Via WiscoDave. I don’t have a category for safety, so I’ll file this one under Army.

Dear NGUS personnel in Washington DC:

That piece of webbing on the front of the rifle running to the back is called a SLING.

It's so that you can carry the rifle, hands free, with the barrel oriented in a safe direction.

Signed: Marines

— Joe Dolio 🇺🇲 (@DolioJ) January 15, 2021

From WiscoDave.

If anyone wants to know what the temperature of the country feels like at the current moment, we just sold 300,000 rounds of 9mm ammunition in less than 15 minutes.@Timcast @sourpatchlyds @philthatremains @IanCrossland @AdamCrigler @iansmithfitness @MLChristiansen

— Fenix "Kulak" Ammunition (@FenixAmmunition) January 15, 2021

This isn’t helping availability or cost.

Recoil Magazine gives us the details.

It is a striker fired pistol with 5″ barrel length, slide cuts, what appears to be a slide cut for a red dot optic, a 17-round magazine, aggressive stippling and a flared mag well.  It’s an attractive pistol.

Here’s another attractive pistol, the CZ Tactical Sport 2.

This is a two-tone pistol with very nice texturing on the grips, large controls, a 5.23″ barrel and 20-round magazine.  The burnt bronze frame is especially attractive, as is the profile.  The thing that appeals to me most is that it is a hammer-fired pistol rather than a striker-fired pistol.

Take a hard look at it.  Then compare it with this pistol at CZ-USA.  They’re not the same gun.  I sent a note to CZ today and asked about this, and was told that this particular model was not what was being imported.  I was told that CZUB was probably the author of this picture.

Indeed, this picture comes from a different site, international CZ I suppose.  I have not received a response on how one might obtain one, but at the moment it doesn’t appear to me that anyone is importing this particular gun.

This is massive fail with Shooting Illustrated in my opinion.  They have written up a pistol that apparently cannot be obtained.  Don’t they have editors?

Open theism holds that because God loves us and desires that we freely choose to reciprocate His love, He has made His knowledge of, and plans for, the future conditional upon our actions. God does not know what we will freely do in the future.  Thus, purveyors of this doctrine deny that God is omniscient.

Isaiah 46:9-10 declares “Remember the former things long past, For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things which have not yet been done, saying, ‘My purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all My good pleasure’.”

Paul repeats this doctrine in Ephesians 1:11, declaring that “we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will.”

Paul Helm is a wonderful theologian and philosopher with whom I have spent many hours (at least by reading his books).  He is also a wonderfully nice man with whom I have exchanged email.  In his book “Eternal God,” he states the following.

For if there are creatures with the power of indifferent or agent-causal freedom then the existence of their choice will change God by increasing His knowledge.  God will know more after His creatures have acted than He did before.  The existence of such creatures would be sufficient to deny to God both omniscience and changelessness.

The argument: open theism claims that man’s actions are not under the control of God or foreordained by Him.  Thus, there are things that God cannot and does not know since He doesn’t currently know how those creatures will respond.  If there is a future to be known by God even if unknown to His creatures, then there is a future that is unchangeable and thus His creatures aren’t really free.

Open theism is in a dilemma.  They must deny the omniscience of God in order to hold to their position on the ultimate freedom of man, that God is not in control.  Philosopher Richard Swinburne, who holds this view, even admits that his views limit God’s knowledge.  He is a smart man, regardless of his false view.  He knows that he must jettison at least one core doctrine of the faith in order to hold to open theism.

But since God is omniscient and His knowledge cannot change or increase, there is a future, and God has ordained it.  Therefore, this is a hope and comfort to the believer since God is most wise and holy, knowing what is best for His purposes and His elect.

This is an interesting bit of history of which I was unaware.

The union troops acted in a savage manner, and the officers gave immoral commands.  On the other hand, Mr. Hinson certainly lived a dark and sad existence for much of his life.

But he was certainly an interesting and capable man, able to live long times in isolation.

I said coming changes, and actually, the changes I intend to make are ongoing and current.  Please read the entire post so that you understand why this blog is changing, both in the posts and in comments.

For some time now I’ve been exhausted at the loathsome duty to post more political content.  I do hate it so much.  It bores me, and it drags me down, and I think it does with readers too.  I think I have been sucked into the morass that defines where America is today.  In fact, I have actually come to dread posting content.

America is a country of ten second sound bites, screaming, impatience, ignorance, lack of intellectual focus, poor attention span, poo-slinging and name calling, with comments by even me and over this web site by readers more outlandish by the day on what should be done, what someone else is going to do, or what must happen in order to save America.  None of the things we’ve been discussing will save America.

As Paul directed, I intend to lead a quiet life, work, take care of my family, teach them, be a good neighbor, and most of all, follow my Lord and savior Jesus Christ.  I don’t do any of that perfectly, but it’s my goal.

I also have a lot of focus on necessary things around the home, such as repair, painting, yard work and so forth.  This will take some time.  For too long now I’ve devoted too much time to this blog and too little to the necessary things.  I’ve have literally thousands of books on theology, and they need my attention.  I want to replace by dear Heidi-girl at some point, whom I still grieve, and get another female Dobie, and as you know, it takes intense focus the first half year of their lives to have a good companion.  My posting in 2021 will probably be less frequent and more focused when I post.

I am making some changes.  I will revise the “About” page, dump the blogroll, and work primarily on my own prose and thoughts rather than hitching a ride on the backs of others.  I intend to focus in the coming future on God, family, guns and survival (to include everything outdoors).

I am an engineer, and I love well-designed, well-built, well-functioning machines.  I always will.  I will discuss the mechanics of firearms and ballistics.  I love God.  I love my family, and I always seem drawn to survival and the outdoors.

I’m dumping politics.  I will discuss politics only sparsely if at all (and then only as it comes up in the context of theology, Jesus is King), I will not “endorse” candidates, I will not engage in name-calling or claims about what I intend to do about anything.

Nor will I countenance outlandish comments that make this blog (or its author) or the readers more at risk in the troubles surely to come.  Understand what I’m about to say.  This web site uses the WordPress overlay.  It is not a WordPress blog and it is hosted on a secure location, not servers owned by WordPress.

But since it uses WordPress, it keeps email addresses and IP addresses.  I don’t know how to make it not do that, and I don’t have the time to figure that out.  Any web site can be hacked.  I am watching out for readers too.  I truly don’t think readers understand the trouble to come, based on the ridiculous, outlandish comments and blog posts I’m seeing at other sites.

Besides, as I said before, this web site has sunk into similar behavior, and I won’t let it.  The only other option is to shut it down.

I want this to be a web site of thinking men, scholars, men who are slow to react or opine, judicious with their words and observations, and excited to read and discuss the things I want to: God, family, guns and survival.

Finally, I’m convinced that America doesn’t fully understand how much trouble it’s in.  We need a theological reformation and spiritual revival before any revival of America can occur.  Currently it’s just another pagan nation, and God’s judgment is upon us.  A basis and foundation in faith and family will give men a sure substratum on which to build their lives in good times and bad that guns and patriotism can never supply.

I hope you understand my decisions.  I expect to lose readers.  That’s okay.  You don’t need me or my prose to see the next bit of “news.”  It’s everywhere.  You don’t need my ten second synopsis involving name-calling or poo-slinging.  That demeans me and readers.

Perspective.

But back to the Ruger .357. I discovered, via an article in one of the gunzines, the Ruger bolt action. Interestingly enough, the article was written about using that particular rifle as part of a triad of firearms, all chambered for the .357. This imaginative gent who wrote the article combined the rifle with a holster gun, which was a .357 Ruger Blackhawk, (imagine that) and a .357 Ruger LCR, the Ruger LCR being a short barreled pup of a gun, designed for concealed carry.

To me, that would be good for scraping miscreants off your face in a dire situation. I really don’t know where that leaves it as a field gun? Especially since you’re already toting a .357 Blackhawk.

Perhaps that writer’s implication was that with those three firearms, one had a suitable firearm for any occasion, all chambered for the same cartridge? Regardless, this .357 Ruger bolt gun intrigues me. Light, handy and accurate, it’d be powerful enough for anything from badger to black bear. It makes an excellent light-duty, woods running gun and is nearly ideal for collection everything from rock-chuck to a grouse for your dinner or potting a coyote. It would also make an excellent trunk gun for your car, for emergency use, and, with a holster gun also chambered in .357 caliber, it just makes perfect sense for a woods companion.

I confess that I wasn’t aware of these rifles either.  Immediately when I saw this article I wondered if like the Ruger 77/357, there was a Ruger 77/44.  There is.

Hickok 45 has two reviews of this gun here and here.  And if I had been the “buddy” who loaned him that gun, he would have given it back to me a long time ago.

“Not only a theology, but an eschatology, or doctrine of last things, which renounces history, or sees it as defeat, is faithless to Christianity.  God is maker of heaven and earth, not Satan.  History culminates in God’s plan and triumph, not in Satan’s victory.  To the extent that any eschatology involves the victory of evil in history, to that extent it surrenders and retreats from history.  Currently, one of the major sins besetting evangelical Christianity is eschatology which denies the evangel and denies history.”

Rousas J. Rushdoony, “The Foundations of Social Order: Studies in the Creeds and Councils of the Early Church.”

He does an impressive job of hitting his targets.  He has several 45-70 guns, something that seems appealing to me.

Sure, it sounds a lot like an infomercial for Mad Pig Customs, but it’s still worth watching.  I think Chris may be auditioning for the only trainer on the use of the tactical lever action gun.

I take it that Mad Pig Customs does a great job with lever action gunsmithing, but they seem to be small.