Scary Stuff on Halloween

I love Halloween - I live for it.  It's scary, it's fun and sometimes it's even sexy.  This year it's heavy on the absurd side, given that the scariest stuff in ages is about to come down on us:  Ebola and ISIS.  But then there's always pop culture to deaden the anxiety.

There's Kaci Hickox, the nurse who just returned from West Africa treating Ebola patients, who insists she's not symptomatic and is not trying to "get anyone sick," yet defies a quarantine order.  She's out riding her bike in Maine with her boyfriend, basking in her 15 minutes of fame.  As any medical professional knows, not having symptoms of a disease doesn't mean that one may not be a carrier.  See Typhoid Mary.  You gotta admire her for one thing, though - defying the government.  In her case, she knows more than anyone else, and therefore laws don't apply to her.  But what if she is a carrier?  That's scary.

Panic in the Democrat party is escalating as all major polls show devastating losses for the Dems next week. They fear they'll lose the senate, so they're playing the race card for all it's worth.  Mary Landrieu, herself a daughter of the South, is so desperate in her Louisiana senate race that she's taken to defaming all us Southerners as racists and sexists.  Because we're racists down here, she says, that's why the Kenyan and his policies aren't very popular in the South.  Although over the last six years the race card has been played so often that it's become lame and absurd, she, Kay Hagan of North Carolina and Michelle Dunn of Georgia all seem to think they can fool black folk one more time.  Well, they're democrats, after all, so that silliness can be expected.  The truth is Democrats - and even the Black Panther Party  - are running for the tall grass, lest they be associated with the Kenyan.   Liberals in a panic.  Fun.

Just in time for the midterm elections, a video goes viral of a young woman roaming - er, I mean walking - the streets of New York.  For ten hours.  Just so she could record the whistles and catcalls directed her way.  Just to show us how sexist we men really are.  Oh, boy, here we go again with more misandry, that feminist hate of all things male.  Shoshana Roberts (who?), an aspiring actress (aren't they all?), appears to have gotten a double bang for her buck.  Her sexist video on YouTube got over a million hits, which gives her some public exposure she would have never gotten otherwise based solely on her "talents."  And, she was working with Hollaback, yet another feminist hate group masquerading as a public support group.  So in ten hours hiking through New York, she only got 100 incidences of "harassment?"  Maybe that's because she's not as hot as she thinks she is.  After hearing her speak, she's even less so.  Sexy?  Not!

One of the scariest things for me is the notion that citizens are free to "out" anyone with whom they disagree on a given issue, for the sole purpose to create a clamor and debate.  Second amendment rights come to mind.  In Rochester, MN a woman so afraid of guns she decided to post a poster-sized sign in her neighbor's lawn "outing" him as a gun carrier.  The Constitution allows for civil scrutiny of the government, or of public officials, and I applaud that.  But when that freedom is used to embarrass, harass and demean law abiding citizens, that's misuse and abuse of the right.  I hope Matthew Hellack, a licensed carry permit holder, father of two and prior school board member, sues the pants off the meddling socialist activist Kimberly Edson for invasion of privacy and libel.  One does not have the right to attack others simply for exercising their constitutional rights - or their beliefs, for that matter.  We may see the NRA pursue this, but certainly not the hypocritical ACLU.   Scary.

But all this nonsense isn't going to deprive me of having fun tonight, as I intimidate the neighborhood kids with my zombie ninja costume.  Like I said, I live for Halloween, and I get to be scary, fun and sexy again for one short evening.  Boo!

The Skill of Self Defense

Given the chaotic and turbulent environment of late with which we're forced to contend, many folks have chosen to arm themselves by obtaining concealed carry permits.  Carrying a gun, or bearing arms, is a right that is not only God-given, but is protected and guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution.  All but a few states now have "shall issue" concealed carry laws, and more and more citizens are taking advantage of this.  That's a good thing, because in this crazy world, being armed and able to defend oneself and one's family is a near necessity. Studies have shown armed citizens prevent over two million violent crimes every year.  One may never need to use deadly force, but it's comforting just to know that potential bad guys don't know for sure if one is armed.  An armed society is a polite society.  Deterrence and threat of force works . Si vis pacem, para bellum.

As a holder of a concealed carry permit, I have carried a gun every day for most of my adult life, both before and after passage of my state's concealed carry law in 1989.  In all that time, I have only had to present a firearm once.  And in that instance, I can tell you that all my training, all my marksmanship, and all my cool went right out the window, even though I de-escalated the situation before the shooting started.  Here's why:  faced with immanent bodily harm, the human brain reverts to three basic options.  Fight, flight or freeze.  In a dire situation where the use of a firearm may be needed, the upper brain with all that training, rationale and intellect flies right out the window, and it passes the ball to the animal part of the brain - the hippocampus -  to ensure survival.  Your skill and training is reduced and confusion, denial and inability to act kick in with a vengeance.  And that's why even highly trained police officers often miss their targets during a gunfight. But the best way to win a gunfight is to never be in a gun fight.  Survival consists of mindset, skills and tools.  OK, you strap on your new pistol, place your new carry permit ID card in your wallet, and you boldly step out into the world, all armed and bad.  Right?  Partially.  You have the tool, but do you have mindset and skill?  Skill is the ability to utilize the tool you're carrying, and that includes intimate familiarity with the workings of your particular weapon, as well as proficiency in marksmanship necessary to employ it properly. Despite danger lurking almost everywhere and anywhere, by employing the following five basic elements in one's daily behavior avoiding a deadly situation is not only possible, but likely.

Awareness

Situational awareness is being aware of your surroundings, and your presence in them.  Use that sixth sense to anticipate danger, and always be diligent in what you do and where you go.  When walking across a parking lot one should be aware of other pedestrians, backing vehicles, or any threat or danger.  That's just common sense, but apply it intellectually; that is, be consciously aware of what's going on around you.  Note things out of pattern:  a car idling by the curb perhaps, or a nervous acting person with darting eyes.  Awareness is the first step in developing mindset, because when you are aware of surroundings, there's less possibility of surprise, and when you're not surprised, you're closer to being prepared.

Avoidance

You're walking home from the convenience store one night, and you see a group of youths congregating  on the corner ahead.  You're armed, but there are several of them and one of you.  Do you continue on your way, as is your right, and brush by them and possibly engage in some manner of conflict?  Or do you change directions, and find a different way home?  That's not cowardice, that's smart.  You have the power to avoid a potential confrontation, so use it.  Remember, rule number one in winning a fight is never get in a fight.  

 De-escalation

 Let's say you're driving in heavy traffic and some clown rips around you, cuts in front, and then slams on his brakes to keep from rear-ending the car ahead.  You have to stand on the brakes to keep from hitting him.  He sticks his head out the window and in graphic detail questions your motives and heritage.  What to do?  His immaturity gained him maybe 25 feet in the traffic que, but endangered everyone around with his reckless behavior. You could match his rant epithet for epithet, after all you've got a gun on your hip, and you're not intimidated at all.  Or you could merely shrug it off as he was just having a bad day.  A simple "My bad!" or "Sorry!" could save the day, and the pride you may swallow is far less demeaning than the bile a machismo response may entice.  Discretion is the better part of valor.

Escape

Always have an escape plan.  In the example of walking home from the store at night, we talked about avoiding a potentially dangerous situation.  But if you can't avoid it, be prepared to escape it.  If you see four guys coming over to you with obvious malicious intent, it's better to escape than to try to present that firearm.  Even advanced gunfight training may not carry the day, and in most states, the law wouldn't support you either. They may have been Estonian tourists simply seeking directions.  Think twice before your ever pull that gun: because after you do, everything changes.

Deadly Force

Now to the end-of-all-options scenario: the one you never want to face. The wild-eyed crazed assailant has a knife, and he's charging you in a full run. An average man can cover twenty-one feet in just one-and-a-half seconds.  That's two car lengths, or a large living room, or the distance from the sidewalk to your front door.  All in just over one second.  There's no time to avoid, no time to de-escalate, no time to escape, and no time to analyze.   You have to shoot.  To stop the threat.  Not scare, not wound.  Kill.  To stop the threat.  It's his life, or you and your family's lives.   Can you fire?  Do you have the mindset?  Do you have the skill?

Carrying a weapon is a right.  It's also a huge responsibility.  Forget all that Hollywood nonsense.  Forget your buddies' machismo over beers.  There's no reset button when you pull your weapon.  You need to be smarter and more level-headed and mindful every day that gun is on your person.  Get your permit, exercise your rights, but be as the Zen Warrior.  Don't screw it up.   

How to Win the Race War

In the chaos of all this nonsense about racism in the United States, especially as is occurring recently in Missouri, we lose sight of the facts concerning the protests.  While the media focus is on the death of a certain black teen, we should recall that this was the inevitable outcome of bad attitude driving bad behavior and ultimately bad decisions on the part of the so-called victim.

Let's start with the bad attitude.  Mike Brown was an 18-year old who was immersed in the thug culture that so permeates the black "experience."  Black teenage males wannabe ganstas are found in probably every city in the country, embolden by their parent, peers and music.  Brown was one of these wannabes, acting in bad behavior and with chip firmly in place on shoulder, was captured on video engaging in strong arm robbery of a convenience store.  Belligerence is a sub function of bad attitude, and when stopped for walking in the middle of a public street by an officer, Brown resorted to belligerent violence.  He attacked the cop, pounded his face to the point of crushing and collapsing the officer's eye socket, and as a result, ended up shot dead.  Bad decision.

The media continues to whitewash (pun intended) his criminal image into one of a big, lovable unarmed black teenager.  Unarmed?  He was a giant, well over six feet tall and weighing some three hundred pounds.  I wouldn't call that unarmed.  I hold advanced belts in Korean martial arts, and as such, am I unarmed?  No, I don't think so, either.  But the facts don't fit the left's political narrative.  To the progressive media, it's simply a case of a white cop killing an unarmed black man.  Period.  No extenuating circumstances needed, thank you.  Now onto our quest for justice.  In come the agitators, the instigators, and all the other left wing vermin to incite the black (and the Birkenstock-wearing and over-educated liberals) communities to seek justice.  Um, actually justice has already been applied.  See Self Defense, Chapter 1.  Oddly, no black or media rage is directed at the thousands of black-on-black instances.  Oh, right.  That doesn't fit the white America is racist narrative.  My bad.

As a result of this event months ago, more spontaneous protests occurred again yesterday, on Columbus Day.  That's a white America holiday, fool.  Spontaneous, did I say?  This was no flash mob - it was painstakingly orchestrated by the race baiters of old, out from under their rocks to take advantage of a perfectly good crisis.  Professionally printed signs with neat borders proclaiming Racism Kills and Black Lives Matter.  Clever.  Oh, and the cool tee-shirts, Hands Up.  Don't Shoot  - all in white-on-black (get it?) and in grammatically correct English.  Joined by white leftists, college kids (always vocally ideological but rarely truly informed), and other anthropomorphic socialists, the mobs found their way into Nieman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue, Michael Kors, Talbots, Tiffany & Co. and several other upscale stores.  Well, at least they didn't burn anything down this time.  Cornell Wild got arrested, though, and that's something.  Al and Jesse must have been in Vail and couldn't make it.  I wish white-hating black people would just get over this whole black victim-hood thing.  Mike Brown (remember?  supposedly what this is all about) was a teenaged thug headed for even more criminal intent.  He got killed for his bad behavior, as did over 400 people in 2012 alone.  There's nothing to defend or decry or protest here.

What about this, instead of defending the indefensible:
1.  Develop your own positive contributions to your community and to civilization as a whole - that is, find the zen in your blackness and honor and act within it;
2.  Find ways to elevate your community through job creation and education - build a business and train, teach and hire some folks and everybody makes money;
3.  Realize that people like to congregate with people who are like them - you do and I do, too.  That's not racist, it's human nature.
4.  And quit letting the leftist ideology in all its permutations shove you around and control your destiny.

Is this the mob-riot-protest legacy you want to leave your children?  No?  Then move beyond the mindless victim mentality that's being displayed in these events and others, tell the truth by not lying to yourselves, and you'll earn and gain the trust that you seek - and deserve.

Sexual Healing

It's not bad enough that the male-hating, rabid feminists have destroyed masculinity in this country, but now they are out to destroy sex.  Women are different from men.  Men differ from women.  Nature set it up that way, so the species could continue.  So it's natural that women are attracted to strong, masculine and powerful men.  But the hags at NOW and other radical feminist clacks, all mostly unattractive and dateless, want to declare every sexual encounter as rape, or as it's politically correct to define, sexual abuse.  Abuse?  That's a whole other fetish.  So when the hags scream "sexual abuse," do they mean bondage and domination?  Nope, they refer to any sex between a man and a women.

You wanna hit this?

Let's take the case of Lena Dunham, who claims she was raped years ago by a Republican.  With a mustache.  I'm serious.  You just can't make this stuff up. His name was Barry, she said.  There's some irony for you.  But why bring it up now?  She won't - or probably can't, because no such person exists - identify the bugger.  Oh wait, I know why now.  Now she's written an anti-male TV series, and she's touted by the leftist perpetually offended as an activist.  The cool thing is you don't need to be well versed in a topic to be an activist, you just need to be vocal.  Loud. Shrill.  Now armed with her 15 minutes of fame, she's well positioned to advocate for rape victims everywhere.  But, like the Al Sharpton-perpetuated Tawana Brawley rape hoax back in the 1980s, claiming rape when none exists could come back to haunt her.  And this kind of crying wolf hurts women in the long run.

She thinks she's hot.

There's more.  Consider the vulgar, vicious Sarah Silverman and her campaign against the male of the species.  In a reference to the supposed inequity between men and women's salaries, Silverman, in order to avoid the so called "$500,000 vagina tax," wants to trade her vagina for her own penis. Wow.  Talk about penis envy.  She insists however, it be circumcised.  If she hates men so much, why does she want to be one?  Oh, right. For the money.  You may recall her vicious rant about her wish to kill Christ again.  You can't make this stuff up, it's that far out in the lunatic fringe.  Jews are so funny.

Jameis Winston, FSU

Or how about the twin cases in Florida, wherein the star quarterbacks at both Florida State and University of Florida are under investigation for sexual abuse.  Both quarterbacks are black, and both of their separate accusers are black.  In the case of Jameis Winston, FSU, he is accused of sexual abuse for an instance from  a year ago, where the "victim" had had sex with everyone in the room, and with other men prior to the "event."  I wrote about this here in December of 2013.  The investigation at the time by the Tallahassee Police Department, as well as the University itself, revealed no evidence to warrant any charges.  But the black community, and the leftists on campus and elsewhere, won't stop until someone "pays" for this non-existent crime.  But if it's labeled sexual abuse, the outcome is predetermined.  Someone will be shaken down, and someone else will acquire ill gotten gains. 

Treon Harris, UF

The same thing happened in Gainesville, in the University of Florida case regarding Treon Harris, their game saving quarterback.  Literally as he came off the field after winning against the Tennessee Volunteers, he was taken aside and notified he was suspended for the rest of the year, both as a player and as a student.  No charges, no investigations, no trial.  Guilty until proven innocent.  To illustrate how far the insane NOW contrived notion that all sex is rape, both these guys are harassed and vilified for having carnal knowledge of less than virtuous females.  Smelling fame and fortune, these skanks are quick to plead their story to university officials, who in turn are terrified of the wrath of the harpies, and as such take immediate unlawful action against these guys.  The irony here is that the male-on-female abuse is more important than the fact that all parties are black.  Facts don't matter to the shrill, hate-filled hags, as long as they get a discrimination issue to flout before the mid term elections, all will be well.

Oh, and hey Sarah.  Be careful where you put your new penis.  You might find yourself on the other side of your favorite issue.

Is Isn't Isn't

I recall way back in elementary school, my teacher, in a lesson in punctuation, gave us this sentence and asked us to properly punctuate it:

That that is is that that is not is not.

Not all of us at that grade level got it right, of course, but it was something that stuck with me throughout the years, as it clearly demonstrates the importance of proper punctuation, and how even a misplaced comma can change the meaning of a sentence.  Here's the proper punctuation:

 That that is, is; that that is not, is not.

But more importantly, and what struck me then and now, is the mathematical, logical and philosophical truth of this simple sentence, and how in our current age, it has been twisted by advertisers, and political correct spin doctors.  There is a distinction between reality and fictional delusion. 

Think about the impact of this simple statement:  What is true, is true.  What is not true, is not true.  But spin doctors seek to blur the lines between truth and non-truth.  Changing the meanings of words, and the bastardization of the language is a prime example of this.  Homosexuals are now gays, notwithstanding that they actually may not be all that gay.  An abortion of a viable fetus is a woman's choice, not premeditated murder.  Intolerant is the label applied to those who merely question the political correct nonsense.  A racist is anyone who is white.  Period.

So as the Kenyan opens the borders, and invades us with millions of diseased, undereducated and criminal aliens and ships them to every state in the union, we may not criticize this treason because, well, that would be racist.  But these labels don't apply to the militant La Raza, who call for the annexation of the entire southwestern US to Mexico.  If one believes the Kenyan is the Antichrist in part because of his globally destructive policies, they are labeled an intolerant religious zealot.  Muslims, as they kill and maim with impunity, of course, are not.  If one believes that this government has become bloated beyond the people's control and that it is critically and criminally intrusive in our lives, then one is labeled a separatist, prepper or worse.  The labels applied come from the manipulation of the language by the political correct leftists.

We've been indoctrinated to believe discrimination is a bad thing, when in fact it's guaranteed by the first amendment as freedom of association.  Of course one must discriminate; its the crux of survival.  So each of us must reclaim our language, because when words and terms are redefined to one party's definition and benefit, the debate is already lost.  Throw off the yoke of political correctness, and use the English language in it's original and proper way.  Doing so will clarify for you that is isn't isn't.  Is is simply is.

And This Passes For Leadership

Senator Michelle?
Michelle is in a pout.  In a developing story, it seems he's decided to punish the country by not running for the senate.  Oh, dang.  To not allow all that supreme betterment to rule us mere commoners is just unfair.  How come you don't want to run, Mike?  Well, he says, it's because not enough congressional democrats supported his wonderful, altruistic, healthy school lunch menu mandate, er, I mean program.  It was bad enough that the kids upon which this idiotic menu was thrust - unschooled as they are as to what's good for them - know what they like. And they emphatically didn't like Mike's school lunch menus. Neither did parents, nor teachers, nor the school administrators.  Kids didn't eat their crappy lunches and went hungry the rest of the day, but what's worse is the waste!  Alley cats and dumpster divers wouldn't touch it either.   Now the program is a colossal failure, all those perfect, healthy meals are landfill compost.  But Mike's democrat cronies should have fallen in line and supported Mike's Big Lunch if they know what's good for them.  So for lack of Big Lunch support, now we lose a perfect senate candidate.  Just our bad luck.

US Tomahawk shipboard launch

 No Wars, War!
In an update to our relentless pursuit to decimate - I mean eliminate  - ISIS, it comes to our attention that in the first week of the war, the US alone has spent a billion dollars.  Ain't war hell?  Those Tomahawk cruise missiles are a really cool weapon - they can reach out and touch someone from thousands of miles away - but they cost in excess of a million dollars each.  And we've deployed a bunch of them, in part because they're effective, but also because we can hit from afar.  That's they way the Kenyan does business.  Not eye-to-eye, not mano a mano.  Nope, none of that dirty, house-to-house combat that gets people killed, like the way Bush did it.  And besides, ISIS, or ISIL, or just plain ol' IS is a just a JV team, right?  They pose no threat, to us anyway,  so let's just bomb them for a couple of weeks until we get the uptick in Democrat voter interest before the mid term elections.  The Senate is up for grabs, so, yeah, that should do it.

What Does It Say?

Islamic State
The real problem in this Iraq/ISIS mess is identifying the actual enemy.  Oh, sure it's ISIS, but we're arming Syrian "rebels," who aren't interested in US interests.  Our interest in the region is stability, and we put up with Netanyahu and Assad in furtherance of those interests.  Our hastily cobbled coalition is so inept, we even supply the bad guys.  But if we learn nothing, we should learn that when we arm and train insurgents, who are fighting other insurgents, those "friends" are more than likely to engage the US at some point later.  Think al Qeada in Saudi Arabia, think the Mujaheddin in Afghanistan.  And our engagement in this conflict is destined to help our enemies more than ourselves, as ISIS's true goal is to overthrow Assad in Syria, and install a caliphate in Iraq and elsewhere across the Middle East.  Bush was right; we still needed grounds troops in Iraq, because Iraqis aren't capable of maintaining stability in the region.  But our fearless leader, the Kenyan, can't be bothered to read his daily intelligence reports or attend intelligence briefings, lest he actually make an informed decision that furthers US interest, rather than democratic lust for congressional power.  That's our foreign policy.