Yes, Armed Citizens are Clueless Tools — NOT

Posted on April 25, 2013 by Mike Clark

Tooling around YouTube

Hey, I found this 3-part screed about how bumbling private citizens cannot possibly defend themselves effectively.  This is what they say in the description.

The controlled study documented in these videos show that concealed carry permit holders are fooling themselves if they think they will be able to react effectively to armed aggressors. Most CCW holders won’t even be able to un-holster their gun. They will more likely be killed themselves or kill innocent bystanders than stop the aggressor. For more details, see “Unintended Consequences: Pro-Handgun Experts Prove That Handguns Are a Dangerous Choice for Self-Defense.”

If you could endure listening to that entire steaming pile (I didn’t, not all three videos, but I certainly got the point they intended to get across), then you must know by now that clueless, untrained, and mush-for-brains civilians cannot possibly make a difference in critical situations with their own personally-owned weapons.  So, let’s present some cases in point, demonstrating that without a doubt we should all turn in our weapons and let the professionals protect us.

11-year-old Girl Scares Away Home Invaders — with a Gun

A acquaintance of mine said that the young girl should have just run away to some other part of the house and hid in a closet or something.  Did she know what these guys intended to do?  What if they were looking for her to kidnap?  Wouldn’t they have canvassed the house until they found her?

Yes, hiding would have been useful if she had not had a weapon to defend herself with.  But she had one, and clueless, untrained, and inexperienced or not, she used it effectively to defend herself.

Old Geezer Defends Self, Wife and Patrons at Internet Cafe

So these two guys, you see, come into this place of business and demand money from the patrons.  What else are they going to demand?  Who knows!  Thing is, if someone has a gun and they hold you in threat with this deadly weapon, you don’t know if they are going to simply kill you for the hell of it, or restrict themselves to robbery.  In this case there was this other guy who wasn’t going to stand for any of that nonsense.

Now, ABC News told you specifically that you aren’t going to be able to defend yourself, and you’ll probably get yourself and others killed trying it, so give it up, loser.  It’s a fair bet that this older gent didn’t watch their self-serving piece of trash “documentary”.

Remember how NBC News set up a truck to explode in order to tell us all about how some GM trucks might explode in an accident?  This is another case in point.

The local newspaper reported this in a story, “Patron fires on armed robbers at Internet cafe”:

Two men who attempted to hold up an Internet cafe were shot and injured by a patron of the business Friday night, according to the Marion County Sheriff’s Office.

Sheriff’s officials said they got a call at 9:54 p.m. about an armed robbery at Palms Internet Cafe, 8444 SW State Road 200. When deputies arrived at the scene, patrons outside the business told them that two men in masks — one armed with a baseball bat and the other with a handgun — had barged into the business. The robbers told the approximately 30 patrons to get on the floor, and they demanded money.

Officials said one of the patrons, Samuel Williams, drew his own handgun and shot at the robbers.

Both robbers began running toward the front door, and the patron fired several more shots as they fled.

Note carefully how the armed old guy, who had probably NEVER gotten the special training that ABC News had its tools give the unsuspecting students in the first video up there, managed to shoot both perps and miss everyone else in the room. He drew from concealed without snagging his gun in his shirt, and did what he had to do.

Armed Citizen Returns Fire, Avoids Robbery at ATM

Another incident of a clueless, bumbling, bozo citizen attempting to “take the law into his own hands”, instead of waiting for the police to rescue him.  Well, in this case the police would have probably have been too late to do anything except call the Coroner’s Office to come collect the victim.  And maybe they would have eventually caught up with the perps; or more likely not.

ABC News, in the original video at the top of this post, had their tools, er, police officials, participating in what amounted to an elaborate STING, set the victims up with situations in which even a trained, though inexperienced person would have had a hard time responding effectively, and then uses their artificially-generated results to PROVE that CCW holders should just give it up ‘cuz they’re hopeless.

And did you notice that they set up the victims (and yes, I mean that word) with clothing that they were unaccustomed to wearing, loose clothing that can easily get caught on the projections of a firearm?  And then made a point of their inability to draw cleanly?  If this was a scientific study, they committed fraud, because they set up their experiment to produce the results they intended.

Or that ABC News intended.

When You Are a REAL CCW Holder, You Know How to Draw the Darned Thing

The kid in the video trying to draw and getting all hung up on his shirt because they deliberately set him up to fail?  Check this out:

Of course it is possible for an armed citizen to have a hard time when presented with a real situation for the first time.  Even a cop would have a hard time.  That’s not the point.  The point is, if you are in mortal danger, then you may defend yourself and you may succeed.  You may also fail, but at least you have the choice.

Home Invasion Foiled by Armed Citizen

One last time for good measure.  They got more than they bargained for.

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My New Favorite YouTube Channel

Posted on April 25, 2013 by Mike Clark

Mr. Colion Noir!

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Korean Weather is Heating Up

Posted on April 2, 2013 by Mike Clark

I don’t know what it is about Kim Jong-un that is causing him to get so belligerant to be threatening the tossing of nukes everywhere.  The apparent cause of this heated talk is the pretty much routine annual training exercises the that US has with South Korea.  Does the Dear Leader feel especially vulnerable at this time or something?

North Korea cannot feed itself properly.  It’s socialist/communist economic policies pretty much guarantee that its food production is below the level which makes it possible to survive without food imports.  And the country’s recent belligerance (exploding nukes, launching missiles, sinking a South Korean warship, and firing artillery into the South) has caused economic sanctions to be imposed, thus making it more difficult to feed themselves.  Ironically, things are so bad in the North that they had to erect fortifications along their border with the Peoples Republic of China, to keep defectors from fleeing into that country, supposedly one of their staunchest allies.  Of course, the PRC does not permit apprehended defectors to remain, but they are repatriated to North Korea if they are discovered.

So, what can North Korea do?

Well, they could invade the South.  The country has the 4th largest military in the world, with an estimated 1.21 million armed personnel, with about 20% of men aged 17–54 in the regular armed forces.  Add in reservists and other non-active-duty personnel, and they could field something like 4 million troops in a pinch.  Quite a pinch!  But how effective could they be?  I don’t know, but I am sure someone does.  Or think they do.

The problem is, if they can’t feed themselves adequately in peacetime, wartime is going to make things even worse.  I suspect it would be a disaster for them if they were to invade the South, and I’d bet that even they know this.  Thus I believe that all this saber-rattling is exactly that: much ado about nothing, or at any rate, they will stop short of actually re-starting the Korean War.

That’s my take on it, at least.

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They also serve who only stand and wait…

Posted on March 21, 2013 by Mike Clark

There was a front page story in my local newspaper, The Olympian, about two Soldiers from the Ranger battalion at Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM) receiving the Silver Star for actions in Afghanistan.  One received his posthumously; the other survived the action.

It is perhaps just fatuousness, but I feel so proud of these two men, whom I have never met, and at the same time so very unworthy of their sacrifice, of both life and peace.

I spent eight years in the US Army, from 1975 to 1983, basically two four year enlistments, leaving as a buck sergeant.  I spent nearly all of my first hitch at JBLM, at the part then known as Fort Lewis, just down the road from the Ranger battalion headquarters.  A few of my friends transferred over to the Rangers, and just a few months before my mustering out of service, a couple of them dropped with their battalion by parachute into a hot LZ during Operation Urgent Fury, the invasion of Grenada.  My friends survived their contribution of courage to the glory of the 2nd Battalion 75th Infantry and the United States of America.  Similarly, Sergeant Peter Cimpoes survived his contribution, but Specialist Ricardo Cerros did not.  Their stories are worth reading: Medals go to American heroes.

I was reflecting on all this recently.  The thing that stands out to me is that in my service I was never required to place my life on the line.  My four years in combat arms units (2nd Bn 39th Infantry and 1st Bn 11th Field Artillery) were undistinguished by any actual combat.  I was ready, but the call never came.  I sometimes regret this, given that many of my fellow soldiers were called later, and answered the call.  I console myself with the last line of John Milton’s poem, On His Blindness, in which he states “they also serve who only stand and wait”.

Milton was writing about his disability, which was his physical blindness, by which he was unable to serve in the common ordinary fashion of the rest of humanity.  I echo this sentiment in resonation by way of being unable to serve due to my lot in time.

In 1991, I watched as many of my fellow soldiers invaded Iraq and Kuwait with General Norman Schwartzkopf.  I was familiar with Schwartzkopf, having been under his command during 1978 when he was a mere bird colonel and the commander of the 1st Brigade of the 9th Infantry Division.  I don’t know how many others out of the many who served with me during my service in the 39th Infantry and 11th Field Artillery went into harm’s way in the Gulf War, but I was with them in spirit.  I wanted to be there so bad I could taste it.  I would have been there, my brothers and sisters, had I been standing and waiting at that time.

Not that I wanted to commit violence upon people or property, you understand.  That being part and parcel of standing in harm’s way, however, it was all of a piece.  What I yearned for was to face danger with those whose lot it was to serve when that service was required.

No doubt those who have stood in harm’s way in this fashion will read this and mutter to themselves, “What an idiot.”

And they’re probably right.

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Playlists are SO cool

Posted on February 4, 2013 by Mike Clark

Remember that the Whitehouse released President Obama’s 2013 Inauguration playlist?  Did he really listen to this playlist on his iPod?

You know things have really “progressed” when a person’s playlist becomes part of his political personna.  I can see a future Presidential candidate being assigned his “campaign playlist” by his campaign manager.  Does he have to claim that he actually likes every song on the list, or even that he has listened to every one of them?

Imagine some big-city gal who utterly hates Country Music, and she especially detests Tammy Wynette’s music.  If she is the sort of person who throws up in her mouth every time she hears “Stand By Your Man”, but must have it on her playlist in order to placate Southern voters, well, you can imagine all sorts of scenarios for disaster.

People are going to want to play those playlist tunes for the candidate, imagining that she likes hearing it.

President Obama’s Playlist

And here we go:

  1. “Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I’m Yours)” Stevie Wonder
  2. “I Was Here” Beyoncé
  3. “Mi Gente” Marc Anthony
  4. “Carry On” Fun
  5. “New Day” Alicia Keys
  6. “Mud On The Tires” Brad Paisley
  7. “Turn Up The Love” Far East Movement, Cover Drive
  8. “Edge of Glory” Glee Cast
  9. “Your Smiling Face” James Taylor
  10. “Ordinary People” John Legend
  11. “Firework” Katy Perry
  12. “Breakaway” Kelly Clarkson
  13. “My Mic featuring Biz Markie” Nick Cannon
  14. “Something Special” Usher
  15. “Higher and Higher” Walt Whitman, The Soul Children of Chicago
  16. “Get Ready” Smokey Robinson
  17. “Future” Mindless Behavior

I found this list on Time’s Entertainment website.

Now, I am familiar with most of the songs on the President’s playlist, and I like many of them.  Does this give me a greater sense of connection to the President?  No, not really, but neither does it make me less connected.

But I especially like #17 on the list.  Well, not that I have ever heard this particular musical item, but I enjoy the juxtaposition of those particular words: a song titled “Future”, by a group called Mindless Behavior.  On the President’s playlist.  Do I need to explain the joke?  I hope not.

And just in case you’re a fan of President Obama, I am sure that even if you get the joke you are not particularly pleased with it.  In that event, please consider what you would have said if that song had been on President Bush’s playlist.  What would you have thought in that case?

Firework

I enjoy Katy Perry’s song Firework, although I am slightly annoyed with the one gay reference in the music video — why ruin a perfectly upbeat message with unnecessary controversy?  But the image of colorful fireworks shooting from the various characters’ hearts as they realize that they have within themselves exciting potentialities was very moving in a lot of ways.  Brings tears to my eyes actually.

I felt especially moved by the scene of the bald little girl in the hospital for cancer treatment inadvertantly watching a mother in the process of giving birth — with the fireworks shooting from the mother’s tummy.  I am a sucker for mommy’s and babies anyway, and this just added to the piquancy.  See it at about 2:00:

I can listen to this song over and over.  If President Obama actually likes this song, then I am pleased.

Future by Mindless Behavior

I finally had a listen to this on YouTube, and it turns out to be a romantic hip-hop ballad.  I was surprised to find it kinda sweet.  Awwww.   Click on the title above for a listen.  You won’t dislike it, I’m pretty sure.

I still stand by the joke above, however.  It’s too good to pass up.

Posted in Music, Politics | 4 Comments

Al Jezeera Buys Al Gore’s Current TV

Posted on January 13, 2013 by Mike Clark
The news that didn’t really make it to mainstream television was that Al Gore sold his cable channnel “Current TV” to Al Jezeera.  See the news here.  They paid Gore a half million dollars for the network, which, given a viewership of 42,000 in prime time, means they paid about $12 per viewer.  I’d say that 42,000 viewers represents a “pittance”, except that I certainly don’t have that many viewers/readers for this blog.  But still.
Apparently, talk-show host Glenn Beck offered to buy the network, but Gore refused.  That’s funny, actually.  But nevermind.
The main thing to note is that the sale probably took place BEFORE the new tax rates came into effect.  Al Jazeera announced the purchase on January 2, 2013, which, given that January 1 was a holiday, means that the sale took place before then.  Some people might complain that Gore should have waited until after December 31 to finalize the sale, so that he could pay more tax on the deal — doesn’t he want to pay his “fair share” as President Obama likes to call it?  But I say, screw it.  Selling this network to AlJ at that time was actually intelligent business planning and could be said to be evidence of an entrepreneurial spirit in Al Gore.  Didn’t know he had it in him!
But on the other hand, perhaps this is evidence of the pervasiveness of hypocrisy on the Left?
Yes, I believe it is.
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Certainties and Inevitabilities

Posted on January 4, 2013 by Mike Clark

If it were me, I’d pretty much know what do about this.  But it isn’t.  If it were me, I’d at least feel a little bit in control of the outcome.  But it isn’t.  So it is out of my control.  Imagine how this makes me feel.

What am I talking about?  Colorectal cancer, that’s what.

My wife has been diagnosed with this cancer, and the final diagnosis is in.  It’s Stage II.  Emininently treatable.  The oncologist says he would like to treat it with chemotherapy and radiation to reduce its size before the tumor is excised in surgery, but the state of the tumor was such that he felt that surgery alone would be workable.  All the doctors who have examined her so far believe that there is a good chance that she can avoid a colostomy: just cut it out, reattach the two ends, and all should be well.  Apparently, the cancer has not metastasized; it’s all right in one spot, 5 cm across.  Her sister had a similar (though smaller) tumor successfully removed last year.

From subtle indications we have had over the past couple years, it has been growing since at least that long.  It hadn’t been discovered to be cancer before now because my wife has a great distrust of modern medicine, to put it mildly.  One thing that should have been done a year or so ago would have been to check out her colon — she was complaining just this morning in fact that the doctors should have suggested it.  But would she have even gone along with the suggestion if it had been made?  I doubt it.  In fact, just recently she put up with two weeks of excruciating abdominal cramps, pain and constant diarrhea before she finally agreed to go to the doctor.  And chewed me out twice for being some kind of shill for doctors when I suggested that she needed to be seen by them.

So now we know.  And after the consultations and tests, the decision is made: she will not be treated by medical doctors.  She has decided to go 100% with alternative “medicine”.  No radiation.  No chemotherapy.  No surgery.  It’s going to be herbs and so-called “oxygen therapy”.   I’ve told her that I will support her in her decision — what else is there to do?  I cannot convince her otherwise; she is very stubborn.  I am still going to try, but based on past performance, I am unlikely to succeed.

Well, the outcome of this, even if she had decided to go the medical route, wasn’t 100% guaranteed.  But with this decision of hers, I am cast into a bleak certainty.  I have little trust in the efficacy of what she has decided to do, and my expectation is that I will soon be a widower.  Her colon is now 80% blocked by the current state of the tumor.  When it hits 100% there will not be much time left.  I expect there’s about a year left.

It’s going to get ugly. 

 

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R.I.P. General Norman Schwartzkopf

Posted on December 28, 2012 by Mike Clark

My old brigade commander, H. Norman Schwartzkopf, has passed away at the age of 78.  I never met him personally, but I was one of his troops when I served in the 1st Brigade of the 9th Infantry Division at Fort Lewis, Washington, in the late 70’s.  He was a colonel at the time, and at the end of his tour he was promoted to brigidier general.  I remember him mostly for the effect that he had on the morale of my immediate comrades in C Company 2nd Battalion 39th Infantry.  His predecessor was not a bad commander, but Schwartzkopf was quite simply excellent.  The entire command seemed impressed with him, and I think we felt more like a military unit than a show-boat.  The reason I say that is because our previous commander seemed more interested in showing off in various ways than anything else.  What Schwartzkopf wanted, and what he got, was an effective military organization that was capable of performing its assigned mission, had it been called upon to perform it.

I remember the morning we found out that Colonel Schwartzkopf was getting his first star as a brigidier general.  He had our three battalion commanders gather us all into a single formation on the brigade parade ground, which was a first; and after a great deal of trouble by our battalion leaders to get us into a very precise and regular formation, the first thing he did after mounting the reviewing platform was to call us to break formation and gather around the platform!  All that work undone in a moment!  This got a bit of a laugh from some of the troops, actually.  

Colonel Schwartzkopf, not being a blowhard, was quite brief in his remarks.  I remember it slightly differently from his own report of the event in his book.  He informed us that the Army had made a big mistake: they were going to promote him to brigidier general.  He gave us much of the credit for this through our support of him as our commander by our striving to be our best, and then gave us the rest of the day off.  His book attributes the bit about the Army making a mistake to a conversation he had with a colleague upon receiving the news of the promotion, while expressing it differently to the troops, but I was there and he repeated this “mistake” remark to us. 

But the main thing was, Colonel Schwartzkopf clearly cared for the troops under his command.  I served 8 years in the Army, and while I knew some good officers, Schwartzkopf was arguably the best of them.  It was no surprise to me that he managed to pull off the invasion and liberation of Kuwait with such great success.

May he rest in peace.

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Just saw “Skyfall” – the new James Bond movie

Posted on December 11, 2012 by Mike Clark

I don’t go to theaters to watch movies very often. But this week I decided to treat myself to some flick or other, and then I had to pick one. I don’t know why I chose to see Skyfall, except that I think that Daniel Craig is a pretty good actor. James Bond hasn’t been my favorite mileiu for some time, but there it was coming up in a few minutes, so I went for it.

To cut to the chase, this movie rocks.  You like action?  This movie has action.  In fact, the action is almost nonstop.  The plot actually makes sense, even after I’ve watched it I cannot find any glaring holes in the story.  And Mr. Kiss-Kiss Bang-Bang is definitely kissing and banging.  There are two very lovely Bond girls in this film, and one of them gets killed.  I won’t tell you which one.  But it’s sad when it happens, because it happens  just a moment before the cavalry arrives and saves the day.  Temporarily.  She dies because apparently Bond cannot shoot straight due to an injury he suffers early in the film.

If I were a REAL movie reviewer I would give this film four stars out of four.  I can’t think of a single thing that was wrong with it.  The acting was excellent; the story was believable; and the action was exciting and riveting.

Recommended!

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Bad Astronomies and Global Warming Deniers

Posted on December 11, 2012 by Mike Clark

Not that Phil Plait (the Bad Astronomer) will read this blog, but I am quite annoyed by his use of the term “global warming denier”.  I realize that he didn’t originate the term and he isn’t the only one who uses it, but still.  And I wonder.  Does BA intend to equate those who have doubts about global warming, or doubts about it being caused principally by humans, to those who deny the Holocaust?  Because that is what it sounds like.  And if so, then I must strongly protest.  What is being done here by so speaking is not, in my opinion, good science.

In the conclusion to Phil Plait’s post, entitled “New Study Shows Global Warming Is Rapidly Melting Ice at Both Poles“, the Bad Astronomer states:

“The truth is the globe is warming. The climate is changing. Ice is melting, sea levels are rising, droughts and wildfires are on the rise, and much if not all of this is due to human activities increasing greenhouses gases in our atmosphere. It really is that simple, and it’s long, long since past time we acknowledge that. And that’s just the first step, but given how loud the deniers are, it’s one we still have to take.”

While it does seem that he is correct about the globe warming, when he states that “much if not all of this is due to human activities,” I think it is possible that he might be assuming too much.  And not just him.  There may be a growing consensus that humans are the primary cause of climate change, but I fear that the consensus is being driven less by science and more by polticial correctness.  Why would I believe this?  Because instead of couching the debate as one between two legitimate positions, Plait and others smear those who disagree as “Deniers”.

We may eventually come to the point where anthropogenic climate change is a proven fact.  But there is still room for doubt, and it seems to me that it does not become us, as scientists, to leave civil debate and enter into name-calling.

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