Freedom

To be born free is an accident. To live free is a privilege. To die free is a responsibility.

— Brig. General James Sehorn

Healing?

Lately there have been days, or times rather, when I am glad she is gone. And there are other days when I still feel crushed and betrayed.

Is this what healing looks like? Or is it that my capacity to hurt been exceeded and I am just burnt out?

Bad Joke Wednesday

What is the blonde's mating call?
"I'm drunk"

What is the mating call of an ugly blonde?
"Guys, I said I'm drunk!"

There were these three guys at a cafe, drinking their coffee - an American guy, a black guy, and a Chinese guy. They see a really attractive waitress and comment on her good looks. Next thing you know they start making bets on who can get her to go out with them first.

The waitress overhears them, and she goes up to them and says, "Hey, I heard you talking about me. Well, I like an intelligent guy, so let's see who can make the best sentence using the words 'liver' and 'cheese'."
So the American guy goes, "That's easy. I love liver and I hate cheese."
The waitress shakes her heard in disgust.
The black guy goes, "Well, I hate liver and I love cheese."
The waitress says, "That is so stupid. That's essentially the same thing!"
Then the Chinese guy steps up and puts his arm around the waitress' waist. "Liver alone, cheese mine!"

What did the scarf say to the hat? "You go on ahead. I'll go around"

Extreme Shock Ammo

In light of all the shootings going on, and with so many people being volunteers (as one letter writer puts it) I decided to pack a little more power. I cannot afford a new firearm (wish I could) so I decided to check out a new ammo I have been looking at for a while. It's called Extreme Shock, billed as the world's premier anti-terrorist round. Particularly the round called the "Fang Face"

Why this ammunition? I guess the fact that they have pics (an old ad said they had video, might be available) of a boar being taken out with a 9mm round. A 500lb boar. That's good with a rifle, but a 9mm? The reason it is able to do this is the way it fragments. The bullet fragments in a more or less controlled manner, creating potentially hundreds of wound channels and creating a large temporary cavity while at the same time picking up tissue and pushing it forward. And because of this fragmentation a vital organ hit is greatly increased. In fact, it would be near impossible not to hit an organ with a center torso hit. ES makes the claim that it throws the central nervous system into shock with the damage thereby shutting it down. And that is precisely what is wanted.

The round is designed to dissipate its energy in the first 5 to 9 inches. The FBI look for something that will penetrate 12 or more inches. But you know what? From the front of my chest to the back is only like 8 inches. 12 inches of penetration means there is 4 left for someone else. Not only that, it also means that 1/3rd of the energy didn't transfer to the target. That reduces my 600lbs of force to ~400.

I don't see myself in a situation like the FBI where I might need to shoot through walls, homes and cars. The vast majority of self-defense encounters are against assailants who are facing you and who are not wearing armor nor are hiding behind cover. I want as much as possible to go into that target with little to no over-penetration and I feel this round will do that for me.




They have some video on their site of various rounds fired into ballistic gel. The .50 BMG is so total overkill but it is interesting to watch the gel blow up.

Advanced Decision Making

Over at Nate's it was mentioned that many people, when faced with a situation like at VaTech, don't know what to do. They are paralyzed by the fear and the chaos of the situation. This is true, but it need not be true for me or anyone else. What it takes is making a decision.

When I say make a decision, I mean to imagine a circumstance and play out your response to it. There have been numerous shootings at schools, malls, and restaurants. What will you do? Where would you go? Where might you take cover? Are there dividing walls? Back doors? These are quite simple questions and as we all tend to visit the same places over and over the answer to these questions are also quite simple.

If so lunatic with a gun or a knife starts attacking people near you, you need to be able to act with the minimum amount of thought possible. Fear can cause the mind to freeze so don't count on your incredible intelligence when that day comes. It likely won't be available to you. And with the adrenaline coursing through your veins your legs won't be good for very long either, so quick action is critical to the survival of your loved ones and hopefully yourself as well.

I wrote an article previously about being vigilant. It's a good read and well worth two minutes of your time. Being mentally prepared could just save your life.

Professor Liviu Librescu

With my rant yesterday about the cowardice of the VTC students and faculty, I feel I should note this Professor. This man, at 76 years old, stood up to the evil that consumed so many lives Monday morning. Professor Liviu Librescu's self sacrifice saved the students in his room. A similar sacrifice by others could have prevented this horrific event.

This is a man to be lauded.
A hero to behold.
A hero slain.

Lord that you bless this man's sacrifice!

I'm Pissed!

Every time this happens I get extremely upset. It's the same old thing that happens every time, for the past ten years now, and I just can't control it. I don't even think I should try to control it. There are just so many f*^%ing idiotic cowards out there who are unwilling to stand up in their own defense or in the defense of others that an anger just wells up.

WTF People!

Some bastard walks into a segment of the populace that the Gov has made unarmed (who the f*(k listens to that shit!) and then said bastard starts blowing people away. And he has total reign because 1) the Gov disarmed the people 2) The people idiotically followed like sheep to the slaughter and 3) there are too many cowards.

I am not about to say that everyone who died today was a coward. Certainly the fearful are amongst the dead and likely some brave as well. But where were the brave men who could have stood up to a man with naught but a 9mm and a freaking .22! What happened to the education of young men in firearms so that they could identify the weak points of this assault? Did no one realize that firearms have to be reloaded in real life (unlike the movies we've all grown up on) Did no one realize that a single man can only take on people from so many directions? Does no one realize that a single bullet, or even 5 of 6 isn't necessarily enough to stop a determined man?

These shootings sicken me. The sicken me because they can be PREVENTED! 32+ dead at this time. Literally hundreds of lives shattered. All of it preventable. And no, more gun control is NOT the answer. Gun control is what lead to this and so many other tragedies. The Palestinian Liberation Organization used to try these tactics, shooting innocents, but these shootings didn't last long because the Israelis are an armed people. Soon the PLO terrorists were shot down, oftentimes before they could even get a shot off. We can and MUST emulate the Israelis in this. These shootings become worse and will become more prevalent because we allow ourselves to be disarmed.

"People willing to trade their freedom for temporary security deserve neither and will lose both."

Bad Joke Wednesday

(Or whatever day it is you are reading this)

I'll start...
Bill Maher is a libertarian!

Enigma: JAIL 4 Judges

Something to ponder.

Last year in South Dakota there was an Amendment on the ballot, Amendment E, better known as JAIL 4 Judges a judicial accountability act. This ballot went down in flames: 89% to 11%. On its face it would simply appear that the populace was just dead set against it. But was that really the case?

Amendment E made the ballot with some 46,800 signatures, or a little over 6% of the population and almost 10% of the registered voters. Now as one who has done some petitioning I know that there are many people who support your initiative that will simply not sign the petition for various reasons, time being the biggest stated reason. So if a petition can get 10% of the registered voters that means it has greater support than simply those who sign it. This would indicate a higher support than shown in the official poll results that show that only 35,640 voted for E despite that number being over 10,000 less than signed the original petition.

To add to the mystery, Zogby was commisioned to perform a poll on this issue. Zogby is a highly respected polling company used in every election and their accuracy is quite high. Zogby polled and found 67% in favor of the Amendment. Whats more, the SD Sate Bar performed their own poll and found 3 to 1 in favor of the Amendment. Somehow the results went from 67-75% in favor to 90% against.

As I see it one of two things happened here. Either a highly (and improbably) succesful campaign by the No-on-E groups or vote fraud occured.



registered voters 502,261
total votes 330,387