SurvivalBlog presents another edition of The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods— a collection of news bits and pieces that are relevant to the modern survivalist and prepper from “JWR”. Today, we focus on concealed carry of firearms by private citizens.
Constitutional Carry Versus Control
Some cogent commentary from Reid Henrichs: Constitutional Carry vs Control – The Winds of Freedom
Sprawling Ugandan Refugee Camps
Mike Williamson (our Editor At Large) recommended this detailed piece that documents the grinding poverty of Africa’s huge refugee populations: In Uganda, a unique urban experiment is under way. Their dependence has become multi-generational, and their “camps” are transforming themselves into permanent cities. There have been Sudanese refugees continuously in Uganda for more than 35 years. And a few of these refugees crossed into Uganda during the first Sudanese civil war (from 1955 to 1972.) Much like the Palestinian “refugees” in Israel, after two generations, they can no longer be considered legitimate refugees. By definition, if a whole chunk of a nation’s population is born in a country, then they are permanent residents, not temporary guests.
Howard Sachs Decries the Arrested Development of Socialism
A essay by Howard Sachs, at American Thinker: A Lesson for Our College Kids about Socialism. (Thanks to H.L. for the link.) Here is a key quote:
“I understand the allure of socialism and leftism. I don’t make fun of those who ascribe to them or their thoughts. I just encourage everyone to channel who he is meant to be — not the child he always carries with him. Let people take care of themselves and the people around them as brave, strong, and free American adults. Mom and Dad are really gone from your lives. The big, iron-fisted State of socialism and leftism will not and cannot replace them. All leftism, in all its forms, from communism to Democrat socialism, does is keep us small, weak, dependent, impoverished, and very un-free little boys and girls.”
And, in describing the asset bubble re-inflation following the 2008 debacle, Faber said: “You can print money for a long time, but it doesn’t end well.”
The New Zealand Mosque Attack
A recent video from Paul Joseph Watson: The New Zealand Mosque Attack.
And there is also this video analysis by Frank Sharpe, of the exemplary firearms training organization Fortress Defense: New Zealand Active Murderer. JWR’s Comments: This adds credence to the familiar saying: “You will default to the level of your training.” From Frank Sharpe’s expert analysis, we can clearly see that the mass murderer did not have much firearms familiarity or skill at arms. There was plenty of fumbling and a bad case of “that stuff will get you killed” level of stoppage-clearance incompetence. Frank Sharpe observed that clearing one stoppage took 18 seconds? But that didn’t stop him, since he was operating almost unopposed in a fishbowl–up against a lot of unarmed goldfish. Just one armed member of that mosque could have surely stopped him. Sadly, there were none, because there is virtually NO legal non-police concealed carry or open carry in New Zealand. Well, perhaps it is permitted for a select few high speed executive protection teams. But not any of us plebian citizens. The police response was predictable: They arrived after the ghoul had departed to attack the second mosque. Pitiful.
No More “And Aspirin A Day”?
Reader DSV spotted this: Daily Aspirin No Longer Recommended To Prevent Heart Attacks In Older Adults.
Drink Diet Coke and Die Young
Even drinking Diet Coke everyday ‘increases your risk of dying young from heart disease and cancer’. A pericope:
“In the new study, published in Circulation, looked at data from 80,647 women and 37,716 men who had answered questionnaires about lifestyle factors every two years.
They found that the more sugar-sweetened drinks a person drank, the more his or her risk of early death from any cause increased.
Drinking two a day increased that risk by 14 per cent, while those guzzling more than two a day had a 21 per cent increased risk of early death.
They also had a 31 per cent higher chance of dying young from heart disease.
Each additional drink consumed per day increased the risk by another 10 per cent.
Researchers also found a link between sugary drink consumption and an early death risk from cancer.”
—
You can send your news tips to JWR. (Either via e-mail of via our Contact form.) Thanks!
Re: And No More Aspirin a Day. Figures it would come from CNN. Yes, research indicates that aspirin is now only recommended in high risk patients. And the rest of the info on it was accurate; although the bleeding risk was downplayed. But, they failed to do due diligence to the rest of the article, simply parroting the party line. Research has shown that statins are only effective after the first heart attack. Despite this, the guidelines for prescribing them get looser and looser until almost everyone “needs” them. Recent research has proven that statins cause Type 2 diabetes. They can also cause rhabdomylysis. Most of the time they are not necessary. The only method of lowering your cholesterol that prevents heart disease is diet and exercise. And if we are serious about surviving TEOTWAWKI we better be serious about both, because stations and Metformin are going to be in short supply afterwards. Oh, and Metformin has a whole list of negative side effects, too, including weight gain, which, by the way, causes insulin resistance, the very thing Metformin is designed to treat. But mild Type 2 can be treated with diet and exercise which brings us full circle. Having said all that, DON’T stop prescribed meds without doing more research and discussing your findings with your doctor. May I suggest Thepeoplespharmacy.com as a starting point.
If people can sue the gun manufacturer as a enabler, then go pro should be be worried also as helping enable.
Diet coke. What we have here is a statistical dredge where they search through a mountain of data to find any correlations. BUT since they are looking to prove their preconceived belief they discard anything that doesn’t support it. So they find something, anything to prop up their agenda. More than likely drinking diet coke or regular coke has zero effect on your death. It is quite possible that people who choose to drink diet drinks do have health problems hence their decision to drink a diet drink. And it is likely that if they die an early death that it was indeed their health problem that caused it not their choice of a drink.
A statistical correlation requires a high level of confidence to be considered meaningful. 14% and 31% are not high levels of confidence. At a minimum the result should be 100% increase in a specific result to be confident that the correlation is the cause.
Anon,
While I will defer comment on the diet drink research, what you’re describing applies to journalism. Reporters pick and choose who they want to quote in order to produce an article that fits their agenda. They will ignore ten comments in order to get the “right comment.” I have had this happen to me.
We have all seen how the mainstream media’s political coverage in the last three years attempted to shape national political attitudes. The good thing about this is that the public is now a whole lot more “savvy” about just how partisan the mainstream media is, and its reporting is regarded more skeptically. The public no longer views the media as being composed of latter day “Walter Cronkites” but, rather, as being just more partisan voices in the national discourse.
Anon, if I remember correctly, the real number is 95% for a Confidence Interval and <0.05 for a p-value, which more or less amount to the same thing.
Anon, you must be right. Correlation does NOT prove cause and effect. … It might be possible to establish a ~statistical correlation, between becoming a crime victim, and also being a sports fan of the Chicago Bears, Chicago Cubs, Chicago Blackhawks, Chicago Bulls, and the Chicago White Sox.
…. But, being a sports-fan of Chicago teams would NOT be the ~real cause of increasing the probability of becoming a crime victim.
Statistical commentary aside, what about the fact that the Headline said, “Diet Coke”, but the quote was about sugar-sweetened” drinks?
I had a heart attack in 2012. I ended up on 2 drugs, 10mg statin and 100mg Metoprolol. The statin I stopped cold after about 3 years, after over a year of research. I replaced the statins with several antioxidants, so far, so good. After about 4 years I fazed out the Metoprolol over a period of over a year. You could DIE if you stop cold turkey. The Metoprolo was actually causing a problem, very slow pulse rate and relatively low blood pressure, and then there were the bad dreams, all in the warning sheet. I’ve been off the Metoprolol for about a year and a half. I replaced that with various herbs, vitamins, and minerals. Blood pressure runs between 110/70 and 125/85 depending on stress levels. NO complaints, and I’ll be 68 in May. I did all this after a lot of research, in particular reading Dr. Joseph Mercola and Dr. David Brownstein. I found them through articles at LewRockwell.com.
Diet sodas: The problem with the diet drinks is the artificial sweeteners. They tend to destroy your gut bacteria. That is part of why you see so many diet soda drinkers that are still fat. It is a vicious cycle, you drink the diet sodas to stop taking in all that high fructose corn syrup that is so bad for everyone, but the diet sodas destroy your gut bacteria that actually breaks down the food you eat, so you stay fat. If you are thin and stay that way, diet sodas are not a problem, for you. If you are fat, and drink diet sodas, and you stay fat, then the diet sodas are a problem, for you. So you keep the fat, the belly fat, and you still end up with some level of diabetes. It’s a vicious cycle. You do things that should make you healthier and they don’t. Oh and it doesn’t matter which of the artificial sweeteners your drinks are sweetened with. They all really suck.
Your weight is more or less determined by genetics. You can lose weight but for most people losing weight is a tough fight and a life long effort to keep it off. Many over weight people drink diet drinks in the hope to decrease calories and help them with their weight problem. This does not mean that the diet drinks make them overweight.
High fructose corn syrup was a marketing name because at the time it came out fructose was associated with fruit and fruit was good for you. High fructose corn syrup is basically table sugar with a small amount of water to keep it a liquid. It is easier to ship and easier to combine with other ingredients as a liquid. It won’t hurt you. Your body runs on glucose. 100% of carbs that you eat are converted to sugar before they can pass from the small intestines into your blood stream. If you did not have blood sugar you would go into a coma and die. Sugar is necessary to life.
Diabetes is not “caused” by what you eat it is genetic, you get it from your parents or their parents. But diabetes is not an all or nothing disease. You may have it for years before you discover it. You can exacerbate the symptoms by eating the wrong things, That is where the myth comes from that diabetes is caused by consuming sugar/carbs. But if you don’t have diabetes you can eat as much sugar/carbs as you can stand and it won’t give you diabetes.
Hi James,
I read your comment above regarding the mosque murders and wonder. Yes, no one impeded the killer at mosque #1. However, at mosque #2, I understand a man attacked the shooter with a credit card processing machine and the shooter fled. I am confident, based on what I have read that the man at mosque #2 did, indeed, stop the killer. My information, coming from MSM sources may be incorrect.
If not, I stand by what I posted a few days ago regarding character being essential to stopping violence, with or without a firearm.
I hope you are well. I envy your lovely change of season as reported by Lily.
Carry on
I have been advised by my heart surgeon to take 81mg aspirin because I have a titanium heart appliance. It is not an artificial valve. It’s just an orifice stiffener in my mitral valve. A valvular ring, I guess it is called. The surgeon reconstructed my valve, which was defective from birth. [He should make a lot more money than a basketball player]
In wading through data on bleeding deaths….I can’t find ANY! We all see the warnings on the label, but I’ve yet to see or hear of a person who has actually bled to death because they took aspirin.
I stopped taking it every day because the thinning effects last for five days or so,. My neighbors were both nurses and when they found out about my stretched out schedule, they read me the riot act. A long explanation about how clots form in the heart chambers got me back into the daily dose regimen.
I was told the repair is permanent and I can do anything I wish….as long as I take the aspirin. BTW, both my cardiologist and surgeon scoffed at the claims made for CoQ10. No clinical proof these help. I confessed last year to eating hamburgers, and my surgeon laughed and said, “Eat all the hamburgers you want! I eat them almost every day. Guess what? You’re going to die someday, so live your life.”
I was scheduled to take a cholesterol test and forgot about it. I was just taking a bite from a bacon cheese burger and i remembered I was not to eat anything 12 hours before the test. I ate the cheese burger and took the test. The results came back with something like 119….and the doctor advised to keep on doing what I was doing. So I had another bacon cheese burger. My mom’s cholesterol index has been about 425 for the last quarter century, and she took nothing for it. She passed at 94. Never exercised a day in her life, was never overweight, and ate……hamburgers.