C'Mon Up To The Rising….

State Dept thinks #isis just needs better jobs to dissuade them from being terrorists. I've got a job for em, holding my DownRange targets.

— Tweet from John Rich of the country duo "Big and Rich"

First, a reading assignment. This article from Graeme Wood in The Atlantic, a left-leaning pub, on what ISIS/ISIL wants is long, dense reading and absolutely necessary:

That the Islamic State holds the imminent fulfillment of prophecy as a matter of dogma at least tells us the mettle of our opponent. It is ready to cheer its own near-obliteration, and to remain confident, even when surrounded, that it will receive divine succor if it stays true to the Prophetic model. Ideological tools may convince some potential converts that the group’s message is false, and military tools can limit its horrors. But for an organization as impervious to persuasion as the Islamic State, few measures short of these will matter, and the war may be a long one, even if it doesn’t last until the end of time.

Please read the whole thing…I think it will help you understand more fully the holy war we now face.  I'd also like to send you to this brilliant piece by historian Victor Davis Hanson titled The Reckoning:

For bewildered and increasingly quietist Americans, the center holds mostly in family, religion, a few friends, the avoidance of the cinema and nightly news, the rote of navigating to work and coming home, trying to stay off the dole and taking responsibility for one’s own disasters — as the world grows ever more chaotic in our midst. 

All sorts of escapism from the madness is now epidemic. Home-schooling. Gun ownership. A second home in the mountains. A trunk of freeze-dried food. Kids living in the basement. A generator. Some gold coins. A move to Wyoming. An avoidance of the old big cities. A tough choice between death and going to the nearby emergency room (at least your relatives are safe as you pass away at home). A careful and narrow selection of channels on cable TV. A safe room or escape plan. And on and on.

On THE BEST DEFENSE, we don't deal with the bigger macro issues…our focus is on getting you and your family home every evening. It is important, though, to understand that the world is becoming an increasingly spooky place. Accordingly, the more you know, the more you can accurately access those things you need to learn.

It is a tenant of faith for me and an element of doctrine at TBD that the fundamental bedrock of personal safety is seeing the world as it is as opposed through any set of tinted glasses. For example, we have been clear over the seasons that the likelihood of you being caught in an active shooter situation is on par with being struck by lightning twice in a year— and yet people get struck by lightning every year, and occasionally twice a year..

At TBD we believe that terrorism will increasingly become a part of our own landscape, to the detriment of our personal lives, our culture and ultimately our liberties. Michael Janich, Mike Seeklander, Marty Hayes, Tim Cremin, Jeff Murray, Brandon Green and I have a deeply held commitment to give you the tools to live in the darkening America of the future, again, to make sure you and your family get home at night.

On the DOWN RANGE Radio podcast, I have talked for years about the concept of "transition time," that is, the lag time between the initiation of the violent event and your response to that event. "Transition time" defines whether you succeed or fail, essentially whether you live or die. To put it bluntly, if at the beginning of a violent event — possibly a terrorist event — you spend your preciously seconds thinking, "Wow! I never thought this could happen here, and I especially never thought this could happen to me!!!." you are not going to make it.

Read and learn. Then train, …this is an old quote and I've never seen a bulletproof attribution (generally attributed to "Seen at Ft. Irwin, CA"), but it has never been truer:

"Somewhere, a True Believer is training to kill you. He is training with minimal food or water, in austere conditions, training day and night. The only thing clean on him is his weapon and he made his web gear. He doesn't worry about what workout to do — his ruck weighs what it weighs, his runs end when the enemy stops chasing him. This True Believer is not concerned about 'how hard it is;' he knows either he wins or dies. He doesn't go home at 17:00, he is home. He knows only The Cause.

Still want to quit?"

Picture Your Daughter Here!

BTW, if you've got a daughter younger than 9 years old, she'll bring as high as $172 at the ISIS slave markets, and, of course, her purchaser can have intercourse with her immediately if she's a virgin. For older children, and maybe your wife, it'll be between $130, and, if older than 50 years old, as little as $40. And no sex until her uterus has been purified!  From Sultan Knish, who makes the point that if the united States hadn't intervened, our friends the Saudis, who had slavery until 1962, would still be running their own markets:

Journalists trying to make sense of ISIS demanding Jizya payments and taking slaves ought to remember that these aren’t medieval behaviors in the Middle East. Not unless medieval means the 19th century. And that’s spotting them a whole century. Saudi Arabia only abolished slavery in 1962 under pressure from the United States. Its labor market and that of fellow Petrojihadi kingdoms like Kuwait and Qatar are based on arrangements that look a lot like temporary slavery… for those foreigners who survive.

Slavery's not a "bug;" it's a "feature!" And speaking of features, remember that special features, such as blue or green eyes will bring a premium price at the market! Of course, it won't matter to you because you'll be dead.

[The painting, BTW, is the classic The Merchant's Pearl from one of Chile's most famous artist, Alfredo Valenzuela Puelma, finished in 1884...it remains one of the most famous pieces of artwork from that country]