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In Which I Demonstrate It’s Commonality

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Last week I posted an incident from Moscow at the University of Idaho.  It was a classic game of fill in the blank, but all the answers were known in advance.  I know some of you probably though I was exaggerating how common this type of event is.  Well wonder no longer.

Police in Pullman say a Washington State University student fell three stories from a fraternity house window and was taken to Pullman Regional Hospital with undisclosed injuries.

Note how the Greek system was involve yet again.  No word on alcohol yet, but it’s hard to think it wasn’t involved.

Now many would wonder why things like this are becoming increasingly common.  The answer though is quite simple, kids now days live in a bubble wrapped world.  Instead of slowly being acclimated to the realities of the real world and personal responsibility they are shielded and sheltered from it.

This quote from Caleb puts it quite well:

People wonder why there seem to be an increasing number of kids filming themselves performing dangerous stunts for youtube – well gosh, if I was raised in a padded bubble of safety by helicopter parents, I’d probably try to ride my bike off the roof too just to see what danger felt like.

Not only are kids sheltered from danger, but adults who attempt to give their kids that taste of personal responsibility are reported to the police and arrested.

“I went out there to see what he was here for and he said, ‘Ma’am, we’re here for you.’ I said, ‘Oh really? Why?’ He proceeded to tell me he had received a call from one of my neighbors that my kids were riding their scooters unsupervised. 

Cooper said she was handcuffed, put in the back of a police car and forced to spend the night in jail. 

“Orange jumpsuit, in a cell, slammed the door, for 18 hours,” Cooper said.

The ages of the children involved were 9 and 6.  I remember at 6 regularly going with my sister different places without our parents.  Including down to the local park, and through the woods as well.

By 8 I was heading off doing things entirely on my own.  My rules were just the same as Robb’s.

What happens when you shield kids from everything in the world?  They simply don’t know how to deal with life when it actually shows up.  They always figure that life is safe and nothing can possibly go wrong.  For them they live in a world without consequences because they’ve never experienced any.

How nice is it though that the state is now trying to force everyone to live in the same bubble wrapped world.  There is one saving grace about this woman’s experience.

The charges against her were eventually dropped but she still describes the ordeal as humiliating and said her children were even questioned by police  and terrified.

(Emphasis mine).  Yeah, you think either of those two children will ever trust the police again?  They got to experience first hand exactly what government is.

Today’s Lesson

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My dad drilled something into my head growing up and the following reminded me of it:

One of the more depressing things in the life of being an activist for rights is that more often than not, rights are lost because people didn’t want to defend the bad guy. It’s easy to look the other way when Scummy McScumbag has his rights violated because… well because scumbag!

To which another person stated the following which further rung the bell:

But his legal rights were violated in the name of Justice. And as Robb points out, the violation of this man’s legal rights is a loss of rights for everyone. It gets easier to break the rules once you’ve done it once, and in this case, when you’ve been officially blessed by the Powers That Be.

Here is today’s lesson folks, it is simple and only a single sentence:

There is no correlation between the law and justice.

Did everyone get that?  Please read it out loud and repeat it to yourself a few times because it is very critical you remember and understand it.

It is important to understand because that line succinctly describes both the positive and negative in the justice system.  On the one hand you have the issue as Robb pointed out with Mr. Scumbag.

Mr. Scumbag gets a pass because his rights were violated, this boils back to the principal of protecting the innocent.  This principal is important and is one that as a free people we should never lose sight of.

The second side of this is that the law can just as easily screw someone who doesn’t actually need screwing.  It’s pretty darn unjust to annihilate someone’s rights and make them a felon over what really amounts to something that isn’t an actual danger to society.

We must remain vigilant for that exact reason.  As our “elected betters” create laws, there is nothing actually guaranteeing that those laws are just.  This especially holds true  when the phrase above is tied in conjunction with the following:

The purpose of the law is to keep those who have money and power with the money and the power.

Lets also not forget about prosecutors and how they also fit into this entire mess.  They provide yet another prong in the long illustration how there isn’t a correlation between the law and justice.

Yeah, at times it sucks when you think about the fact you have to defend some dude who truly should go to jail.  The thing is, he would have if law enforcement played by the rules and the prosecutor did his job correctly, making sure to charge him with the applicable crime.

h/t Uncle

Quote of the Day – NGAC (9/16/2012)

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Criminals are interested in getting money and goods, not in killing people.  2/3 of U.S. gun homicides are due to arguments not criminals.

National Gun Victims Action Council – Gun Fact #2: If Only The Criminals Had Guns, U.S. Gun Homicides Would Plummet.

September 14, 2012

[First off, criminals are only interested in money and goods unless they aren’t.

Secondly NGAC is saying is it is better to be a victim than to defend yourself.  Because if you defend yourself effectively you will be committing a gun homicide.  Because in their world, there is no such thing as justifiable homicide.

They’re right, criminals don’t like having armed victims, it makes their chosen profession dangerous.  Our opponents can only argue that it’s better to be a victim, raped, beaten, and broke in an alley than standing over their cooling dead body.

Why is it our opponents are so desperate in seeing honest people criminalized, victimized, and otherwise abused by the criminal elements?

As I have said before our opponents are not working to better the safety of the law-abiding but are actively working to protect the criminal element.  They are the equivalent of OSHA for violent criminals.

Who bothers to listen to these fools anymore? -B]

h/t Uncle.

In which I take advice and set the bar higher

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So as Joe mentioned while we were in Reno we ran the LAPD qualification stage.  I passed, not as comfortably as I would have liked but was no slouch either.

I followed through on my word since I knew when these stages would be coming and practiced less and less as the day approached.  Prior to this shoot the last time I had shot was the beginning of August at that USPSA match.  I hadn’t shot any steel either since March and hadn’t done any extra practice either.

So for all intents and purposes I went into this thing pretty damn cold since I only really shoot about 150 rounds at a USPSA match at most.  Overall my opinion of the stages was that it wasn’t hard or difficult.  Doubly so since we made the stages harder than what actually required by the LAPD.

Ry suggested I try using Adobe Premiere and step up my game in production quality for the video.  I happen to think on this it’s probably a good idea.  So I spent this morning playing with Premiere and could actually cut a raw video that looks decent of Joe and I both shooting the qualifier from multiple angles.  That however isn’t the type of video I’m looking for.

I started writing up a script tonight and am intending to spend a decent amount of time editing to provide the maximum punch possible from this video.  There are some serious notes that and things that need to be emphasized regarding many of the stages and that needs to be done correctly.  Further, as I am evidently a beer swilling redneck, I figure I might as well act like one and start surpassing the CSGV’s and Brady Campaign’s production values for their videos.

The end goal is to get down to a short 3 to 4 minute video to educate people on the truth behind these “standards”.  Some have said we were self-selecting and I could see that if this was a National or Area level match, but not for a local match.  Local matches give you a wide variety of shooters, including multiple new shooters, with new and unfamiliar equipment.  The details on how and why that matters will be clearly illustrated in the video.

In the mean time enjoy this instead:

Quote of the Day–Joe Huffman(09/13/2012)

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Some things aren’t allowed in prison.

Joe Huffman – Comment while driving home from GBR.

September 9th, 2012

[This comment was made on our way home after we were detained because of a little incident.

DSC_7487

You see, we were originally planning on driving straight through prison.  No stops, don’t bother doing anything just stash the goods and go.  Well as we rolled up to the scene we started playing the game of, “Stash the goods”.  We were by no means close to the border either.

On the upside it was a chance to move around and stretch, however I know I wish the stop hadn’t been necessary and I’m reasonably sure others would agree.  We are reasonably sure that someone either got really lucky, or really unlucky.  The other person was in the middle and got the joy of being air lifted.  Joe and I both think there were two people on the motorcycle involved and they only loaded one in to the helicopter.  The bike itself had a second seat too.  But moving on…

While we were standing there taking pictures and the like, after stashing the goods, Joe then ponders the following: “I wonder what the legality of our knives are.”  For you see, neither he, nor your humble scribe bothered to remove our knives and stash them in bag of holding.  To which I reply, “you’re probably fine, it’s a simple locking blade, I on the other hand am !@#$ed.”  I then smoothly unclip my knife and slip it all the way in my pocket.  I don’t feel like finding out how California views spring assist first hand.  As I do this, Joe replies with the above.

I felt it quite fitting. Joe and I were able to escape prison a short time later.  With many telling us to get the hell out of dodge.

IMAG0352

We had no further problems as we made our break for the border. –B]

On Today

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Initially I wasn’t going to put up a post regarding today.  Then I went over to Weer’d’s place and read his post.  I was about to write a comment but instead I realized it was growing into a post.  Here’s what I wrote before I pulled the plug.

I haven’t forgotten, I may or may not put up a post this year.

Yesterday I was embracing the suck and someone was all too unhappy about it. You see our Federal overlords have declared everyone and their mother suspected terrorists for things as innocuous as going about their daily business.  Things such as using cash for a transaction.

I do remember that day.  I remember it quite well.  I remember staring at the TV in disbelief as I watched what was happening live as I prepared to go to school.  I remember the freedom and liberty I had prior to that day.  I also remember hour our government reacted.  They have reacted to the point where they label me with the same title as those monsters.  By god if they’re going to stick me with that title, I am going to embrace the suck and drag the meaning of that word right straight down.

Thanks to the behavior of our modern government, in 2001 terrorists were responsible for that atrocious act.  In 2012, the best that can be said is it was done by evil.  By monsters who despise and hate us.  The title of terrorist no longer fits because according to our overlords, those who fight these monsters are terrorists as well.

Every year on this day I used to be angry at just those who attacked us.  Angry at those who took the lives of so many innocent people.

As the years progressed though I found my anger including others.  While I am still mainly angry at the men who started this snow ball, I am just as angry at the American politicians for exploiting this tragedy for a power grab.  At the same time I am angry because the American people have been complacent with it.

The biggest difference for the majority of America between now and September 10th, 2001 is that we have considerably less freedom now than we did then.  Some would argue that “it was necessary” and it keeps us safe.  The only thing is, it doesn’t do anything to actually make you safe, it just makes a bunch of sheep feel safe.

Today is a day of mourning.  Mourning for not only those we lost, but an ideology that is slowly being destroyed, all in the name of the “War on Terrorism.”  Most of the things on the above list are things that I do as well as many of my friends.  Hell, you can go through all the flyers for different types of flyer’s here.

When you start labeling normal behavior as a “potential terrorist action” why don’t you just admit that you think anyone who isn’t just a good little sheep a terrorist that needs to be put down?

I would further like to note, the mere fact I’m willing to voice this dissenting opinion probably gets me labeled a terrorist as well.  See, they don’t outlaw speech anymore, they just tell you what you said makes you either a racist or a terrorist.  Isn’t all this freedom we have nice?  Never mind that the government actually fits the real definition of the word terrorist.

*I think I need to get one of these T-Shirts to wear on September 11th every year from now on.

SSCC #408: Miami-Dade

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A Miami-Dade police officer routinely stopped women drivers for no reason so he could have “sexually suggestive conversations” — including asking to see the scars on a Miami Beach bartender’s surgically enhanced breasts — and then let the women go without issuing any citations, federal authorities say.

We’re not talking just conversations though:

Dwivedi asked the driver to exit her car and sit in the back seat of his marked cruiser, then “instructed A.R. to lower the zipper on the front of her dress down past her breasts to her mid-stomach,” the complaint says. “A.R. stated that, by following Dwivedi’s instructions, she somewhat exposed her breasts.”

She was detained for one hour and twenty minutes before the officer left without issuing a citation. According to Miami-Dade police, Dwivedi did not list the traffic stop on his daily activity report, nor did he advise a dispatcher of the stop. He also did not conduct a driver’s license check of A.R. or her two passengers.

Thankfully this officer hadn’t become more aggressive in his predatory habits, yet.

State Sponsored Criminal #408: Prabhainjana Dwivedi

Because being a cop means you can deprive women of their rights and intimidate them into compliance for your own gratification.