deaths.

    But relations have deteriorated sharply since a confrontation in May that killed a Cambodian soldier, and Thursday’s clashes were far bigger in scale and intensity than usual.

    The first clash Thursday morning happened in an area near the ancient Ta Muen Thom temple along the border of Thailand’s Surin province and Cambodia’s Oddar Meanchey province. It caused villagers to scurry to shelter in concrete bunkers.

    The Thai army and Cambodia’s Defense Ministry each said the other side deployed drones before advancing on the other’s positions and opening fire. The two sides later used heavier weaponry such as artillery, causing greater damage and casualties, and Thailand said it responded to truck-mounted rockets launched by Cambodia with airstrikes.

    Thailand’s air force said it deployed F-16 jet fighters in two attacks on Cambodia. Nikorndej, the Thai Foreign Ministry spokesperson, called it “an act of self-defense” in response to the Cambodian rockets.

    Cambodia’s Defense Ministry said the Thai jets dropped bombs on a road near the ancient P reah Vihear temple, which has been a site of past conflicts between the countries.

    Cambodian authorities distributed photos they claimed showed damage caused there, and the country’s Culture Ministry said it would pursue justice under international law, since the temple was declared a World Heritage site by UNESCO, the U.N.’s cultural organization, and is a “historical legacy of the Cambodian people.”   

However, an article from Time Magazine suggests that it may be more than just territorial disputes at play here:

    For one, the Cambodian economy is not doing well, and Hun Sen may spy an opportunity for his unpopular son to demonstrate his leadership chops. Additionally, Hun Sen may want a diversion from recent scrutiny on Cambodia’s illicit businesses—including casinos, human trafficking, and scam centers—which according to some estimates account for up to 40% of GDP. Hun Manet’s failure to deal with the “scamdemic,” as the U.N. has dubbed it, has even led to calls for Cambodia to be added to a U.S. visa blacklist.

    Compounding matters, Paetongtarn’s government was making moves towards legalizing gambling in Thailand, which would undercut a key revenue stream for the Hun family and Cambodia more broadly. (Though such moves have been mooted for many years and never caused friction previously.)

 But Thailand has its issues:

The country only has an acting Prime Minister and acting defense minister, meaning authority over border matters has effectively been handed to an aggrieved and wounded armed forces. “This is a dangerous recipe,” says Thitinan. “On one hand, you have the Thai Army in charge. On the other hand, you have Hun Sen, who is going to keep provoking things.”

In the meantime, "[t]he Thai Health Ministry on Friday said more than 58,000 have fled from villages to temporary shelters in four affected border provinces, while Cambodian authorities said more than 23,000 people have evacuated from areas near the border."

Young Men Are Less Democrat Than Any Other Age Bracket

This is interesting. David Strom, writing at Hot Air, reports on a recent Pew poll showing that 52% of men 18 - 29 are Republican or lean Republican versus only 34% that are Democrat or lean Democrat. This is almost the mirror image of women in the same age bracket. (While Gen X and Boomer men have a higher percentage of Republicans, they also have a higher percentage that are Democrats). The author notes:

The numbers look really bad for Democrats, no matter how you slice and dice them. While many national polls show Trump's popularity cratering--Gallup shows him grossly underwater--Republicans seem to be making progress based largely on the fact that Democrats are repulsive to many people.    

The author also points out: "As women have taken the lead in college attendance, pay, and all sorts of measures of well-being, they have grown to despise men more and more. And the male backlash just keeps growing." He has a lot more to say about this ideological split between the sexes, so read the whole thing.

The Birth Dearth Continues

Vox Day takes note of China's continued population decline due to a shrinking birth rate. Although the article he cites apparently does not have the actual birth rates, it focuses on a proxy: the number of children entering kindergarten, which "have declined by 12mn children between 2020 and 2024" and the number of kindergarten schools, which "has also fallen by 41,500 from a high of nearly 295,000 in 2021." Vox notes that the Chinese government is (finally) taking steps to try and reverse this course by making it more difficult for couples to divorce. However, that won't be enough. As I've mentioned before, declining birthrates are linked to women's education--the better educated women are, overall, the less likely are they to have children. Thus, Vox suggests, "if the birth rates don’t turn around quickly, China is going to start cracking down hard on permitting young women to pursue higher education, given that education has proven to be the most efficient way to render women barren."

    While there is definitely a correlations between education and declining birthrates, I doubt that even forbidding women from higher education will do much to increase birthrates (although it would probably do wonders for increasing marriage rates) because it doesn't effect the basic issue of children being a luxury, and a particularly unaffordable one when living in high density urban areas. When children are a luxury, the only people that will have them are the well-off and those particularly committed to having children; which is why, in industrialized countries, we see the highest birthrates in the strongly religious communities. 

    The United States is not immune to this either. As I noted the other day, if the U.S. were to halt all immigration, its population would decline by 2100 to levels not seen since the 1980s. Zero Hedge reports today that the U.S. birth rates have hit an all time low. It relates:

    The fertility rate among females aged 15 to 44, on the other hand, declined by 1 percent in 2024 to 53.8 births per 1,000.

    That’s down from 64.7 births per 1,000 females in that age group in 2010 and 118 per 1,000 females in the population in 1960.

    The new fertility rate is the lowest on record, sinking from the previous low of 54.5 births per 1,000 females aged 15 to 44 in 2023.

    It equals less than 1.6 children per female of childbearing age. Worldwide, the fertility rate is 2.2 children per female, according to the World Bank. 

The article notes a new law providing $1,000 accounts for newborns, but that pittance will do nothing for birth rates. Other countries have tried even larger subsidies to no avail. 

VIDEO: Buffalo Cartridges

The Chambered in History YouTube channel covers some of the big Sharp's buffalo cartridges. Winchester later produced cartridges that were about the same size and power, but I expect the host of this channel will get to those soon.  

VIDEO: "The Sharps Big 50’s: 50-90, 50-100, And 50-110"
Chambered In History (25 min.)

Gun & Prepping News #39

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

•  First up, Greg Ellifritz's most recent Weekend Knowledge Dump. Articles on such diverse topics as old time advice on gripping a handgun that is still applicable today, the best scope magnifications for hunting (which obviously depends on environment), some good advice on "the gray man" concept, a report that Antifa is starting to check the IDs of people showing up at their protests, understanding the mindset of criminals, and more. Here is a little nugget of wisdom the mindset article:

Unlike many of us whose lives are governed by laws, ethics and empathy, criminals often grow up in an entirely different moral ecosystem—where violence is normalized, manipulation is survival, and victim selection is a tradecraft.

• Magic Prepper has a new video up where he apologizes for having recommended--even pushed--the Sig P320 as a prepper handgun given the release of the FBI report and death of an airman from an uncommanded discharge. My initial thought watching the video is "why should he apologize, he didn't know." There was a warning: the drop safe issue when the P320 first released which Sig was forced to by the military to correct, but to which Sig never admitted anything being wrong. Perhaps its no longer taught in marketing classes, but back when I was in collage, Johnson & Johnson's response to the Tylenol poisonings in the early 1980s was used as an example of how to correctly react to a product issue (see, e.g., this case study). But the gist is that after several people died from consuming cyanide laced Tylenol capsules, Johnson & Johnson not only told the public to immediately stop using Tylenol until the matter could be investigated, but quickly issued a recall for all of its products. As the case study notes: "By withdrawing all Tylenol, even though there was little chance of discovering more cyanide laced tablets [sic--capsules]; Johnson & Johnson showed that they were not willing to take a risk with the public's safety, even if it cost the company millions of dollars." Sig has done the opposite, both initially and with the latest issues.
• Apparently knowing of my fondness for the Beretta 84 pistol, a reader sent me this link: "Travis Pike’s Review of the Beretta 80X .380." Pike's video review is embedded at the link. This line sort of sums up his opinion: "It's an Italian sports car in a field of Honda Civics."
• "ONLY ACCURATE (REVOLVERS) ARE INTERESTING…"--Civilian Defender. The article is mostly a comparison of the accuracy he was able to achieve with a handful of revolvers commonly used by police back in the day. But the subject was prompted by his decision to enter a shooting competition:

I recently entered a weekly pistol league at my local gun range. I decided to enter the revolver division, since I enjoy revolvers, and also because the competition is good, but the pool isn’t necessarily as deep as the more-common semi-automatic pistol division. I also believe that if you are a competent revolver shooter, you are probably competent with most any self-loading pistol, whether it is striker-fired, double action-single action or double action only of course.  ...

•  "Dragon’s Breath Shotgun Ammo: Cool as Hell, But Not for Everyone"--The Truth About Guns. An overview of the Dragon's Breath ammo and some considerations if you have ever been tempted to try it out. If you are not familiar with Dragon's Breath ammo, it is a boutique incendiary shotgun ammo that spews out burning magnesium powder or pellets. There are tons of videos of it on the internet if you want to see what it is capable of. It is, nevertheless, a novelty round and not something for serious self defense. Because of the high potential to start a fire, it is illegal in several states, which the article discusses. It may also be illegal to use in smaller jurisdictions or on public land. For instance, it would be prohibited under the BLM fire protection order in place here in Idaho. 
• "Preview: Wyoming Sight Drifter"--American Rifleman. From the article:

    Adjusting the fit of iron sights in their dovetails typically requires complex jigs or a hammer, punch and gun cradle, which can be awkward to handle or take to the range. The Wyoming Sight Drifter helps avoid such complications and is not much larger than a common ink pen.

    The ingenious design uses a simple extension spring attached to steel sections that feature finger grooves and end pieces of nylon and brass. Simply hold either end against the side of a dovetailed sight with one hand and use the other hand to momentarily pull up on the spring, then let go. Once the stored kinetic energy is released, the two steel sections will collide, impacting the end in contact with the sight and drifting it. The force is easily controlled by how far the spring is stretched, and the nylon and brass are non-marring. 

•  "The Soulis Incident, and the Myth of Center Mass"--Tactical Anatomy Systems. Some lessons from a gunfight between a police officer and a criminal. From the article:

To summarize: bad guy in a car, cop decided he was a suspicious person and went to investigate; stuff went sideways, lots of shots were fired, cop was hit 3-4 times, bad guy was hit 22 (Twenty-Two) times with 40 caliber bullets and eventually succumbed. 

Also:

    ... Saying “Center Mass” sounds cool… it has the sound of the expert about it, I guess. But these terms are ANYthing but meaningful. They are not clearly defined, not clearly understood, and the result of this is that good people are getting injured and killed.

    That’s right, I said it: if you persist in teaching your people to shoot “center mass”, YOU are contributing to a training scar that is going to get good cops/armed citizens KILLED.  

 * * *

    Center Mass isn’t a place, or an anatomic structure, or a physiological zone of incapacitation. Center Mass is a bullshit police trainer term that means nothing more than “shoot them somewhere in the middle”. People use it to sound cool, like they know what they’re talking about, like they’re experts. It’s not just a bullshit term, folks: it’s a term better suited to use by posers than by actual trainers. 

•  "The Deadliest Marksman’s Cold, Brave Stand"--Narratively (via Get Pocket). An article about Simo Häyhä, the famous Finnish sniper that fought against the Soviets. Somewhat like Carlos Hathcock, his serious injury was the result of being pulled from his element and doing regular soldier work. For Hathcock, it was going on a mechanized patrol which was ambushed. For Häyhä, it was part of a squad counterattacking against the Russians. 

... After the Russians had been pushed back for a time, they reemerged with a furious charge. A shot rang out, and suddenly Häyhä was on the ground, bleeding profusely from his face, the grisly victim of an exploding bullet that had been banned by most nations. According to one account of the battle, while unconscious, with his left upper jaw blown away completely and his left lower jaw cut in two, Häyhä was placed in a pile of bodies killed in action. Later, a fellow soldier, looking for Häyhä on orders from his commanding officer, noticed a leg twitching among the grim grouping. So began Häyhä’s 14-month-long recovery from the wound that, even after 26 surgeries, would leave his face disfigured for life.  

• "Upgrading The AK Rifle: A Critical View" (Part 1) (Part 2)--The Firearm Blog. Part 1 is somewhat disappointing. It ostensibly covers upgrades for ergonomics and the technical capabilities of the rifle, but it just lists some upgrades without any real discussion and recommends that such upgrades be done by your unit's armorer and recorded. Part 2 covers sighting systems and lights. While there are no specific recommendations, he does cover some issues with lights (barrel shadow and cable management) and a couple issues that can arise with sight mounts.
• "A Common Weakness: One-Handed Shooting"--Shooting Illustrated. This article discusses why you should practice one handed shooting, but doesn't discuss any techniques. Since one handed shooting was the default technique prior to the popularization of two-handed techniques in the 1960s and '70s, this is where going back to older books and articles could prove useful. Having done a bit of fencing, I like shooting one handed in a fencing stance, the body bladed toward the target. But this is a poor position if you are using body armor because you are presenting an unarmored part of the body toward the target.
• "Police Use of Face Recognition Continues to Wrack Up Real-World Harms"--Electronic Frontier Foundation. The article discusses the problem of "police claim to use FRT just as an investigatory lead, but in practice officers routinely ignore protocol and immediately arrest the most likely match spit out by the computer without first doing their own investigation" leading to mistaken arrests. 
• "The Ancient Persian Way to Keep Cool"--BBC Future (via Get Pocket).  A look at a Persian architectural feature called the wind catcher, or bâdgir in Persian, an open tower or projection rising above the main part of a building. The article explains:

There are two main forces that drive the air through and down into the structures: the incoming wind and the change in buoyancy of air depending on temperature – with warmer air tending to rise above cooler, denser air. First, as air is caught by the opening of a wind catcher, it is funneled down to the dwelling below, depositing any sand or debris at the foot of the tower. Then the air flows throughout the interior of the building, sometimes over subterranean pools of water for further cooling. Eventually, warmed air will rise and leave the building through another tower or opening, aided by the pressure within the building.  

A Study In Politics

The Daily Mail reports: "Rings of steel placed around Canary Wharf and Epping asylum seeker hotels after second night of anti-migrant protests outside four-star venue." Basically, the story is about police erecting barricades around a former luxury hotel--The Britannia International Hotel in London's Canary Wharf--which has been turned into a shelter for migrants. What touched off the protests is a planned shift from sheltering migrant families at the hotel to sheltering single male migrants. The article relates:

    Guards kitted out in black uniforms and wearing face masks were seen manning the barriers this morning, as security was tightened. 

    Meanwhile, more than a dozen officers from the Metropolitan Police have gathered outside the building. 

    The heightened protective measures come amid fresh fears of further protests exploding tomorrow and over the weekend.  

Why would police expect protests "exploding" Friday and over the weekend? Perhaps the same way that they expected protests in Epping, Essex, to turn violent: their bussing in the counter-protestors (See, e.g., "Police take pro-migrant protesters to asylum hotel"--The Telegraph). The police, and by extension, their bosses in government, want these protests to turn violent. Why? I don't know, but I would expect that it is so they can portray anyone opposing open borders as unhinged. So the news can broadcast footage of moms and dads being dragged off to jail as a warning to anyone else that opposes their immigration plans. And, perhaps, as an excuse to further crack down on any expression of discontent among the populace. What they don't want is for these protests to spread.  

Bombs & Bants #161

 Speaking truth to power....

 VIDEO: "Bombs and Bants Episode 161" (54 min.)