Blog
Accuracy in Media
"Fake News" and "Sloppy News" share the same credibility
We know that hoplophobia is a form of neurosis and that it manifests itself in strange ways. Here's one example:
The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) has been holding their annual winter Shooting, Hunting, Outdoor Trade (SHOT) show for many years. While SHOT has been held at a variety of locations over the years, the current venue is Las Vegas. This year's SHOT show seems to have piqued the interest of MSNBC.
Evidently MSNBC is so intimidated by the NRA that they think that any major event that deals with guns just has to be "The NRA." That's a sure sign of neurosis!
"NRA hosts Vegas gun expo days after school shooting
MSNBC""The NRA holds the largest firearms industry expo just miles away from the site of the Las Vegas mass shooting that killed 58 people."
The SHOT show is a completely different event than the annual Spring NRA Meetings and Exhibits that are held for NRA members at a different location every year. But, MSNBC evidently is so neurotic about guns (hoplophobic) that they can't recognize the difference between those two organizations.
/fl
Culture
Freedom
There are horror stories about the old Soviet Union forcing their freedom-aspiring citizens into mental institutions because they didn't toe the party line. That same tactic can easily migrate into western culture if allowed. A case in point:
“The thing that is interesting here is that they were saying that because I don’t think like them, I am sick and mentally ill”
This is why all freedom-loving American's are scrutinizing the manner in which citizens are denied their civil right to bear arms. Similar tactics can creep into things like using non-vetted lists, such as the "no-fly list" as a basis for including citizens in NICS.
Not to happen in a free country!
/fl
Law
Still sleeping on watch
One of the civil rights protected by Concealed Carry Reciprocity is the right to interstate travel. It is “a virtually unconditional personal right, guaranteed by the Constitution to us all,” the Supreme Court said in Sáenz v. Roe (1999). The Sáenz court explained that travelers have the “right to be treated as a welcome visitor rather than an unfriendly alien when temporarily present in the second state.”
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has ignored national reciprocity for 45 consecutive weeks.
National reciprocity for concealed carry was introduced in the Senate on March 1, 2017 and McConnell has yet to say a word in support of it. His silence is ironic, given the fact that he cloaked himself in the Second Amendment in order to sway pro-gun Kentuckians into re-electing him in 2014.
When the best you can do is to do without.......Is it any wonder why people don't trust these guy's?
/fl
Safety
Driverless Cars
A cyber-security war is coming for driverless cars.
With cyber security the first thing to understand is that the internet is ungovernable...
We have long used “governors” on powerful machines to protect them from self-destruction; that’s not possible with the internet.
It's a calm Saturday morning in August of next year. Suddenly, across the nation, 12,000 Tesla Model S sedans start up at the same time. They engage Tesla's vaunted autopilot feature and head out onto the road. Some of them make their way to local gas stations. Some to electrical substations. And then, as they approach, they accelerate to top speed. The explosions are fantastic as the Model S batteries rupture and spark fires, which ignite anything flammable in the area. The power grid in the Los Angeles area is brought down almost immediately. Hundreds of fires rage. America is under attack. This might sound like science fiction. It's not.
Having investigated my share of head-on collisions involving motor vehicles, I’ve come to realize that every time we meet another vehicle on an open rural ‘old-style' two lane roadway, we’re just a few feet from instant death. Divided highways are a little safer because we have more time to react to an errant oncoming threat, but virtually all of our highway’s are old and overcrowded. What kind of datum do we really want to introduce into this chaotic infrastructure?
Granted there may be some life-saving potential in automation, but there is also plenty of anecdotal evidence of its mutable nature.
/fl
Safety
Freedom and Responsibility
Anarchy is expensive! This should never have happened:
Hundreds of people had been firing guns in the desert when Kami Gilstrap, of the Phoenix area, was struck in the chest.
Nobody appreciates unbridled freedom more than I, but there comes a time when wisdom should override our selfish desire to be unencumbered by rules.
When you have "hundreds of people" firing guns in a relatively small area, there is a definite need for some procedural organization; the National Rifle Association, America's premier firearm safety authority, realized that need for organization when it was founded in the 19th century.
Anyone who has ever observed the chaotic 'flow' of traffic in a crowded shopping-center parking lot understands why we have traffic laws. The same need for clear safety rules apply when shooter's are gathered in an small area, the radius of which is smaller than the effective range of their firearms.
"Be sure of your target and what is beyond it" is one of the basic rules. If you don't know for sure which direction is down-range, don't shoot!
The commandment "Thou shall not murder" often comes up in conversation's dealing with the subject of self defense. In this instance, it should be noted that the Hebrew word for murder, "ratsakh", includes causing the death of another human being through carelessness or negligence.
A word to the wise.
/fl
Weather
Storms of The 2017 Hurricane Season
How can you see the atmosphere?
By tracking what is carried on the wind. Tiny aerosol particles such as smoke, dust, and sea salt are transported across the globe, making visible weather patterns and other normally invisible physical processes.
This visualization uses data from NASA satellites, combined with mathematical models in a computer simulation allowing scientists to study the physical processes in our atmosphere.
By following the sea salt that is evaporated from the ocean, you can see the storms of the 2017 hurricane season.
During the same time, large fires in the Pacific Northwest released smoke into the atmosphere. Large weather patterns can transport these particles long distances: in early September, you can see a line of smoke from Oregon and Washington, down the Great Plains, through the South, and across the Atlantic to England.
Dust from the Sahara is also caught in storm syStems and moved from Africa to the Americas. Unlike the sea salt, however, the dust is removed from the center of the storm. The dust particles are absorbed by cloud droplets and then washed out as it rains.
Advances in computing speed allow scientists to include more details of these physical processes in their simulations of how the aerosols interact with the storm systems.
/NOAA-NASA
Law and Order
Anatomy of a Murder Case
This case is certainly not something unique, but the video provides a good synopsis of what all law-abiding citizen's need to be prepared for, and ready to deal with.
The video below shows Sheriff Grady Judd briefing the media about the arrests of three men in Mobile, Alabama, for the murder of William Reiss that occurred in Polk City, Florida on Jan. 3, 2018. The Mobile Police Department was instrumental in the investigation. Some of the stolen property was recovered, along with the victim’s stolen truck. All three suspects will be extradited back to Polk County Florida to face first degree murder and other charges.
Gerjuan Jackson, a worker contracted by FEMA to assess damages came to Reiss' home in Polk City. While in the home, Jackson became privy to Reiss' firearm collection...
Judd said be believes the three men were motivated by the value of the stolen guns on the black market...
..."These folks are done. They are vicious, calculated murderers and our goal is to make sure they never walk the face of this Earth free again."
In this materialistic age, it doesn't seem like the wisest thing for FEMA to be employing immature teenagers to do storm assessment surveys. I suspect that there will be some new FEMA guidelines written in the near future.
In the meantime, be prepared!
/fl
Law
The Dilemma Continues
In regards to interstate reciprocity of citizen firearm carry permits issued by individual states, there is currently a dilemma in desperate need of some remedy.
There is an abundance of anecdotal evidence that demonstrates the fact that statutory law cannot protect individual citizen's from incarnate evil; hence, we are responsible for our own individual protection.
If you are a law-abiding citizen, having to choose between being prepared or being legal can be a very difficult, and precarious, choice. To whom do we own the honor of having to make that choice? Though, when you weigh the potential outcomes of each of those choices, it becomes a little easier to make a decision. But still, it is a decision that a citizen should not be burdened with.
David Kopel and Joseph Greenlee make an argument that Congress should use constitutional power to force states to honor not only the permits, but the civil right that is enumerated and guaranteed by the United States Constitution.
A few weeks ago, the House of Representatives passed the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 2017 with bipartisan support. The Act would allow persons eligible to carry a concealed firearm in their home state to carry in other states as well. Opponents contend that the Act violates federalism. Actually, the Act is well within congressional powers under the Fourteenth Amendment. That Amendment was enacted specifically to give Congress the power to act against state infringements of national civil rights.
Section one of the 14th Amendment forbids states to violate civil rights. Section five of the Amendment grants Congress “the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.” Enacted during Reconstruction, the Fourteenth Amendment was a remedy to ex-Confederate states denying freedmen the right to arms and other civil rights.
Not only should citizen's have the right to uninfringed interstate travel, but they should also have the right to protect themselves along the way.
The ball is laying in the Senate's court!
/fl
Law
Self Defense Ammunition
Anyone who has spent much time hanging around courts of law is no doubt aware of the volatility of what is known as "relevance" in an issue before the court. An issue or claim might not have any actual relevance to the matter before the court, but if the judge allows it into the record before the jury, it does in fact becomes relevant; sometimes to the extent of derailing a good argument. Such is the case with the issue of 'type of ammunition' used for self defense.
The ammunition that you use for self defense is best selected by using the same criteria that is used by your local police department. After all, the purpose is the same—to stop a deadly threat as safely and efficiently as possible.
U.S.Taxpayer's have funded extensive ammunition testing conducted by various police departments and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the FBI has made a selection based on their performance results.
The same testing criteria can also be used for selecting other ammunition brand options; for example:
For someone wanting to avoid any potential controversy of "relevance" regarding the type of ammunition carried, it would be reasonable to conclude that using "the same ammunition that the police or the FBI uses" would not only provide them the reliable performance needed for self defense, but could also avert any claim that they were using "exotic" ammunition that was "too powerful" or "too deadly."
/fl
Law and Order
Equal Wages
Intrusion Suspect Allegedly Threatens 82-Year-Old Homeowner, Gets Shot Dead
An armed 82-year-old man in Kanawha County, West Virginia, turned the tables on a home intrusion suspect Saturday by pulling a gun and shooting him dead.
Home Invasion Suspect Kicks in Door, Meets Shotgun, Dies Shortly Thereafter
A home invasion suspect allegedly kicked in a door in Merced, California, Wednesday night only to make a fatal encounter with a shotgun.
Woman Awakes to Suspect Standing by Her Bed, Shoots Him Dead
A Houston, Texas, woman who awoke to a suspect standing by her bad on New Year’s Day grabbed a gun and shot him dead.
The wages of home invasion are paid on the same pay scale as the wages of sin; however, home invasion can pay off a little quicker.
This could very well be the reason why we are seeing a lower incidence of crime in many areas.
/fl
Seamanship
Sad but Important Note
Having spent the better part of three decades in law enforcement, I'm fully aware that there are some people who seem to be impervious to the phrase "it goes without saying." It's difficult to not sound condescending.
It should go without saying that when two people undertake (no pun intended) an off-shore blue-water cruise in a small cruising yacht, that everyone on board should be checked out in the basic operation of said yacht. It doesn't take that long to run through a few basic safety drills.
Every person on board should know how to stop the boat in an emergency, how to drop and furl the sails, how to start the engine, how to use the radio, how to fight a fire, how to close a thru-hull fitting, how to recover a person overboard, etc. Especially, when you're several hundred miles from help. The basic stuff!
Because, there can be times when the best cook in the world is useless, if that's all they know how to do.
What can happen when those basic fundamentals are neglected?
A cruising couple from Poland, Stanislaw Dabrowny and his wife Elisabeth, left on the first leg of their circumnavigation across the Atlantic on November 2nd from the Canary Islands towards Barbados. Their yacht was a Bavaria 44, S/Y VAGANT.
When their daughters had not heard from them by November 24th, the date they were supposed to arrive according to their schedule, they became concerned. "The last signal I received from them was more than 24 hours ago. It was a strange phone call during which my mother was screaming my name, but the call was broken", their daughter Aga wrote on her Facebook page.
It was later discovered that Stan had fallen overboard on Tuesday 21st November and Elisabeth had been unable to retrieve him.
The Bavaria 44' Vagant sails unattended into Lambeau Reef, Tobago after a tragic accident during its voyage from the Canary Islands.
Zero Sailing Knowledge is Unacceptable
Be safe!
Semper Paratus,
/fl