1 Dec 09
WA Incident:
The motive of the suspect who murdered four police officer in WA last Sunday morning is unclear. It is also unclear whether or not the perpetrator targeted police officers in general, or these officers in particular.
Nor am I speculating that this incident necessarily represents a new trend. And, as the prime suspect was shot to death by police early this morning, we may never have answers to these questions.
What is clear is the fact that it was well known that unformed patrol officers routinely congregated at this particular restaurant, at a particular time, on a regular basis.
As a response, Iâm suggesting all LEOs, in uniform or not, immediately reevaluate routines and procedures!
Reminders that follow are, I know, elementary and obvious, but they need repeating now:
(1) Vary your âroutine.â When someone knows for sure that you will be in a particular place, at a particular time, planning an ambush becomes easy. We have to continuously practice stealth and variance. It goes with the territory. Do the unexpected. Donât be predictable!
(2) When several officers are gathered together, be it at a restaurant or at roll-call, like a designated-driver, someone needs to be always âon watch.â Of course, we all need to be alert, but at least one of us needs to be specifically assigned to keep his head up. Subtle alert signals need to be worked out between us and routinely rehearsed, so we can all react quickly, and in a coordinated way, when necessary.
(3) Donât keep thinking of yourself as the exception! Belief in âguardian-anglesâ is for children. You do not carry pistols in vain, and you bleed red blood, just like everyone else. When your number is up, only you can save yourself. Recommit yourself to continuous readiness, or do something else for a living!
(4) Appearances only go so far. The brazen act of attacking four, uniformed, armed police officers simultaneously is unusual, but we see that it does happen. Appearances detour much criminal activity every day, but there are plenty of genuine desperados running loose who are not impressed with uniforms and are unafraid to take you on. Again, be ever-prepared to go all the way!
/John
2 Dec 09
Armed Bankers in NYC?
It has come to light that many in upper management of a number of big banks, headquartered in NYC, have recently applied for, and have been granted, permits to purchase pistols. Understandably, banks themselves, along with NYPD, are deathly quiet about this curious development, because the vast majority of other such applications (from non-bankers) are routinely, arbitrarily denied.
This gaggle of brand-new pistol-owners are the self-same Liberals who unflinchingly support the current NYC Mayor in his rabid effort to ban private ownership of all guns, nationwide!
Looks as if gun-bans are appropriate for everyone, except them!
This is the kind of shameful, conspicuous hypocrisy of which all anti-gun Liberals are habitually guilty. When bankers can have guns, why not butchers, bakers, etc? Why is it that bankers suddenly comprise a âspecial class of citizens,â along with the mayorâs friends, movie stars, professional athletes, rich drug-dealers, et al?
Liberal politicians in NYC, and elsewhere, have taken what is supposed to be an âinalienable rightâ of all citizens and turned it into a tightly-controlled political privilege, to be enjoyed exclusively by a select group of conceited, self-declared divinity!
On rare occasions when the media even brings up this glaring discrepancy, guilty politicians are silent. They donât think they owe anyone an explanation, their definition of âtransparency.â
I can’t imagine why People put up with it!
/John
3 Dec 09
Gun Ignorance, even among âProfessionals.â This from a student and Chiropractor in the Midwest:
âA local, uniformed, patrol officer came into my office last week, complaining of headaches and lower-back pain. She stated that pain was occurring while she was on duty, and mentioned that her duty-belt was uncomfortable.
I began by asking about her duty-pistol. She stated that it was a SIG. When I asked what model, she paused and answered, âWhy, itâs a Sig/Sauer. Is there another kind?â
I let out a breath and then asked if the weapon’s magazines were single or double-stack, what caliber, how many spare magazines she carried, and where she carried them. I got back a confused look, and then she asked me what âdouble-stackâ meant. In addition, she had no idea what caliber her pistol was, but we determined that both spare magazines were routinely carried on the same side as her pistol.
I asked if she practiced reloading her pistol with magazines carried thus. She indicated that she â… couldnât remember,â adding âI don’t know; I just carry them there.ââ
Comment: In light of the recent WA ambush of uniformed officers, the foregoing is of great concern.
âPoliceâ is not âwhat we do.â Itâs what we ARE! A blase, clueless officer, like this one, is in extreme danger every minute she is working, as is everyone she works with, and everyone she ostensibly âprotects.â
Her training officer and her chief, for everyoneâs sake, need to get her on-board, get her into some other kind of work, or plan on attending funeral(s)!
/John
6 Dec 09
Several days ago, the âColorado Board of Governorsâ abruptly voted to rescind the long-established right of college students, professors, and other state CCW Permit holders to carry concealed on the CSU Campus, reversing a nationwide trend in the opposite direction. The ruling was unexpected, completely capricious, and not in response to any particular incident. A predictable flurry of challenges is ongoing.
In the interim, many students have written, asking for advice. They are in a moral dilemma, not shared with those of us who are not students and do not frequent college campuses.
There are, or course, risks inherent to having guns around. However, there are also risks inherent to not having guns around. Risk-free personal choices donât exist in this matter, nor in most others.
This is our current situation within world history:
Congress, state and federal, no longer really makes âlaws.â They pass âlegislation,â and then innumerable, unelected state and federal agencies, bureaus, boards, and committees swoop in and âinterpretâ the âIntent of Congressâ (a curious phrase, since senators and congressmen rarely read legislation before voting on it), translating it into never-ending âregulationsâ and ârules,â which, as we descend the food-chain, are re-translated into âpolicies,â âprocedures,â âroutines,â and âagendas.â
The volume is now so immense, incomprehensible, self-contradictory, and selectively/inconsistently enforced that it is impossible for even saintly among us to so much as know what âthe Lawâ is, much less adhere to it, which, of course, makes all of us inadvertent, and more-or-less continuous, âlaw-breakers,â priming us as targets, to one degree or another, for selective enforcement when any of us becomes too much an irritant to the current political regime.
Meanwhile, real criminals are, of course, not nearly so confused, perplexed, nor frustrated. They continue to victimize the rest of us, in most cases, with virtual impunity. In fact, the only apprehension that consistently haunts them, indeed the sole authentic deterrent to violent crime, is the possibility of them accidently selecting an armed âvictim.â
âThe Lawâ flows not only from this flawed framework of so-called âdemocratic process,â but also from its underlying axioms of Justice, Dignity, Morality, and Logic. And, when these foundational underpinnings are disgracefully politicized, indeed hijacked, as is the case when conspicuously unconstitutional legislation is passed as a result of either willful ignorance or active criminality, ensuing laws, rules, and regulations are null and void at the outset, having failed to meet requisite essentials to create a duty of conscience to obey.
The bottom line brings us back to where we started:
Youâre on our own!
Board of Governors members, and just about everyone else up the food-chain, could not possibly care less about anyone but themselves. This is always the case among these condescending, self-declared deities, who insist on âbeing in charge,â yet neither want, nor accept, the slightest personal accountability. Beastly massacrers will come and go, and theyâll all still keep their jobs. This has certainly turned out to be the case at VA Tech, on both counts!
Accordingly, we citizens have to make timely decisions which reflect our own personal best interests, knowing full-well that sometimes we will be mistaken, and that we will never have all information we believe we need. Decisions have to be made regardless, and we canât afford to spend much time thinking about what might have been!
There will be no relief, no divine guidance, and no guarantees. And, in the end, weâre all dead anyway. Between then and now, I, for one, will face to the front and do my best to fulfill my destiny, as my limited connection with divinity gives me the vision to see it, bearing full, personal responsibility for everything I do, and everything I decide not to do.
I have scant patience with pseudo-sanctimonious academic twits who demand absolute power and authority for themselves, yet piously refuse to accept any personal accountability. Paranoia and vanity are invariably found at the root of all assaults on individual freedom, as we see!
/John
7 Dec 09
MDL, âMinimum for Daily Livingâ
from an Instructor:
âWe all have different jobs, different social settings, wear different attire, live in different climates, and, in the case of our female colleagues, possess a unique superstructure. So, when we discuss what a person âshould carry,â we have to be flexible, as it all has to be concealed.
In any event, here is my MDL (Minimum for Daily Living) list:
Primary pistol, and at least one reload (spare magazine or speed-loader)
Back-up pistol
Tactical flashlight (80-150 lumens)
Blade
OC spray
Cell phone
IBD (Israeli Battle Dressing)
Small light
When I mention this List to people who donât carry on a regular bases, I am usually greeted with a good deal of eye-rolling, particularly from women
Then, I suggest an âAirplane List.â Delete everything you are not able to carry on commercial flights, and what is left?
I strongly suggest all of us carry those items, all the time, a flashlight being first on that List, then IBD, cell phone, and small light. TSA has no issue with any of the foregoing, and they are all literally lifesavers!â
Comment: It comes down to personal readiness/preparedness. How prepared you reasonably need to be, as noted above, is a relative question, varying with person and circumstance, and with world history, which may critically change that question for all of us- tomorrow morning!
Part of âbeing preparedâ is looking into the future and anticipating what items, though not required now, may be acutely necessary when our personal situation changes radically.
/John
8 Dec 09
Comments, brief and to the point, on your personal MDL List, from an experienced Operator:
âWhen you don’t have it with you, you don’t own it!
How many times I have heard,
âIf only I had my…â
âNormally, I carry a…â â
I have a … at home, and it would really work for this,â
… ad nauseam!
They are all pitiable and boring laments of the unprepared, the
âThat could never happen!â
âWerenât you supposed to bring that?â
âOh no! What do we do now?â
herd,
as opposed to
whatever,
whenever,
wherever,
however,
whoever,
âIâm ready now,â meat-eaters!
If sheep have sufficient psychic powers so as to divine, in advance, when is the right time to carry important tools, then they also know winning lottery numbers, and will thus win enough so that they can pay lots of skilled Operators to look after them, eh?
Who are that psychic, need carry nothing! For us mere mortals, we all better understand:
âWhen you don’t have it with you, you don’t own itâ
Get over it!â
Comment: That pretty well sums it up!
/John
9 Dec 09
Politicalization of our Justice System? These comments from a seasoned, and disappointed, investigator:
âDetectives and prosecutors alike are regularly seduced by groups of organized political ideologues into pursuing âviolations of the spirit of legislation,â instead of sticking with facts. These non-professionals, who have cynically attached themselves to our Criminal Justice System, thus regularly pollute investigations, compromising their integrity in the process.
Prosecutors are then cajoled into pursuing nonsensical, agenda-driven crime-incident theory, and then are expected to come up with witnesses, and other evidence, to support the fantasy. Real investigators and prosecutors ignore these mendacious demands and simply follow the evidence wherever it goes. Others, with the identical job description, prostitute themselves and do the bidding of licentious political partisans and lobbyists who are anxious to hijack our Criminal Justice System in an effort to promote themselves and punish political opponents.
Curiously, juries unfailingly identify these manufactured fantasies, correctly, as an attempt to use them as profane stooges in the promotion of someoneâs political career. Jurors take the job of deciding the fate of fellow citizens seriously, and they have scant patience with others in the System, who donât. Accordingly, they are just as put off by agenda-driven absurdity on the part of prosecutors, as they are with the same thing on the part of defense lawyers, even more so, because the prosecutorâs salary is paid from the public treasury.
Transparently pursuing political agendas in the courtroom, so that lobbyists in the background can file higher grant requests the next fiscal year, regularly generates internal struggles within juries that, without fail, lead to compromised verdicts.
My advice to investigators and prosecutors alike: Throw the lobbyists, and politicians, out of your office! Forget clever tricks and cute posturing. Stick with the facts!
Juries are not comprised of fools, and they visibly resent the entire Process being cheapened by
shameless charlatans sucking-up to political hacks, at the expense of the pursuit of real Justice.â
Comment: As respect for our entire Criminal Justice System erodes, everyone in it will come under increasing pressure to compromise principles, in exchange for political favors. And, as they knuckle under, this nation will continue its slide toward becoming a third-world joke!
It is incumbent upon all of us, who still know right from wrong, to magnificently hold our ground, and, as my friend suggests, throw these political hacks out of our office!
/John
10 Dec 09
Comments on our Jury System, from a Chief of Police, and student:
âWith sincere and logical intentions, our Founders believed they created a Justice System that would shield citizens from the abuses of government by positioning the jury between those citizens and governmentâs arbitrary power to incarcerate.
It is an interesting theory, but today the System plea-bargains the vast majority of criminal cases. That fact, combined with the crippling financial impact of hiring competent attorney(s) to take oneâs case through the trial process, has eroded this so-called protection to the point of it being a rare privilege, rather than a ârightâ accessible to everyone.
When government brings a politically-inspired case against you, you will doubtless be offered a âplea-deal.â Usually, this deal will include a guilty plea to a technical âfelony,â and a significantly reduced sentence, compared to that which is possible when the case goes to trial, and a conviction results.
Thus, many innocent people face this dilemma: Do I plead guilty to a âfelonyâ that I did not commit and get probation, forever forfeiting basic rights in the process and essentially becoming a permanent, second-class citizen? Or, do I ever-impoverish my family in an attempt to win at trial, knowing that, when I lose, I will be incarcerated for an extended period, and probably die in prison?
Penalties are now so severe, for even insignificant, highly-technical violations of incomprehensible, generally-unknown, and arbitrarily-enforced codes and regulations, and litigation costs so high, that, unless you are willing to gamble your future with a public defender, most normal people are easily bullied into accepting the first âdealâ that is offered.
Adding a vast array of brand-new federal felonies, that most of us will never even hear about (until federal agents come knocking on your door), is now the accepted approach in Congress.â
Comment: Our System, that was set up to protect the innocent from criminals, in both the private and public sectors, is corrupted by power-lusting politicians, eager to confiscate it for the purpose of promoting themselves.
This, of course, has always been the case. But, the recent, enormous surge in the growth of government has imperiled everyone. The innocent are casually swept up into sinister, political agendas, high-sounding though they may be, and there is little protection.
âInnocent unless proven guiltyâ has become âInnocent until proven indigent!â
/John
15 Dec 09
Additional comments on the Justice System, from a law professor and student:
âWho believe only guilty people are arrested and prosecuted are falsely/foolishly confident.
In fact, we now see an unlikely alliance of both Liberals and Conservatives, joining together to vehemently oppose the ever-growing list of federalized crimes.
For generations, when someone committed a crime, he knew he was wrong. âIntentâ was, after all, an element of the crime. Today, we can commit a felony, and the fact that we did so never even cross our minds, until officers come to arrest us. Congress is busy passing legislation (most of which they never read) instantly converting an innumerable host of benign behaviors into federal felonies! Not labeling a package properly (according to some obscure regulation), or even presenting a gun to your son or daughter as a birthday present, may well make you a federal felon!
How many good and decent people have been impoverished, and had what was left of their lives and personal reputations ruined, when ârepressed memoriesâ were used as the basis for sexual-abuse charges? Police and prosecutors, anxious to pad their resumes, brought charges against them because some alleged âvictimâ had her ârepressed memoryâ magically ârestoredâ during dubious âtherapyâ sessions. Not all of these people could afford a jury trial with competent representation.
With the Duke University Lacrosse Team fiasco, the Central Park Jogger Case, and other high-profile instances, we eventually learned the truth. We would be foolish to believe that there are not many other cases, that never generated headlines, which resulted in an innocent person being swept away with a ânegotiated plea.â
Unless you can afford to hire stellar attorneys, the immense (and growing!) power of government can easily overwhelm you, and, when the prosecutor offers you a deal, you may have little choice but to accept.â
Comment: We all agree that the foregoing is not what our Founders had in mind when they wrote the 6th Amendment!
/John
15 Dec 09
Comments from a friend and student in South Africa:
âI have been enjoying your recent posts with regard to life in the USA!
Curiously, news reports over here are all still hyper-positive with regard to the current Administration. From reading them, one concludes that God Himself now sits in the White House! In fact, you cannot find so much as a single unenthusiastic jot nor tittle! No mention here of your out-of-control national debt, nor double-digit unemployment! Your president can apparently do no wrong, according to our media.
With yours, and now even the European Press, the blush is slowly fading from the rose!
Our media, like yours, are a disgrace to their profession! Rather than guardians of truth, they are guardians, and promoters, of political agendas. They have scant regard for truth, routinely reporting what they wish were true, rather than what they know to be true.
By comparison, they make Al Jazeera look downright enlightened!â
Comment: The politicization of our news media, like the politicization of education, art, and now even science, is a clear sign of a declining civilization. When we steadfastly refuse to confront the unvarnished truth, and start blindly telling, repeating, and wallowing in, comfortable lies, we neednât expect a sympathetic response from World History!
/John
17 Dec 09
â… the bravest men I have ever seen.â
Henry W Lawton, after whom the City of Lawton, OK is named, awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor during the American Civil War in 1864, at age twenty-two, and the one credited with capturing Geronimo in 1886, at forty-three, found himself fighting in Cuba during the Spanish-American War in 1898, and in the Phillippines in 1899 at the rank of major-general, then fifty-six.
American Soldiers and Marines, mostly former Indian Fighters and a few Civil War veterans like Lawton, for the first time in American history found themselves fighting on foreign soil on the opposite side of globe, about as far away from America as one could get! With their beautiful, Norwegian-designed Krag-Jorgensen Rifles, they fearlessly surged into a new adventure, at the dawn of a new Century!
In February of 1899, the War in the Phillippines, along with the rest of Spanish-American War, officially ended with the Treaty of Paris, the last occupying Spanish having long-since been driven out of both Cuba and the Phillippines. However, native Filipinos were no more enthusiastic about American occupation than they had been with the Spanish, and the United States, after shedding American blood during the Liberation, was not about to abruptly pack-up and depart, leaving a post-war power-vacuum, to be gladly filled by Germans, Japanese, or even re-filled by the Spanish!
Indefinite American occupation was therefore an unavoidable reality, which made organized insurrection inevitable, and not long in erupting!
The spiritless, slow-moving American Military Governor, Major General Elwell Otis, immediately clashed with Lawton, and another aggressive fighter, Arthur McArthur (father of Douglas McArthur, who would gain prominence a generation later, in the same place!) who ultimately superceded Otis.
Emilio Aguinaldo, Filipino resistance leader, valiantly held out against the Americans, but the final result was never in doubt, as Americans âcivilizedâ the Islands with schools, roads, bridges, railroads, telegraph connections, and public-health programs. The vast majority of the population saw the handwriting on the wall and gradually fell in line. As the Insurrection thus inexorably weakened, fighting became vicious, and those accused of âcollaborationâ suffered as much as did soldiers and insurgents. Aguinaldo bitterly referred to Lawton as the âGeneral of the Night,â owing to Lawtonâs aggressive, offensive style of leadership, which unhesitatingly included night-fighting.
Back in America, the Democratic Presidential Candidate in 1900, a young and energetic William Jennings Bryan (later gaining fame for his prosecution of Darwinism during the famous 1925 âScopes Trialâ in Tennessee), advocated for immediate Philippine independence and unilateral American withdrawal. He was soundly defeated by incumbent Republican, William McKinley.
With the election results, Aguinaldoâs last hopes, of even a negotiated settlement, died. In 1901, Aguinaldo himself was captured and eventually swore allegiance to the United States. However, even without him, his Insurrection sputtered on, never really ending, particularly when it attracted Moslem Moros on the Island of Mindanao. It continues to this day!
President McKinley was shot by anarchist, Leon Czolgosz, while touring a Trade Show in Buffalo, NY. He died of a systemic infection eight days later, on the morning of 14 Sept 1901, only months after beginning his second term. Precipitously propelled into the Office of President was a young and impetuous Theodore Roosevelt!
Roosevelt declared the Philippine Insurrection âoverâ on 4 July 1902, although, as noted above, fighting never really ended. The United States did not officially recognize Philippine Independence until decades later, at the end of WWII.
The Insurrection alone had claimed over four-thousand American lives. Many more returned to America, to die only months later from Malaria, and a host of other tropical diseases, with which American doctors were unfamiliar. Upwards of a quarter-million native Filipinos had also died, mostly non-combatants, setting an ominous tone for Wars of the Twentieth Century!
The nearly simultaneous Spanish-American War (in Cuba and the Phillippines) and the ensuing Philippine Insurrection, the Boxer Rebellion in Peking, the Russo-Japanese War in Manchuria, and the Anglo-Boer War in South Africa are today called the âLast of the Little Wars,â in light of world-wide conflagrations among the âGreat Powersâ that followed later in the Twentieth Century.
Lawton himself, like so many heroic commanders who always lead from the front, was killed in action by a single bullet from a Filipino sharpshooter. He was the highest ranking American officer to fall in battle in during the Insurrection. He is buried at the National Cemetery in Arlington, VA.
Commenting on the gallantry of Aguinaldoâs Rebels, Lawton is quoted as saying, âTaking into account disadvantages they have endured in arms, equipment, and training, they are the bravest men I have ever seen!â
Coming from Lawton, that was quite a complement!
/John
21 Dec 09
Red Dots:
At our Urban Rifle Courses, I customarily have each student shoot several rounds from every other studentâs rifle, so that they can personally sample various triggers and sighting systems.
One student commented:
âRed-dot, non-magnifying, optical sights (particularly the Aimpoint T1) changes the game much more than I ever imagined! With ânormalâ shooting positions, their value is seldom truly realized. It is in the roll-over-prone position, shooting support-side shoulder, around cover, in low light, when youâre out of breath, that they really shine! Improvised positions, particularly around cover and obstacles, do not lend themselves well to tediously aligning front and rear sights. Being able to simply â(1) put the thing (2) on the thing, and (3) pull the thingâ magnificently simplifies achieving consistent hits.â
My student puts is much better than I do!
Yes, the advantage of low-profile, forward-mounted, non-magnifying optics (on LaRue Quick-release mounts) is too significant to ignore. Iron-sight skills are still critical, of course, and I try to give every student the opportunity to quickly ditch their optic and default to them. But, I now have a T1 on most of my serious rifles, as I want to take full advantage of whatever cover and concealment the Almighty sees fit to give me!
Victory goes to the one who makes the next-to-the-last mistake!
/John
23 Dec 09
When âenough is enough!â
Susan Shabangu is a Deputy to the Security Minister in South Africa. Iâve never met her personally, but her boss lectured a group of LE students I trained in Pretoria a year and a half ago.
His sentiments were similar, and he didnât mince words either!
Susan was recently quoted at a mass meeting of LEOs, for all to hear:
âYou must kill the bastards when they threaten you or your communityâ
“You must not worry about the regulations. That is my responsibility. Your responsibility is to serve and protect.â
âI want no warning shots. You have one shot, and it must be a kill-shot.â
âI won’t tolerate pathetic excuses for you not being able to deal with violent crime. Youâve been issued guns. Now use them!â
Ms Shabangu is publically articulating the frustration of the general population. Everyone is fed up with unchecked, criminal violence and mealy-mouthed, excuse-making government officials.
It should never get so bad as to necessitate a deputy minister having to talk so abruptly, here nor there!
There has been much reaction to her statements, as you might imagine, but no one has accused her of being mealy-mouthed!
God bless her for having the personal courage to say what has to be said. Oh, that we would even occasionally hear such plain English from politicians over here!
/John
26 Dec 09
The Critical Presidential Election of 1864:
âYou can be bold and risk defeat, or be passive and ensure it!â
Poker Playersâ Axiom
As Bill Shermanâs Army energetically attacked and largely destroyed the City of Atlanta, GA in late summer of 1864, twice-fired, ex-Union general, George McClellan, was nominated by the Democrat Party as their presidential candidate, to oppose Republican (called the âNational Union Partyâ at the time) Abraham Lincoln, running for his second term. The Democrat Party Platform that year made the attractive promise to a war-weary public that, when elected, they would initiate an immediate, unilateral cease-fire and thereafter negotiate directly with Confederate President, Jefferson Davis, with regard to permanent, settlement terms. McClellan himself privately favored unconditional, military victory against the Confederacy and accordingly found himself decidedly conflicted while campaigning.
McClellanâs personal animosity toward Lincoln, well-known even when he served under Lincoln as Commander of the Army of the Potomac, was made scathingly public during the campaign. The War, which was supposed to be over within months of Ft Sumter being shelled in April of 1861, was, by the fall of 1864, well into its third, miserable year. On both sides, casualties were hideous! McClellan correctly pointed out that Lincolnâs naive underestimation of Southern resolve was adolescent and amounted to little more than wishful thinking.
With monotonous regularity, Confederate Generals Bobbie Lee, Tom Jackson, and others had out-foxed, out-maneuvered, out-bluffed, and out-aggressed Lincolnâs disappointing succession of generals, each fired in turn as they sequentially dashed his puerile hopes with one costly blunder after another. The War thus waxed progressively unpopular, as did Lincoln himself, and his entire Administration.
Surprisingly, Lincoln won reelection decisively! Shermanâs highly-publicized Atlanta Campaign, the first unmitigated Union victory of the War, was just what the electorate had been waiting for! It instantly reversed public opinion and convinced a majority that this War was winnable after all, and must be won, definitively. Simultaneously, the Democratâs conflicted message proved fatal.
Five months later, in April of 1865, four years after it had begun, the War finally, mercifully ended at Appomattox, VA with an unconditional Union victory.
Two weeks later, Lincoln was assassinated.
McClellan spent three years in Europe after the War ended. When he returned, his interest in national politics, and the Democrat Partyâs interest in him, quickly and permanently faded away.
Had Sherman delayed, even momentarily, the 1864 election could easily have gone the other way, and the map of the United States would likely look a good deal different today!
Fairly defining executive challenges he faced, Lincoln said:
âI am regularly approached with the most opposite opinions imaginable, in all cases by religious men who are certain they represent The Devine Will… however, I suppose I myself need not expect any such direct, Devine Revelation… what is left for me to do is study the plain, physical facts, ascertain what is possible, and then determine what appears to be wise and right.â
Put more succinctly by John S McCain Jr (father of Senator John McCain) nearly a hundred years later:
âLife is run by poker players, not systems analystsâ
/John
28 Dec 09
In todayâs issue of a Boston newspaper there is a Letter to the Editor, from a local high-school teacher:
â… current school security procedures lock down school populations in the event of armed assault. Some advocate abandoning this practice as it holds everyone in place, allowing a shooter easily to find victims. An alternative is immediate exodus, via announcement. Although this removes potential hostages… it unfairly rewards resourceful children who move to safety… more shrewdly and efficiently than others. Schools should level playing fields, not intrinsically reward those more resourceful…â
It gets even better:
â… some propose overturning laws that make schools gun-free zones… they argue that barring licensed-carry only ensures a defenseless, target-rich environment. But, as a Progressive, I would sooner lay my child to rest than succumb to the belief that the use of a gun for self-defense is somehow not in itself a gun crime.â
The Communist apotheosis that no one should be allowed to enjoy the natural benefits of their own resourcefulness, that identical outcomes need to be guaranteed for all, no matter what any of us do as individuals to help ourselves, is starkly repugnant to any real American! Calling it âfairnessâ is a contemptible lie. It is enforced mediocrity.
Any so-called âteacherâ who will stand idly by and allow innocent children in his charge to be murdered in front of him, rather than protect them with a gun or another weapon, is a craven coward, a collaborator with evil, unworthy and unfit, a currish disgrace to his family and his profession!
This âteacher,â for whom blind obedience to Communist Ideals is held above the lives of innocent children, needs leave America without delay, move to North Korea or some other âWorkersâ Paradise,â and forever get out of our sight!
/John
28 Dec 09
On the Lakewood, WA Shooting, from a colleague and LEO:
âI fear this murder spree was abetted by the âCommunity-Policingâ frenzy that has plagued our profession for over two decades.
The craze has been to set up numerous, out-posted âsub-stations,â in convenience stores and other small retail businesses. The theory is to keep officers out of precinct stations and âin the communityâ while they perform administrative duties, such as report writing.
We now all see the downside to this! In a precinct station, while youâre concentrating on composing detailed reports about which you will have to testify years later, you can relax (at least a little), because you are in a relatively secure facility, surrounded with fences and secured access-doors. Doing the same thing in a âcommunity sub-station,â involves a quantum-leap in risk-exposure, as we see!
âCommunity-Policingâ must always be subordinated to officer safety. Since this flawed philosophy is now so ingrained in our profession, it will take a while, and a few more fatal attacks, for upper-management to make necessary procedural changes.
In the interim, the only one looking out for you is you, so think tactically before glibly, naively taking part in someone elseâs feel-good fluff!â
Comment: In these dangerous times, we all have to be able to respond swiftly and effectively to changes in our environment. We all know that the bigger the institution, the slower it advances. Accordingly, as individuals, we have to take complete, personal command of our own safety, never delegating that responsibility to a âsystem,â âgadget,â nor âpolicy.â
Never expect someone else to care more about you than you care about yourself!
/John
31 Dec 09
Latest Trend in SA, from friends there:
âWeâre experiencing Mall robberies here!
A large group of armed men, at least a dozen, all with Kalashnikovs, storm a mall and hit high-end merchandise shops. They do not hesitate to fire their weapons, and most of these incidents end up with shots fired and multiple injuries. No mall is exempt. In fact, our largest and most âsecureâ malls have all been hit more than once.
Jewelry stores are typically located in the center of malls for maximum insulation from robberies, but these gangs bypass peripheral shops and go directly for such places, because they have lots of cash and high-density merchandise on hand.
Our largest local mall, the biggest in the Western Cape, has responded with laughable âextra security measures,â which include (even more) cameras and highly-visible, but unarmed, security guards. As any idiot could have predicted, these window-dressing measures do not represent any species of deterrent, as robbers blithely ignore them, and the guards themselves instantly run away, dropping their metal-detecting wands (their only âweaponâ) in the process!
Once again, management and government alike dither around like the Three Stooges, doing everything imaginable, except something that has any chance of actually working!
Typical Western Civilization!â
Comment:
All too typical! When this plague hits the USA, our âresponseâ will predictably be identical, and identically ineffective!
Weak, window-dressing responses to real safety issues are symptomatic of declining civilizations, where everyone cares only about appearances, and little genuine problem-solving ever sees the light of day.
Effective problem-solving always begins with the abrupt removal of rose-colored glasses!
I love the way John Henry âDocâ Holliday put it:
âPlay to win, or donât bother. Check friendship at the door. A âfriendly gameâ is a contradiction of terms. When looking for entertainment, there is the theater. When camaraderie is your need, there is the bar. For companionship, youâve only to seek out any number of likely whores.â
/John
