Via David Codrea, Stossel on socialism and thanksgiving.

Families will argue this Thanksgiving.

Such arguments have a long tradition.

The Pilgrims had clashing ideas about how to organize their settlement in the New World. The resolution of that debate made the first Thanksgiving possible.

The Pilgrims were religious, united by faith and a powerful desire to start anew, away from religious persecution in the Old World. Each member of the community professed a desire to labor together, on behalf of the whole settlement.

In other words: socialism.

But when they tried that, the Pilgrims almost starved.

Their collective farming — the whole community deciding when and how much to plant, when to harvest, who would do the work — was an inefficient disaster.

“By the spring,” Pilgrim leader William Bradford wrote in his diary, “our food stores were used up and people grew weak and thin. Some swelled with hunger… So they began to think how … they might not still thus languish in misery.”

His answer: divide the commune into parcels and assign each Pilgrim family its own property. As Bradford put it, they “set corn every man for his own particular. … Assigned every family a parcel of land.”

Private property protects us from what economists call the tragedy of the commons. The “commons” is a shared resource. That means it’s really owned by no one, and no one person has much incentive to protect it or develop it.

The Pilgrims’ simple change to private ownership, wrote Bradford, “made all hands very industrious, so as much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been.” Soon they had so much plenty that they could share food with the natives.

The Indians weren’t socialists, either. They had property rules of their own. That helped them grow enough so they had plenty, even during cold winters.

Here’s another account.

Each year at this time, schoolchildren all over America are taught the official Thanksgiving story, and newspapers, radio, TV, and magazines devote vast amounts of time and space to it. It is all very colorful and fascinating.

It is also very deceiving. This official story is nothing like what really happened. It is a fairy tale, a whitewashed and sanitized collection of half-truths which divert attention away from Thanksgiving’s real meaning.

The official story has the Pilgrims boarding the Mayflower, coming to America, and establishing the Plymouth colony in the winter of 1620–21. This first winter is hard, and half the colonists die. But the survivors are hard working and tenacious, and they learn new farming techniques from the Indians. The harvest of 1621 is bountiful. The pilgrims hold a celebration, and give thanks to God. They are grateful for the wonderful new abundant land He has given them.

The official story then has the Pilgrims living more or less happily ever after, each year repeating the first Thanksgiving. Other early colonies also have hard times at first, but they soon prosper and adopt the annual tradition of giving thanks for this prosperous new land called America.

The problem with this official story is that the harvest of 1621 was not bountiful, nor were the colonists hard-working or tenacious. 1621 was a famine year and many of the colonists were lazy thieves.

In his History of Plymouth Plantation, the governor of the colony, William Bradford, reported that the colonists went hungry for years because they refused to work in the field. They preferred instead to steal food. He says the colony was riddled with “corruption,” and with “confusion and discontent.” The crops were small because “much was stolen both by night and day, before it became scarce eatable.”

In the harvest feasts of 1621 and 1622, “all had their hungry bellies filled,” but only briefly. The prevailing condition during those years was not the abundance the official story claims, it was famine and death. The first “Thanksgiving” was not so much a celebration as it was the last meal of condemned men.

But in subsequent years something changes. The harvest of 1623 was different. Suddenly, “instead of famine now God gave them plenty,” Bradford wrote, “and the face of things was changed, to the rejoicing of the hearts of many, for which they blessed God.” Thereafter, he wrote, “any general want or famine hath not been amongst them since to this day.” In fact, in 1624, so much food was produced that the colonists were able to begin exporting corn.

What happened? After the poor harvest of 1622, writes Bradford, “they began to think how they might raise as much corn as they could, and obtain a better crop.” They began to question their form of economic organization.

This had required that “all profits & benefits that are got by trade, traffic, trucking, working, fishing, or any other means” were to be placed in the common stock of the colony, and that, “all such persons as are of this colony, are to have their meat, drink, apparel, and all provisions out of the common stock.” A person was to put into the common stock all he could, and take only what he needed.

This “from each according to his ability, to each according to his need” was an early form of socialism, and it is why the Pilgrims were starving. Bradford writes that “young men that were most able and fit for labor and service” complained about being forced to “spend their time and strength to work for other men’s wives and children.” Also, “the strong, or man of parts, had no more in division of victuals and clothes, than he that was weak.” So the young and strong refused to work and the total amount of food produced was never adequate.

To rectify this situation, in 1623 Bradford abolished socialism. He gave each household a parcel of land and told them they could keep what they produced, or trade it away as they saw fit. In other words, he replaced socialism with a free market, and that was the end of the famines.

Many early groups of colonists set up socialist states, all with the same terrible results. At Jamestown, established in 1607, out of every shipload of settlers that arrived, less than half would survive their first twelve months in America. Most of the work was being done by only one-fifth of the men, the other four-fifths choosing to be parasites. In the winter of 1609–10, called “The Starving Time,” the population fell from five-hundred to sixty. Then the Jamestown colony was converted to a free market, and the results were every bit as dramatic as those at Plymouth.

So be sure to remember what the day is about.

Beitbart.

“The apprehension of migrants from countries such as Brazil, Haiti, China, and countries of Africa have increased significantly this fiscal year,” Del Rio Sector Chief Patrol Agent Raul L. Ortiz said in a written statement. “We continue to work with our law enforcement partners to combat threats in an effort to protect our country and the community.”

Sector officials report the apprehension of migrants from at least 30 separate nations other than Mexico during the first two months of Fiscal Year 2020 (which began on October 1). This is up from 15 nations during the same period in FY2019.

I’m sure they will all work hard, refuse subsidies they haven’t earned (like SNAP, free medical care, etc.), and contribute to the Christian heritage of the U.S.

Remember, diversity is our strength.

Dean Weingarten writing at Ammoland.

He turned around, and looked. There, no more than 20 feet away, its feet on a tipped over trash can, was a huge black bear. The bear did not notice him immediately.

But Greg’s dog had come out, and peaked around the corner. It growled and emitted a bark, Grrrr..ru..ruff! The bear jumped over the downed trash can, landed with a Woof!, and charged directly at Greg.

Everything happened extremely fast, but Greg had moved into the psychological state of tachypsychia, where everything seems to slow down. This is a common effect when a human perceives a deadly threat. The effect also distorts distance, and can cause tunnel vision, focused on the threat.

Greg said: Oh f*ck! The .45 Kimber appeared in his hand and he was firing, with the bear taking up his whole field of vision. Greg told me:

“Everything went into like, time lapse.” “It seemed like it took forever!”

In Greg’s heightened state of awareness, he could hear the first three bullets hit.

Thunk, thunk, thunk.

Then his ears were ringing. The bear dropped its head down as he fired the last three shots at extremely close range, Greg said it was three feet or less.

The bear hit the railing of the walkway two feet from him, turned left, and went down the walkway away from Greg, who had the empty Kimber in his hand.

[ … ]

Greg had loaded the magazine with five rounds, with a round in the chamber. He had found, through experience, a fully loaded magazine to be less reliable in his little Kimber.

The cartridges were Federal HST rounds, an aggressive hollow-point design made for defense against humans. The Kimber Ultra Carry II has a three inch barrel, which likely reduces the velocity by 10-15% compared to a standard five inch barrel.

One neighbor said they had seen the bear previously, and believed it to be 500 lbs. Greg initially thought it was 350-400 lbs. Everyone agrees it was a big black bear.

In early November, with plentiful food, it would have had four inches of fat on, under the skin.

[ … ]

A retired officer commented about the bullet’s performance. He said years ago, he had seen a big black bear which had been hit by a car, in the late fall. An officer had shot it with a .40 caliber, in the neck, to put it out of its misery. The .40 caliber hollow point was not sufficient, and a 12 gauge slug was used to finish the job. When the taxidermist skinned out the bear, they found the expanded .40 caliber lodged in the bears neck. It had not penetrated to the spinal column or entered the chest cavity. In a test by luckygunner.com, the HST .45 cartridge had one of the most aggressive expansion and the lowest velocities, of self defense .45 rounds.

Greg says he had considered bringing his Glock 29 10 mm instead of the Kimber .45, but he was not expecting to have to shoot a bear. He had left the Glock and took the Kimber. He thinks .45 full metal jacketed ball ammunition would likely have been sufficient to take down the bear.

First of all, congratulations to Dean for more great reporting on bear attacks.  Second, take FMJ ammunition if you expect to come into contact with a large predator.  Penetration is the key.  Hollow point ammunition is your enemy in this encounter.  When I expect to be in this position, I carry 450 SMC 230 gr. to push 1120 FPS, always FMJ ammunition for large predators.  Always.

But stay tuned, the best (or worst) part of this report comes up.

Greg was not cited for shooting the bear. He was cited for reckless endangerment and unlawful discharge of a firearm.

The cops would rather he have perished being eaten to death by a 400 pound predator than actually discharged a firearm in self defense.

God help us.  It’s come to this.  The cops actually filed charges against him.

Randall Brackins is the chief of police in Gatlinburg.  Like all good cowards, he has no email.  Take note.  This is not the first (or tenth) time I’ve said this.  If you are on the public dollar and have no contact email, you are a coward.

Hey Randall, I have an email address.  You can contact me at any time.  You, sir, are a coward for not supplying the same thing.

USA Today.

A woman was attacked and killed by a group of feral hogs Sunday morning outside the Southeast Texas home where she worked as a caretaker, authorities said.

Chambers County Sheriff Brian Hawthorne said in a press conference Monday that Christine Rollins, 59, arrived around 6 to 6:30 a.m. when she was attacked at the Anahuac home, located 40 miles east of Houston.

The 84-year-old woman who has been under her care for almost two years went outside and found Rollins in the front yard between her car and the front door, Hawthorne told reporters.

He said Rollins had a severe head wound and several other injuries consistent with different sized bites indicating multiple animals were involved.

[ … ]

“In my 35 years, it was one of the worst things I had ever seen,” Hawthorne said about the scene.

The coroner in neighboring Jefferson County ruled Monday that Rollins bled to death after an attack by feral hogs.

Hawthorne told reporters that feral hogs have been a problem in the county and throughout the state of Texas, however, incidents like this are extremely rare.

So rare that you are willing to risk you life to being eaten by feral hogs?  Why not carry a gun with you wherever you go?  It’s a pain, I know.  But it all comes down to mitigating high risk outcomes.

If an event is high probability and low consequence, it is at least moderate risk, and may be high risk because of the high probability.  Risk = probability X consequences.  If an event is low probability but high consequence (as loss of life would certainly be), it is certainly of moderate risk, at may be high risk because of the high consequences.

That’s risk analysis 101.

The Western Journal.

An incident in New Jersey is testing just how far red flag laws can be pushed, and the results aren’t pretty.

The gun seizure comes as part of a heated court case between Alfred Conti and his former physician, Dr. Matthew Kaufman. The defamation lawsuit revolves around negative reviews left by Conti.

Months after the suit was opened, police stripped Conti of firearms and ammunition on Sept. 25.

The firearm seizure was put into action thanks to a red flag complaint made by Kaufman and his lawyer, the Asbury Park Press reported.

Before his guns were taken, it seems Conti was just intent on receiving treatment. Hurting from an apparent failed surgery, Conti was first kicked out of the clinic where Kaufman practiced, allegedly due to his aggressive behavior with staff.

Shortly after, Conti would write the negative reviews that sparked the entire lawsuit.

A month later, Conti called Kaufman’s lawyer several times, asking for the doctor to see him again in an attempt to end his pain. In one call played to the court, the injured man used vulgar language and threatened to bring the authorities into the matter.

Conti’s error appears to be in mentioning he knew where both Kaufman and the doctor’s lawyer lived in one of the calls.

However, both sides agreed that it doesn’t appear any threat was made.

Despite this, police acted on the red flag complaint and seized multiple pistols, a rifle and ammunition from Conti. According to police, the injured man cooperated peacefully as authorities disarmed him.

As red flag laws go on the books in more locations, cases like this that sit squarely in a gray area are virtually guaranteed to keep happening.

Although there needs to be an instrument of law to disarm people threatening violence, the real question is where the line should be drawn.

I go back to David Codrea’s dictum.  Any man who can’t be trusted with a gun cannot be trusted without a custodian.  And frankly, I don’t believe in imprisonment anyway because it’s unbiblical.  The Scriptures favor retribution and restitution, and thus I believe in slavery when the crime of theft has been committed, and execution when murder, rape or kidnapping has been committed.  There is no such thing as a crime against the state, there are only crimes against individuals.  The best way to repay damages for theft is that the thief becomes a slave until the debt is paid.  So let me say it again.  I believe in slavery.  So does the bible.

But back to the point.  Guns are the least of the problems if the man is really intent on doing harm.  He could just go down to his local Lowe’s and buy fertilizer, or easier, a few cans of gasoline.

I prefer to sentence people for crimes when crimes are actually committed rather than relying on witchcraft to determine the future.  I don’t gamble, I don’t buy lottery tickets, and I don’t believe in witchcraft.

For fans (like me, and many of you) of the 1911, there is a newcomer to the scene called the 2011.  It’s a shiny new variant of the 1911 design, with a double-stack 9mm magazine.  It’s usually designed for competition shooting, and there is no reason a law enforcement organization which exists on the public dollar needs something like this.

Today the latest version of American Rifleman (paper copy) came out, and on page 28 under “U.S. Marshals Get Trendy New Rig,” it says this.

The U.S. Marshals Service (USMS) recently announced the adoption of some interesting and illustrative new gear for its Special Operations Group (SOG).  The heart of the operators’ new service sidearm is STI’s Staccato-P pistol … topping the slide is Leupold’s DeltaPoint Pro red-dot sight, backed up by the Universal Optic System from Dawson Precision – co-witnessing iron sights pairing a black notch rear with a fiber optic front.

I’m covering this because I hadn’t seen it before now.  Guns.com has further information on the procurement of the STI Staccato-P.

Price?  MSRP is a cool $2500 for this model.  A competition pistol, $2500, for the U.S. Marshals Service, ahem, “Special Operations Group.”

Because SpecOps.  It’s not just for real operators who sign up and do it across the pond.  And big dollars.  It’s  not just for rich people.  It’s for FedGov who gets to tax and spend until their heart is content.

Perhaps you feel safer because of this.

This came from reddit/firearms.  But the sources are mine.

Before.

Bolivia has enacted its first firearms legislation, which may be unlikely to have a dramatic impact on the country’s already low murder rate, but will at least provide the state with the tools to tackle arms trafficking.

Laying out strict limitations on who can own a weapon, the Firearms, Munitions, Explosives and Other Materials Control Law was passed on September 18 — four years after it was first proposed in 2009 — reported El Diario.

The legislation sets a six month period for current gun owners to register or turn in weapons before becoming subject to a maximum six year sentence for ownership or five year sentence for carrying an illegal weapon, with longer sentences for military-grade weapons, reported Los Tiempos. It also establishes a maximum 30 year sentence for any member of the security forces caught trafficking arms.

As well as regulating arms, the law allows for the production of “any kind” of weapon at the request of the armed forces or police, pending approval from the interior and defense ministries, reported La Razon.

After.

I am writing from Bolivia just days after witnessing the November 19 military massacre at the Senkata gas plant in the indigenous city of El Alto, and the tear-gassing of a peaceful funeral procession on November 21 to commemorate the dead. These are examples, unfortunately, of the modus operandi of the de facto government that seized control in the coup that forced the recently re-elected president Evo Morales out of power.

The coup has spawned massive protests, with blockades set up around the country as part of a national strike calling for the resignation of this new government. One well-organized blockade is in El Alto, where residents set up barriers surrounding the Senkata gas plant, stopping tankers from leaving the plant and cutting off La Paz’s main source of gasoline.

Determined to break the blockade, the government sent in helicopters, tanks, and heavily armed soldiers in the evening of November 18. The next day, mayhem broke out when the soldiers began tear-gassing residents, then shooting into the crowd.

I arrived just after the shooting. The furious residents took me to local clinics where the wounded were taken. I saw the doctors and nurses desperately trying to save lives, carrying out emergency surgeries in difficult conditions with a shortage of medical equipment. I saw five dead bodies and dozens of people with bullet wounds. Some had just been walking to work when they were struck by bullets.

A grieving mother whose son was shot cried out between sobs: “They’re killing us like dogs.” In the end, there were 8 confirmed dead.

The next day, a local church became an improvised morgue, with the dead bodies — some still dripping blood — lined up in pews and doctors performing autopsies.

You hate to see more examples of what history has already taught us, but those who refuse to learn the lessons of history suffer for their refusal.

Over the weekend some very interesting things happened.

Whiskey Warrior 556 aka Alex Booth’s standoff with the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office has ended peacefully. Booth, 28, is an Afghan war veteran who served in the U.S. Army.

A sheriff’s office spokesperson confirmed to Heavy.com just before 1 a.m. on November 24 that nobody was hurt as Booth surrendered to officers. The standoff took place in the town of Mahopac, just under 60 miles north of New York City, in Westchester County.

Alexander Booth goes by Whiskey_Warrior_556 on Instagram, where he streamed parts of the Putnam County NY police standoff and posted videos and sent messages to his followers.

“The negotiators were very close many times to getting the individual to come out of the residence peacefully and the posts that were on Instagram were just inviting him,” Carmel Police Chief Michael Cazzari told NBC New York. “This is a person in crisis having mental illness and having issues and he didn’t need the people on social media telling him that his rights were being violated.”

The six-hour standoff ended about 9 p.m. on Saturday, November 23. Booth was booked at the Putnam County Correctional Facility at 12:35 a.m. on Sunday, November 24, online records show. He remained in custody Sunday afternoon.

A press release from the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office said that an officer went to the home at 2:19 p.m. on November 23 after a deputy heard what he thought was a gunshot coming from Booth’s home. Nearby homes were evacuated and back-up was called to the scene. At that stage, the sheriff’s office says that Booth became barricaded in his home.

“The officer hearing what he believed to be a gunshot come from the residence requested backup,” the press release said. “When additional officers arrived Mr. Booth was observed in the doorway acting in an agitated state before returning inside his garage apartment and barricading himself. As a safety precaution officers evacuated the neighboring houses and alerted the Putnam County Emergency Response Team and Negotiation Team.”

[ … ]

The Carmel Police Department said that Booth was subsequently arraigned on multiple charges related to incidents connected to a past domestic incident involving his wife. Booth was wanted on a felony warrant issued by Thomas Jacobellis charging him with second-degree burglary, a felony, and several misdemeanors, including criminal trespass, criminal contempt, aggravated harassment and petit larceny. Booth is not facing any charges in relation to the standoff. His arraignment was held at Carmel Town Justice Court.

The press release concludes by saying that no weapons or ammunition were seized from Booth’s home despite “false social media posts to the contrary.” Many on social media believed that Booth was a victim of the Red Flag Law in the state of New York.

It may be useful to watch this video from Mrgunsngear.

My goal isn’t to fisk what happened or why.  I really couldn’t care less for the purposes of this post.  Perhaps the video is correct and this had nothing to do with red flag laws.  Or perhaps it did.  In either case, my goal is to make a few related observations.

Most military writers and would-be military scholars talk about “swarm theory” at some point in their career to make themselves look smart.  To most writers, a “swarm” is when a lot of fighters show up at once.  To a bee keeper, this is nothing like the truth, and most military writers have no idea what they’re talking about.

I’m not a bee keeper, but my son is.  He’s seen guard bees pull the wings off of drones and evict them to the ground where the ants eat them.  Bees are relentless in their preparation for keeping the hive alive, and a drone does not gather nectar or pollen.  Bee colonies are brutal.

What bees are good at, however, is subtle signals between the hive that only they understand, sometimes chemical signals, that alert the colony that something important is going down.  It might be swarming behavior if the colony decides that there isn’t enough room for storage of nectar for the winter, but in any case, the entire colony acts in concert if it thinks it needs a larger or different hive.  You can spend your own time on a Google or Bing search of “waggle dance.”

It’s difficult to shut this down, although there are strategies for it for a bee keeper just as there are in swarm behavior in humans.  What happened in the case of Whiskey Warrior 556 and those who came to his defense is the behavior you might see in a bee colony, at least in one aspect.

Interestingly, Mrgunsngear found that his Instagram and Facebook posts were deleted, perhaps at the behest of the police involved in the incident.  Social media went viral with this event, and within hours as many as a hundred people showed up at his home as a warning to the police should he be deprived of his right to keep and bear arms.

Learn from this incident.  Swarm theory isn’t just for bees, and understanding how to shut this down (and how to get around defeaters) isn’t just for bees either.  Swarm theory isn’t about a whole lot of anything showing up to an event or incident.  It’s about communication.

Shooting Illustrated.

I guess we all learned to shoot watching old movies because most folks emulate the actors and bring the rifle down off the shoulder, especially to run a bolt or lever. This practice wastes time and encourages failing to follow through, that is, re-acquiring the sight or the reticle after the shot. We should run the gun from the shoulder and be ready for the next shot as needed, and this takes a bit of practice. You can drill this by doing dry practice then setting up a target at 25 yards and firing a string of 3 to 5 shots, standing, working the gun from the shoulder.

I’m not certain what he’s saying here.  If he’s saying that you must shoot a bolt action rifle differently than an AR, I agree.

If he’s saying that the “plate-forward aggressive” stance for an AR must be corrected, I disagree.  I think his explanation could have used some work.  And I didn’t learn to square up against a target with an AR from watching movies.