Points to ponder about small handguns

 

With the seeming increase of random criminal violence in society, to say nothing of politically inspired unrest, I've been dealing with more than a few queries about the pro's and con's of carrying small handguns.  It's a complicated issue, and I thought I'd address some of the key points in this article.

First, as a general rule small handguns are harder to shoot well than larger handguns.  There are several reasons:

• The smaller grip is less easy to grasp firmly, draw smoothly, and get a strong firing grip, particularly for shooters with larger hands.
• Smaller handguns are typically carried in what's called "deep concealment", such as in a pocket or handbag.  That's logical, of course, since larger handguns would be hard to conceal in such places.  However, it's usually harder to get to such guns in a hurry, and then withdraw them and bring them to a ready position.  It's "fiddly".  To draw a larger handgun from a more accessible holster and bring it into a ready position is usually rather easier.  I strongly recommend using a holster even for pocket or handbag carry, to keep the firearm in a predictable position, ready to draw, and to prevent anything getting into the trigger guard and risking an accidental discharge.  (More on this later.)
• Smaller, lighter handguns transmit more recoil energy to the shooter than larger, heavier weapons.  As an example, try firing a .38 Special cartridge through a medium-size K-frame or L-frame Smith & Wesson revolver (or equivalent), then firing the same cartridge through a smaller J-frame snubnose revolver.  Do the same with a 9mm cartridge from a Glock 17 (full-size) or 19 (compact) pistol (or equivalent), and then through a Glock 43 sub-compact pistol (or equivalent).  The smaller, lighter firearm will always deliver heavier perceived recoil than the bigger weapon.  In some cases (for example, firing a full-power .357 Magnum cartridge from a Smith & Wesson 340 snubnose revolver, made with ultra-light-weight Scandium) you'll regret doing so after even one shot.  Hel-loooo, carpal tunnel syndrome!
• Because of their abbreviated sights and shorter sight radius (i.e. the distance between front and rear sights), smaller handguns are harder to aim accurately (unless you add better sights, which may render them bulkier and/or less easily concealed).  Furthermore, their light weight makes it more difficult to shoot them accurately, rapidly and repeatedly during a defensive encounter.  It's not impossible, but it's definitely more difficult than with a larger weapon.  If anyone doubts that, try the comparison for yourself at your favorite shooting range.  There's a reason early short-barreled firearms were known as "belly guns" - because that was the sort of range at which they were used.  One didn't need long-range sights to aim at a target across a card table or desk, or literally stick it into someone's belly, and let fly!
• Snubnose revolvers are typically slower to reload than small pistols, and both are more "finicky" than larger handguns, where the firearm and its replacement rounds (in a speedloader or a magazine) are easier to handle.

Another point is that smaller handguns are easier to lose.  That may sound silly, but I've seen it happen to three people I know.  One chose a small handgun to fit in her handbag.  She hung the bag on the back of her chair at a restaurant.  When she finished her conversation with friends and turned to pick it up, it was gone.  Another friend left a small handgun in a jacket pocket when he hung it up at a social gathering;  it was so light he didn't remember it being there.  When he reclaimed his jacket, the gun was gone.  There have also been cases where people have left firearms in a public toilet.  Larger weapons are more likely to be retained on one's person in a holster, and thus are less likely to be lost.

You'll need to practice more often to master (and retain mastery of) a smaller handgun than you will with a larger one.  That's why it's generally a bad idea to start your shooting education using a smaller weapon and/or a heavier-recoiling cartridge.  I've seen many novice shooters get frustrated and disillusioned because they can't master it, and give up.  If only they'd started with a larger, easier-to-handle firearm, they could have got the basics down pat and been given a thorough grasp of the fundamentals before trying a more difficult firearm.  That's what I usually do when teaching other shooters.

That leads to my first recommendation for a small (indeed, for any) handgun.  Make sure the gun fits your hand as well as possible before you buy it.  Handle different models, go to gun ranges that rent out firearms and use as many different models as possible, ask your friends to let you try their guns.  In particular, ladies, do not allow some idiotic male (yes, they're out there, as I'm sure you know all too well) to try to insist that this, or that, or the other firearm is right for you.  Make sure it feels comfortable in your hands, and that the sights come readily to your eye when you lift it to aim at a target.  Shoot several rounds through it to see how the recoil feels.  (Revolvers are easier to fit to your hand than pistols, because there are different grips available for them, and you can choose those that best suit you.  Revolvers also have Crimson Trace Lasergrips and similar products available for many models, which are an absolutely outstanding accessory for emergency, close-range shooting when you may not have space or time to line up the sights conventionally.  More about that later.)

As well as the gun fitting your hand well, see how the recoil feels to you.  If the grip is too small or too large for you to grasp it comfortably, the gun will move in your hand under recoil, forcing you to readjust your grip before the next shot.  This will slow you down and make it more difficult to hit your target, because you have to concentrate on something else.  The selection procedure outlined in the previous paragraph will apply also to choosing a caliber you can handle.  A heavy-recoiling round is probably not optimum in a small handgun unless you're a trained, experienced shooter and know what you're doing.  Choosing a less powerful, lower-recoiling cartridge (for example, a .38 Special instead of a .357 Magnum) is recommended for novice shooters, who can also choose a much lighter caliber if they wish (e.g. .22LR instead of .38).  Lighter calibers are less likely to stop a hopped-up attacker, but if they're what you can handle, you can learn to use them well enough to compensate for that handicap.  I promise you, a few .22's in and around the eyes will deter even the most aggressive assailant!

It's also useful to know that certain ammunition manufacturers make both heavier-recoil and lower-recoil rounds in a given cartridge or caliber.  A few examples:

• Hornady makes its 9mm 115gr. FTX Critical Defense round for standard use, but for those who can't tolerate heavy recoil, it also offers its 9mm 100gr. FTX Critical Defense Lite load.  The latter may not be as effective as the former, but it's still a viable option - and it has rather less "kick" than the former round.
• Black Hills Ammunition offers the Honeybadger "scalloped" bullet in two 9mm loads;  a 100gr projectile, faster and more energetic, and a 125gr. bullet, slower and less energetic (and offering lower recoil).  I prefer the latter load in small 9mm pistols, as it remains very effective despite being more controllable than its faster brother.
• Federal offers its 9mm HST defensive load in a 124gr. +P (i.e. high-pressure) round, and a 147gr. standard-pressure cartridge.  Again, the latter load recoils less energetically than the former.  Both are widely used by law enforcement agencies, which speaks highly of the HST range.

There are other manufacturers offering similar choices.  Do your own research, and choose the round that best fits your level of knowledge and experience.  I've been shooting for many decades, and I feel no shame in admitting that as I grow older and slower, I prefer a lower-recoil round in a smaller, lighter weapon.  Arthritis and heavy recoil are not very compatible!

One's choice of weapon should be directed by the threats one is likely to face.  If a potential attacker is likely to be alone (e.g. a nutcase on public transport), or one or two men hanging around outside a shop or bank or cinema, a smaller handgun may well be enough to deal with the problem.  If you're more likely to face an angry riot, with violence being offered indiscriminately by groups of feral protesters to everyone they meet, no handgun is likely to be sufficient, no matter how large it may be or how many rounds it may hold!

A small handgun is designed to be carried to deal with occasional threats that are not very likely to occur.  A more dangerous threat requires a tool more suited to deal with it - which is why police officers usually carry full-size service pistols holding anywhere from fifteen to twenty rounds, sometimes even more.  We, as civilians, can do the same, but we'd better know how to conceal them (to prevent others hitting us over the head to steal them) and use them (to protect ourselves and our loved ones).  If we look like a threat to others, they're likely to respond as if we are a threat.  Therefore, discreet carry and low-key behavior are more likely to protect us than a macho, manly swagger while displaying our supersized Felon-Stopper Magnum-Blaster Mark XVIII handgun!

If I leave the house, I'm armed as a matter of course.  I'll usually be carrying a small handgun that I can shoot well enough at short range to defend myself and/or my wife.  It won't be suitable for long-range use or to handle more than one or two opponents, because the odds of my facing such a threat are minuscule.  If I lived in a big city (particularly a so-called "blue" city where left-wing sympathies predominate, making the authorities "soft" on crime), that would not apply.  I'd be carrying something larger and more powerful, and have spare ammo available for rapid reloads as well.  If mob violence is a possibility, I'll always try to not be anywhere near there;  but if I absolutely have to be there, I'll be carrying more than a handgun.  When I travel, I take into account the environments through/in which I'm likely to pass and/or stay, and equip myself accordingly.  In other words, I arm myself to meet the threat(s) I'm most likely to encounter in a given place at a given time.

Another factor to consider is aiming a handgun under the pressure of an attack, or in a more widespread, confused situation such as a riot.  In a high-stress situation, with one's adrenaline pumping, it's very hard to aim accurately at a moving target while other people are obscuring the range and perhaps also threatening you.  For that reason, I highly recommend a laser sight such as a Crimson Trace Lasergrip for most revolvers.  Sight it in to cover the most likely ranges at which you may need it (I suggest 10 yards for a small gun), then train with it until you can bring up the weapon, put the dot on target, and fire an accurate round as fast as possible.  That'll generally be faster than trying to line up front and rear sights on a moving target.  Similar laser sights are available for some small pistols as well.  Shop around and see what you can find.

I usually don't recommend a red dot sight for a small handgun if deep concealment is going to be necessary.  They are very useful indeed, to be sure, but they stick up above the weapon and make it harder to draw it in a hurry from a pocket or inside a handbag.  You'll be surprised at how easily the sight can catch against clothing or nearby objects, slowing your draw quite drastically.  Its sight advantage may be less worthwhile than its other disadvantages;  you'll have to make that call for yourself.  My preference is usually to carry a handgun with a red dot sight in a holster on my belt, to minimize that problem.

While on the subject of deep concealment, I strongly recommend the use of either a double-action handgun (such as a snubnose revolver) that has a relatively heavy, long trigger pull, or a firearm with a safety catch that must be released in order to pull the trigger.  Both cases are to prevent something in a pocket or a handbag snagging on the trigger and accidentally discharging the gun.  This isn't an idle fear, either:  I can recall reading of several incidents where it's happened.  That's also a very good reason to use a pocket or handbag holster that covers the trigger guard, and prevents anything getting inside before the firearm is drawn.  Safety is a critical aspect of firearms handling that's too often honored more in the breach than in the observance.  Don't become an accidental discharge statistic!

On most days, a small, easily concealed handgun is all I need.  However, I take care to make sure I keep up my practice with it, so that if I should have to use it, I can be reasonably sure of solving my problem.

Peter

Memes that made me laugh 307

 

Gathered from around the Internet over the past week.  Click any image for a larger view.

Sunday morning music

 

Back to early classical music for a change.  Here's a selection of pieces for baroque (9-string) guitar by Santiago de Murcia (1673-1739).  The guitarist is Evangelina Mascardi, and the harpist and percussionist is Lincoln Almada (scroll to the bottom half of the page for an English translation).  The pieces are:

0:00 Grabe
2:16 Allegro
4:21 Zarambeques
6:36 Marizapalos
10:06 Fandango
14:49 Canario

Fire, elegance and grace.  Magnifico!

Peter

Preparing to die

 

Ben Sasse, former US Senator and former President of the University of Florida, announced last December that he'd been diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer.

In a wide-ranging discussion with Ross Douthat, Mr. Sasse discusses his current state of health (parlous), and how he's preparing for his approaching death.  I found it a very moving discussion, particularly his courage and openness in speaking out about the end of his life and how he's trying to fill every remaining minute of it with important things.

The New York Times published an opinion column about this interview titled "How Ben Sasse Is Living Now That He Is Dying".  At present, it's not behind a paywall.  If you prefer to read rather than watch or listen, I highly recommend clicking over there to read it.  It's long, but well worth your time.  If you'd rather not read it, here's his hour-long-plus interview with Mr. Douthat.

I can only admire Mr. Sasse's faith, and his willingness to be so open about a subject often regarded as taboo among many people today.  I hope and pray that his example will inspire many to think about their own futures, and how "in the midst of life we are in death", to quote the ancient funeral ceremony.

May God be merciful to Mr. Sasse, and welcome him home to eternity when the time comes.

Peter

I see prison inmates are as determined as ever to "beat the system" - even if it kills them

 

I wasn't surprised to read this article the other day.

When guards at the Cook County Correctional Facility found 57-year-old inmate Thomas Diskin dead, slumped around his cell’s toilet in January 2023, investigators were left scratching their heads: There was no evidence of foul play or a fall that could’ve killed the prisoner.

The only thing out of the norm? Tiny strips of singed paper littered around his cell. 

“I said, ‘We need to test this and find out what’s going on with it,’” Cook County Sheriff’s Office chief of staff Brad Curry recalled about that moment, referring to the paper shreds. 

Eventually, a Pennsylvania lab would confirm that the strips were soaked in a synthetic cannabinoid called Pinaca, which proved lethal when Diskin smoked the paper.

Before authorities could stop it, other inmates were dropping dead under eerily similar circumstances. 

. . .

Guards ... began inspecting every single piece of mail that came into the lockup, looking for stains and discoloration that could indicate synthetic drugs on it, and ramped up random cell searches and surveillance.

But the strips of drug-soaked paper were sometimes so tiny, guards wouldn’t find them — and not even drug-trained police K-9s were able to sniff out the new synthetic cannabinoid they contained, Curry explained. 

. . .

When the mailroom got too hot with scrutiny, smugglers began dousing legal documents in drugs to make it look like they came straight from the courthouse.

They even put it on pages of thick books that came to the prison packaged as if they’d been sent straight from Amazon or a local bookstore. 

Just one 8×11 piece of paper full of the drugs could run up to $10,000 — a price tag apparently high enough to turn the heads of several money-hungry staffers — who ended up in cuffs for smuggling it to inmates, according to Curry.

There's more at the link.

Drug dealers have a huge financial incentive to get drugs into prisons, because security precautions make it much harder to get them to their customers.  Prices are thus often five to ten times more than "on the street", and sometimes - such as during a prolonged security lockdown - a lot more than that.

When I worked as a prison chaplain, one of our biggest headaches was the misuse of religious services materials by inmates and dealers trying to smuggle drugs inside through the chapel.  Bibles with certain pages soaked in drug solutions, then dried out;  "incense" that was nothing but (often very highly concentrated) drug powder;  bottles of liquid drug concentrate concealed inside statues or within niches carved out of crosses before they were assembled;  the list was endless, and was always expanding.  Many of us said that if the inmates we supervised would put one-tenth as much effort into hard, honest work as they did into illegal activities, they'd all be millionaires.  We had to institute a policy that religious goods could only be sent direct from the supplier (whom we had to approve beforehand) to the prison, without going through any other person, even the inmate's family.  That was the only way we could keep the problem within manageable proportions.

Even that wasn't foolproof, because some suppliers are not what they appear to be at first glance.  One of my favorite examples was the group of Rastafarian inmates who persuaded a relatively new prison staffer that they wanted to order some "holy oil of anointing" for their religious ceremonies.  She authorized the purchase, and a few days later happened to innocently mention it to a senior corrections officer.  He beetled his brows at her and issued special instructions to the Receiving Department.  When the "holy oil" arrived, it was sequestered until it could be tested.  Needless to say, it was high-test cannabis oil - doubtless of deep religious significance to Rastafarians, but not exactly in line with prison security regulations.  Police at the place of origin were tipped off, and they proceeded to take a deep and abiding interest in the supplier (to his subsequent profound unhappiness).

So, this most recent episode, as reported above, doesn't surprise me at all.  "Criminals gonna criminal", as I've heard more than one corrections officer put it;  and behind bars, they have all the time in the world to figure out new ways to "stick it to the man" and get around, over, under or through security precautions and procedures.  If they succeed, for a time their reputation in the prison will soar.  If they fail, the other inmates will have a good laugh at their expense - then everyone will try even harder to get away with it next time.

Prison work is anything but boring.  (Those who've read my memoir of prison ministry will recall Sam the Sex God, who had no need of illicit drugs to earn an automatic entry into the "anything but boring" category!)

Peter

So much for "unbreakable" codes...

 

Elon Musk dropped a bomb on the cryptocurrency market when he highlighted the impact of Google's recent announcement about the impact of quantum computing.

Elon Musk has added his voice to fears sparked by Google dramatically bringing forward its quantum computing timeline, putting almost $500 billion worth of bitcoin at risk.

"On the plus side, if you forgot the password to your wallet, it will be accessible in the future," Musk posted to X alongside a “conversation” with Musk’s Grok chatbot that said post-quantum migration for cryptocurrencies “is urgent now.”

Musk was responding to venture capitalist Max Reiff who summarized Google’s research as, “basically saying: ‘We’ve cut the quantum resources needed to break bitcoin’s encryption by 20x. We can now break it. We can prove it. We’re just not going to tell you how. We’ve slowed down research to give crypto a chance. You have until 2029 to figure out a solution. Good luck.’”

. . .

Earlier this week, Google’s Quantum AI team warned in a paper that the number of qubits required to break the cryptography protecting bitcoin and ethereum wallets is potentially as much as 20-fold lower than previous estimates.

“We’re setting a timeline for post-quantum cryptography migration to 2029,” Google’s vice president of security engineering Heather Adkins wrote in a blog post. "Quantum computers will pose a significant threat to current cryptographic standards, and specifically to encryption and digital signatures."

Venture capitalist Nic Carter, who has been sounding the alarm on quantum computing’s threat to crypto since last year, compared the quantum threat to the Manhattan Project, the top-secret U.S. government program that led to the development of nuclear weapons.

There's more at the link.

This is serious enough when it comes to cryptocurrency - any cryptocurrency.  There are no pieces of paper changing hands in cryptocurrency transactions.  It's all done electronically, with one's cryptocurrency holdings being held in an electronic "wallet" with a passcode to access them.  Until now, that passcode has been considered very secure in the face of current decoding/decryption technology.  However, quantum computers can tackle the decryption problem many orders of magnitude faster than present computers.  Once they're on the market, much that is cryptologically "secure" today will no longer be so.

Now, apply that to any other codes, cyphers, etc.  Literally any secret message at all will be subject to cryptological analysis and attack.  Top secret military signals, inter-bank communications about economic activity, diplomatic messages - any and all of them that use current encryption technology will be vulnerable.  Many believe that major actors in the field are already storing every encrypted message they can intercept, even if they can't read them, because when they can read them (with the aid of quantum computers) in a few years' time, they'll be a gold mine of historical information that can be used to analyze current events and predict future decisions.  Even so-called "one-time pad" or OTP encryption - seen until now as the only truly unbreakable code, provided that all requirements for their creation and use are strictly observed - won't be as secure if quantum computers can identify any failure to meet one or more requirements, and use that weakness to break into the code.  (However, quantum key distribution and other new technologies may step up to make the OTP even more secure.)

If Google's prediction is correct, a great deal that is now secret won't be for much longer.  That might be catastrophic in many ways.  On the other hand, James Howells might be happy at last!  He's the man who threw away a computer hard drive containing the key to a cryptocurrency wallet containing (he claims) about US $700 million in Bitcoin.  If he can recall the address of the wallet, the new quantum decryption technology might let him reclaim its contents . . . but only if someone else doesn't remember his story and get there ahead of him, locating the wallet, decrypting its key, and making off with the Bitcoin first!

Peter

Gold, lies and more lies?

 

France recently decided to repatriate the last of its gold reserves that had been stored in the USA for the past several decades.  The "official" story goes like this.

The Banque de France (BdF) announced last week that it generated a capital gain of €12.8 billion after upgrading 129 tonnes of gold – about 5 percent of France's total reserves – between July 2025 and January 2026.

The gold was the last of the French reserves held in New York. It was replaced with the equivalent amount bought in Europe and held in Paris. 

The BdF has been gradually replacing older, non‑standard gold with bars that meet ​modern international standards since 2005. It moved the majority of its gold reserves out of the US Federal Reserve and the Bank of England between 1963 and 1966.

Rather than refining and transporting the gold that remained in the US, the bank opted to sell it and purchase new, compliant bullion on the European market.

. . .

France’s total gold reserves of about 2,437 tonnes – the fourth-largest in the world – are now all in Paris. This includes 134 tonnes of older bars and coins, which the bank intends to bring up to standard by 2028.

There's more at the link.

Understand that the gold bars France sold in the USA were almost certainly standard-weight bars of "three nines fine" metal (i.e. refined to at least 99.9% purity).  All gold bars traded internationally, and held in national gold reserves, are supposed to be so-called "good delivery" bars as specified by the London Bullion Market Association.  The bars stored in the USA would presumably have met that standard, or they could not have been traded as "good delivery" gold - only sold for re-refining and re-casting into standard bars.  Gold thus traded is less expensive than "good delivery" gold.  If the gold had been in non-standard format, it's unlikely that the USA would have paid France the price for "good delivery" gold bars.

However, this raises even more questions.  A market observer sends the following.

My two cents on the repatriation of French gold bars:
- France asked to return their 12.5 kg gold bars
- US had already sold them
- US offered to wire the money
- France accepted and bought new 12.5 kg gold bars in London
- Both countries agreed on the following spin to sell the story: 
- new bars bought to ‘meet current standards’ 
- Spin is 100% bullshit
- 12.5 kg 999.9 pure gold bars have always been 999.9 pure gold bars of 12,5 kg
- previous gold repatriations always happened without the ‘need for current standards’ 
- MSM doesn’t ask questions and prints spin
- Another PR disaster avoided for the US/FED 
- The rigging of the dollar system can go on 
- The can can be kicked a bit further down the road

I find it very hard to disagree with him.  I think he's right.  I think the US Federal Reserve had already sold off the gold that France had on deposit in the USA, so it could not return it when France asked for it.  Instead, the USA offered an equivalent value in dollars, which France was quick to accept.  It bought gold in Europe using that money (and now proudly claims it made a profit on the gold, having bought it before the recent price ramp-up).

Back in January, I asked:

What happened to the audit of US gold reserves in Fort Knox that we were promised?  Where is it?  Where are the results?  The subject has literally vanished from view.  My conclusion is that it's being deliberately suppressed;  and if that's the case, then I can only assume that our gold reserves simply aren't there any more.

Again, more at the link.

Is that what happened to France's US gold holdings as well?  In the light of this news, I hope more people will ask the same questions about both US and French gold reserves, loudly and repeatedly, until we get answers.  Will they be truthful answers?  Your guess is as good as mine . . .

Peter

Memes that made me laugh 306

 

Gathered from around the Internet over the past week.  Click any image for a larger view.

Sunday morning music

 

I went to high school with a young man named Eric.  I'll withhold his surname, because he lived and worked as a missionary in some very sensitive areas of southern Africa, from the worst days of the apartheid civil war to the social and economic collapse of more recent times.  He made enemies as well as friends, and I wouldn't want the former to seek to harm the latter.  Eric was a good man, and did a great deal of good for others at a time when far too many people were seeking only their own good, and dealing out whatever it took to make sure they got it at anyone and everyone else's expense.

I learned yesterday that Eric died some time ago.  Sad news, and it brought back memories.  We both enjoyed Johnny Clegg and his group Juluka, so I've been listening to some of their songs, thinking about my friend.  I thought I'd share a couple with you.  They go a lot deeper than surface listening, as anyone who's lived in Africa - the real Africa, not the tourist traps - will tell you.

Godspeed, Eric.

Peter

Heads up - shotgun bargains

 

For the benefit of anyone thinking about buying a shotgun, CDNN Sports has a flash sale on shotguns right now.  Their sales flyer can be found at this link.  Prices are only valid for a day or two, so if you're interested, click over there ASAP.  No, I'm not being compensated in any way for mentioning this - CDNN don't even know I'm putting it up - but their prices are very low, and the quality of the Silver Eagle shotguns is pretty good.  I've used a few.  For more details about the shotguns they're advertising, click on the image of the one you want.

To put the sale in perspective, a new single-shot shotgun usually sells for anywhere between $125 and $175.  CDNN has a pump-action repeater for $120.  That's a great deal in anyone's book!  You could buy four or five of them for the price of a single good-quality handgun.  If you've ever thought of equipping every adult member of your household with a defensive firearm, that's a pretty good place to start.  Their sporting shotguns (with longer barrels) are also a good deal for beginners who need their own shotgun, rather than borrowing someone else's expensive setup.

I'll try to put up another post later today.  I just thought this sale deserved to be publicized.

Peter

About those "donut" spare tires and wheels...

 

It seems that a lot of motorists never think much about the space-saver spare tires fitted to many modern vehicles, and abuse them far beyond their design limits when they use them.  I learned that when I went to a local tire dealer to replace my twelve-year-old donut tire, which was showing signs of oxidization as the rubber perished.

According to the dealer, any tire is supposed to be replaced after nine to ten years on the wheel, including donut spare tires.  The problem is that so many spare tires are mounted underneath the vehicle, where they're hard to see, that they don't even get their pressure topped up, much less inspected for wear.  People seem to forget they exist.  The assistant dealing with my car said that he's had several incidents where vehicle owners had a flat and tried to put on their spare, only to find it was as flat as a pancake.  To make matters worse, some of them then tried to repair their spare tires using cans of tire sealant refill, sold at many auto dealers and supermarkets.  Trouble is, those cans are designed to pressurize full-size tires, not a donut spare with its much smaller internal volume;  so they inflate the latter too much, which - given perished rubber or weak spots - can rupture again almost immediately.

Another problem is that regular car wheels are manufactured, reinforced and stressed to handle forces such as acceleration, cornering, minor bumps and potholes, etc.  On the other hand, donut spare wheels are produced by simply stamping the wheel out of sheet metal.  They're not designed for extreme use.  The vehicle manufacturers warn buyers about that, recommending a maximum speed of 50 mph and maximum distance of not more than 50 miles.  In other words, the donut spare is designed to get the vehicle to a place where it can be repaired, and no further.  However, many drivers seem to regard them as interchangeable with the "main" wheels and tires, using them for days and weeks on end, and running at normal highway speeds.  Inevitably, many donut spares that are abused in that fashion will fail on the wheel, and perhaps cause a serious accident in the process.  Apparently some drivers have even tried to sue the donut spare manufacturer, on the grounds that the wheel and/or tire "failed" or "was defective".  When the facts emerge, and it becomes clear that the spare was abused far beyond its recommended limits, the lawsuit inevitably fails, leaving the luckless motorist to pay the defendant's legal fees.

The final problem I learned about from the dealer was that some (not all) manufacturers may make a given model of vehicle for ten years or more.  They'll order spare wheels and tires in bulk from a supplier, hundreds or thousands at a time, but donut spares are not ordered to a specific wheel and/or tire measurement.  Instead, the overall dimensions of the spare will be specified.  That means a larger wheel diameter with a smaller tire may fit those dimension, or a smaller wheel diameter with a larger tire.  The only common factor will be the spacing and size of the holes for the lug nuts.  It's up to the supplier to send an order that meets the overall dimensions.  The next order, or one from a different supplier, may meet the same overall dimensions, but with different wheel and tire diameters, widths, etc.  Therefore, when ordering a replacement donut spare tire, it's essential to note the measurement of one's existing tire and order an exact size match.  Otherwise, a tire that may be used by some vehicles of that model might be supplied - but it may not fit your specific vehicle's spare wheel.  Tricky!

As you can tell, I learned a lot.  The dealer has ordered my new spare tire, and it'll be here within a couple of days.  I'm looking forward to being a bit better equipped, for safety's sake.

Peter

A fascinating legacy from a bygone era

 

This report caught my imagination.

In northern India's Uttar Pradesh state, a team of workers is carefully restoring a centuries-old royal kitchen that once fed the rulers of the former princely state of Awadh.

Tucked within the sprawling complex of Chota Imambara - a mausoleum and congregation hall - this kitchen in Lucknow is a reminder of a different kind of royal legacy. Built in 1837 by former Awadh ruler Muhammad Ali Shah, the site once served not just the elite, but the public too.

At its peak, the meals here were prepared for both the royal household and ordinary people, especially during religious gatherings and special occasions.

. . .

According to historians, in 1839, Muhammad Ali Shah gave 3.6m rupees - considered a vast sum in those days - to the East India Company, then a British trading enterprise, on the condition that it would be responsible for maintaining the monuments built by the Awadh nawabs, while the kitchen would continue to run on the interest earned from the fund.

After India became independent 1947, this money was transferred into a local bank.

Today, the kitchen is managed by the Hussainabad Trust - a state government-monitored body - which continues to use the interest to fund and manage the kitchen's operations.

That legacy lives on in the meals still served here, prepared to the same standards laid down generations ago.

. . .

Historian Roshan Taqui says the king was determined to ensure the kitchen kept running without interruption.

To handle the scale of cooking, he built two identical kitchens on either side of the Chota Imambara - a design that also reflects Awadhi architecture's heavy emphasis on symmetry, he adds.

The concept of twin kitchens is proving useful to this day.

"During this Ramadan, while restoration was underway in one of the kitchens, cooking continued in the other," Taqui says.

There's more at the link, including details of the ongoing restoration of the two-century-old kitchens using original materials and techniques.  There are several photographs of the process.

It's fascinating to think how different faiths such as Christianity and Islam could give rise to similar concepts of alms-giving on the part of the rich and powerful.  In Europe, knights and barons might endow a monastery or hospital or way-station for pilgrims, something that would be useful for generations to come, in the same way as Muhammad Ali Shah decreed that his palace kitchens would feed the poor as well as his household.  Both operated on the principle of "storing up treasure in heaven", where one's good deeds may help to offset the less good or downright sinful ones - a very common approach to faith in earlier times.

I could wish that some of our modern oligarchs and rulers might continue the practice . . .

Peter

A friend needs our help

 

Many of you have doubtless read articles in gun magazines and related publications by Kat Hel.  Lately she's written under her married name of Katherine Ainsworth Stevens.  She's a friend to most of us in the North Texas Troublemakers, and to my wife and I.  She visited our home just a week ago.

Kat has been diagnosed with breast cancer, and it's the nasty kind.  She's to undergo a double mastectomy within weeks, followed by reconstructive surgery and all the cancer-related treatments (chemotherapy, possibly radiation therapy, and so on).  She has to handle all this while coping with a four-year-old son and a husband who's himself undergoing treatment for a long-term condition, and is thus less able to help.  It's a hell of a load on her shoulders.  To make matters worse, Kat is a free-lance writer.  She doesn't have medical insurance, and has to pay for all the costs involved out of her (minuscule) savings - which are already exhausted.  The hospital is helping as best it can, but the specialists involved are demanding their pound of flesh (you should pardon the expression) in cash.

A friend of Kat's has launched a GiveSendGo fundraiser for her medical expenses.  Dorothy and I have already contributed separately, as have many of our friends.  She needs a lot of money, so I'm boosting the signal here.  If you're able to help Kat, she's good people and deserves our aid.  Please click over to her fundraiser and contribute whatever you can.  It'll be money well spent.

Thanks in advance, friends.

Peter

The Iran war and the global economy

 

The Iran war isn't (yet) having a major impact on the US economy.  Gas prices are up, but not out of control, and since we're self-sufficient in most sources of energy, we're in relatively good shape despite the interruption to oil supplies from the Persian Gulf.  However, many other countries are not so fortunate.  A few examples:

• Fishermen in Ireland are grounding their boats because they can’t afford diesel, thanks to rising prices.
• The Philippines has declared a national emergency over the supply of fuel.  Current estimates are that the country has only enough gasoline for the next 53.14 days; diesel, 45.82 days; kerosene, 97.93 days; jet fuel, 38.62 days; fuel oil, 61.49 days; and liquified petroleum gas, 23.51 days.
• Australian gas stations are running out of gasoline and/or diesel.  "As of mid-March, Australia held roughly 38 days' worth of petrol, 30 days of diesel and 30 days of jet fuel."

One might ask why America should be worried about other countries' fuel problems.  The reason is simple:  because their economies are inextricably tied in with ours.  If our trade partners experience serious economic problems, they'll inevitably affect us too in the long run.  CNBC points out:

Energy and commodities market expert John Kilduff of Again Capital ... said “the numbers are just too big ... This is a 10 to 12 million barrel per day deficit. … really just insurmountable. There’s no policy measure that can be taken. There’s no lever that can be pulled to offset this,” he said.

That is why he thinks the timeframe to be focused on is that post-April 1 date. “If there’s no resolution, if there’s no plan, if there’s no sort of even hopefulness that we can get the Strait reopened, with amassing troops or doing whatever the military has to do to do that,” that is when this becomes an energy crisis, Kilduff said. “By mid-year, you will see shortages in places like India, Japan, and South Korea. They will start to rein in industrial production. They’re going to have to conserve to keep the lights on, literally,” he said. If the military and government do not have good answers by April 1, “The crunch is coming.”

There's more at the link.

Speaking of death and dying, John Donne famously wrote:

Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.

When the economic bell is tolling, as it is right now, we'll do well to remember that warning.  We, as individuals, can't do anything about the world situation, but we can do something about our own preparations for hard times and our own resources.  The old proverb says, "Look after the pennies, and the dollars will look after themselves."  In the same way, if we look after the practical preparations we can make from day to day, the longer term will tend to resolve itself, and we'll be better off when it does.

Peter

Memes that made me laugh 305

 

Gathered from around the Internet over the past week.  Click any image for a larger view.

Sunday morning music

 

Following reader interest in the video I posted last Friday, I thought some musical accompaniment would be appropriate.

Those of us who share our lives with are owned by cats will know exactly how true this is!

Peter

I think I've met some of these critters...

 

Some of these (heavily edited) clips from karate and Kung Fu movies made me laugh out loud.  I figured they'd be a good way to brighten up your Friday morning.

What's the Marine Corps motto again?  "Be polite, be professional, and have a plan to kill everyone you meet."  I think at least some of those cats were Marines!

Peter

Not an eschatological approach...

 

Stephan Pastis provides an answer to the materialist world.  Click the image to be taken to a larger view at the "Pearls Before Swine" Web page.

Reminds me of a man who told me, once upon a time, "Nothing succeeds like lack of success".  If you think about it, he's not wrong!

Peter

A very interesting analysis of the Iran war in a worldwide context

 

I'm obliged to Francis Turner for providing a link to an article titled "The Global System Rupture".  It's a very long article, far too long to summarize here;  to get the full impact, you'll have to click over to it and read it for yourself (which I do recommend).  I don't necessarily agree with all the author's points, but I don't think her overall thesis is far wrong.  Let me offer these paragraphs to whet your appetite.

We are not approaching a regional crisis that will be managed and absorbed. We are approaching a global system rupture, driven by cascading effects across every socio-economic network simultaneously: energy, food, water, finance, trade, governance, and security. And while the United States, China, and Russia each occupy a short-term winning position in this rupture, all three are generating the very conditions that could pull the entire system into an abyss from which none of them emerges structurally intact. The path away from that abyss requires something that none of them is currently willing to do alone. It requires coordination between the two rival blocs. And it requires it now.

. . .

The United States, China, and Russia are each winning in the short term. The US has demonstrably degraded Iran’s military infrastructure, eliminated its nuclear programme, and established a new precedent of deterrence in the region. Russia is extracting elevated energy revenues, geopolitical leverage on Ukraine, and a sanctions waiver. China is consolidating yuan settlement architecture, absorbing discounted Iranian crude, and widening its strategic position in the Pacific while the US is pinned in the Gulf. All three actors have short-term incentives that are being satisfied.

And all three are generating the conditions for a collapse that will devour those short-term gains.

Because what is accumulating in the background of each of those winning positions is the cascade: 8 mbpd of daily scarcity compounding into a fertiliser shock, a food security crisis across 15 to 20 vulnerable economies, a financial contagion running through sovereign debt and emerging market currencies, a desalination doctrine that threatens the civilisational baseline of the Arabian Peninsula, and a wave of political turmoil that will arrive on a 6 to 12-month lag and cannot be recalled once it begins. No actor wins in that world. Not even the actors who think they are winning now.

. . .

And [then] the question shifts from how to prevent the rupture to what can be reconstructed from the wreckage of a global system that three great powers allowed to break because none of them was willing to accept that their short-term winning position was being purchased at the cost of the system that makes winning meaningful.

There's much more at the link.

That's food for thought all right . . . possibly food for nightmares, if no progress is made.  The problem is, it's almost impossible to find anyone in Iran with whom to negotiate meaningfully.  Iran's fundamentalist Twelver leaders are more than willing to bring down the entire world with them, if they have to.  Some of them even believe that if they do, the Twelfth Imam will return - literally, be forced to return - to rule the nations and impose Shi'ite Islam upon them.  They are not acting logically or rationally, but theologically and ideologically.  We cannot find common ground with such people for a solution.  That's the fly in the above article's ointment.  I can see the author's opinions, and even agree with many of them - but if there is no rational discussion possible, how can her gloomy predictions be avoided?

If you know the answer to that conundrum, you're probably a better person than I . . . not to mention all the politicians and leaders on all sides that kicked the Iran can down the road until there was nowhere left for it to go!

Peter

Looks like more difficult times bearing down on us

 

I'm not panic-mongering and declaring that we're facing TEOTWAWKI, but the impact of the Iranian war on the world economy is steadily getting worse, and it's going to affect us in the USA as well.  We'll be far better off than most countries due to being a net energy exporter, but problems for our major trading partners inevitably end up being our problems as well.

Click on the following headlines to read more information about each point.

Economist who predicted 2008 crash warns something much worse could be coming

"We have returned to a period of risk, one rife with the sort of pressures that have led to major financial crises.

"This time, the risks are spread across industries, markets, and nations: artificial intelligence, the roughly $2 trillion private credit industry, stock markets, Taiwan, and now Iran."

While each of these issues are enough to cause chaos on their own, combined they suggest that another financial crash is inevitable and the ongoing war in Iran is seemingly at the heart of it all.

Russia Halts Ammonium Nitrate Exports As Global Fertilizer Crisis Set To Worsen

Export disruptions of the critical crop nutrient can hit import-dependent buyers hard, especially in markets such as Brazil, Canada, India, Peru, and Ukraine.

Russia's temporary export comes at the worst possible timing as the Northern Hemisphere planting season begins in some regions. 

The risk now is that, as the Middle East conflict enters its fourth week, a global energy shock is also spreading to fertlizer markets and may only suggest a delayed food price shock later this year. 

Hundreds Of Gas Stations Run Dry In Australia As Hormuz Shock Exposes Energy Security Failures

Australia's weird obsession with "green energy," compounded by a lack of urgency regarding proper energy security, has now collided with the worst energy crisis the world has ever seen.

A country heavily dependent on imported refined petroleum products, many of which transit the Strait of Hormuz, has reached the fourth week of the U.S.-Iran war, but with a full-blown fuel supply shock now underway, and hundreds of gas stations across the country running dry.

Energy Minister Chris Bowen ... warned that fuel supplies were at about 38 days for gasoline. He said only 30 days of diesel and jet fuel remained.

The Rapidly-Gathering Economic Storm

Karl Denninger looks at problems with AI, housing, energy, food, fraud and many other current issues.  He concludes:  "Is Iran the triggering event?  I have no idea.  It might be."  Go read his whole article.  It's food for thought.

Finally, a perspective from England that may be of interest to US preppers as well.

I laughed at bulk-buyers during Covid, but this time I think the preppers are right

I am not what you’d call a natural prepper. Even during the Covid lockdowns, when others piled supermarket trolleys high with giant packs of loo roll, I felt the UK’s shoppers were losing their collective grey matter. But as the war with Iran continues and the Strait of Hormuz remains closed to the ships of the US, Israel and their Western allies, I find myself changing tack.

This time round, I’m with the doomsters. You don’t have to be Nostradamus to foresee that we will all feel the impact from the global supply chain of crude oil, liquefied natural gas, fertilisers, sulphur and helium being suddenly, severely restricted.

Today’s Bright Young Things may soon wake to their very own Great Slump. Before sitting down to write, I saw an American professor of medicine post the following message on X, highlighting just one little-discussed aspect of the problem: “I hope no one needs an MRI this year. The world’s largest producer of liquefied helium is in Qatar and is shut off.” He had just been told that his own institution’s yearly supply will be halved, at best.

That last paragraph is a wake-up call.  How many MRI's are performed every day in the USA?  What would those needing them (and the doctors who call for them) do if half of them could not be performed?  Could this be a life-or-death situation for the patients needing them?  I suspect it might.

As I said above, I'm not one to cry "Wolf!", and I don't want to spread alarm and despondency:  but forewarned is forearmed.  If we need something that may soon be in short supply, now might be a very good time to get it, and beat the rush.

Peter