Praxis: Crawling

From The Trainer:

Crawling – The Essential Stealth Movement

Introduction: Civilian Indigenous Personnel in the United States have an aversion to crawling on their stomachs or hands and knees. Cultural indoctrination has had a terrible toll on true stealthy movement. The movies and television shows demonstrate actors with scripted martial expertise in equipment choices and skills running silently with no gear jingle or rattle, humping chest rigs full of 30 round magazines, drop leg holsters, and many, many pouches rigged on their load bearing vests in the front. Granted, during urban close quarters operations, or “MOUT” (Military Operations on Urbanized Terrain), this may have some merit, but when preparing for any eventuality, one must set his equipment up and learn to be stealthy in all of those eventualities.

Equipment Configuration: To do that, one’s gear must be set up so that when crawling on the ground, the abdomen and lower chest area are as clear of pouches or other items prone to catching on “wait-a-minute” protrusions from the ground surface, whether man-made or natural.

Ask anyone who’s spent time in the field crawling around sneaking by someone looking for them or hiding from someone and forced to crawl and they’ll most likely back this statement up: Anything on your LBV, LBE, belt, legs, or in front of you will cause you pain in your abdomen and groin. Canteens on loose belts have a nasty habit of becoming repositioned right in front of your groin, which raises your buttocks up and your crawl becomes more of an “inch worm” type movement. Leg pouches and holsters, if not properly adjusted (very snugly) will move around, come undone, and leave their contents on your back trail. Ammunition pouches directly in the front of your vest or harness and web belt will let you know immediately how soft your abdomen is and that you won’t be crawling silently for long.

The bottom line for configuring your equipment is this: Keep as much of your abdomen and lower chest as clear as possible when setting your vest or harness up. Adjust your web belt, harness or vest to fit snugly (but not tightly) so that it doesn’t move much when you crawl, but at the same time, does not restrict your freedom of movement, especially in your arms (crawling will have you reaching out as far as you can with your arms in some cases).

Speed: Crawling is not a fast movement. Crawling is a slow movement. Sometimes, the speed with which you will crawl, by necessity, will not be visible with the human eye. You may be moving fractions of an inch at a time.

When someone says they crawled “fast”, they don’t mean they sprinted; they just mean they crawled a distance in less than a few hours. Remember the purpose for crawling: stealth

Stealth is key because stealth allows a man to avoid detection, all other factors being equal.

Example: A man is crawling in a depression in the ground, doesn’t have his gear adjusted properly, is moving too quickly, but is not visible by a sentry or prepared position. He can be heard however, which attracts the attention of the opposing force manning the sentry or prepared position. The attention will bring investigation of some sort, whether human, reconnaissance by fire, or an explosive. The sentry could even watch the end of the depression if visible and just shoot the crawler as he emerged. So much for stealth, right?

Take the same scenario, get the gear adjusted correctly, slow the man down, and he will most likely get by unnoticed.

Technique: Technique is everything and is usually dictated by the immediate need of the man employing the technique.

Note: never, ever, EVER dictate to one of your men which technique to employ in crawling! Why? He’s the one doing it. He’s the one that can see the danger better than you can! Remember, in Maneuver Warfare, we do not exercise centralized control of our people down to how they move! Personal initiative, experience, and judgment are paramount to success. The only exception is in training, when teaching the various techniques to new people or as part of a purposely exhaustive type of training designed to test stamina.

There are three primary crawls taught to the ‘average’ armed civilian indigenous person: The low crawl, high crawl, and ‘monkey’ crawl (hands & knees level). Each of these techniques are slow, even when compared to slow walking. Field manuals galore provide the graphic to demonstrate, but the best thing is to have one of your folks who knows how to do it demonstrate it.

Practice: This is important, because believe it or not, not everyone really knows how to crawl! That being the case, have everyone practice the basic techniques in drills (a corollary technique needing practice is getting down on the ground without busting one’s ass or making a huge amount of noise and still having ones’ rifle able to be brought into action.…) at various speeds without a break (or much of one) to ensure the heart rate is brought up and fatigue sets in. Then, have the men demonstrate and watch each other perform and see how quiet the man crawling can be. Don’t give time limits or require major distances. 25 meters is more than enough for this training. Something you, the leader, might consider is doing the exercise with your men as well. Nothing says leadership like getting down in the mud with the troops and sweating when they sweat! After all is said and done, have the men critique each other, pointing out strengths and weaknesses of each person.

Continuous Skill Enhancement: Once everyone has the basics of crawling down, then you can have some fun and blend this skill in with camouflaged movement in your field problems. Make it a challenge so that it’s interesting and your people will get better at field craft, will look forward to attending, and gain more confidence.

This is by no means the ‘end all, be all’ outline for the skills above, but it should get you thinking, and beyond that, improving your training regimen.

Time is short.

"Sunset Provision"

"Sunset Provision, 1944."

The Orlando Sentinel has once again demanded our disarmament. Here is what they have to say.

We think: A renewed federal assault- weapons ban is long overdue
February 3, 2009

An erstwhile federal ban on assault weapons made lots of sense. Allowing it to lapse, as Congress did in 2004, didn't.

How much longer will it take to correct that mindless mistake?

There's no need for ordinary citizens to be armed with such lethal firepower. Hunters don't need them. Gun-toting urbanites don't need them, either.

Those who say that outlawing these lethal rifles will only mean that criminals will have access to them are flat wrong. All that legalization does is make it easier for crooks to get them, and make it necessary for police to play catch-up in a costly city-street arms race.

It's happening right here in Central Florida. Only six years ago, officers in Orlando and Orange County seized 15 high-powered AK-47s and AR-15s. Four years later, that number grew to 79, a jump of more than 400 percent.

These guns are not in the hands of good people trying to protect themselves. No one is trying to trample on Second Amendment rights.

But there do not seem to be many examples where honest citizens stopped a crime, or caught a criminal, by brandishing an AK-47 or some similar brand of assault rifle. However, there are too many examples of the opposite -- criminals using these weapons to kill people or law-enforcement officers.

The latest one occurred in Miami last week, when an unknown assailant fired an AK-47 into a crowd of teenagers, murdering two youths and wounding seven others.

Sound familiar? Last October, two killers fired 58 rounds from two AK-47s during a gunfight in Pine Hills that left two men dead.

Orlando Police Chief Val Demings has seen enough. Getting guns off the streets is one of her top priorities. The same holds true for Jerry Demings, recently elected sheriff in Orange County.

Their challenge is daunting: Almost 10 illegal guns a day are seized in this community.

The lines between a legal and an illegal gun are blurry. In Florida, guns are readily available to anyone without a criminal record. But guns routinely end up in the hands of criminals. All it takes is a "straw purchase," when a friend or relative buys a gun for a criminal.

It's time to make some of that more-potent firepower illegal -- period.

After the latest incident in Miami, Police Chief John Timoney said that the percentage of homicides involving assault weapons jumped to 29 percent of all shooting fatalities in 2008. Mr. Timoney implored Congress to reinstate the ban.

Mr. Timoney and other advocates for outlawing assault weapons are right. Bringing back the ban is long overdue, and Congress ought to place the ban on its "to-do" list immediately.

Yes, lawmakers on Capitol Hill have plenty of other business in front of them. But an assault-weapons ban shouldn't take much debate.

This one's a no-brainer. The ban was once on the books; all that Congress has to do is write it back into U.S. law.

Oh, yes, with one exception. Don't write in a sunset provision this time.

Don't worry. The only "mindless mistake" made will be yours if you pass another AWB. We'll write the "sunset provision" this time. It will look like the photo above of the "sunset provision" on the Third Reich. Or maybe, like this:



This is what Harry Reid will look like when we invoke our sunset provision:



Or, maybe it will look like Cornwallis at Yorktown:



But I rather think it will be like one of my buddies says, "Hell, Mike, every liberal I ever met was a pussy. They're ALL pussies." So maybe, at least in the Orlando Sentinel editorial board meeting room, it will look like this:



THAT'S OUR "SUNSET PROVISION" THIS TIME, YOU FREEDOM-DENYING, PROPERTY-STEALING, LIFE-DESTROYING COLLECTIVIST PUKES.

Leave us the hell alone.

The Moon Is Down

Macbeth, Act II, Scene I

[Inverness. Court of Macbeth's castle.]
Enter Banquo, and his son Fleance, with a Torch before him.

BANQUO: How goes the night, boy?

FLEANCE: The moon is down; I have not heard the clock.

BANQUO: And she goes down at twelve.

FLEANCE: I take't ’tis later, sir.

BANQUO: Hold, take my sword. There's husbandry in heaven,
Their candles are all out. Take thee that too.
A heavy summons lies like lead upon me,
And yet I would not sleep. Merciful powers,
Restrain in me the cursed thoughts that nature
Gives way to in repose!

Banquo, about to be murdered by agents of Macbeth. Fleance, about to escape those same assassins and flee for his life to Wales. It is so dark they cannot see the stars. All is gloom, within and without. Banquo cannot sleep, so terrible are his premonitions.

I spent Friday night through Monday morning with my son. It was a wonderful time. Yet, like Banquo, my sleep since he left is troubled. Not for myself, but for my country.

Odd, then, that while picking up today I came across a slim book that has been covered for months (perhaps years) by newspapers and computer-printed articles. It is a volume I've had since I bought it in 1966 when I was fourteen -- now dog-eared, its cheap paper browning.

The Moon Is Down was written by John Steinbeck in between Pearl Harbor and the fall of Bataan. It was a dark, dark time. No one could know then how the war would end. The candle of western civilization was guttering in the wind and within one stiff breeze of going out.

The Moon Is Down was John Steinbeck's first attempt at war propaganda, yet he wrote better and deeper than the average wartime efforts of other writers. Far better. The work was an instant best-seller. In time it was turned into a play, then within a year, into a movie starring Cedric Hardwicke, Henry Travers and Lee J. Cobb. Forty years later, John Milius used it as the basis for his 1984 movie, Red Dawn.

"By ten-forty-five it was all over. The town was occupied, the defenders defeated, and the war was finished."

So opens The Moon Is Down. Only it becomes rapidly apparent that the war is NOT over. The town is taken, the strategic coal mine is secured, the guns in private hands are seized (thanks to a well-placed collaborator), the people are stunned at the sudden turn of events, but the war is not over.

The amazing thing to me is how Steinbeck reached down into the awful darkness that was by no means make-believe, and pulled out a story of eternal humanity and liberty that became not only a light in the darkness to those who hadn't been conquered, but a resistance manual to those who were living under the Nazi boot.

While some American critics faulted the novel for its sympathetic portrayals of Nazi soldiers, the book was widely popular in Europe. The Moon is Down was reprinted in French and distributed by the resistance fighters of the Maquis. These were books printed under the very noses of the Gestapo. It was also banned in Italy, where the penalty for reading the book was death.

Yet its message resonated. The plot device of the Mayor's request for explosives to be air dropped so that the townsfolk can wreck the mine and the railroad -- a sabotage campaign that he understands in advance will lead to his death -- was noticed by Winston Churchill himself. After reading The Moon Is Down, Churchill ordered the Special Operations Executive to explore this idea and it became the basis of Operation Braddock, a British sabotage and propaganda campaign. Not bad for a mere work of fiction, turned out by a man who had never lived through the events he described.

One reviewer observed:

Only one of the soldiers has ever experienced war before, and even Colonel Lanser is under the illusion that he will avoid the inevitable terror of war-time occupation.

"Lanser had been in Belgium and France twenty years before," Steinbeck writes, "and he tried not to think what he knew--that war is treachery and hatred, the muddling of incompetent generals, the torture and killings and sickness and tiredness, until at last it is over and nothing has changed except for new weariness and new hatreds."

In his fast-paced, dialogue-ridden, play-like style, Steinbeck creates a hopeless situation. The soldiers gradually go mad, or they die mysterious deaths as they go out alone, searching for human companionship and kindness. It becomes obvious to the villagers that resistance is not futile. As their collaborative hatred grows, and as martyrs are made of their most-beloved citizens, the people become a force.

Dr. Winter says, "all invaded people want to resist." And Mayor Orden says, "I am a little man and this is a little man, but there must be a spark in little men that can burst into flame." It's much more than about simply living or dying, winning or losing. The book forces the reader to reevaluate conceptions of humanity and justice.

"The people become a force." Indeed. Dr. Winter, himself eventually a hostage along with the Mayor and scheduled to be shot, observes, "all invaded people want to resist." So they do resist, and occupiers are killed, or they disappear. Then the sabotage campaign begins.

Lanser said . . . "Orden, these things must stop.

And the Mayor smiled helplessly at him. "They cannot stop, sir."

Colonel Lanser said harshly, "I arrested you as a hostage for the good behvior of your people. Those are my orders."

"But that won't stop it," Orden said simply. "You don't understand. When I have become a hindrance to the people, they will do without me."

Lanser said, "Tell me truly what you think. If the people know you will be shot if they light another fuse, what will they do?"

The Mayor looked helplessly at Doctor Winter. . . Lanser pressed him. "What will they do?"

"I don't know," said the Mayor. "I think they will light the fuse."

"Suppose you ask them not to?" . . .

"I am not a very brave man, sir, I think they will light it, anyway." He struggled with his speech. "I hope they will, but if I ask them not to, they will be sorry." . . .

"But you think they will light it?" Lanser insisted.

The Mayor spoke proudly. "Yes, they will light it. I have no choice of living or dying, you see, sir, but -- I do have a choice of how I do it. If I tell them not to fight, they will be sorry, but they will fight. If I tell them to fight, they will be glad, and I who am not a very brave man will have made them a little braver." He smiled apologetically. "You see, it is an easy thing to do, since the end for me is the same."

Lanser said, "If you say yes, we can tell them you said no. We can tell them you begged for your life."

And Winter broke in angrily, "They would know. You do not keep secrets. One of your men got out of hand one night and he said that the flies had conquered the flypaper, and now the whole nation knows his words. They have made a song of it." . . .

Orden . . . said quietly, "You see, sir, nothing can change it. You will be destroyed and driven out." His voice was very soft. "The people don't like to be conquered, sir, and so they will not be. Free men cannot start a war, but once it is started, they can fight on in defeat. Herd men, followers of a leader, cannot do that, and so it is always the herd men who win battles and the free men who win wars. You will find that is so, sir."

Within minutes, the sound of an explosion is heard on the wind, and the Mayor is taken out and shot.

So what does this, if anything, have to do with the situation we find ourselves in today? We are not the victims of foreign invasion, are we? Yet, aren't we? We are, as I have observed before many times, two nations sharing the same language and birthplace. There is little in common we share with the collectivists, the "herd men" as Mayor Orden called them.

It is as if we have experienced an "Invasion of the Body Snatchers." They look like us, they talk like us, but they are NOT us. And yet even now we are willing to coexist in peace with them, if they but leave us alone. BUT THEY WILL NOT LEAVE US ALONE. They have said so, repeatedly. This is particularly true when it comes to their appetite for our firearms.

And so it is that The Moon Is Down still speaks to us of eternal truths, now, today, in the 21st Century. It is just as prescient, just as valid as it was in 1942 when it was written, almost as a forlorn hope.

We should remember, even if our collectivist enemies do not, that as Mayor Orden told the Nazi colonel, "it is always the herd men who win battles and the free men who win wars." Remember that. For now, as then, we live in a time when the moon is down. But it will rise again. The Three Percent will see to that.

Picking up after the "Insta-lanche"

This is an avalanche.

THIS is an "Insta-lanche."

6,176 hits yesterday. Phew. My average these days is about 1,500 or so, so you can see why they call it an "Insta-lanche." What happened? Well, Glenn Reynolds of Pajamas Media/Instapundit linked to my piece on GOP sellouts in re Holder and Steele. It just goes to show you that with a gruesome picture of the hanging corpse of a rogue circus elephant, all things are possible. A H/T to the Bitter/Sebastian NRA Tag Team of Verbal Wrestlers for getting me motivated on THAT.

As Frank Zappa famously said --

Do you love it?
Do you hate it?
There it is.
The way you made it.

From "Who are the Brain Police?", 1965.

You will also notice a bump back on Friday of 3,700 hits. (The dates on the graph are mis-labeled. What can I say? It comes from California.) That happened because John Rawles' Survival Blog linked to my piece on "Guerrilla Scavenging as an Art Form."

And the dumpster divers linked to me from Rawles. I'm getting hits from the dumpster divers' blogs now.

So welcome to all you Instapundits, survivalists and dumpster divers. Hope some of you stick around to join in the fray.

And thanks again to Bitter and Sebastian at Snowflakes in Hell. Great work, guys. Great, great work. I shall channel you again for my dark muse in the future.

Praxis: Fitness and Training.

After the piece below on Training, I received this request:

"Can you ask (the author) for his PT standards? They are referenced in the training piece, and should be a stand alone post."

Good point. So I did, here's what he shot right back:

Standards for someone to be minimally "fit":

First, the term, "Fit" is defined as possessing the required strength and stamina to carry all gear necessary to live & fight for 96 hours in field conditions in 3 season conditions (spring, summer, fall) and perform required functions (shoot, move, build shelters, pull watch, etc) as part of the team. Winter is not included because it is such a specialized environmental condition and much more gear/equipment (to include drag sleds) are added. Winter training is a whole 'nother world!

The list below is the starting point, not the end result. As time goes on, usually every season, road marches will be lengthened in varying lengths to 10 miles and time will be lengthened and reduced in pace averages from 15 minutes to 20 minutes per mile so that these exercises can be accomplished with additional gear carried (assault packs or rucks) that add about 30 pounds to the man. These marches are not tactical by any stretch, they are simply evaluations of physical core strength and stamina. They also provide secondary benefits in experiential learning about foot care, the importance of boot fit, extra socks, hygiene, etc. But to be considered "fit", we require a demonstration of:


Road March: 2 miles in 31 minutes carrying:

MBR

Weapon Cleaning Kit (must include barrel cleaning tool (rod or string type cleaner), bore brush, patch holder, solvent, grease (as applicable to rifle), and enough patches to clean the rifle twice (10 to 12)

200 rounds of ammunition in pack or magazines (minimum - more can be carried if desired)

Web gear (LB Vest, Harness, Web belt, Assault Rig or any military capable rig. Can also be component based, such as having a harness & butt pack, assault pack or camelbak type "mule" rig with accouterments: Water container (canteens or camelbak type), a small light source with a blue, green, or red lense, a compass (USGI Lensatic highly recommended), and an individual first aid kit (either on the belt or in the butt/assault/camelbak mule component) comprised of 1 tourniquet, 2 field dressings (pressure bandages), one 1/4 ounce "Quickclot" sponge or granuals, 1 sm roll of adhesive tape (can be electrical tape), 6 assorted bandaids, 1 sm tube of antibacterial ointment) Uniform, boots and other weather appropriate gear.

Miscellaneous: 2 MRE's or equivalent, poncho, combat knife, camouflage material, fire starting material, tomahawk, and FRS/GMRS radio and one set of spare batteries for anything requiring them.

To help get the candidate to this level, he is shown and encouraged to perform various abdominal strengthening exercises (no sit ups), how to perform supported push-ups (so the back is not overly strained and the upper body gets all the benefit), and how to increase stamina by a regimen of road work. It's not mandatory; it's a recommendation that he can choose to follow or not, with the idea being that whatever works for him is fine, but the requirements for pass/fail do not change.

Basic Road work regimen for a reasonably fit man:

1st Week: Walk 1 mile 3 days in a row, steady pace, in athletic shoes.

2nd Week: Walk 1.5 miles every other day, steady pace, in athletic shoes.

3rd Week: Walk 1 mile every day, brisk pace, in athletic shoes.

4th Week: Walk 2 miles every other day, brisk pace, in athletic shoes.

5th Week: Walk 2 miles twice during the weak, steady pace.

6th Week: Walk 3 miles every other day, brisk pace.

7th Week: Jog 1.5 miles at 12 min mile pace; walk 1.5 miles brisk pace every day (7 times).

8th Week: Walk 1.5 miles at brisk pace: jog 1.5 miles at 12 min pace every other day.

From this point, the candidate should be able to easily make the 2 miles at a 15.5 minute pace wearing field uniforms and carrying the required equipment.

For others who are really out of shape, we have them work up to the first week in a month or two, even if it's starting out walking around the block once a day, and then going from there.

Diet & Rest: We encourage folks to do the hardest exercise available: 'Push-Aways' (from the table). Only eat one portion and downsize it a little bit. 8 hours of sleep is optimum; get away from the TV. Read, talk, use your mind, and then rest at night.

One of the things we do when evaluating a man for "basic" is to require him to shoot for score immediately after (we give a 30 minute break for hydration) he's done his PT evaluation. This ensures we get a more realistic picture of how well he'll shoot when he's been physically taxed. It also provides a secondary benefit by underscoring to the man that he might need to increase his fitness level as his score will most likely go down from what he'd shoot when he's fully rested.

Again, this is only the "fitness" portion of 'basic' training.

12 Inch Siege Howitzer Used in Canadian School Shooting: It Must Be True, He's an "Expert!"

"Expert Opinions Are Like Anal Sphincters -- Everyone's Got One and Most are Full of Excrement." -- Anonymous.

Courtesy of SayUncle we have a link to this magnificent expert opinion of one Joseph Lieberman (no, not the Senator) who has written this:



Interviewed here by the notoriously anti-firearm rights Scott Vogel, Communications Director for the Freedom States Alliance, Lieberman gives us this:

This century there has been an increase in the number of non-white school shooters, such as Seung-Hui Cho, the Virginia Tech shooter. Before him there was Kimveer Gill, for example, in Montreal who was from Indian heritage. On Sept. 13th, 2006, he shot 20 students, killing one young woman at Montreal’s Dawson College, using a 9-mm semi-automatic rifle, a .45-caliber pistol and a 12-caliber gun that can pump four bullets with each squeeze of the trigger. Kimveer was obsessed about using firearms to make up for his shortcomings, writing, “I love guns… I really do. The great equalizer.”

Now, military historians and informed gunnies know that one caliber equals one inch, hence Mr. Lieberman would have us believe that the shooter used one of these:
12" Siege Howitzer of Great War Vintage

Now, I gotta admit, THAT'S an "equalizer." But how did he get it past the metal detectors and security guards? Who knows? It must be true. Lieberman is an EXPERT. (Insert media swooning here.)

Cheese-eating GOP Surrender Monkeys Help Install Criminal In Charge of "Justice."

Well, it is done. Cheese-eating GOP surrender monkeys like my own Senator Jeff Sessions have assisted in the installation of a man who undoubtedly committed misfeasances and malfeasances of justice during the Clinton Administration as the nation's "Top Cop."

The illustration from Pete's WRSA blog above says it all. So does this portion of his commentary:

"Now, if you listen carefully, you may hear a faint sound in the distance. For those of you who don't recognize it, that's the Muster Drum."

"No Way Out But Through."

"Do you really think that in such a world, burying or otherwise caching your guns is the morally correct answer? Do you really think that it is the tactically prudent answer?"

Folks,

My good friend Pete at Western Rifle Shooters Association here has an important post this morning. It is so important I'm not going to trust you lazy guys (yes, you know who you are) to click on the link. Here it is, in its entirety. Think it through, and ACT.

Mike


"Use 'Em, or Lose 'Em."

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Mandatory Registration: Be Realistic In Your Thinking

Rawles' Survivalblog on Monday had an essay on steps to mitigate the possible problem of mandatory firearms registration imposed by the Hopey-Changey crowd now settling into the halls of power in Washington.

I have almost-limitless respect for what Mr. Rawles has done over the past fifteen years to awaken and prepare Americans for the very things we are living through today.

But on this particular point, I'd suggest a bit more thinking.

If the Obamanation foolishly chooses to enact mandatory Federal registration requirements, there are hundreds of thousands of Americans -- men, women, and young folks -- who will view that step as a "weapons free" command.

Many other Americans will reach the same conclusion once the first confiscation raids begin.

What? You think there won't be enforcement actions taken by the Feds and their local minions against non-compliant individuals?

Reliable sources in the past two weeks have reported that the BATFE is in the mid-to-late stages of a multi-year information gathering process based on their examination of various FFLs' business records, along with the 4473 transfer forms.

The sources, each of whom are intimately involved in the production and sale of components for various "rifles of military utility", both report extensive BATFE data collection from customer lists and other records.

Why do you think BATFE is doing that?

Why do you think one BATFE agent told one of the sources that the project was scheduled to be completed by 2010?

Why do you think Brian Puckett said "I will not register" when California enacted its AWB registration scheme in the late Nineties?

Folks, we live in a post-legal, post-political world, where tax cheats are confirmed as the nation's chief tax collectors, voter-fraud organizations receive Federal funding, and Republican party chairmen support bans on "assault weapons".

Do you really think that in such a world, burying or otherwise caching your guns is the morally correct answer?

Do you really think that it is the tactically prudent answer?

Face it: There's no way out but through.

And "through" means that someone, somewhere is going to use force once this thing gets a few steps further down the pike.

When the front doors of high-profile RKBA folks start to explode off their hinges at oh-dark-thirty, it's a wake-up call to every freedom-lover in this country.

The next steps are up to each of us.

Audentes fortuna juvat.

Fortune favors the bold.

"No Way Out But Through."

"They are coming."

"They are coming. Are you ready?" -- zombiedefense.org

The killer Nazi zombies are coming. Amy Brundage of the Obama White House says so here, in the Atlanta Journal of Collectivism. The announcement on behalf of President Blackberry was made (predictably) by email. No doubt the raids will be delivered by attachment. Here it is:

Obama supports some gun control

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Sunday, February 01, 2009

The Obama administration, cited by many Georgia gun owners as the reason they applied for concealed-carry permits last year, supports restrictions on certain kinds of guns and certain kinds of gun sales.

“President Obama believes in the Second Amendment,” White House spokeswoman Amy Brundage said in an e-mail Friday. “He supports common-sense measures that respect the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding gun owners, while keeping guns away from children and from criminals who shouldn’t have them.”

Brundage said Obama supports reviving the expired ban on assault weapons and making it permanent. And he backs closing the “gun show loophole,” whereby individuals may buy weapons from other individuals without background checks or other regulation.

The National Rifle Association campaigned against Obama in last year’s presidential race, warning Americans that “you can’t trust Obama with your guns” and declaring that “Obama would be the most anti-gun president in American history.”

On the campaign trail in September, Obama said: “This has been peddled again and again. Here’s what I believe … people have the right to bear arms. But I also believe there is nothing wrong with some common-sense gun safety measures.”

Now, they hinted at this during the campaign. They told us this on their campaign and transition websites. This is the first time we have heard it attributed to an official voice in the White House.

The NRA-worshiping "pragmatists" have been whistling past the graveyard, clutching the 1994 totem to their chests while repeating Dorothy-like for anyone who will listen, "There's no place like Fairfax. There's no place like Fairfax."

"I'll get you my pretty, and your wine list too!"

I've got news for them. Auntie Em and Glenda the Good Witch are long dead. Newt Gingrich is in private life, having failed to keep his dick in his pants and thus allowed the Clintons to blackmail him, marginalize him and finally to hustle him out of Washington. He ain't there to save you no more. The political conditions that he exploited are no longer there.

The GOP brand is wholly discredited. In any case, Obama is counting on seizing what he wants. He figures the amnesty of illegal aliens will give him enough voters to blunt any electoral blowback, and he's undoubtedly right. There will be no 1994. You want these zombies stopped? You'll have to do it yourselves.


Just so we understand what's at stake here, these are the same killer Nazi zombies who did the Davidians. Only this time, we are ALL Davidians.

They are coming. Get ready.

Groundhog Strikes Blow For Second Amendment, Bites Mike Bloomberg.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg holds Staten Island Chuck for the big crowd to see this morning at the Staten Island Zoo Monday, February 2, 2009. Chuck is so underwhelmed by events, he takes a chunk out of Bloomberg's hand.

As reported in "Newsday, Staten Island Chuck (aka Charles G. Hogg) drew blood from anti-gun New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg during a Groundhog Day ceremony today. Unfortunately there was no possibility of Mike getting rabies, for Chuck has lived a lonely, animal companion-free existence since he was born. Here's how Newsday reported it, but they lacked a crucial piece of information provided Sipsey Street Irregulars.

Groundhog bites Bloomberg at ceremony

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS and NEWSDAY

1:50 PM EST, February 2, 2009

Mayor Michael Bloomberg paid a visit to an apparently-disgruntled constituent nicknamed 'Staten Island Chuck' on Groundhog's Day -- and got bit for his trouble.

Staten Island's famous groundhog, Charles G. Hogg, inexplicably bit Mayor Bloomberg during his annual holiday ceremony on Monday, drawing blood from the billionaire.

Said Bloomberg spokesman Stu Loeser: "It nicked his hand."

Bloomberg wrapped the cut with a napkin until he could check with his doctor.

He was told there was no risk of rabies. The 2-year-old animal was born and raised in captivity and has had no interaction with other animals

People's Exhibit #1: Evidence found in Charles G. Hogg's cage.

New York City Mayoral Protective Detail officers also recovered this from suspect Hogg's residence.

It would seem, gentle readers, that Steve Lauer, President of Wisconsin-based Lauer Custom Weaponry of Chippewa Falls may have some explaining to do.

Staten Island Chuck in happier days before his alleged assault on Mayor Bloomberg.

Preparations are under way to start a legal defense fund for Mr. Hogg, although the NRA declines to get involved, saying that they are entirely too focused on the more important task of promoting their wine list to help at this time.

Meanwhile, spontaneous demonstrations by New York schoolchildren are protesting Chuck's placement in home detention while he is awaiting trial. Melissa Scheuer, a third grader at PS 1345, denounced Mayor Bloomberg, saying "he's a nasty old man anyway and besides, it was self-defense. If he grabbed me like that, I'd bite him too!"


"Free Chuck! Free Chuck!" chant elementary school children in support of political prisoner Charles G. Hogg.

Praxis: Training Notes

US Soldier Training Iraqis in Map Reading

From a very serious, very experienced trainer up North we have these excellent points.


Some training notes that might help folks move beyond "rote memory" and "group lock step"....

Energize your FTX’s by Determining Skill Mastery and Adapting Your Style to the Men


If you’re using “Group Lock Step” methodolgy when you train your folks and you don’t see a high level of enthusiasm for training, you might be using the wrong method for the group you have under your ‘wing’.


Sometimes, believe it or not, trainers don’t take into account various levels of skill mastery or consciousness that their trainees have in various tasks. Trainers are human, and sometimes have the mistaken pre-conceived notion that everyone they are going to train is most likely brand new to the subject or cannot process information or learn quickly. Don’t think so? Ask a group leader you trust to critically observe your next training session. Have him to note how you talk to the men, their reaction, how many get bored (and how fast that happens), start side conversations and even wander off to do something else. If this is happening, chances are that you are using ‘group lock step’ training methods on a group that needs to have their training flow adapted to the level of skill mastery they possess which is higher than you've guessed. To be clear, if the example used above is occurring in your group, it’s a bad thing, because not a lot of effective training is being accomplished, and if you’re like others, you realize we don’t have much time to spare. But don’t take it personally--it’s not your fault to this point, because ‘group lock step’ is usually what most folks who’ve served in the military or other public service organizations are indoctrinated with when they are taught to instruct.


Group lock step is the kind of training where the group only goes as fast as the slowest guy. When bringing a large group of people into an organization that has specific behavior requirements or task performance requirements, such as a professional military organization or a large manufacturing plant, it usually works. However, even in those places, as folks advance and their potential is developed, the ones who can get away from group lock step training and get into areas they can learn based on their ability to master a task or subject.


Here’s an example of group lock step applied to an imaginary class on ‘ruck sack familiarization’:


Instructor (in an authoritarian, “Full Metal Jacket” DI type voice): “This is your ruck sack…get-to-know-it. Today, we will learn the basic parts of the ruck sack, their function and basic ruck sack terminology. At the end of the day, you will recite the definitions of each part. Then, tomorrow, if any of you have what it takes, we will move on to putting the ruck sack on and adjusting the shoulder straps which will also be evaluated not only by how long it takes you to do it, but how smoothly you can do it. From there, those who proved they can hack it will learn about loading it with your personal belongings. I will watch each step you take. If you do something wrong, I will dump your ruck sack out and you will begin again. You will have 3 chances to do it right. By the end of the next 3 days, you will have learned all about your ruck sack and will be able to take it into the field!”


So, how many guys you know are going to enjoy that kind of instruction? I’m betting not many.


Now, make no mistake, group lock step training has its place, usually when bringing individuals from diverse backgrounds into a culture that everyone is totally equal and egos must be ‘trimmed’ before the group can effectively perform or with an entire group that has no skill mastery of the subject you are going to cover, but even then, as the group gets into the subject, group lock step has to be modified as the individuals in the group start to learn at different paces, picking up the elements of the task series more quickly or more slowly than you are presenting them.


In our environment where everyone involved has the freedom to stay or leave as they choose, this method can lead to the downfall of your group. Why? First, many of your folks are probably veterans who most likely feel they’ve already “paid their dues” and have various levels of mastery in the skills you’re trying to teach, re-teach, or maintain mastery in. Secondly, group lock step instructors tend to be very autocratic in delivery on every subject or task dealt with, and men who’ve ‘been there, done that’ don’t appreciate that particular style, let alone guys who are brand new to your group. Very few will appreciate the “PWE” (prick with ears) type of trainer.

In our world, we usually have a group with a spread of comprehension abilities and experience where some learn very fast and some learn very slow, and one or two just might take a lot longer to “get it”. These facts should demonstrate that group lock step will not be effective in most cases because a significant percentage of your group will get bored from not moving forward at a pace that keeps them engaged in what you’re trying to accomplish. You’ll know if this is the case when your FTX attendance starts to drop and before you realize it, all that attend are you, your training assistant, and your closest buddy in the group.


So, if you want to energize your FTX’s by getting your more experienced people engaged and basically break out of group lock step into a much more effective method of training, you must understand and accept that mastery of task performance is based upon ‘task maturity’. We’re not talking about age, emotion or intellect here. Maturity in this case is defined as the level of possessed ability to perform the task with little or no error without any prompting from supervisory or instructor personnel.’ In plain language, it means how well the trainee can do the task without thinking. Determining task maturity is the key to the speed with which the trainee can move through a set of tasks you are training him on.


Generally, your men will fall into one of the following categories in their overall ability to perform in the field. Later, we’ll look at how your men can be tops in one area and clueless in another, and how to recognize and get them into the top level of mastery. So, let’s go over the four categories of skill mastery.


Unconsciously Unskilled: “I don’t know what I don’t know.” This is the brand new guy who shows up and hasn’t even bought a MBR yet because he doesn’t know what he should have. He doesn’t know a flank from a front, a false horizon from a real one, and what’s more, he knows it and knows that you know it. If the SHTF now, this guy, out of necessity, and if he wants to live, should be paired up with a fully trained man and be told: “You do exactly what I tell you, no more, no less.” To do otherwise in this case would be to put him and your entire group in jeopardy. But, all things being equal, and the S has not HTF, this is the man you will have to start slow with until you see how quickly he can pick things up.


Consciously Unskilled: “I know I don’t know much.” This is the guy who’s been to a couple FTX’s with you and has been jolted awake and now understands that he does not know much about surviving in a hostile environment. He may have learned that he’s not in the shape he thought he was; he doesn’t know about camouflage or first aid that much; and he sure doesn’t know what it takes to move undetected through an area where people are hunting him. Basically, he’s in ‘boot camp’ in your group. Again, assigning him to a more experienced man might help him out, especially if your experienced man has a heart to help out the “newbie”. “Do as I do” comes into play, and high levels of encouragement when he’s having problems learning a particular set of tasks.


Consciously Skilled: “I know how to do it but I have to concentrate on it.” This guy has successfully completed all your ‘basic’ requirements. He’s qualified on the AQT, he is fit enough to demonstrate all your PT requirements, he’s seen the importance of having all the required gear, he knows how to blend in with his surroundings, he knows his rifle fairly well, and so on. But, he has to be reminded from time to time because the skills haven’t become ‘second nature’ to him where he not only can perform them without thinking, he knows when to perform them without thinking. You’ll see errors in his performance at this stage. He’ll need correction, reinforcement, and possibly retraining on a given task or subject. However, it’s important to note that at this stage, the trainer should be encouraging and save any ‘negative reinforcement’ for dire situations, because at this point you’re trying to get him to the top category of skill mastery.


Unconsciously Skilled: “I don’t have to think about it; I just do it.” You know this guy as soon as you see him. He doesn’t need to be told how to do something. He just does it, sometimes anticipating what, where, who, when, and how. He’s the guy who can do everything you require quickly and effectively, and then he turns quickly to help someone else get through the task who’s not so fast. He’s the guy who, when he does ‘screw up’ a task, can laugh at his own mistakes and joke about being a prime example of what not to do. Bottom line: He’s got his act together.


Each of these categories also have complimentary training styles you might find successful employing with the various levels of skill mastery enountered:


Unconsciously Unskilled: Tell them how to do what you want them to do. Be firm, but talk to them the way you want to be talked to in the same situation. “Ok, this is how you set up material to build a fire when you don’t have accelerants. First, you gather tinder. Tinder is any material that will catch a spark and flame within a very short period of time. Some examples are…. Ok, now that you know what tinder is, I want each of you to get at least two handfuls in the next 15 minutes and come back here.”


Consciously Unskilled: Encourage them through the steps. Not so much telling here as helping them figure it out and reinforcing their learning with praise (not effusive…a simple, “good job!” could be the ticket). “Each buddy team needs to set out all the materials for a fire within 50 minutes. This includes tinder, match sticks, logs, and, of course, the position you’ve prepared to build the fire at taking into account wind direction, overhead smoke dispersion, and heat reflecting material. Remember, lay your material out before you start to make a spark! It’s more efficient when you have a small flame going to have everything you want at your finger tips! You guys did this great yesterday, so I know you can do it well again today!”


Consciously Skilled: Participation. Let them work through it and be there to back them up when they ask for it. When they’re stumped or having problems, you can get them thinking by saying, “How would you do it?” or “Remember when we did it yesterday?” or “You can do it…take a breath and relax…now, what comes next?”


Unconsciously Skilled: Delegation. Look for results. Allow improvisation, modification, and initiative. “Men, each buddy team needs to have their shelter constructed and camouflaged within 2 hours. It must meet our sanitation and defensive posture requirements as well. I’ll be by to check on you later. Let’s go.”


Movement between the skill levels can be extremely fast or slow, depending on the task complexity, prior experience, and individual ability to pick things up. Think of skill mastery being on a continuum with an indicator that slides on a silicon rail. This is where it gets tricky.


Why? Because you, the trainer, have to recognize almost immediately when a person you’re training slides from Unconsciously Skilled to Consciously Skilled or any other category of skill mastery and adapt your training style to where they are at the moment.


So where do you start, you might wonder. On day one, the first FTX your man attends. Make some time before you start to talk to him about his experiences. Get an idea of where he is by observing him with the other men. How does he handle his equipment and weapon? Is he at ease, clumsy, or somewhere in between? Does he seem fit or is he a chain smoker? Is his clothing arranged “hollywood style” or for function? All these factors may help you determine where’s he’s at in skill mastery. Time will be your major measuring tool. As the day wears on, you’ll be able to observe what you need to in order to determine the most effective training style.


Employing this system across the board will provide a large return on the investment of time you and your folks have put into getting themselves ready for what appears to be in the future.

Praxis: Another Bandoleer Idea -- "The Battleer"

From "Michigan Tactical Supply" we have the "Battleer."

3 Pack Black 5.56 / .223 Cal Battleer $29.95

The battleer came about from a group of shooters that were tired of dealing with the original Vietnam era cloth bandoleers. The cloth bandoleers are sloppy, cheaply made and are not strong enough for repeated use. The strap was non-adjustable and came with a safety clothes pin to help with adjustments. The cotton material would rip or snag. It didn’t help that they were over 30 years old as leftovers from the war. We envisioned a bandoleer that was made of tough nylon and had an adjustable strap. We wanted secure pockets to store ammo and magazines. We wanted a smaller zipper pocket that would hold the loading spoons, stripper clips and small tools securely. We took our idea to a sewing facility and the Battleer was born. The battler is made of 1000 denier Cordura. It has reinforced stitching and all black metal hardware.

The adjustable strap is made of super strong nylon scuba webbing and it has metal clips on the ends for easy removal. It has extra “D” rings to allow for more lashing points. The Battleer will securely hold (7) seven (20) twenty round .223 magazines. It will hold the older straight (20) twenty round magazines and the newer curved (20) twenty round magazines. It will hold 20 round boxes of ammo. It will hold 140 rounds of ammo on the 10 round stripper clips inside the cardboard sleeves. The one inch wide Velcro holds the magazines in place. There is no chance of one falling out. It is only 30 inches long and 5 ½ inches tall. That makes it only 3 ½ inches longer than the original Vietnam Bandoleer.

They also have a version in 7.62 NATO, the "Black .308 Cal Battleer" for $19.95.

THE .308 BATTLEER ! The .308 Battleer is the next product introduced by Michigan Tactical Supply. Like the .223 version this is made of tough 1000 denier nylon cordura. It has 5 velcro pockets to hold 20 rd magazines and 1 heavy duty zippered pocket that is large enough to hold a sixth magazine , stripper clips , small sight tools , or equipment. It has all black metal hardware with 1.5 inch wide heavy duty scuba webbing for a adjustable shoulder strap. It has a “D” ring sewn into the center to allow the Bandoleer to be folded in half and be carried as a side shoulder pouch. It Measures 28 inches long and 6.5 inches tall. Will Fit HK91, M-14, and FAL 20 round mags. Colors available are Black and Digital Camo

MBV Comments: I don't much care for black as a color for uniforms or accoutrements. Black is the color worn by our probable enemies. Also, in a bandoleer that doesn't have to have an adaptable flap for accomodating different size magazines, some silent method of securing them such as fas-tex buckles is preferable to velcro. These are a bit pricey for a storage bandoleer, but the fellow who forwarded me this tip is impressed with their quality.

Praxis: The Patrol Order

Get this book.

From Amazon.

The Patrol Order is a companion book to the Ranger Handbook. The first 49 pages are a detailed first-person narrative of a ranger patrol order. This excellent, perfect bound work, with its distinctive desert camouflage cover, is written by an officer with over 20 years of Special Operations experience. Writing a patrol order is a critical task in Ranger School as it is in ROTC advanced summer camp and in the Officer Basic Course. This book is designed to give a potential Ranger student and other students a feel for the detail required to accomplish this task. The Patrol Order is also beneficial for any leader tasked with the responsibility of writing and issuing a patrol order. It reminds the junior NCO or officer of the many considerations that must be taken into account when planning and executing a combat or reconnaissance patrol. With this book, the reader can organize and conduct both a combat and reconnaissance patrol to ranger standards. Also contained in this work are eight pages of "muddy boots"; preparatory questions to be answered prior to executing a mission. Finally, the book closes with a fill-in-the-blank patrol order template. This template can be copied and used to tailor the order to a unit's mission and its SOP Ranger standards. The book details the various duties of every member of the patrol. Even if you have never conducted a patrol, this work will walk you step-by-step through the organization, instructions, and additional duties of all individuals, teams, and elements involved in the patrol.

The author:

COL Tom Davis is a twenty-five year veteran of Special Forces. He has seen duty on four continents and in eleven foreign countries. He has worn the Green Beret at every rank from Second Lieutenant to Colonel. In addition to being Airborne, Ranger, and Special Forces qualified, he is also trained in Military Free Fall and Underwater Operations. While assigned with Special Forces, he has commanded five A Teams, one Company, two Battalions, and a Joint Special Operations Task Force. His writings, both fiction and non fiction, have appeared in newspapers in Georgia and North Carolina as well as local, state, and national magazines. He has authored two collections of short stories entitled What Would You Like on Your Mashed Potatoes? and The Long and the Short. Additionally, he has authored a children's book entitled Pickaberry Pig. He holds a BA and a Masters Degrees and is a graduate of the Army's Command and General Staff College and War College.

Paperback: 104 pages
Publisher: Old Mountain Press (May 1994)
ISBN-10: 188477802X
ISBN-13: 978-1884778025

ADDENDUM FROM DOCTOR ENIGMA:

Mike,

I called Colonel Davis; he runs "Old Mountain Press", and you can get the books there for $7.95 plus $3 s&h. Amazon only has one copy available for $26 and change. Hell of a lot cheaper.

I have 3 enroute, signed by the author. Had a nice chat with Colonel Davis and thanked him for writing the book and being on the more "pointy end of the spear" during his time. He enlisted in '68. Nice man.

Anyway, here's the info:

http://www.oldmp.com/ranger

2542 S. Edgewater Dr.
Fayetteville, NC 28303
Ph: 910-484-5887

A Heart-Warming Ecumenical Valentine's Day Story

H/T to John Russell for the forward. I do not know this post's provenance, but I know it warms my heart.

Little Melissa comes home from 1st grade & tells her father that they learned about the history of Valentine's Day.


'Since Valentine's Day is for a Christian saint, and we're Jewish,' she asks, 'Will God get mad at me for giving someone a valentine?


Melissa's father thinks a bit, then says: 'No, I don't think God would get mad. Whom do you want to give a Valentine to?'


'Osama Bin Laden,' she says.


'Why Osama Bin Laden?' her father asks in shock.


'Well,' she says, 'I thought that if a little American Jewish girl could have enough love to give Osama a Valentine, he might start to think that maybe we're not all bad, and maybe start loving people a little bit. And if other kids saw what I did and sent Valentines to Osama, he'd love everyone a lot. And then he'd start going all over the place to tell everyone how much he loved them, and how he didn't hate anyone anymore.'


Her father's heart swells and he looks at his daughter with new found pride.

'Melissa, that's the most wonderful thing I have ever heard.'


'I know, ' Melissa says, 'and once that gets him out in the open, the Marines could shoot the bastard.'

"A totally unrealistic rendition of government." -- A Tongue-in-Cheek Review of Defiance.

From Lawyer Daggett at Like A Gun blog we have this tongue-in-cheek movie review of Defiance. Very funny. Well, maybe not so funny. A H/T to the Dweeze for drawing my attention to it.

I see an average of 1 movie a year thus I am a guru of movies, acting and all things Hollywood. With that in mind I highly recommend you all go see a fantasy thriller that I think is out nationwide called Defiance.

It stars Daniel Craig who I think I should have heard of, he looks vaguely familiar but I can’t place him. The basic plot (I won’t ruin it for you) is a gang of paranoid gun crazies who band together and terrorize a benevolent government that the crazies feel like are threatening them.

The crazies run off in the woods like crazies are prone to do, they don’t pay their taxes and are generally hostile to the various government folks trying to help them and solve their problems. It is set in the ancient past that no one cares about anymore. The crazies generally all have relatives that were justifiably killed by the benevolent government who was trying to help them, which makes them mad and what is a crazy if not mad about something.

It seems the crazies were also religious people…very consistent with crazies as I know them. They also live in a camp, which probably should have been called a compound. In the end the government people attempt to drive their armored vehicles into the compound and light it on fire for the good of the crazies themselves. The crazies continue on the run for a long time hiding in the wilderness…probably using survivalist militia tactics.

Anyhoo…good flick, it would be disturbing if it weren’t so totally fanciful and set approximately 700 years ago along with being a totally unrealistic rendition of government.

Praxis: The Crowdsourcing Revolution

From Strategy Page we have this. Three Percenters should be thinking along some obvious lines derived from this observation. Thinking and doing.

The Crowdsourcing Revolution

January 30, 2009: Recently, satellite photos available on Google Earth showed a curious new target built in a large area for testing Chinese bombs (smart and dumb) and missiles. This was the Shuangchengzi complex of air force bases and training and testing areas in central China. One of the testing areas now had a mock up of the well known Taiwanese Ching Chuan air base. If China were to ever attack Taiwan, they would want to knock Ching Chuan out of action early on. But the bomb craters on the Ching Chuan mockup show very poor accuracy. It's not known if this simply reflects the need for more pilot training, or that the Chinese are trying to lull the Taiwanese into a false sense of security.

Meanwhile, Google Earth (earth.google.com) has revolutionized military intelligence, and the way news on military affairs is developed and spread. Case in point is the transformation of the Chinese armed forces, and the activities of the North Korean military. Both China and North Korea have long been very secretive about military affairs. But the appearance of Google Earth (originally as Earth View) five years ago, changed everything. By putting so much satellite photography at the disposal of so many people, in such an easy- to- use fashion, unexpected discoveries were made.

People soon discovered that if they had a high-speed Internet connection, they could use Google Earth to find satellite photos of all sorts of interesting stuff. This was especially true of the "Forbidden Kingdoms" (China, Russia North Korea, and a few other). While the CIA and the military has had access to satellite photos of these countries since the 1960s, little of it was shown to the public. Now that so many people can examine these, lower resolution, civilian satellite images, many have gone over vast stretches of the Forbidden Kingdoms, and found things that were newsworthy, and never reported before. Things like new military bases, test sites for new weapons, and the new weapons themselves.

Technically, the countries in question can request that Google not show these classified military facilities. But in making that request, they point where the classified operation is. So far, a lot of this stuff is just there to find. And users find it. This is called "crowdsourcing" (where large numbers of people accomplish impressive feats of research or analysis because they can quickly mobilize and get to the task via the Internet.) The U.S. military will not say that they appreciate the work done via crowd sourcing, but individual analysts and intelligence officials have made it known, unofficially, that crowdsourcing is another useful tool that unexpectedly came their way via the Internet.

Che Guevara Is Still Dead (Temporarily): The Power of Hollywood Myth.

From today's Taipei Times (my favorite morning coffee visit these days as I keep my eye on how the Chinese dragon is moving in on Taiwan for the kill) we have this piece on the new Hollywood attempt to breathe romance into the cold-blooded Marxist killer who was Ernesto "Che" Guevara. Please read it, and I will meet you on the other side.

The truth behind the Che myth
By Guy Sorman
Monday, Feb 02, 2009

Hollywood history is often nonsensical, but filmmakers usually have the good sense not to whitewash killers and sadists. Steven Soderbergh’s new film about Che Guevara, however, does that, and more.

Che the revolutionary romantic, as depicted by Benecio del Toro in Soderbergh’s film, never existed. That hero of the left, with his hippie hair and beard, an image now iconic on T-shirts and coffee mugs around the world, is a myth concocted by former Cuban president Fidel Castro’s propagandists — something of a cross between Don Quixote and Robin Hood.

Like those tall tales, Fidel’s myth of Che bears a superficial resemblance to historical facts, but the real story is far darker. Some Robin Hood probably did brutalize the rich and, to cover his tracks, give some of his loot to the poor. In medieval Spain, Quixote-like knights probably did roam the countryside, ridding it not of dragons but of the land’s few remaining Muslims.

The same goes for the legendary Che. No teenager in rebellion against the world or his parents seems able to resist Che’s alluring image. Just wearing a Che T-shirt is the shortest and cheapest way to appear to be on the right side of history.

What works for teenagers also seems to work with forever-young movie directors. In the 1960s, the Che look, with beard and beret, was at least a glib political statement. Today, it is little more than a fashion accoutrement that inspires a big-budget Hollywood epic. Are Che theme parks next?

But once there was a real Che Guevara: He is less well known than the fictional puppet that has replaced reality. The true Che was a more significant figure than his fictional clone, for he was the incarnation of what revolution and Marxism really meant in the 20th century.

Che was no humanist. No communist leader, indeed, ever held humanist values. Karl Marx certainly was not one. True to their movement’s founding prophet, former Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, former Chinese leader Mao Zedong (毛澤東), Castro and Che held no respect for human life. Blood needed to be shed if a better world was to be baptized. When criticized by one of his early companions for the death of millions during the Chinese revolution, Mao observed that countless Chinese die everyday, so what did it matter?

Likewise, Che could kill with a shrug. Trained as a medical doctor in Argentina, he chose not to save lives but to suppress them. After he seized power, Che put to death 500 “enemies” of the revolution without trial, or even much discrimination.

Castro, no humanist himself, did his best to neutralize Guevara by appointing him minister for industry. As could be expected, Che applied Soviet policies to the Cubans: Agriculture was destroyed and ghost factories dotted the landscape. He did not care about Cuba’s economy or its people: His purpose was to pursue revolution for its own sake, whatever it meant, like art for art’s sake.

Indeed, without his ideology, Che would have been nothing more than another serial killer. Ideological sloganeering allowed him to kill in larger numbers than any serial killer could imagine, and all in the name of justice. Five centuries ago, Che probably would have been one of those priest/soldiers exterminating Latin America’s natives in the name of God. In the name of history, Che, too, saw murder as a necessary tool of a noble cause.

But suppose we judge this Marxist hero by his own criteria: Did he actually transform the world? The answer is yes — but for the worse. The communist Cuba he helped to forge is an undisputed and unmitigated failure, much more impoverished and much less free than it was before its “liberation.” Despite the social reforms the left likes to trumpet about Cuba, its literacy rate was higher before Castro came to power, and racism against the black population was less pervasive. Indeed, Cuba’s leaders today are far more likely to be white than they were in Fulgencia Batista’s day.

Beyond Cuba, the Che myth has inspired thousands of students and activists across Latin America to lose their lives in foolhardy guerrilla struggles. The left, inspired by the siren call of Che, chose armed struggle instead of elections. By doing so, it opened the way to military dictatorship. Latin America is not yet cured of these unintended consequences of Guevarism.

Indeed, 50 years after Cuba’s revolution, Latin America remains divided. Those nations that rejected Che’s mythology and chose the path of democracy and the free market, such as Brazil, Peru and Chile, are better off than they ever were: Equality, freedom and economic progress have advanced in unity. By contrast, those nations that remain nostalgic for the cause of Che, such as Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia, are at this very moment poised on the brink of civil war.

The real Che, who spent most of his time as Castro’s central banker supervising executions, deserves to be better known. Perhaps if Soderbergh’s two-part Che epic succeeds at the box office, his financial backers will want to film a more truthful sequel. There is certainly no shortage of material for Che, The Untold Story.

Guy Sorman is a French philosopher and economist.

OK. To paraphrase Chevy Chase at the Saturday Night Live newsdesk, "Che Guevara is still dead." At least temporarily.

Some years ago, a new family moved in beside us. The first thing I noticed about their ten year old boy was that he dressed in black. All the time. He even had a black fedora (something unusual for a ten year old). Then one day I caught him pantomiming killing imaginary victims while wearing a Freddy Kreuger mask and slasher glove. His parents, it seemed, had allowed him to watch Nightmare on Elm Street over and over again until it became imprinted upon him.

A few years later, as he hit pubescence, he chased my youngest daughter and her visiting friend around the yard with a hatchet, claiming he was "undead" and couldn't be killed. When I heard about it, I marched over next door, informed the parents of their little darling's exploits and claims, and told them that if it happened again I was going to test that theory with a 230 grain slug traveling at 850 feet per second. Even zombies succumb to head shots, I told them.

He did not seriously threaten my daughters again, nor did he again trespass on my yard. He did go on to a semi-pro career in petty and not-so-petty crime and while in high school was voted "most likely to Columbine" by the teachers. He didn't, but today, some ten years later, he still lives at home and based upon his friends, his dress and his demeanor he is still struggling in the embrace of the dark side.

His parents are the nicest folks you'd meet. They just screwed up in not giving the kid a good moral foundation before exposing their most precious possession to the filth of Hollywood.

I was reminded of this by Professor Sormon's essay. The truth of the matter is that no idea -- good or bad -- ever dies. Nazism, communism and all the other collectivisms can and do come around again (sometimes under different names, sometimes not) because people forget the ghastly reality behind them. They also, like my once-young and formerly innocent neighbor, are seduced by the power of the image.

Few images are more iconic than Che's. Few government serial killers have gotten away with so little scrutiny of their real record of murder. Enter, Soderbergh's hagiography.

How many little Che's will be imprinted by this Marxist version of "Triumph of the Will"? How many future socialist murderers can we count on as a result? Yes, Ernesto "Che" Guevara is still dead, temporarily. You will find his reincarnation shortly, perhaps in Obama's Domestic Security Force. When you do, you may thank the leftist pukes of Hollywood.

GOP Backs Holder, Elects Anti Semi-Auto Rifle Michael Steele as Chairman of the Republican National Committee. Base Reacts Poorly.

Q: Should people have access to buy assault weapons?

A: Society should draw lines. What do you need an assault weapon for, if you're going hunting? That's overkill. But I don't think that means you go to a total ban for those who want to use gun for skeet shooting or hunting or things like that." -- Michael Steele, in an October 16, 2006 Washington Post interview.

"I have to say, I like that he’s different. He’s an out-of-the-box thinker, or at least willing to give those who have ideas for these non-traditional messages a go. No, I don’t agree with him on every policy point. In fact, I probably disagree with him more than I agree with him. But the role of RNC Chair isn’t about setting policy or casting votes on the House or Senate floors. He’s there to raise money, promote the brand, and run a great election shop. It will be interesting to see how Steele performs." -- Sebastian's honey, the self-named "Bitter Bitch," on Michael Steele at Snowflakes in Hell.

Juxtapose if you will, Steele's support for an AWB with the Snowflake blog's support for him. Note how Sebastian's honey doesn't even mention Steele's endorsement for an AW ban and instead lauds his "outside the box" thinking. Kudos to Sebastian's better half -- there's some political leadership we can follow to victory.

(Note: The illustration came from here. If the GOP keeps this up I think hanging elephants will once again come back into vogue in East Tennessee and elsewhere.)

Correction: The quote above was originally attributed to NRA-apologist Sebastian, whereas it was actually posted on his website by the brains in the family, Sebastian's NRA and GOP apologist better half, the self-described "Bitter Bitch." OK, if she says so. My apologies to Sebastian for the misattribution. As I have an ex-wife, I know that it is possible to sleep with an opinion without necessarily agreeing with it.

Editor's Note: WELCOME TO INSTAPUNDIT READERS! (And thanks to Glenn Reynolds for the link!) While you're here, navigate around the blog. Take notice, please, of the chapters link of my upcoming novel Absolved which you will find on the right-hand side-bar. If you're interested in Second Amendment issues from the Founders' perspective, come back anytime and feel free to argue a point or two. -- Mike Vanderboegh, the "alleged leader" of a "merry band of Three Percenters."

LUTHAs: "Take their guns away President Obama! Then we can kick some rears."

It has been a joy this weekend to have my son visting. I'll see him for perhaps one more time after this before he redeploys back to join his beautiful wife and precocious son in Germany. After that, only God knows when I will see him again.

We were chatting yesterday about our clueless opponents and he asked a very good question: "Why can't they just leave us the Hell alone? We're not trying to take anything from them. It's not like were trying to seize vibrators from liberal lesbians or whatever. Why can't they just leave us the Hell alone?"

I recalled this conversation late last night when I was doing some searching for Absolved material and came up with these comments from just after the election:

Barack will remove the guns from the bible thumpers and make the world safer. Hunters and rednecks, two of a kind. Take their guns away President Obama! Then we can kick some rears.
Olivia Frink, NC (Sent Thursday, November 06, 2008 7:58 PM)


Goodbye Cabella's, Gander Mountain, NRA, Bass World and all those redneck republican icons. Our new president will put an end to this hillbilly tradition that has scarred this country and left so many dead americans. The Hunter's last season is at hand. Hip Hip Hooray!
Warren Evans, Detroit, MI (Sent Thursday, November 06, 2008 8:12 PM)


Do ALL gun crazies just have little peepees, or does it just seem that way? They certainly have little brains.
JCR, Cedar Falls IA (Sent Thursday, November 06, 2008 9:35 PM)

"Take their guns away President Obama! Then we can kick some rears."

You can find sentiments like these, some more elegantly phrased to be sure, all over the Net. I didn't work hard to find these, just stumbled across them really.

I'm not sure how we get this "leave me alone" warning across to some people. The posters above seem totally out of touch with reality as I understand it. The critical space is the few cubic inches of grey matter between our enemies' ears. The leaders, that is. You know, the ones who'll take the decisions to send armed public employees (read "killer Nazi zombies") to our doors.

There are more folks to this LUTHA coalition than just gun owners. Libertarians of all stripes, home schoolers, Christians, you name it. It has always been more about liberty than firearms, it is just that it is the armed citizenry that stands most in the way of tyranny in the country, ergo, "Take their guns away President Obama! Then we can kick some rears."

All of my recent writing has been geared to getting this idea across. So far, it is to no avail. Perhaps we just need to hire this guy as a marketing director:



At least he is on the same intellectual level as the poster above, but with a more direct message:



Or, as someone once said, "If you try to take our firearms, we will kill you."

Praxis: Universal Magazine Bandoleer

Tactical Operations Products Magazine/Utility Pouch

Folks,

Meet the Tactical Operations Products Magazine/Utility Pouch. My son made me a gift of one of these in coyote brown during a recent visit, and I have been playing around with it to see what multiple uses can be made of it. I came away impressed.

Though nominally designed for nine 5.56 thirty round magazines (three per pouch), it actually can hold twelve of the old standard aluminum M16 mags or nine of the wider 5.56 MagPuls; nine AK47 7.62x39 or AK74 5.45x39 thirty round mags; or nine M14, FN/FAL, G3 or AR10 7.62 NATO twenty round magazines!

Available in Coyote Tan, ACU or black, the bandoleer is made of 1000D maximum abrasion resistant Cordura. It has double layers at points requiring increased strength and utilizes UV stabilized webbing. Fully adjustable extra-length double layer flaps with full-length Velcro closures permit use with all the magazine combinations listed above including those with mag pullers. Webbing is bar-tack sewn to reinforce all critical stress points. In addition to the shoulder strap D-rings at the top, there are four black steel D rings mounted at each corner to allow 4 position carry and grommets are positioned at the pouch bottoms for drainage.

The MSRP listed at the manufacturer website here is $26.95.

Matt has found them for as little as $15.00 if you shop for bargains on-line or search out good used specimens in pawn shops and military surplus stores off-post of major military bases like Ft. Campbell, Ft. Benning or Ft. Bragg. Although there is (irritatingly) no dealer list that I can find on Tacops website, a google search turns up a number of them on-line with varying price structures.

The d-rings permit rigging it to a pack, or, my preference, hooking a universal load carrying strap as a waist belt to keep it from flopping. Although it comes with a perfectly serviceable and adjustable 1.25 inch nylon shoulder strap, I substituted a wider 2 inch strap to better distribute the load of nine to twelve fully loaded magazines.

One last point. It has no MOLLE attachments for hanging stuff on it. This is a good thing. The pouch filled with loaded mags is heavy and cumbersome enough without adding anything to it. Fight light, shoot and scoot and win. There are other rigs for full-scle combat operations. This is one elegantly designed for the armed citizen and his (or her) military pattern rifle.

This pouch is well-made, tough, and extremely versatile. It can be used along with the rifle alone as the Minutemen of old, or in combination with other gear systems. For those with several different rifles who are looking for one piece of gear adaptable to them all at a reasonable cost, this is it.

POST-IT NOTE: My son reminds me that these are used in Iraq as combat resupply units, ready to go. Your supply man can pre-load them and pack two of them in an empty SAW can. Call for ammo, and you've got it, ready to go and just as handy to distribute as ammo in bandoleers and stripper clips, though unlike them it is ready to go into the weapon instantly.