Self-defense Is Complicated

Young Rittenhouse stood with his AR15, hoping that it would discourage illegal rioters from overrunning and destroying private property. Little did he know he was about to receive a crash course on the subject of self-defense, as well as real lesson in human psychology.

It was only a matter seconds before he realized that there are people who have the stupidity to attack a person armed with a rifle without rhyme, reason or intelligence. Actually, we all were all addressed with that realization.

He turned, ran, and when provoked shot in fear for his life. Then, for nearly a year, became an expert at the law concerning protecting one’s self whilst under attack by a mob.

First and foremost, the the law varies dramatically from state to state. Secondly, none of the states laws are simple. Thirdly, much of it depends on who the district attorney is. If the DA doesn’t like guns, you just might want to carry a heavy frying pan with you on your walks. Even when you are totally within the law, you just might lose all of your personal fortune and a year or two out of your life proving it. In the end, you might still lose. You might still go to prison as a truly innocent person.

The above was prompted by a class I took for a permit to carry. I came away from the course realizing I should have taken the course a long time ago. I also realize it was a good thing I moved from Tennessee to Mississippi. Tennessee has no stand your ground law. It discourages me from visiting our friends north of us.

And by the way, if you use that frying pan to hit some worthless attacker over the head, you better hit him as hard as you can. If he survives, you just might very well pay for his support for the rest of his life, & maybe a tad more.

I have a bad ankle. Sometimes when I go on walks, I carry a cane. As near as I can figure, if someone comes after me with a knife, I’d better use my cane on the man rather than my gun. Also, should I show the gun in an attempt to avoid the conflict; that is brandishing, which is against the law. I could go to jail for that.

It is why I encourage everyone to take the course, even if they don’t plan on ever buying even a slingshot. As I say. Self-defense is complicated. It’s not always common sense. In fact, sometimes it doesn’t even make sense.

By the way, if someone comes after me with a knife and I have a cane, I can and will use my cane.

Competition is a Wonderful Thing

Let’s go back to the days of yore. Let’s imagine 3 cobblers set up shop. Which one will have the most success. To some degree, the one that is the fastest. However, the cobbler who makes a thousand shoes will never succeed unless he can sell his shoes. Therefore, his shoes need to be of good quality and the proper sizes. No one will buy shoes that are too small or will fall apart in a week.

If there were just 1 cobbler, we’d be stuck with whatever he wanted to make. The footware would be ugly, ill fitting and they wouldn’t last. The instant a second cobbler opens up shop, and then a 3rd and fourth, the quality would go up and the cost would go down.

It’s the way competition works and it’s wonderful. For well over 200 years, it has turned the USA to the greatest nation ever. There is no other country where people are willing to risk everything to get in. Moreover, as badly as the illegal aliens are treated, they hide in fear of being sent home.

Yet we prevent fair competition in one of the most important parts of our society. Of course private schools have a hard time competing with public schools. The government is picking up the tab for public schools.

Yet, there are thousands of parents willing to make great sacrifices to put their children in private schools. The why is quite simple. Public schools lack quality. They simply lack good teachers, good curriculum or good results.

The libs brag about public schools but, take away public funding and they would instantly go away. I know this is true because the libs themselves have said as much. They have said if monies are diverted to private schools, the public schools would go away. They actually live in fear of it.

Well, maybe they should go away. It is the way of competition. Only the better schools would survive. Only the best teachers would continue to teach. It is the American way. It is what made America great. Why in the world should we settle for a less than a mediocre education system when we are paying for the best?

Settling for mediocre schools is worse than Settling for mediocre shoes. And yet we stand by and watch our public school funds being poured down the proverbial drain…without results.

WHERE IS RAY EPPS???

I have seen it dozens of times; a man waving people into the Capitol building on Jan 6 and encouraging them to enter. The man’s name has been determined to be Ray Epps. At this point, it seems no one knows a thing about him. He does not seem to be connected to the FBI or any other federal organization.

I would hope one of the first things the Republicans do when they take control of the House is to summon Ray Epps. I personally would like to know:

A. Who signs his paycheck

B. Who told him to encourage people to enter the Capitol

C. How it is he avoided being charged with a crime when people just in the area are languishing in jail without charges right now, nearly a year after the event.

Do you suppose that the dems have paid for the man to disappear onto the French Riviera for the rest of his life. On the other hand, someone might pull the Clinton method and have the man commit suicide. He might be told, “Commit suicide or lose all your relatives and friends.” Such things have been done before and I would not put the dems above such a thing. After all, to them, there is nothing more important than the next election and the power it will give them. It is quite possible that Ray Epps just might know too much for him to continue to live. I wonder if we are going to find him conveniently dead in some park or federal prison. And, of course, it will be declared suicide, absolutely.

[Football] & Helmets

A comedian once said that helmets will be required by law in all automobiles when they can be worn without messing up a woman’s hairdo. It is only humorous because there is an element of truth in it.

Some say it is because safety first that we have an overabundance of safety regs. That is simply not true. If it were truly safety first, we would drive autos that weighed 3 or 4 times as much at 20 mph. And, of course, we would all wear helmets.

The fact of the matter is that we are always compromising with safety. I rode my bicycle many miles, many hours. At that time, they didn’t even sell bicycle helmets. Fortunately for me, I survived all my accidents. Then again, unless I was going downhill, I couldn’t pedal much over 20 mph. With the 15 speeds these days, 50 and 60 mph is manageable. Certainly, at such speeds, it is certainly a good idea to wear helmets as well as other safety equipment. Rubbing a knee or elbow on asphalt at 60 mph could cause some serious abrasions.

After some time in football of no brain injuries, I noticed in the news that there was one recently. If I heard the news correctly, a quarterback had his head slammed against ground. He had pads and a helmet but but the injury apparently was still severe.

So, just how much more do we armor the players? How much more do we alter the rules of the game to protect the players?

The station I was watching suggested foam pads on the outside of the helmets. Certainly, one pad on the back of this helmet would have decreased the injury, might have even prevented it.

The station’s reporter said they use the pads in practice already and suggested maybe they use them during games.

The immediate question that comes to mind is, why not? Some of it might be pride. There is certainly some valid concern about weighing down the head with equipment rarely needed. Personally, I don’t know the proper compromise.

Of course, every time there’s an injury, we are reminded of the dangers. Every time there is a missed play, we are reminded that every piece of armor slows us…ever-so-slightly. In games of inches and seconds, the extra padding might be making a difference.

Personally, I would think, at the least, the players should have a choice. Perhaps, they should even be encouraged. It is not just a matter of cost. It is more important than the entertainment of sports.

To be sure sure, one very light piece of foam could have saved the loss of a quarterback, perhaps thousands of dollars for medical expenses and, perhaps, just maybe a man’s life.

On the other hand, let’s not make the players play from within big plastic bubbles. Remember, safety really is a compromise.

Mandates and Laws

  1. Vaccine mandates might work if the vaccinatins were effective.
  2. Mask mandates might work if and when masks work.
  3. Laws only work when they are enforced.
  4. Borders are only borders when they are properly guarded according to the immigration laws.
  5. Biden will only start obeying the law when we the people demand it. Until then, he will do as he wants. Currently, he has no fear of the law, the Constitution or the courts. He said he could not get away with mandates, then he issued mandates. The court demanded he reiinstate hold in Mexico and he ignored the order.

Because vaccines are ineffectve, the vaccine mandates are useless.

Because the laws are not enforced, we effectively live in a lawless land.

Because he ignores the law Biden is a criminal.

Common Sense for Bullies

All the way through junior high, I was fairly tall, though I was on the skinny side. Mostly, the bullies left me alone. However, in the eighth grade, there was one guy much bigger than me. He was not only taller but much heavier too. I preferred avoiding fights, but he didn’t.

So, one day, against my better judgement, we faced off. Even though he had both the height and weight advantage, he decided he needed a rock to face me. After it was all over, I did have a bruise over my eye. A small wound compared to what he left with. Oddly, he never bothered me after that.

Unfortunately, after reaching high school, most everyone caught up with me in height and, of course, I was still skinny. That was when I learned a little of tact. Still, there were those who wanted to prove he was the better fighter.

Since those days, I spent a little time in the Marines and bulked up a little. I have hardly been confronted by bullies since then. There was one that wanted to fight me one night. Though he was much bigger, he was about to make a mistake. He was, well, should we say, inebriated. You might say, one good rule for any bully would be to avoid fights while under the influence. In this case, his girlfriend talked him out of it.

Thinking back over it, Jesus actually has some sound advice for bullies as well. Even though I am sure he never quite meant it that way, a bully should still pay heed to it.

“Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand?” Luke 14:31Berean Study Bible.

Of course Jesus was speaking of kings and going to war. Still, it does seem to be a good idea for bullies to avoid trying to start fights with people who are bigger than them. Moreover, they might also stay away from those who have spent nine years in the Marines. Just a suggestion. Had that man tried to fight with me, he might have hurt me, but if I hit him once, they would have carried him away in a stretcher. He was bigger. I would have had to use whatever I knew to stop him.

However, if I may, let me get back to what Jesus was talking about, warring between nations. As the implication is, even warring nations prefer to find weaker nations, as did Hitler at the beginning of his endeavors. His error was when he started going after the more powerful ones. Or as the Japanese admiral said after attacking Perl Harbor, “I’m afraid we have waken a sleeping giant.”

My conclusion from all the above is, if you don’t like war, keep yourself strong and powerful. The others may not like you but neither will they fight you. This of course means keeping any enemy from from infiltrating our borders. One enemy inside our borders can do far more damage than ten outside. Even worse, we might not be able to tell who sent him.

At this point there are many who would like to attack us and they can all take advantage of the open border Joe has provided them. The enemy needn’t fight his way in. All he need do is walk in.

I Finally Figured it Out

I get it. I’ve finally figured it out. The wealthy are trying to drive down the value of beach front property so they can buy it up. While they say the seas are rising, they keep buying properties below the predicted sea levels.

Obama has two properties that will soon be under water should his prophecy come true.

Personally, I will not believe any of them until they start building seawalls. So far, I see no hint of that. On the contrary, they keep buying the low lying expensive real estate. It is certainly clear that these FOCs don’t believe what they preach.

A side note: Some of those who have low lying mansions, just might realize that walls really do work and they just might start on their own.

It’s Just Not the Same

Many people like like to point out the migration that took place on Ellis Island and try to equivocate it the avalanche of those coming across the Mexican border. Even as they speak, they know it’s not nearly the same, that is unless they have less of a brain than a nail on the wall.

For those unable to figure out the difference, let me explain it.

First, no one who was sick was permitted into the country. Indeed the hospital where they were kept still stands and, though I might be wrong, it can still be toured. It was where the diseased were kept until well. Those who were not curable went back to where they came from. Had AIDS been a disease back then, no one would have been permitted in with it. However, today it is a political disease and people with AIDS are permitted in regularly, which likely resulted in the loss of many lives. Because there is no desire to do any tracing, there is no way to tell how many. There is no way to make a reasonable guess.

Secondly, it was highly organized. All who tried to enter were interviewed and if they were considered undesirable. they were returned to their country. Certainly, those who had a desire to overthrow the country were not permitted in. Those who had no money or a desired trade were turned away. It was not intended that we should be the welfare state of the world. Finally, those who were criminals were returned to their own country. To be sure, we were not perfect in this regard. Apparently, many criminals did make it through. However, they also turned many away. On the Mexican border, none are turned away.

Third, there were limits, quotas for each country. The obvious attempt was to keep any one nation from overwhelming our civilization. Even though most did separate themselves somewhat into groups, they eventually did assimilate. Until recently, we spoke one language in the schools businesses and our government. Now, when school meetings are held, it is not uncommon for them to be held in three languages. Worse, children are in our schools who don’t know the how to speak English, let alone read and write. They are not the only ones affected. All the learning is hampered.

And, by the way, it makes it more expensive too. Many who of those slowing the learning should not be in the classroom. They are there illegally. If ten illegal children are in a class, that means two-thirds are paying to educate three-thirds. That is not right.

Fourth, many who come over the border are criminals. It causes the crime rates to go up and it increases the cost of enforcing the law. Many communities that were reasonably peaceful now have a meaningful population of criminals who are not Americans.

Fifth, back in the day, cartels did not control our borders. Nowadays, they do control the Mexican borders. The US would be completely right to send in troops and wipe out the cartels. The US is under their attack. However, no one, but not one will do that, though they fire across the river nightly.

If things were now as they were then, I would not mind the immigration. Somehow, I don’t think there are many who will pay me any attention. They are afraid of someone saying something in the social media, which would force them out into the Outer Limits.

So instead, they watch as our nation falls into oblivion.

OH YES! ONE MORE THING. BACK THEN WE DID NOT HAVE THE FLOOD OF DEADLY DRUGS OVER THE BORDERS.

BUILD THE WALL!!

Questions for the FOCs

If there are so many that want the 4T bill, why do they have to do so much arm twisting to get it passed?

If there was no cheating on the election, why do they want to bury all the evidence? Why is it they don’t want the forensic experts to see it? Could it be that they know that it was not on the up and up?

Why is it that Biden doesn’t answer questions?

If they did such a good job in Afghanistan, why is it that they no longer want to talk about it? Seems to me, if they did so well, they would want to brag about it. Oh. Wait a minute. They did and that did not go over well.

Now let me see. Just why is it again that we need to spend 4.5 trillion dollars? Just who is it that has read the bill? Actually, at this point, I don’t even think it is done. Surely they will compete it before they pass it.

Just why is it that Kamala likes to laugh so hard at serious questions?

Just why is it that we need to build recharging stations all over the US. If we do and no one buys the electric cars, who will use them? Who will maintain them? For that matter, who is going to make money off them? Could it be the friends of the FOCs?

I’m sure you can think of a few questions I haven’t. However, the biggest question of all, how are we going to get them to answer any question? It is sort of like the FOCs. They never like answering questions, especially those that probe real problems. ?

YELL IT FROM THE MOUNTAINS!

There is a long history of communications. In Africa, I have been lead to believe they used drums. A couple of centuries ago, the Indians used smoke signals. In European countries, various methods were used: light generated from fire, horns or simply yelling from the mountain tops. From what I understand, that is how yodeling began. I don’t know, just what I heard.

Regardless, it does seem to be effective, assuming you conveniently have a mountain around. It wouldn’t work well in places like Kansas or Florida. I suppose drums and smoke signals would have worked better there.

Some might find it odd, but ships used to use flags… in two ways. They used semaphores, that is, a man using the position of two flags to spell out words. I would guess this method is rare today, but men learned the method up until a few years ago. Nowadays, they are more apt to use radio or, during radio silence, lights.

I must admit my ignorance of how, but sailors also hung flags from the masts of their ships. I don’t know if the flags represented words or letters, maybe both. None the less, the light, the flags, the smoke and the sound all had their simple limits. The message source had to be seen or heard.

Sometimes, in the old days, when a message was particularly important, they yelled it from the mountains. It did have its limits, but it was effective. They used relays. One person would call from one mountain, then when he heard it, another person would relay it from his mountain. It was faster than carrying a message by hand or even by Pony Express.

So it is that there is now an important message, one worthy of yelling from the mountain tops. There is a new version of the China virus. It is spread faster and more easily. The number of cases is going up fast.

And so it is that the message is being spread far and wide, “Get your shot!” The warning is being distributed far and wide, “Wear your mask! You must protect yourself and you must protect you children!”

In one case it was reported that already three teachers from one school came down with it. The hitch is that the school was not yet in session. The news report I heard did not say if the teachers were wearing their masks. My guess is that they did not wear their mask 24/7. It is just impractical.

There are problems with the messages. First, those yelling about the increase in cases, say nothing about those coming across the border spreading the disease all over the country. Every place they set foot, they are a biological bomb. I wonder why they leave that part out. Could it be that it is inconvenient to their goals? Could it be that they just don’t know about it? Do they know how saying the one thing while ignoring the other both nullifies the message and makes the messenger look pretty dopey?

Then there is the message about the mask. It would seem that it is horribly important that everyone over 2 should wear a mask to stop the spread.

Now I find that interesting. The China virus has been in our presence for over a year now. People seem to assume that they can slow the spread with the masks, but no one knows it. Not so much as one scientific study has verified it. A doctor, the one that should be put in prison says it, and it is taken as fact. (By the way the doctor has lied a lot.)

You would think after a year, someone would have done a study. Maybe someone did. It is possible. If they didn’t come out with the results they wanted, they just might put the results in the circular folder. I mean, if I were selling masks, really neat and expensive ones like Pelosi wears, and I did a study that showed that the results were negligible, maybe I would pretend I never did the study.

On the other hand, if I were an FOC, I might not want anyone to know the masks are not effective. It would remove the reason for my message I have been yelling for the last year. By the way, it just might also make me look pretty dumb.

Maybe it is time for those FOCs to get down off those mountains and seal the border, the real source of the new cases.

BUILD THE WALL!!