Ice storm update

We're basically surrounded by ice here.  The precipitation changed to alleged 'snow' this afternoon, but it sure looked (and sounded) like ice crystals to me!  Our vehicles are encased in ice, probably close to an inch thick on the most exposed areas, and the parking and driveway are a solid sheet of ice.  It's great for skating . . . not so much for walking on.  I'm certainly not going to try reversing our vehicles out of it!

The roads near our home are no better.  We were 'entertained' today on several occasions watching dumbass drivers sliding sideways up and down the road as they failed to make allowance for the ice, and ended up in all sorts of 'interesting' attitudes.  Fortunately, everyone here parks off the road, otherwise there might have been some interesting crunches.  The garbage truck came around as usual, but I noticed the driver was being infinitely slower and more careful about accelerating and braking between houses.  The poor guy in the back, who had to connect the bins to the lifting mechanism, was wrapped up like an Eskimo.  It can't have been the world's easiest job in this cold.  I hope they paid him at overtime rates for his trouble.

Tomorrow is supposed to clear, but with the temperature having never risen above freezing all day, and not scheduled to do so until Saturday, I'm wondering how long it will take for the ice to clear.  It's quite thick on our bushes and power lines, but so far (thanks be) we still have power (not to mention Internet access).  The next couple of days are going to be interesting, and I suspect Miss D. won't be going to work tomorrow either.

I made a spicy chicken and sausage gumbo for supper last night, and oven-baked chicken breasts marinated in peri-peri sauce tonight, both of which added a nice internal heat to the warmth of the house.  Definitely the right meals for weather like this!

Peter

WARNING: upgrading to MS Office 365 may change document formatting

I've been a long-time user of MS Word (and Office) 2010.  In order to share files with Miss D. and have access to other useful features, I upgraded today to a family subscription to MS Office 365, the online version of MS Office, with software available locally and on the Web for up to 5 PC's.

All went well until I loaded the manuscript of my latest book.  All of a sudden some of my paragraph styles didn't work as they were supposed to, despite the document format (.DOCX) remaining the same.  As soon as I saved the document in MS Word 2013 (as used by Office 365), things became difficult.  However, when I re-saved the document in Word 1997-2003 format (.DOC), everything reverted to normal once more.

I have no idea what this means, but I thought I'd warn my readers:  if you upgrade to the latest version of MS Word, be aware that formatting problems may result, and you may have to save older documents in an older format rather than allow the program to save them in a newer version (and convert them in the process).  It does strange things.  I have no idea whether it'll still do that if I start a document 'native' in the new version, but I'll find out soon enough.

Peter

How a folk song changed modern mythology

I've enjoyed folk music ever since I can remember.  I have an extensive collection of music from many of the 'folk rock' performers of the 1960's and 1970's - Steeleye Span, Fairport Convention, Martin Carthy, Pentangle and the like - as well as rock and progressive groups inspired by them - Magna Carta, Traffic, Jethro Tull, etc. - and listen to them often.

One of the classic English folk songs is 'John Barleycorn'.  Earliest known versions date back to the 16th century, and it probably goes back much further than that.  Wikipedia describes it thus:

The character of John Barleycorn in the song is a personification of the important cereal crop barley and of the alcoholic beverages made from it, beer and whisky. In the song, John Barleycorn is represented as suffering attacks, death and indignities that correspond to the various stages of barley cultivation, such as reaping and malting.

There's more at the link.

What I didn't know - until a few days ago, when I learned it while doing some research for one of my forthcoming books - was that the 'dying-rising' mythos embodied in 'John Barleycorn' was one of the influences on Sir James George Frazer when he wrote The Golden Bough in 1890.  This classic study of mythology and religion reinterpreted many ancient myths and fables, including those of Greece and Rome, in the light of what Frazer intended to be a synthesis of religious belief, cultural history and scientific inquiry.  Nowadays we know that much of what he wrote was so much hooey, but his book had a profound and lasting influence on European folk history, much of which was subsequently reinterpreted in the light of his 'findings' (no matter how spurious).

One of Frazer's principal theses was the 'sacrificial king';  a king who came to the throne by killing his predecessor, only to learn that his task was to die for his people (or for the gods, or for a plentiful harvest, or some other plausible reason) at the hands of his successor after a period of time.  In that sense, the ruler became a divinely ordained sacrifice for the sake of the ruled.  One source for Frazer's interpretation was the Rex Nemorensis, a priest of the goddess Diana in Italy, and another may have been the figure of Domalde from a Norse saga.  (Both links are worth following if you're interested in the origins of modern mythology.)  In turn, Frazer's reinterpretation of ancient myth and legend influenced subsequent authors like Mary Renault (in 'The King Must Die', a novel about Theseus) and Rosemary Sutcliff (in her young adult novels 'The Mark of the Horse Lord', 'The Shining Company' and 'Sun Horse, Moon Horse').  I've read all those novels and highly recommend them;  in fact, I have copies of all Mary Renault's historical novels and many of Rosemary Sutcliffe's in my permanent library.  They're very good indeed.

The point of all this rambling is, of course, the influence of 'John Barleycorn', a simple folk song, on so many literary masterpieces since it was written.  It may be one of the single most important influences on modern retelling of ancient mythology and fairy-tales.  It's strange to think that a centuries-old drinking song could have such an impact.

For those who don't know the song, here are two versions (out of literally dozens out there).  My favorite folk-song rendition is by British band Traffic, from their 1970 album 'John Barleycorn Must Die', with vocals by Steve Winwood.

The second is a rollicking rock/jazz fusion version by Jethro Tull during a live concert, from their album 'A Little Light Music', one of my favorite Tull anthologies.  It's a lot of fun.

You'll have to excuse my occasional rambling about such subjects.  I find them fascinating.

Peter

What's that funny white stuff?

I was woken at 3.30 a.m. by our cat, pawing at my face, trying to tell me that someone was tapping at the window and would I please make them go away?  Needless to say, it wasn't a person - it was ice crystals.  Miss D. woke up at her usual 5.30 a.m., only for me to greet her with the news that her car's encased in half an inch of ice and the driveway and the street have turned white.  Guess who isn't going to work today?

(That doesn't work for me, of course.  When you're a full-time writer working from home, an ice storm is no excuse!)

Peter

I've had about enough of this winter

We're under a winter storm warning in central Tennessee;  not as bad as it's going to get further north, but still no fun.  They're forecasting:

• Accumulations ... 3 to 10 inches of snow ... with locally higher amounts possible north of Interstate 40. Lower amounts will be possible south.
• Main impact ... accumulating snow tonight into Monday evening will likely cause hazardous travel conditions across the area. Sleet and/or freezing rain may make roads slick with a coating of ice in addition to chances for snow during the day.

That's pretty bad by local standards.  Miss D. may be able to get to work tomorrow, as the worst snow and sleet isn't expected until after her normal commute time, but I'm worried about her getting home again - not least because local drivers tend to become suddenly lemming-like in their suicidal tendencies whenever a few white flakes drift from the sky.  We'll make sure she has enough stuff packed in her car that she can spend the night at work if she has to.

For those of my readers further north, where the snow and ice and cold will be even worse, you take care, you hear?  Spring's not far away now.  Stay safe until it gets here!

A final thought on the weather, courtesy of Miss K.:

Peter

Ammo drought: here we go again . . .

On Friday it was announced that F Troop the BATFE intends to revoke its decades-old rule that M855 62gr. 5.56x45mm. ammunition is not classified as 'armor-piercing'.  This would have the effect of making it illegal to sell it to civilian shooters (but not illegal for them to possess it, BTW).

The result?  Just try buying any M855 ammunition online tonight . . . or the older M193 55gr. rounds, for that matter (the US Army's original cartridge for the first-generation M16 rifle used in Vietnam).  I can't find any supplier with stocks available.  Glenn B. reports likewise.


*Sigh*


This is just plain stupid.  For a start, anyone with half an ounce of sense in his or her head has already built up a reserve of ammunition in calibers and cartridges that are important to them.  I've got plenty of M855 in my ammo locker, and twice that amount of M193.  I don't even shoot M855 much - for civilian shooters and our needs, it isn't necessarily the optimum round to choose.  For most defensive purposes, at the ranges and for the targets we're likely to face, M193 is probably a superior choice, and modern expanding ammunition is even better.  (I stocked up on that a couple of years ago.)  Come to think of it, I might even swap out some or all of my M855, because given the current panic I reckon I can get two rounds of M193 in exchange for one round of the supposedly 'good stuff'!

The other thing is, panic buying only drives up prices and disrupts normal commerce in the shooting industry.  Ammo makers will make what sells;  but if a given caliber or cartridge is suddenly in overwhelming demand, and they cut back on producing other cartridges to make more of what's popular, those who shoot those other cartridges will find themselves short-changed.  What's more, the increased production of the popular ammo won't make much of a difference, because panic buyers will grab every round they can and hoard it.  Opportunists will try to sell their stocks of the 'good stuff' at exorbitant prices to desperate shooters who don't know better, and are willing to pay whatever it costs to ensure that they've 'got theirs'.  It's messy, distasteful and ultimately counter-productive.  (Just look at the situation with .22LR ammo, which still hasn't returned to normal following the last ammo drought.)

As I said some time ago, it behooves all of us to keep adequate stocks of our cartridges of choice at all times.  That way, when something like this happens we're minimally affected, if at all.  I've got my stash of 5.56x45mm. ammo safely tucked away.  I'll ride this one out.

Peter

Semi-hopalong wascally wabbit?

The Austrian Times reports:

Zookeepers who purchased five baby rabbits from a local market say they are baffled as to why one of them prefers to walk around on its front legs.

The rabbits were actually purchased as food for some of the other inhabitants at the zoo in the city of Liuzhou in southern China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, including a giant python that only eats live food.

But after the rabbit with its bizarre trick of walking on its front legs ended up proving more popular than the other animals at the zoo, it was given a stay of execution.

. . .

Zoo spokesman Xiong Shao said: "We thought that perhaps the rabbit had damaged its back legs, but when it isn't walking on its hind legs the two back legs seemed to work perfectly. It doesn't seem to be in any pain so there is no reason for it to walk like this, it can't be easy. We are completely baffled as it was too young really to have been taught any tricks, and whoever heard of teaching rabbits to walk on their front legs?"

There's more at the link.  Here's a Chinese news report about the wabbit.

It's certainly determined to get around, isn't it?

Peter

Brigid could use our help

Brigid, who blogs over at Home On The Range, wrote a beautiful tribute to her late Labrador retriever.  She called it 'The Book Of Barkley', about which we've spoken here before.

Her book's been entered in a competition at Bookbzz.com.  It's currently tied for first place in its category (Biography & Memoir).  Brigid could really use your help and your vote, if you'd please be so kind as to click over there and vote for 'The Book Of Barkley'.  She's donating any prize money to the disaster response dogs of the Search Dog Foundation, so your vote will help a very good cause as well.

(As a matter of fact, all of the royalties from the book are being used to support various animal rescue and welfare societies.  Brigid's a class act, and her book's a wonderful memorial to a lovely dog whom Miss D. and I remember with great affection - even if he did steal our socks on every possible occasion!  If you haven't yet read it, it's worth your time and money.)

Peter

Tired writer's thoughts at the end of the day

I think I'm largely finished with the editing of the fifth and final version of the manuscript of 'Stand Against The Storm'.

One beta reader has already come back with a thumbs-up for the final version, and I'm waiting for another opinion before starting to format it for publication.  With luck, it'll be available on Amazon within a week to ten days.

It's strange to be almost at the end of the creative process for this book.  I wrote about the problems I've had with it earlier this week over at Mad Genius Club.  If you're interested in how one overcomes constant creative deadlock and frustration, you might enjoy that article;  if not, don't worry about it.  Suffice it to say that this has taken me far longer than I expected, and cost me an awful lot of late nights and skull-sweat.  I'm pleased it's almost over, but I'm also pleased with the finished product.  There were times I wanted to abandon it and go on to something more mentally rewarding, where I was actually getting somewhere;  but now I'm glad I stuck it out and persevered.  I hope you'll find it worth the wait.

I've already begun work on the second volume of the Laredo Trilogy, 'Forge A New Blade', the sequel to 'War To The Knife'.

This promises to be interesting from a creative point of view, because Steve Maxwell has a lot to do in that book as well:  the two series (Laredo and Maxwell) will actually meet in a sort of 'fusion volume'.  It's going to be fun.

It's frigidly cold here in central Tennessee, with temperatures outside currently in the teens (Fahrenheit, for my readers living outside the USA).  The wind chill is forecast to be well below zero by early morning.  I'm going to have to go out in the cold to start the car, so it can warm up before anyone gets into it.  Brrrrr!  Tomorrow evening there's a winter storm watch.  It's a good time to stay snug in a warm house with plenty of hot soup, tea and coffee, and write books.

Peter

Doofus Of The Day #814

Courtesy of The Lonely Libertarian, this quote wins an immediate Doofus award for the woman concerned.

"I went into a Whole Foods and got to hear a woman arguing with a guy at the meat counter because she wanted grass fed organic chicken and he was desperately trying to explain to her that chickens don't eat grass."

Peter

There doesn't seem to be an OSHA in Russia . . .

. . . at least, not judging by this video clip of steelworkers (including apprentices and trainees) working with multi-ton hammers in a foundry in that country.  Note the utter absence of safety features.

I reckon OSHA would have a fit if they saw this in a US foundry.  It'd probably mean the instant arrest of whoever was responsible. On the other hand, those conditions are replicated in much of the Third World, and even in an advanced economy such as China's. In the West, we often take for granted the blessings of safety-consciousness.

Peter

Full marks to Sean Sorrentino . . .

. . . for uncovering what looks to be a massive campaign of sock-puppeting over a non-existent 'religious' controversy.

CHAPEL HILL — Police charged a Chapel Hill man Wednesday with first-degree murder in the deaths of three Muslim students in a quiet neighborhood near Meadowmont, just south of N.C. 54.

That’s date stamped Tuesday the 10th, so it was no more than 6 hours after the first shots fired. Let that sink in for a minute. The “Christian Terrorist” (and that’s a direct quote of many, many tweets I saw) meme had gone around long enough that someone at PJ Media had looked up the guy’s Facebook page and found out that he was an atheist, and a militant one. And that rebuttal was posted no later than 12 hours after the shooting, and more likely only 9 hours. By the time I saw the #ChapelHillShooting hash tag on Twitter at 6:15 AM, there were thousands of “Why is the Western media hiding this terror attack on Muslims!” tweets. This, as a result of a spontaneous movement is frankly impossible. It cannot have happened that way at all. I’ve traced back tweets as far as I am able and have found “Western media Silent!” tweets at 1am Eastern. That basically can not have happened without some large group pushing the meme.

ADC demand full investigation into the motives behind the murder of 3 Arab/Muslim Americans in #ChapelHillShooting — ADC National (@adctweets) February 11, 2015

Incredible that major news networks have yet to talk about the #ChapelHillShooting. Absolutely shameful. This is how Islamophobia operates. — Sana Saeed (@SanaSaeed) February 11, 2015

3 muslim students killed. No media coverage. Thank you mainstream media. #ChapelHillShooting — Dima (@Dima09) February 11, 2015

The fact that the only info I am getting about the #ChapelHillshooting is via twitter showcases how permeating Islamophobia is in media. — King سميرة (@SamiraaSR) February 11, 2015

. . .

So it looks like right around 1AM on the 11th, about 8 hours after the first shots fired 911 call, the Twitter campaign takes off, pushing a narrative of “Islamophobia.”

By now, however, we all know that the shooter was not a “Christian Terrorist,” despite all the claims on Twitter.

. . .

Here’s what I see. This is a campaign to push the idea that Muslims are the victims of “Islamophobia” in the west and especially in America. I believe that this campaign is a direct response to the #IamCharlieHebdo hashtag. It’s a direct attack on the west, with the Muslims attempting to regain the mantle of “Victim” by attempting to portray everyone [as] racist and bigoted because the victims in this incident were Muslims.

We were played. And they did a fantastic job of it.

There's more at the link.  It's worth reading in full.

Great detective work, Mr. Sorrentino.  Thanks!

Peter

Shooting and self-defense roundup

A few articles caught my eye over the past few days relating to firearms and self-defense issues.  I thought I'd throw the links up here for those of my readers who may be interested.

1. Shooting Drill - 'The Humbler'.  Greg Ellifritz gives us a course of fire that may look slow and easy in parts, but can be brutally humbling (hence the name).
2. “Don’t talk to the police” — good advice?  Kathy Jackson highlights the pitfalls with this popularly recommended tactic after a defensive shooting, and offers some alternative thoughts.
3. H&K and Backwards Bullets: The Real Story.  How H&K got egg on their faces at the 2004 Shot Show.  I wonder if the guy responsible ever got fired?
4. An Army Of Knife Experts Share Tips On Choosing The Best Survival Knife.  It's certainly a lot of food for thought.  I'm an African boy, and as such I was brought up with a strong bias towards K.I.S.S., so I'll second Tim MacWelch's advice.  Click over there to read it for yourself.
5. FBI 9MM Justification.  From September last year, an explanation of why the FBI has retreated from the .40 S&W round and is adopting the 9mm. Parabellum as its issue cartridge.

Interesting reading.

Peter

Big badaboom

(Those of you who remember the movie 'The Fifth Element' will recognize the post title.)

Students of military history will be familiar with the old-fashioned spigot mortar, used in such classic weapons as the Hedgehog anti-submarine projector of World War II.  Interestingly, that design lends itself to rough-and-ready home-brewed artillery such as that constructed in many amateur workshops around the world during irregular conflicts.  It can be built to much less precise standards than conventional mortars or artillery, yet still be accurate and powerful enough to deliver a devastating punch.  (There have also been interesting variations on the theme;  see, for example, the Davidka or 'Little David' produced in Israel's War of Independence, a hybrid conventional/spigot mortar design.  It was spectacularly inaccurate but ear-shatteringly loud, and had a definite psychological impact on those within range.)

Syrian resistance fighters deploy a home-made spigot mortar in the video clip below, complete with home-brewed propellant - white powder in plastic bags!.  They use it to take out a Syrian government missile emplacement on the roof of a building.  It's rather impressive. I recommend watching it in full-screen mode.

I'm not sure I'd want to stand too close to that spigot mortar when they fire it . . . but I know I don't want to be in the blast radius of its projectile when it lands!

Peter

"How student debt reduces lifetime wealth"

That's the subtitle of a very interesting article at Demos.  Here's an excerpt.

Student debt has skyrocketed over the past decade, quadrupling from just $240 billion in 2003 to more than $1 trillion today. If current borrowing patterns continue, student debt levels will reach $2 trillion in 2025. Average debt levels have risen rapidly as well: two-thirds (66 percent) of college seniors now graduate with an average of $26,600 in student loans, up from 41 percent in 1989. The rise of this “debt-for-diploma” system over the past decade was largely caused by the sharp decline in state funding for higher education, which has fallen by 25 percent since its peak in 2000.

However, despite the fact that student debt is now nearly a prerequisite for a college degree, we have not yet fully explored the impact of tying opportunity to debt. Though a college education remains the surest path to a middle-class life, evidence has begun to mount that student debt may be far more detrimental to financial futures than once thought, particularly for those with the highest levels of debt: students of color and students from low-income families.

This brief attempts to quantify just how much these soaring debt levels impact college-educated households’ financial stability over a lifetime. It creates a model using data from the Federal Reserve Board’s Survey of Consumer Finances and other datasets to estimate household debt and assets, comparing the projected debts and assets of a college-educated household with average levels of education debt to a similar household without debt. It finds that, over a lifetime of employment and saving, $53,000 in education debt leads to a wealth loss of nearly $208,000.

We can generalize this result to predict that the $1 trillion in outstanding student loan debt will lead to total lifetime wealth loss of $4 trillion for indebted households, not even accounting for the heavy impact of defaults.

There's more at the link, going into a lot more detail about those numbers.  If you are studying for a degree, planning to study for one, or have children or other relatives who are or are planning to do so, you really need to read the whole thing.  Demos appears to be a left-of-center/progressive organization, but don't let that stop you reading more;  their political orientation doesn't affect the reality they discuss in this article.

I have four university qualifications, all obtained through part-time study while working and earning my living.  I was never in debt at all, paying for each year's study out of the earnings of the previous year;  and because distance education is so much cheaper than full-time tuition, I saved a bundle.  If I had kids today who wanted a basic degree in almost any discipline, that's the recipe I'd recommend to them.  Sure, there are certain fields where full-time study is mandatory (e.g. medicine, engineering, etc.), but even there the preliminary qualifications can be obtained part-time.  It makes so much financial sense that I'm mind-boggled more people aren't doing that.  Yes, it takes greater self-discipline, but it also teaches self-discipline - something that'll stand kids in good stead later in life.  What's not to like?

Peter

Not your average "all hat and no cattle"

This made me laugh out loud.  Someone mixed a cattle auctioneer's patter with a rap beat.

I have to admit, I loathe rap with a passion, but this is funny.  You'll find more of it here.

(BTW, if you don't know the expression "All hat and no cattle", see here.)




Peter

This man tells it like it is about the economy

Steve Ricchiuto is Managing Director of Mizuho Securities USA, the local arm of the Mizuho Financial Group in Japan.  With assets of over $2 trillion (!), Mizuho is not exactly a small player on the international financial markets;  and it's not the sort of corporation to install a dummy as the head of its US operation.  This man knows what he's talking about.

Here he is on the air with Simon Hobbs and Sara Eisen of CNBC.  The meat of his remarks begins at 1m. 27s. into the clip, but watch the whole thing anyway.

In case you missed it:

"There is no acceleration in underlying economic activity. There’s this wrong concept that I keep on hearing about in the financial press about the acceleration in economic growth. It isn’t happening. We had a horrible retail sales number, we had a horrible durable goods number, we’re likely to have a very disappointing retail sales number coming forward, this month we have a strong payroll number we say everything’s great – it’s not great. It’s been the same thing for the last five years, there’s no improvement in the economy. After a string of dismal data on durable goods, retail spending, and inventories, we get a good jobs number and everyone saying the economy’s good. It’s not good."

Those who have ears to hear, let them hear.  Those who want warm fuzzy pious platitudes instead . . . let them listen to the Administration, the Fed and the mainstream media.  That's all we ever hear from them.

The other day, fellow blogger The Silicon Graybeard pointed out:

The earliest prices I can recall for a gallon of gas were around 20 cents a gallon: "19 and 9" because Florida prices always ended in that 9/10 of a cent.  Today's silver price of $17.05 says one of today's greenbacks is worth about 8.11 cents of 1964 silver.  In other words, one of today's dollars isn't worth a 1964 dime.  Today's gas price of about $2.15/gallon would cost 17 1/2 cents back in 1964.  Maybe the prices I remember weren't from 1964; but gas is basically the same price it was in 1964, measured against a standard.  Higher gas prices aren't from "peak oil", they're from worthless dollars.

There's more at the link.

That puts Mr. Ricchiuto's remarks into a different, but no less scary context.  All the so-called 'growth' we're seeing in the economy isn't really growth at all:  it's the effects of inflation, multiplied by the exponential growth in debt (about which we've also spoken recently).

Scary times.

Peter

"Bringing Criminals into the Stores Where You Shop"

Greg Ellifritz, who's a police officer, firearms instructor and blogger, has some interesting news on a new crime threat in some upmarket neighborhoods.  Here's an excerpt.

Recently I’ve noticed a trend among the shoplifters I’ve arrested. They all have a huge number of department store gift cards in their wallets and purses. Most of the shoplifters I arrest have between five and twenty gift cards in their possession at the time of arrest.

I assumed that these cards had been stolen. When I started asking my prisoners about how they got all the cards, a few were remarkably candid. They don’t steal them. They use the cards to get fast cash to buy drugs. Here’s how they work their scam.

The shoplifters will steal clothing or other merchandise from department stores. They often pick baby clothes because they are relatively expensive and smaller in size (thus easier to hide).

The shoplifters don’t keep the clothes or sell them in second-hand stores. Instead, they take them to a different store and return them. Since they don’t have receipts, the store gives them credit (in the form of a store gift card) instead of cash.

You may not have noticed, but a lot of grocery stores now have a machine near the front entrance where you can exchange store gift cards for cash. The machines take a percentage off the top as profit (3%-15% depending on the machine) and then give the person the remainder of the balance in cash.

Criminals take the gift cards they get from their stolen goods and turn them into cash (usually for heroin) at one of these machines. They use different stores and multiple (usually stolen) ID cards to redeem the cards so they don’t arouse suspicion.

One of the larger grocery stores in my city has recently added one of these gift card-for-cash machines. It has attracted quite a few criminals and thieves. I spoke with a manager at the store and he has noticed a change in the store’s clientele since the addition of the gift card machine. When I asked the manager about the machine, his comment was “I hate that machine. It draws people into our store who really don’t belong here.” The criminal element attracted by the machine then steals things from the grocery store as well.

Why is this important to you? I assume that most of my readers aren’t looking for easier ways to steal things or get money for drugs.

It affects you because you have to buy groceries. If your grocery store has a gift card-for-cash machine, it WILL attract a criminal element that wouldn’t otherwise frequent the store. If the criminals are there while you shop, you are more likely to be victimized. These criminals are the same people who will also steal from a person like you if given the opportunity.

There's more at the link.  Worthwhile reading, as are most of his articles at Active Response Training's Web site.  Recommended.

This just goes to show:  you can never take your security for granted.  You may be perfectly well aware of, and prepared for, the routine threats in your area . . . then a store will install one of these cash-for-gift-card machines and the risks change almost immediately.  Situational awareness is of paramount importance - as much as, if not more so than, the means to defend yourself if necessary.

Peter

Quote of the day

From Rev. Paul, in a post titled 'Differences Between North and South':

If you do settle in the South and bear children, don't think they'll necessarily be accepted as Southerners ... at least not right away. After all, if the cat had kittens in the oven, you wouldn't call 'em biscuits.

Peter

So much for the Rule of Law

I take the concept of the Rule of Law pretty seriously.  After all, I swore the Federal law enforcement oath of office:

I [name] do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.

The Constitution is the foundation for all US laws and regulations, which must be made 'in pursuance thereof'.  If they're not in accordance with the Constitution, they're not valid.  Period.

I've known for years that the supremacy of the Constitution has been under threat by ever-encroaching 'nanny state' and 'Big Brother' legislation.  However, the Atlantic has just reminded us how badly it's been eroded.  Its article is titled "America Fails the 'Rule of Law' Test".

The U.S. Army field manual defines "the rule of law" as follows: "The rule of law refers to a principle of governance in which all persons, institutions and entities, public and private, including the State itself, are accountable to laws that are publicly promulgated, equally enforced, and independently adjudicated, and which are consistent with international human rights norms and standards. It requires, as well, measures to ensure adherence to the principles of supremacy of law, equality before the law, accountability to the law, fairness in the application of the law, separation of powers, participation in decision-making, legal certainty, avoidance of arbitrariness and procedural and legal transparency."

Going by that definition, the U.S. government does not operate according to the rule of law. A panel of former executive-branch employees, many of whom served in the U.S. military or the CIA, made this point bluntly in a recent report on drones. "Despite the undoubted good faith of US decision-makers, it would be difficult to conclude that US targeted strikes are consistent with core rule of law norms," they declared. "From the perspective of many around the world, the U.S. appears to claim, in effect, the legal right to kill any person it determines is a member of al-Qaida or its associated forces, in any state on Earth, at any time, based on secret criteria and secret evidence, evaluated in a secret process by unknown and largely anonymous individuals—with no public disclosure of which organizations are considered 'associated forces,' no means for anyone outside that secret process to raise questions about the criteria or validity of the evidence, and no means for anyone outside that process to identify or remedy mistakes or abuses."

Just so.

Unfortunately, the U.S. government violates "rule of law" norms in other areas too.

There's more at the link.

Makes you think, doesn't it?  The question is, what are we going to do about restoring the rule of law and doing away with institutions and individuals who stand in its way?

Peter