“Alternate” History!
26 July 17 If the amphibious assault on Omaha Beach in Normandy, France on Tuesday, 6 June 1944, had failed (as it nearly did): âI donât know what you saw in Africa and Italy, but I know what I saw in Russia and Poland. We made a cemetery a thousand miles long and a thousand […]
Californians Kiss Their Rights Goodby!
24 July 17 âOur pathetic âTwo-Party System:â 1) Democrats: Amoral and unprincipled, but shrewd, frighteningly ambitious, and disciplined, and who, when given a chance to seize power to which they are not entitled, will do so instantly, boldly, and without restraint 2) Republicans: They run for election proclaiming good and laudable intentions, but once in […]
Persistence!
23 July 17 âKnowledge defeats fear. Preparation defeats failure. Discipline defeats panicâ Michael Lang Aspiring Operators! I trained a stalwart group of enthusiastic students of our Art last weekend. Some were new to gun ownership, but all were acute students! I do my best to remind them that persistence and icy determination are far more […]
Civil Defense?
17 July 17 Nukes! The last time âcivil defenseâ was so much as mentioned, even in the Republican Party Platform, was in 1984! Pushed by the likes of Carl Sagan, who was wedded to the dogma of unilateral nuclear disarmament on the part of the USA, a blatantly false narrative was pressed upon the American […]
Self-Deception!
14 July 17 âYou can fool yourself, you know. You’d think it’s impossible, but it turns out it’s the easiest thing of all.â Jodi Picoult Holsters! A good friend and maker of kydex holsters recently sent us an IWB appendix holster for Vickiâs G42. It was wonderfully made, but would not allow smooth re-holstering. The […]
Docternal Change!
13 July 17 âOur ordinary response to atrocities is to banish them from consciousness. Certain violations of the social compact are too terrible to utter aloud: this is the meaning of the word, âunspeakable.â Atrocities, however, refuse to be buried. Equally as powerful as the desire to deny atrocities is the conviction that denial does […]
Old Sins in New Ways!
12 July 17 âThe most expensive four words in the English Language: ‘This time it’s different!ââ John Templeton On North Korea, from a friend in the System: âUntil recently, all Swiss border-tunnels and bridges were mined, and could be blown within hours. Add this to the high survivability of their people, equipment, and tactical air-assets, […]
Pistol Sights!
10 Apr 17 “There are two ways to be fooled: One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is.” Kierkegaard Pistol sights: My esteemed friend and colleague, Tom Givens, recently made the excellent point that the practice of shooting pistols from postures other than at eye-level came about […]
Fatal Fantasies!
7 July 17 âA great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance, when the need for illusion is deep.â Saul Bellow It represents enormous conceit to believe that police can do anything to stop crime, particularly violent crime. What we do is deter/displace it. We discourage it at a particular moment, and thus move […]
Weekend in Chicago!
6 Feb 17 Exciting Holiday Weekend in Chicago: At least 102 people shot in Chicago over the holiday weekend! At least eighteen gunshot fatalities. We can only guess how many were shot-at, but not hit, or wounded, but never reported. Shootings were largely confined to south and west sides of the City, despite the deployment […]
Holocaust!
5 July 17 âBe careful not to mistake insecurity and inadequacy for humility! Humility has nothing to do with the insecure and inadequate, just as arrogance has nothing to do with greatness!â C JoyBell In an article of 3 July 17, Sky News crowed about a single seizure of illegal guns (âillegal gunsâ is a […]
Cruise Ships
2 July 17 Eternal Father, strong to save, Whose arm doth bind the restless wave, Who biddâst the mighty ocean deep Its own appointed limits keep; O hear us when we cry to Thee, For those in peril on the sea! First stanza from the âNaval Hymn,â authored by William Whiting in 1860, inspired by […]