USA Today:

There is a battle going on in the U.S. over the development and sale of so-called “smart guns” — handguns that proponents say should improve safety and lower suicide rates because they can only be fired by owners.

Gun-store owners say there is no market for such guns and that they have never had a single customer inquiry. In addition, some owners say, smart guns are too expensive, or the technology does not exist.

“I do not personally have any objections to having a gun that only operates when the owner fires it,” says Nick Newman, 48, who for 20 years has owned Cherokee Firearms in Springfield, Mo. “But that is kind of like saying I would prefer flying my car to work.”

National organizations like the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence and the American Association of Suicidology support further development of smart guns and believe such firearms are ready to be brought to market.

An assortment of companies, mostly startups or ones based in Europe, are using various technologies — including the use of a radio-transmitting wristband worn by the owner that sends a signal to the gun — to try to make handguns safer.

The main opponent is the National Rifle Association. But it will not speak. The Springfield (Mo.) News-Leader left six messages on the phone and with a secretary over two weeks for the one spokesman designated to talk to the media, Andrew Arulanandam, in the national office in Virginia. He did not respond. Eventually, the newspaper requested someone — anyone — to send a statement on the group’s position on smart guns. The organization did not reply.

Donald Sebastian has a doctorate in chemical engineering and is the senior vice president for research at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. He has researched smart-gun technology since 1999. The NRA is the leading obstacle to bringing a smart gun to market, he says.

The writers of the article would have you believe that “smart guns” haven’t sold because of the big, bad boogeyman NRA doesn’t want you to have them.

What they really mean is that since the NRA does what we tell them too, mostly, and since they oppose mandating these ridiculous machines by law, they won’t sell since there is otherwise no market for them.

I’ll prove it, if someone is willing to take me up on the bet.  I recommend that some company invest an ass load of money into “smart guns.”  Try to sell them.  Just try.  Try to recover your investment without the mandate of law forcing consumers to purchase them.  See what happens.

I dare you.  Does any company want to take me up on the offer?  I’ll admit over the pages of this web site that I was wrong and there really is a blooming market for such things if you succeed.  Imagine the victory for gun controllers with such an announcement.

Please?  Take me up on the bet.  Please.  Invest an ass load of money into smart guns.  Please?  There is a caveat.  No laws – just marketing.  And a lot of investment money on your part.  If you lose, admit that there is no market for such things.

Prior: Smart Guns Tag

Next City:

In a war, anything can be a weapon. In a particularly ruthless war, such as the conflict that has been raging in Syria for more than three years, those weapons are often turned against civilians, making any semblance of normal life impossible. Such is the case, experts say, with the way the nation’s water supply is being manipulated to inflict suffering on the population.

According to an article posted by Chatham House, a London-based independent policy institute, water infrastructure has been targeted by both sides in the conflict, leading to crippling disruptions in water supply over the last several months in cities such as Aleppo, Homs and Hama. The disabling of water treatment plants has led to a reported increase in waterborne diseases such as typhoid.

According to Chatham House researcher and fellow Nouar Shamout, the war has only worsened an already complicated and precarious water situation. ISIS, the Islamist rebel group that has seized control of many parts of Syria and northern Iraq, controls key parts of the water infrastructure in the regionally crucial Euphrates River system, including Al-Raqqa dam, which supplies one-fifth of Syria’s electricity and controls irrigation flows downstream.

Shamout writes:

The Euphrates River, which provides 65 per cent of the country’s water needs, is also experiencing a dangerous decrease in its flow rates. This is likely to be due to a combination of factors: decades of poor water management, current neglect of water infrastructure on the Euphrates, and the absence of any coordination between Syria and upstream Turkey regarding the river flow. As a result, in late May, the river dried up downstream of Al-Raqqa city, depriving many downstream towns of water. The water level of Al-Assad Lake — Syria’s largest reservoir, which provides irrigation for some 500 square miles of agricultural land and all of Aleppo’s drinking water — has dropped by six meters since ISIS took control in January. If the lake loses one more meter the water system will stop working. This will leave more than four million inhabitants without access to safe water. This could result in a humanitarian catastrophe that would overwhelm agencies on the ground.

The article devolves at that point, with analysis by Peter Gleick about how water is one of the causes of the current conflict.  In fact, the conflict is caused by militant Islam and criminal warlords (and Islam, given its history and inherent problems and self contradiction, welcomes criminal warlords).

But up until that point the article is worth heeding in its warnings.  For those of us who believe that the current system and infrastructure cannot and will not continue due to the ideological and moral rot at its core, there are a number of object lessons.

First of all, without logistics – and this includes ordnance, food, ammunition, water, clothing, hygiene products – an army cannot even survive, much less be effective and succeed.  But this goes for men and their families too.

Consider the recent example of Toledo, Ohio:

Water in Toledo, Ohio, and surrounding areas remained officially undrinkable Sunday evening, more than 24 hours after a do-not-drink order went into place for 500,000 people.

Water at a Toledo treatment plant tested positive for a toxin on Saturday, leading the governor to declare a state of emergency in three counties, state officials told the Los Angeles Times.

[ … ]

Ohio Gov. John Kasich declared a state of emergency for residents of Lucas, Wood and Fulton counties early Saturday after two water samples from a Toledo treatment plant tested positive for microcystin, a toxin possibly caused by an algae bloom in Lake Erie.

[ … ]

Earlier Saturday, state officials warned residents in Toledo and surrounding areas not to drink, or even boil, the water tainted with microcystin, which can cause nausea and impair liver function.

This incident presumably has natural causes, and yet it has literally shut down Toledo’s water supply.  Consider the damage that could be done with intentional and malicious actions by, say, terrorists bent on inflicting death and destruction.

The same could be said of terrorist actions against the nation’s electrical grid, as we’ve discussed before here, here and here.  Without electricity, the nation’s financial system and manufacturing infrastructure comes to a halt.  But the issue of water and other essential logistics is even more pernicious in that the lack of it means certain death, and very quickly.

In addition to death without it, it means certain violence and pandemonium among those who are deprived of it.  Those who are left without the requirements for life will lose patience quickly with efforts to find them, and thievery and killing ensues.

If the lack of water and other requirements for life is pernicious because of the very nature of basic necessities, what man can do with that need is even more pernicious because nature isn’t evil.  Man is.

Suppose that the state decides to approach the basic necessities of life as a means to ensure their own survival and power?  You and your clan are then at the mercy of the authorities unless you have the means to provide those necessities yourself without state support (and it goes without saying, without state interference).

The Islamists have already learned to do that, and in fact used the electrical grid, drainage systems, sewage systems, and water supply as weapons of war during Operation Iraqi Freedom.  The Syrian authorities and ISIS are not the first to do this.  The Roman Empire long before had learned to use water as a means of control over the population.

… powerful individuals followed legislation on rural water use with considerable interest. Water was always central for crops and animals, and the access to and right to use rivers, torrents, lakes, ponds,springs and wells was of paramount importance. Thus there should always have been much attention paid to legislation dealing with irrigation and rural water rights and servitudes.

Again, one could substitute electricity, food and other necessities here, but the best example is the most extreme.  Don’t believe for a second that the modern counterinsurgency theorists haven’t thought of basic needs as keys to populations, e.g., see Kilcullen’s own prose on this subject.

This era’s unprecedented urbanization is concentrated in the least developed areas of Asia, Latin America and Africa.  The data shows that coastal cities are about to be swamped by a human tide that will force them to absorb—in less than 40 years—almost the entire increase in population absorbed by the whole planet, in all of recorded human history up to 1960. And virtually all this urbanization will happen in the world’s least developed areas, by definition the poorest equipped to handle it—a recipe for conflict, crises in health, education and governance, and food, energy and water scarcity.

Rapid urbanization creates economic, social and governance challenges while simultaneously straining city infrastructure, making the most vulnerable cities less able to meet these challenges. The implications for future conflict are profound, with more people fighting over scarcer resources in crowded, under-serviced and under-governed urban areas.

There is no specific recipe for success against terrorists, whether foreign or your own government, except to know and read the signs of the times, think about your options, and be prepared.

UPDATE #1: What It’s Like To Die Of Thirst

As this barbarism continues, I asked Jeffrey Berns, president-elect of the National Kidney Foundation and a nephrologist at the University of Pennsylvania, what these children may be going through.

“Thirst, as you probably know, is one of the most potent drives for behavior we have. It may be the most potent we have, more than even hunger,” he said.

“People are going to be miserable.”

The body is about 60 percent water, and under normal conditions, he said, an average person will lose about a quart of water each day by sweating and breathing and another one to three quarts by urinating, he said. In the heat and under more difficult physical conditions, that amount increases, he said.

If it’s not replaced over time and dehydration becomes severe, cells throughout the body will begin to shrink as water moves out of them and into the blood stream, part of the body’s efforts to keep the organs perfused in fluid.

“All the cells will shrink,” Berns said, “but the ones that count are the brain cells. They don’t operate normally when they’re’ shrinking.” Changes in mental status will follow, including confusion and ultimately coma, he said. As the brain becomes smaller, it takes up less room in the skull and blood vessels connecting it to the inside of the cranium can pull away and rupture.

This man, who died of dehydration, during a wilderness survival exercise, suffered delirium and hallucinations before he succumbed, according to an Associated Press investigation.

Victims’ kidneys may shut down first, Berns said, as they continue to lack access to both water and salt. The kidneys cleanse the blood of waste products which, under normal conditions, are excreted in urine. Without water, blood volume will decline and all the organs will start to fail, he said. Kidney failure will soon lead to disastrous consequences and ultimately death as blood volume continues to fall and waste products that should be eliminated from the body remain.

Also see WRSA.

News from Iowa:

BLAKESBURG, Iowa — A small town police chief is facing big time trouble after pulling his gun out twice at city hall, one time pointing it toward a city councilman.

Security video taken inside Blakesburg City Hall shows Police Chief Bob Lewis pointing a gun toward a city councilman. The video shows another city council member touches the chief’s arm while he is leaning on a window, then he draws his gun and points it towards a city councilman who is behind a thin door.

“Oh yeah, it was stupid,” Blakesburg Mayor Jason Myers says, “Whether or not he knew somebody was on the other side of the door, I mean, I feel that he probably did.”

City Councilman Bill Hinshaw says, “It was done in bad taste. It may have been supposed to be a joke but somebody who is in a position of authority…it’s something that never should have been done.”

The police chief did not respond to our request for a comment, but he tells city council he was just testing out his holster to see how fast he could draw his gun if he had to.

“It just doesn’t seem to me that that’s what he would do,” Hinshaw says, “He could have done it anyplace else but you don’t point it at someone.”

And that’s not all. The security video was taped back in April, but Chief Lewis was just reprimanded about it during this week’s city council meeting. So he drew his loaded weapon again during the crowded meeting to show city council a round was not chambered.

“He took the clip out and laid it on the bench there which I appreciate him doing that but there are some people that are very concerned about that,” Hinshaw says, “Should it have been done? Probably that wasn’t the best thing to do.”

The mayor says Chief Lewis should be punished. He’s just not sure yet how. “I don’t want to ruin a person’s career,” Myers says, “I just don’t know. It’s just so tricky. And I consider Bob a friend but at the same time I gotta look out for the community.”

He was “testing out his holster to see how fast he could draw his gun if he had to.”  What he was really doing was ignoring rules for muzzle discipline.  And remember kids, only trained law enforcement officials can be trusted to own and carry weapons.

Remember when I told you this?

Now for burials, espenses and the like. It occurs to me that we are still seeing things through the lens of comfortable America, with our attendant luxuries. For anyone who has buried a loved one recently, you know the expense associated with it.

By the time you’ve bought a legal casket, purchased the death certificates and a burial plot, you’ve spent $15,000 MINIMUM. It can run MUCH higher than that if you want a service or a burial plot in a good location. $30,000 – $40,000 is not uncommon, or even more. Much more.

These things are all functions of state regulations and laws. You cannot simply bury people anywhere you want. It becomes a health concern. So let’s say that I’m a rancher living in South Texas or Arizona, and there are illegals on my land because it’s a thoroughfare. If someone perished on the journey, would I be willing to take a shovel out and dig a grave myself (right there where they lay)? Sure. Would I be willing to do it 25 times? Maybe. Would I be willing to do it 500 times? No. I have to hold down a job. And I’m certainly not willing to spend everything I have at $15,000 – $20,000 a burial to ensure all illegals have a proper grave.

You see, this goes well beyond whether I’m willing to spend my time or money on others. Many men are. This redounds to whether I’m willing to spend the money of my children and children’s children on others. And remember, “The good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children.”

So now, think of the poor ranchers in Texas and Arizona. They have the costs of burial, paperwork, cleanup of the environment of trash, feces, debris and water bottles, and removal of the animal carcasses after the illegals have killed them for food. Furthermore, we all have the expense of education, welfare, food stamps (SNAP), medical care, etc., etc., for tens of millions of illegals entering the country.

Here is a report from the Southern border.

‘I am not surprised to find immigrants dying 70 miles north of the border,’ Burgard told MailOnline, but ‘I am surprised that nine years later it is still a secret to most of the American people.’

‘The Federal Government has long known about this,’ he said, ticking off Texas and Arizona counties where human remains are continually turning up.

‘Local officials who deal with collecting the bodies are so overwhelmed financially that the cost of coroner inquests on each case is dramatically affecting their budgets.’

I’m not suggesting that you ignore the official reports.  I’m suggesting that you can hear it here first.

News From Georgia:

No disciplinary action will be taken against a deputy whose gun accidentally discharged at a Fortune Street home, Floyd County Sheriff’s Office authorities said Friday.

Chief Deputy Tom Caldwell said that even though the investigation concluded the incident was an accident, law enforcement officials remain baffled about what exactly happened.

“We have no evidence from our investigation, or from the city, that it was anything other than an accidental discharge,” said Caldwell. “We have nothing that proves he violated policy or did anything that he shouldn’t have done in any way. But, we still have no reason to how it happened.”

Deputy William Schwartz, accompanied by a Floyd County Sheriff’s Office supervisor, was at a Fortune Street home on July 17 attempting to serve a warrant when his service weapon “just went off.”

“He was exasperated,” said Caldwell of Schwartz. “He just didn’t know what happened. (Schwartz) said he was writing something down when the gun just went off.”

Here’s a hint.  Someone – I won’t say who – pulled the trigger.  I’m glad I could be of help.

Mike Vanderboegh links this Zerohedge piece where the following statement is apparently made by someone affiliated with some self-proclaimed militia.

“You see an illegal. You point your gun dead at him, right between his eyes, and you say, ‘Get back across the border or you will be shot.’ …We are not worried about an ‘International’ incident.”

In the clearest possible terms, let me make the following statement to whoever said this: You … are … an … idiot!

Mike further says this:

And if I cannot convince you that the border situation is not the immediate threat that you have to worry about — if you think I am, as some have called me, a “traitor” because I refuse to endorse a precipitate rush to the border — then, okay, fine. But please, do us all a favor and lose the boogeyman face paint. Because Bob is correct, you do look like “dangerous foolish children playing dangerous foolish games.”

Mike is a nice guy, but I’m not.  If you are the one wearing paint or doohickey’s around your face, I don’t really care what you think about me or what I’m writing.

But just to pull these threads a little more, those who rushed to the border to stop this catastrophe use your eyes, but you don’t see.  You listen, but you don’t hear.  You cannot discern the signs of the times because you think you control too much and trust yourself and your power more than you should.

God will humble you, as He will us all.  And now I’ll invoke my theological views, and if you don’t want to read this analysis because of that, you’ve been warned.  Stop reading now, and don’t whine and bitch in the comments about my theology.  I’m not interested.  I’ll just delete the comments.

There are times and epochs when God judges nations and peoples.  We are in one of those times.  The innocent will suffer in the wake of his judgment, for this isn’t personal judgment – it is corporate.  He will not let nations get away with what we’ve done without paying the cost.

The threat of illegals may not be immediate, but it is existential and the things that threaten America will prove fatal.  Illegal immigration and an evil president are only symptoms of the problem.  God has commanded that nations not live with insurmountable debt and usury, and yet our entire economic system is based on that.  God has commanded us to protect the little ones, and yet millions have been aborted since the “freedom” provided to women in Roe v. Wade.  God commands men to work, and calls one who doesn’t provide for his own “worse than an infidel.”

And yet, there are 92 million Americans who are not in the labor force.  The number of unemployed Americans increases by more than 100,000 every month.  What are you going to do, militia?  Shoot every last one of those 100,000 every month?  They represent the same sort of existential threat to the American system as the illegals crossing the border.

You cannot change things.  You cannot shoot enough people, you cannot threaten your way to security, you cannot vote your way out of this.  The system if beyond repair.  America doesn’t exist anymore.  It is finished.  The seeds of its destruction were sewn long ago and they are coming into bloom as we speak.

It is true that I have recommended that we deploy the Marines to the Southern border with specific RUF/ROE to shoot anyone crossing the border with a weapon, whether they constitute an immediate threat or not.  The objection of posse comitatus rings hollow, as border security shouldn’t be seen as a law enforcement function.

But I have also recommended that we see Mexico as an enemy state, close the border to commercial traffic, stop trade and eject all illegals.  Those things will not happen because America lacks the heart to protect its children, heritage, or the integrity of its laws.

My late professor, Dr. C. Gregg Singer, said:

That the Western mind is sick unto death and that Western culture and the civilization to which it gave birth are in serious danger of collapse are facts that have become so evident that few observers are prepared to dispute this conclusion and argue for their vitality (From Rationalism to Irrationality, Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company).

This is truth, spoken with sadness of heart, for I knew Singer well.  We cannot heal America with furor, we cannot repair what’s wrong with America with our guns.  America has a heart problem.

What can we accomplish?  We and our guns and ammunition can prepare, plan, protect and secure to the extent God allows, our family, clan and tribe.  That should be our focus.  Every attempt to heal America will come to failure without a new reformation.

You do have family, clan and tribe, don’t you?  They are your first concern, aren’t they?

David Codrea:

That last part is especially important. I went to see “America” yesterday and found it is nothing like the snotty and insulting put-downs on sites like U.S. News & World Report (“the paranoid style in conservative politics”) and Salon.com (“Dinesh D’Souza’s laughable embarrassment”). If anything, those attack pieces serve to bolster the thesis of the film, that there are two different visions of what America has been, is and should be about, with detractors relying heavily on one of the main subjects of the documentary, hard-left “community organizer” Saul Alinsky, particularly through their obvious and heavy-handed employment of his Rule Five “ridicule” tactic specified in “Rules for Radicals.”

I didn’t post this in time for you to listen live, but you can listen to the archives here.

Word of the day.

So Ben-Yehuda followed up with a suggestion: “Another name we can call this tool and truthfully we say that this name is more pleasant. For as the name of this tool in French (Fusil), German (Flinte) and Italian (Fucile), is derived from the stone from which one forages fire[Flint], since in the beginning pistols would be ignited by a pound on the above mentioned stone. It is true that this had already changed and there is no reason to call it after this characteristic. But we in Hebrew have a word for a stone of this type, and also of flames of fire.”

He went on to describe the word we had discussed: “The root is K-D-KH. And the name is ekdakh. Up to now linguists have been unable to define well what kind of stone this is. In Arabic kaddakh – a stone from which fire is struck. Anyway, even if we do find out what stone an ekdakh is, or decide on a stone to use it as a name for, this name is uncommon in speech, and its form and meaning of starting fire which it contains in it, is well equipped to designate the tool we are discussing. And thus we think and feel that it would be good to designate it with the name ekdakh.”

And so it was that the word ekdakh became the Hebrew word for pistol.