Like the first installment, I talk about a bunch of different things in one or two sentence snippets. First off, some music to set the mood.
I’m continuing to listen to my biography of William Tecumseh Sherman. I feel like I have a new revelation every day about how fucked up our cultural memory of the Civil War is. For example, the guy had absolutely no love for slaves. He seemed to think it embarrassing that the abolitionists pushed “the negro issue” to the point of war. For him, slavery wasn’t the slap in the face, secession was. There seemed to be a general consensus in the mid-1850s that slavery would eventually go away if they didn’t politicize the issue.
Yuengling is better than I remember it. It’s a good “cheap beer.”
Baby Trshmnstr is hours or days away, and she’s already expensive. A questionable result on a sonogram resulted in 2 specialist appointments before the specialist came to the conclusion that this was all kicked off by a shoddy original sonogram. Sometimes things just work out, and you don’t need tech to monitor every little thing. We were teetering on the edge of inducing at 36 weeks because a sono tech was having a bad day.
Just like in most other parts of life, negotiating is all about preparation. Without preparation, you’re pretty much guaranteed to be taken advantage of.
Paying college athletes is the dumbest idea ever. I’d be cool with a small stipend increase or something, but paying them a salary will torpedo non-revenue sports, put the final nail in the coffin of the “student-athlete,” and intractably separate the blue-bloods from everybody else.
You know what’s dumber than paying college athletes? The solution some moron on a sports board had to the issue: socializing all aspects of college so that the athletes didn’t have to pay for a night out at the movies.
Something has changed recently in the way that California is viewed by the rest of the country. It’s one thing for people in Texas and Nebraska to see California as a completely different country. It’s another thing when the Mid-Atlantic and New England have a complete disconnect from California. I don’t think it’s quite there yet, but I’m a little surprised how much the DCers I’ve met since moving here are just as down on California as Texans are.
I’ve tried concealed carrying my S&W M&P9 Shield, but my holster is uncomfortable. Some of it is that I need to lose some of the muffintop so it stops rubbing on the butt of the gun. Some of it is that it’s a single clip holster, so it’s constantly rotating on my belt into uncomfortable positions. Here’s the holster I got. Any suggestions?
I have it on good authority the that snow is melting rapidly on the SoCal ski slopes, but before it does I figured I’d get in a crack about biathletes. I figure everyone here can get behind a sport comprised of skiing and shooting things AND as a National Siblings Daybonus we have the Fourcade brothers. Now Martin is ostensibly the better biathlete, and he’s not hard on the eyes either, but I’d let Simon eat crackers in bed. He’s got a great body, likes to show off (I dare not do more than happy baby on a paddleboard), is very photogenic and knows it. He balances goofy and sexpot with aplomb, much like other jesse.in.mb favorite Chris Pratt. It doesn’t hurt that he’s perfectly happy to bare dat ass.
I’m not sure why, but he was photographed twice for the Dieux Du Stade calendar, this year (see link for “aplomb”) and in 2015 where he posed on a 55 gallon drum (because Santa came early…and so did jesse.in.mb).
In May 1907, Timothy D. “Big Tim” Sullivan, a key leader in the powerful Tammany Democratic organization in New York City, spoke to a reporter from the New York Herald. “Help your neighbor, but keep your nose out of his affairs,” said Big Tim, seemingly libertarian-ly.
Timothy Sullivan
The former New York state legislator, who had recently resigned from Congress but not from his role as Tammany power-broker, wasn’t actually endorsing libertarianism. He was talking about his no-questions-asked policy of distributing charity to the poor who lived in the Bowery district – poor people whom the Democrats relied on to get elected and re-elected. Sullivan held an annual daylong summer extravaganza of food and entertainment for grateful voters and their families, and an annual Christmas dinner, too, plus clothing giveaways. He literally bailed out people who got in legal trouble, and helped job-seekers get employed in government or the private sector.
A businessman who had ownership interests in saloons and theaters, Sullivan probably chipped in some of his own money for his charitable efforts. But he didn’t have to rely solely on the contents of his own pocketbook. Sullivan took a “regulate and tax” approach to gambling, liquor, and other kinds of vice – if by “tax” you mean payoffs to himself and his friends, plus help for his poor constituents.
Often charged with being “King of the Underworld,” Sullivan denied it. He particularly denied shaking down prostitutes. At one point, in order to forcibly, as it were, rebut the allegations, Sullivan’s people raided some brothels and beat up some pimps.
Sullivan was even more enthusiastic about practicing violence against Republican poll-watchers. To take one example: when political reformer William Travers Jerome in 1901 threatened to employ poll watchers in Sullivan’s territory, Big Tim told the press: “If Jerome brings down a lot of football playing, hair-mattressed college athletes to run the polls by force, I will say now that there won’t be enough ambulances in New York to carry them away.”
And if Big Tim had to recruit from the criminal underworld to accomplish his dirty work, he would do so. As Professor Daniel Czitrom put it: “The Sullivan machine occasionally employed rival gangs for strong-arm support at election time, especially during the rare but bruising intra-Tammany primary fights. The largest and most notorious of these were the Jewish Monk Eastman gang and the Italian Paul Kelly Association, whose bitter feuding sometimes exploded into gunfire on Lower East Side streets.”
Shortly after Sullivan gave his comments about keeping one’s nose out of people’s affairs, a prestigious Quaker school in Washington, D. C., held its graduation ceremonies. Friends School, as it was known, was presided over by the husband-and-wife team of Thomas and Frances Sidwell, after whom the school would later be renamed. The graduates were to be addressed by a very important, albeit non-Quaker figure: President Theodore Roosevelt, whose son went to the school (Roosevelt, incidentally, was an old adversary of Sullivan’s).
While waiting for Roosevelt and his wife to arrive, the graduation crowd listened to a Friends School alumnus and Harvard graduate, who had studied in Berlin and Vienna to be a professional violinist and now shared his talent with the audience with solos by Vieuxtemps, Elgar, and Bazzini.
The violinist, Fitzhugh Coyle Goldsborough, was from a Southern family as distinguished as his name sounded. His doctor-father had financed his education and was probably relieved that Fitzhugh seemed to have settled down to a regular job. Fitzhugh’s sometimes strange and disturbing behavior made him unpleasant to have around the family home.
President Roosevelt arrived and gave his speech. Goldsborough remained during the speech, as we know from a photograph of the event showing the violinist standing on the President’s right. A later search of Goldsborough’s notebook showed the violinst describing the Rough Rider as “An example of evolution from Politics to Barbarism,” but despite this, perhaps Goldsborough found something in Roosevelt’s speech worth listening to. Roosevelt gave a version of one of his favorite speeches, “The American Boy” (the graduating class had a handful of girls as well as boys). Roosevelt proclaimed: “When a boy grows up, I want him to be of such a type that when somebody wrongs him he will feel a good, healthy desire to show the wrongdoers that he can not be wronged with impunity.”
With these not-fully-Quakerish sentiments echoing in their ears, the graduates, the President, and Goldsborough went their separate ways. Goldsborough got work playing first violin for the Pittsburgh Orchestra. He had undeniable musical talent. But he was not a talented poet. This was unfortunate, since Goldsborough insisted on reading his poetry to other members of the orchestra. His colleagues put up with it, until one day a fellow-musician said that Goldsborough’s poetry was terrible. Goldsborough broke his violin over the other musician’s head.
[insert “sax and violins” joke here]
Soon after this, in 1910, Goldsborough left Pittsburgh, explaining everything in a brief note so that nobody would worry: “The Pittsburgh smoke has driven me crazy. You will never see me again.”
David Graham Phillips
On January 23, 1911, around New York City’s Gramercy Park, the novelist David Graham Phillips was taking his regular walk in the high-toned neighborhood. Phillips was a “muckracker,” a term coined by President Roosevelt to describe writers like Phillips who focused on corruptions and abuses in society. Phillips had written several novels denouncing political abuses, and he had also written a novel of manners, The Fashionable Adventures of Joshua Craig, mocking the upper crust.
One of the young ladies in the Joshua Craig novel was described as follows: “To her luxurious, sensuous nature every kind of pleasurable physical sensation made keen appeal, and she strove in every way to make it keener.” Someone had recently been bombarding Phillips with letters complaining that this character was a satire on his (the correspondent’s) sister. This was not true, and Phillips had rightly concluded that the letter-writer was a nut, but what Phillips didn’t know was that the letter-writer had taken up lodging nearby in order to stalk Phillips and seek “revenge.”
And now the letter-writer, Fitzhugh Coyle Goldsborough, was coming up to Phillips, shooting the novelist and then himself. Goldsborough died promptly; Phillips died the following day.
Phillips’ murder was quite helpful to a bureaucrat named George P. LeBrun, a gun-control zealot who got together a coalition for a more restrictive firearms law. LeBrun recruited a committee consisting of John D. Rockefeller and other bigshots – the committee called itself the Legislation League for the Conservation of Human Life, of which LeBrun became secretary.
To sponsor the gun law, LeBrun recruited Big Tim Sullivan, who by this time was back in the state Senate. Sullivan, who now represented in the Lower East Side, piously told LeBrun about the need to stop murderous gang rivalry. (Cynics to this day suggest that Sullivan wanted a legal weapon to keep his allies well-armed while disarming his adversaries, but what possible basis can there be for such a supposition?) Sullivan took the floor on behalf of his bill, which would require permits for concealable guns. The legislature voted with Sullivan and the bill became law.
LeBrun credited Phillips’ murder: “Four shots fired by a maniac caused me to become the father of the Sullivan Law…” This law, of course, restricts the arms-bearing rights of perfectly sane people. Unless they have connections, like Big Tim Sullivan’s allies.
The New York Times reported Sullivan’s reassurances: “Senator Sullivan said that householders and business men who desired to keep weapons in their homes and places of business as a measure of protection would not be inconvenienced by the new law.” As reported in the Times, Sullivan was sure of the law’s constitutionality because he had “consulted a Supreme Court Justice [i. e., state trial judge] in preparing it.”
This justice may or may not have been the retired judge – and Tammany ally – Roger A. Pryor, who in an interview with the Times assured the reporter that the law was constitutional, because the state of New York did not have to obey the Second Amendment – “it is settled by uniform adjudication that [the Second Amendment] is a limitation on the authority and power of the Federal Government only….Senator Sullivan is entirely right and his critics are all wrong.”
Judge Pryor had certainly come a long way since that April day in Charleston harbor half a century before, when he and others discussed whether to fire on Fort Sumter…but that is a story for another time.
As for Sullivan, he was elected to Congress again in 1912, but went mad, and died mysteriously in 1913.
Commencement Exercises and President Roosevelt’s Address, May 24, 1907. Friends School, Washington, D.C.
Richard C. Cortner, The Supreme Court and the Second Bill of Rights: The Fourteenth Amendment and the Nationalization of Civil Liberties. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1981.
Daniel Czitrom, “Underworlds and Underdogs: Big Tim Sullivan and Metropolitan Politics in New York, 1889- 1913.” The Journal of American History, Vol. 78, No. 2 (Sep., 1991), pp. 536-558
Friends’ Intelligencer, Sixth month [June] 8, 1907, p. 366.
George P. Le Brun, as told to Edward D. Radin, call me if it’s murder! New York: Bantam, 1965, pp. 69-77.
Howard Root, founder and CEO of Vascular Solutions, was found not guilty on federal charges spearheaded by Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates. Yes, that Sally Yates. The actions of the federal government under her control were described by one juror as “nothing short of criminal”.
By the gram? That’s how you know it’s bad for you.
Kerrygold butter, one of the premier dairy products on the market, cannot be sold in Wisconsin. I’m sure there are perfectly legitimate and logical reasons to protecting consumers from a noted dairy established in 1961, and protecting the Wisconsin dairy farm lobbying interests had nothing to do with it.
Daniel Crowninshield was sentenced to 41 months in prison for “unlawfully manufacturing firearms”. Special Agent in Charge Jill A. Snyder, of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, said that Crowninshield “owned and operated a machine shop where he allowed customers with unknown backgrounds to use his machinery to unlawfully manufacture firearms for profit. That activity posed a very dangerous threat to the safety of our communities.”
After reading the review on the prepper info manual disguised as a novel by Gojira, I noticed the comments touched on a wide range of topics. I’d like to go into a more practical insight on several of these, but not so much an ideology, as was done in the novel. This will be a series of articles on various subjects regarding survival preparation, though mostly pertaining to natural disasters and weather events as this is the most common situation hopefully that any of us will see. This is not intended to do anything but give ideas and spark discussion. Weapons, accessories, gear, all are what I have determined to be best for me, in my situation
This intro article will, by necessity, touch on a little bit of ideology because that is what sparked both a practical interest in the mechanics and gear/skills for self-reliance, as well as my decision to join the Army when I was 20.
First, definitions. The plain text of the Second Amendment states that:
“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
The history and clear intent are widely available since all of this was discussed during the ratification process in personal correspondence and the Federalist/Anti-Federalist Papers. The important part is in the terms well-regulated and militia. Regulated in this context clearly meant equipped and trained. A modern equivalent would be an armed neighborhood watch, as well as local and state militias. Militia is simply anyone able to fight, being prepared to do so if called upon – The Minuteman. The phrase “a free State” meant literally a state of freedom. As a citizen of the USA, I have always known that it is my responsibility to defend the ideals set forth in the Declaration, and the mechanism by which government was created to protect them, the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution.
I thank my grandparents who were educators before the infusion of Marxist and non-Marxist Progressive-tainted indoctrination. My upbringing was infused with learning practical skills such as farming, hunting, weapons training, computer programming, and use of tools to either fix broken equipment or make a tool specific to the task at hand.
My level of deep study into the founding documents intensified as my 18th birthday approached and I prepared to vote in a Presidential election later that year, Ronald Reagan’s bid for a second 4 years in office. Reagan was the first and last time I have voted for a candidate from either major party. I was a libertarian and just didn’t know the term yet. I did know that neither political party had any interest in adhering to the Constitutional functions, structure, and limitations that Federal government exists under.
Two years later I swore an oath, supreme in which I was to uphold and defend the Constitution, against enemies for foreign and domestic. I made damned sure I was aware of what I was willing to put my life on the line for, and agreed with it. I served in the 82nd Airborne as an infantryman, and then, after 9/11, as a Parachute Rigger (which is ironically when I was used in a combat zone in an infantry capacity). I got out in 2005; they wouldn’t let me keep going due to too many TBIs and structural damage to knees, back, neck, and lumbar spine. Plus, there was no way I was going to a promotion board in the Rigger field.
So, my choices regarding arms and equipment are based on compatibility with current issued equipment for several reasons. By definition, I am part of the militia, even though I am not part of any local or state group. All of my neighbors and I live on plots of land ranging from 10 acres up to 120 acres; all are former active military, and reverting into an organized cohesive unit in times of severe societal disruption is second nature. Ft. Bragg’s southwestern corner is our boundary, and has several thousand acres of forest land crossed by dirt road fire breaks – lots of deer, coyotes, black bears, rabbits, and squirrels. My choices are based on these environmental conditions, and I would do some things differently in Austin, Texas than I would here. From an equipment standpoint, my personal gear is set up for me to go and meet a threat before it makes it home; whereas, the family’s is geared toward defense in place. Most of all, the most important weapon you have is you. The rest are just tools.
Whew, enough of that! Today, I want to talk about basic arms and ammunition.
I chose the AR-15 as my primary weapon. It is a SIG M400 direct impingement rifle with a 16” barrel, 1 in 7” twist on the rifling to handle heavier bullets up to 77 grains (Sierra Match King and the Nosler version). It isn’t that expensive in basic form. The trigger group needs some light touches with a fine stone to make it glass smooth. Parts are interchangeable with standard .mil issue. It uses the same ammo, 5.56×45 NATO M855 62 grain penetrator FMJ, as the .mil issue, and it loves this stuff to the point of being sub-MOA (one minute of angle is approximately 1” at 100 yards).
I have upgraded parts to include a Troy M-LOK 15” free-float handguard with a MAGPUL vertical foregrip, Troy backup iron sights, a 2-point padded sling from Tactical Tailor, and an EOTech XPS-2 holographic sight. I am getting the M33 3x magnifier to go with it for more precise shooting and target ID at middle ranges (100-400 meters). The rifle has the MAGPUL MOE-SL stock. I have the Streamlight TLR-1 Game Spotter green LED light for taking out predatory species such as coyotes at night, and a Streamlight TLR-1HL as my primary weapon light with a tape remote activation switch.
This rifle needs to be capable of CQC as well as SPR uses at close range and mid-range respectively. I try to keep at least 1,000 rounds of the .mil ammo in reserve, and I usually put that many through the rifle every week. I carry 3 30-round PMAGs and one 20-round PMAG on my plate carrier, with a knife, a 2-liter hydration bladder, an MBITR pouch, and an individual first aid kit. I carry and additional 8 30-round PMAGs, another IFAK, 2 spare pistol mags, and the pistol on my belt system (currently an HSGI padded battle belt with slimline suspenders from Warrior Assault Systems, though I want to try out a couple of other options).
Secondary weapon currently is a Springfield Armory XD45 (.45 ACP). I’m a 1911 guy, so Glock ergonomics didn’t do it for me. I can easily do headshots at 25 meters with this pistol, all day long. Same ammo routine as with the primary, 1,000 rounds in reserve and about 1,000 a week through the pipe. However, I will be transitioning to the SIG P320 for the same reasons as I chose the AR-15 as my primary. With the 9mm version, I can have interchangeability with current .mil weapon. With the barrel and magazine kit, I can go to .40 S&W caliber and therefore be compatible with LEO ammo used by most departments here. I also will get a second P320 in .45 ACP because I like the caliber, have reloading dies for it, and have tons of brass to reload for it.
Lastly, I have the Mossberg 500 in 12 GA since I am left-handed; my sister has the Remington 870 Express Magnum. The difference is in the safety – The Mossberg’s is on the tang and is ambidextrous; the Remington’s is on the trigger guard and is only practical for right-handed persons.
The above shows why the next article will cover reloading and why I am getting into doing it. I can make match ammo for the pistol and rifle for less than ½ the cost of surplus or commercial ammo, using all-new brass. Closer to 1/3 if I reload the brass.
California Assemblywoman Melissa Melendez introduced a bill to make California a “shall-issue” state.
“It is our Constitutional right to defend ourselves,” said sponsor Assemblywoman Melissa Melendez, a
Trump is calling contractors to discuss height requirements for his wall as we speak.
Republican from Lake Elsinore. “Californians should not be subjugated to the personal beliefs of one individual who doesn’t believe in the Second Amendment. If a citizen passes the background check and completes the necessary safety training requirements, there should be no reason to deny them a CCW.”
Here’s an interesting article by noted American musician Charlie Daniels which is warning of the possibility for a second Civil War, over the protesting & rioting we’ve seen in recent weeks.
I find this an interesting thing to ponder. There certainly seems to be more civil unrest than there has been in my lifetime (I’m 34 years old, to give that statement some context). That’s obviously alarming, particularly with the emergence of the SJW contingent on college campuses, the bizarre radicalization of the BLM movement into some sort of neo-marxist drivel, and the recent wave of leftists who openly make the argument that freedom cannot be afforded to those who disagree with them.
On the other hand, things have been much worse in this country before, without a total societal breakdown of the type which Mr. Daniels is alluding to. In the late 60s and early 70s, a number of American cities burned. There were actual full-on race riots, anti-Vietnam War riots, anti-hippie riots, leftist bombings, all of which dwarfed the recent Berkeley fiasco. And yet, no civil war.
So my question to you, intrepid readers, is this: are we really headed towards an abyss, or is this a product of recency bias? Were the 80s & 90s actually so good, so stable, so peaceful, and so generally awesome (outside of a few well-known events, such as Waco & the Oklahoma City bombing) that it lulled us into a false sense of complacency, where any street level unrest looks far more alarming than it actually should be, given the historical context?
So I read a book recommended to me by a nice dealer at the Lewisville Gun Show a few weekends back: Patriots: A Novel of Survival in the Coming Collapse, by James Wesley Rawles. I’ll give a brief review, then I thought it might be interesting to open up the comments to ideas on prepping and survivalism, since these are recurrent themes in a lot of the circles that radical constitutionalists and libertarians run in.
I am sorry to say the book disappoints. The writing is didactic in the extreme. People regularly refer to their gear by both the brand and model number, and their weapons by brand, model, and caliber. In casual conversation. I don’t think at any point during my time in the Army National Guard did I ever refer to my equipment by anything more than it’s most generic name, i.e., “Hey hand me my LBE”. The names of specific companies where supplies were purchased are given, and even the names of the clerks at the companies that the protagonists deal with, only to never be used throughout the rest of the story. The author goes into agonizing detail on how to weld steel shutters over your windows, set up traps, etc. Frankly it reads more like the author wanted to write a how-to manual on setting up your own Cwazy Compund, but decided to do it through the medium of a novel.
There are, of course, the usual fringe-right fever dreams. The villains are cardboard cutouts: the UN, lead by nefarious Europeans, wants to conquer America because they simultaneously hate/envy us because we’re free, and two traveling communists are found to be literally eating children. Only religious people can be moral, and one of the most important things you ask refugees when you first meet them is if they’re Christian. It’s formulaic: everyone who has a Bible or mentions going to Bible study is found to be a good-guy, and the ones who don’t, well…see the second sentence of this paragraph. There is a Jew who is one of the main protagonists, though he several times reminds the group that they worship the same God. Their Christianity is repeatedly invoked as being the reason they don’t go around raping and pillaging. The main protagonist is leery of leaving two young people alone at his compound, because he won’t tolerate “fornication”, but his wife assures him that as Good Christians they can be trusted to be celibate until they are married. And the Waco and Ruby Ridge killings by the government are described as specifically being the massacre of Christians who just want to be left alone. Would those incidents have been less tragic if they were Buddhists?
There is a happy ending – a Libertarian gets elected president! Hooray! But aside from that, I’m afraid it doesn’t resonate with a person like myself, who is taking sensible precautions for a several week disruption of supplies and services (accompanied by potential looters or attempts at street violence by bolsheviks), but doesn’t have the time or money needed to create your own private Fortress of Solitude in rural Idaho. Even if it sounds like a fun project, I have no doubt that a divorce would be in my near future should I attempt the thing!
That brought me the idea for the post: if you’re reading this, presumably you, too, are of a libertarian-ish bent. That means that it is likely that you have thought about prepping in some form or other. Personally, I have several weeks worth of water and non-perishable food stored, a bug-out bag with the usual contents, and a variety of weapons in several common calibers, with a few hundred spare rounds for each.
So I’ll open it up to the comments: do you consider yourself a “prepper”? What thought, if any, have you given it? What preparations have you made? What’s in your bug-out bag? What’s your main plan (bug-out, bug-in, etc.)? Perhaps we can have future articles on BOB prep, good fall-back locations, tips & tricks on making do without utility service, etc.
