A few good ones from around the Web

I don't have enough time to do a regular 'Around The Blogs' feature as I used to, but now and again I build up a collection of links that are worth sharing.  Here's this morning's harvest.

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I'm sure most of my readers have seen the sturm und drang over the death of 'Cecil the lion' in Zimbabwe at the hands of a hunter.  Frankly, as an African boy, I tend to shrug and yawn.  Hunters - whether equipped with spears and bows and arrows, or with modern firearms - have been hunting lions for millennia.  The seal of King Darius I of Persia, who ruled five hundred years before Christ, depicts him hunting a lion.

I find the brouhaha over a hunter killing another lion to be ridiculous.  (So, apparently, do most Zimbabweans.)  It's far more about those who are complaining than it is about the lion.

A few good comments about the 'Cecil affair':

• Crickets...
• What Cecil the Lion Tells Us About America
• What’s Driving the Outrage Over Cecil the Lion?
• Who’s Really Responsible for the Killing of Zimbabwe’s Lions and Other Wildlife?

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Recoil Web tells us about a really nifty handgun accessory that I think is potentially a life-saver in certain situations.  I can see one of these riding in my car with me at all times, and another doing duty indoors.  My only beef about it is the ridiculously high price.  The total production cost - intellectual property, materials, manufacturing, distribution and all - can't possibly be more than a third of it, and probably less than that.  I've heard of 'charging what the market will bear', but that can be - and often is - taken to the extreme of price-gouging.  In this case, I think that's what's happened . . . and I think it'll spark competitors.  I won't be surprised to see a cheap Chinese knock-off appear very shortly;  also a set of control files to allow anyone with access to a 3D printer to simply produce their own copy at minimal cost.  That's what happens when vendors price themselves out of the market.

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Tamara links to an article at Mountain Guerrilla titled 'Training Priorities: Which Classes Should I Take?'  The author makes the excellent point that one's first priority is to define the problem one faces, and the resources available to deal with it.  Only when one is sure of those elements can one optimize how to apply the resources to take care of the problem.  Outstanding!  Go RTWT.

Mountain Guerrilla also offers an excellent article titled 'The Shooting Drill You’re Probably Not Doing Enough... Or Correct'.  Once again, the man knows whereof he speaks.  I can recall, during my years of military service, being made to do something like this drill (in what we used to call the 'Jungle Walk') every single month.  It kept us alive then, and it'll do the same thing today.  (Added to that, for handgun users in particular, I highly recommend the 'Dot Torture' drill as well;  and the drills with balls that I discussed in another article are very valuable indeed.  Do them all regularly and you'll be a far, far better shooter when the chips go down.)

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CenTexTim offers us 'A Man's Age, as Determined by a Trip to Home Depot'.  Uh-huh.

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Mr. Garabaldi teaches us 'How to make money on Obama's America'.  Unfortunately, he's probably right . . .

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If you've been noticing an uptick in racially-motivated crime across the USA these days, you're probably correct.  Colin Flaherty focuses on one city in particular in 'Panic in Pittsburgh: Media Struggling to Ignore Black Mob Violence'.  Intriguing - and infuriating - reading.

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Camille Paglia did a very interesting three-part interview with Salon.  Love her or hate her, she's always challenging and frequently thought-provoking.  Go read all three parts and see what you think.

1. Camille Paglia: How Bill Clinton is like Bill Cosby
2. Camille Paglia takes on Jon Stewart, Trump, Sanders: “Liberals think of themselves as very open-minded, but that’s simply not true!”
3. “Ted Cruz gives me the willies”: Camille Paglia analyzes the GOP field — and takes on Hillary Clinton.

I liked what she had to say about Scott Walker.

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Last but not least, an e-mail led me to this treasure trove of pictures of the first atomic bombs being armed and deployed on Tinian Island in the Pacific Ocean in 1945.  Fascinating viewing for military history buffs.

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Enjoy the links, folks.

Peter