Thor’s Hall

I became a father three months before 9/11.  Since that time I have become extremely focused on what takes place around me, and what I have in my bag of tricks to protect my family in times of trouble.  Having been an active duty Marine during some of the troubling times of the last century, simple counter terrorism actions, and counter defensive measures and awareness have been burned into by synapses.  I’ve mentioned before some of my experiences with Iran and Iranian friends that I had in the 70′s.  Even though I was thousands of miles away, Beruit had a serious impact on my views of the world.  Subsequent events in the Balkans, Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Spain, Britian, Germany, and the United States have reinforced the concept of evil and it’s existence on this planet.

Evil comes in many forms, from the all-powerful dictator, to the “petty office tyrant” that makes your business life miserable.  Defending ourselves, our families, and our way of life from evil should be a fundamental calling of each of us.  There are many tools available to us and for the majority of Americans voice, mannerisms, body language, and persuasiveness can deal with most of the situations that occur on a daily basis.  For other situations, something else is needed.  It goes beyond tools it reach for a mindset.  If you do not have the awareness of your surroundings, and the situation then you cannot possibly mentally accelerate to combat someone is meaning to do you harm no matter what tool you have at your fingertips.  Finally, when we, as a society, are able to combat evil “beings” we have to be able to deal with them a bit more permanently than we have.

Why do I write all these things… well a couple of incidents have occured that have reinforced by thought process here.

You should go here and read this post in total.  Phil does a nice job of tying together the whole thread.

Just under two years ago, a Thurston County middle school teacher was made to resign after she was found to have brought a firearm to school. The teacher had told both the school administration and the police that she had only brought it to protect herself from her husband, for whom she had recently gotten a protection order on after he threatened her with a gun.

They ignored the clear and present threat, patted her on the head and told her not to worry her little self over it. Shortly afterwards, they said that if she refused to resign, they’d fire her and have charges pressed against her. Yes, she had a valid Washington State Concealed Pistol License at the time.

Then we have this article from the Chicago Sun Times.

A convicted sex offender died Sunday during a struggle with a father who found the naked man in or near his 17-year-old daughter’s bedroom, police said.

Police responding to a call from the city’s northwest side about 3:20 a.m. found 64-year-old Robert McNally on the hallway floor with his arm around the neck of 52-year-old David T. Meyers, who was pronounced dead at the scene.

From personal experience, and I wish I could find a link for you on this, a Marine Captain of my acquaintence took his family on a camping vacation in the upper Midwest.  When he failed to return from leave a search turned up the bodies, murdered by two ex-convicts.

Bottom line – evil exists, not just in books and movies but in everyday life.  Prepare for it, and hope that it never finds you.

There has been a lot of talk about how far scociety has taken the concept of political correctness.  To be honest, I think it is one of those things that has gotten entirely out of control and softened society much too far.  If everyone were to be walking around in powdered white wigs, makeup, and lacy ruffled shirts it might be appropriate for the way things are going.

Again, I will refer you back to Kim’s place for a detailed discussion of this trend in American and European society, if you really want a deep look at it.

For my part I offer you these two recent events as evidence that things have been taken too far.  Well beyond the point of common sense.

Event 1 An agency issues a job posting.  Job requirement includes 20/20 vision.  Posting is offered in Braille.

Event 2 Hmm, a Black hole is a cosmological occurrence.  Not sure where the folks that are objecting to this comment are coming from, or what their educational background is.  Given the prevalence of black holes in literature and films you would have thought that these elected officials would have a bit of understanding of the comment.

In fact, there could be an argument made that political correctness has actually sharpened societal prejudices, and racial / ethnic conflict.

Hmm, if I ever have sufficient time that may pose an interesting study.  In the interim if anyone wants to run with that hypothesis go for it.  Just let me know about it so that I can follow the discussions.

Given the content of today’s (16 Jul) Day By Day (see above).  I think it is time to comment on this recent story.

The first comes from Louisville.  As Breda so eloquently put it, “When seconds count…the police are a half hour away”.  Yet another reason to be able to defend yourself and your family in any situation and with any weapon.

Our friendly governments are intent of providing for services to us, in exchange we are to provide them with our treasure (in the form of taxes) and relinquish certain inalienable rights.  There is a balance to be had here between what the government should provide vs. how much the take, right now the balance of that equation is off and not in our favor.

To compound matters, we (as a society) seem unable to learn from our history and are creating a situation where mistakes are repeated.  When it comes to weapons control there are some common sense things that need to take place.  Quick Reaction weapons need to be accessible and functional on demand.  Those weapons might be handguns, shotguns, staves, bladed weapons (long or short), sticks, etc.  If you choice is a handgun then having it locked in a safe, unloaded, and possibly disassembled is not useful and entirely contrary to the spirit of the recent Heller ruling.  As a result, you will wind up with more stories like this.

So much of the recent direction that DC is taking in reaction to Heller I find to be totally absurd.  Not only do I believe that they are in contravention of the recent SCOTUS finding but they create a climate of unreasonable regulation within the District.  I know that the government of DC has been corrupt, and incompetent since …….  well for as long as I can recall paying any attention to the news.  So maybe I shouldn’t be surprised.  In any case I still find their behavior childish and absurd.

Enough of this poorly written rant.

When I was an active Marine, we had very clear cut rules for the use of lethal force.  The civilian world, not so much.  With all of the change in society from when I was growing up, and now that I have children of my own I have become very aware of the need to insure that I provide not only a home for my family, but also to provide for their safety in every way I can.  For obvious reasons, I won’t go into details on this subject but, if you do some research you could probably surmise the layers of defense that I try and surround my loved ones with.

Every once in a while I start to look at the time and treasure that I spend on skills and equipment that I hope to never have to use and wonder if it is the right course of action.  About the time I start to ponder, something pops up that puts those thoughts firmly to rest.  I offer you this recent story as proof.

Over at Legion’s Fate CTone hits the nail on the head, commenting on this story so I won’t duplicate those thoughts too much.  Here is my favorite thought:

You can bet your ass that if I’m armed only with a knife and you try to take my kid, than your gonna think someone hurled a 230 lb. running lawnmower at your head.

Needless to say, I firmly agree with the comments.

There is a very well thought out piece here.  Go read it.

The article comes from someone that has addressed gun control / violence at the grass roots level.  He spells out the urban gun violence problem in two sentences.

IN OTHER WORDS, guns don’t kill people – misguided, unloved, disconnected, uneducated, angry youth kill people. Youth without mentors and role models kill people.

Go read the whole thing.  Then give some thought what could happen if this message can be internalized by politicians and society and appropriate action taken.

There are a lot of articles, and sides to the “gun control” issue as a whole.  While I doubt that this is the case, I seriously hope that much of that argument has been tabled with the recent Heller decision.  The Right to Keep and Bear Arms is a fundamental individual right and “shall not be infringed” by government.  Enough said on that.

One of the debates that this now opens up is how one exercises that right.  There are long arguments and discussions to be had regarding the carry of weapons, open, concealed, not at all, etc.  Personally, I have no problem with any of those choices, it is and should be up to the individual and what they feel comfortable with given the situation.  I have worked on projects all over the world, and every situation and society is going to be different.  It becomes a matter of what is more important to you in the situation.

Personally, I can reach out and touch someone in excess of 1/2 km away but I don’t ever expect to have to exercise that skill ever again.  By the same token, I can take someone that is trying to start a physical altercation with me and fairly discretely inflict sufficient discomfort on them, to walk them out of the altercation location and most likely defuse the situation.  If it escalates, I can manage that too.

The carry issue really impacts that intermediate range threat.  How do you deal with an armed, or unarmed threat when you are in an auditorium of 500 people and your in the 20th row back from the threat?  How do you deal with that guy over there driving the bulldozer into the Saturday Farmer’s Market, similar to the event yesterday?

You may be thinking, nice setup, where is this whole post going?   Well over at Chuck’s place he put up his reasons for carrying a weapon.  I am certain that I could add a few more (as could he) but here is the one that haunts my thoughts, and has for sometime now…

2. if your daughter or wife were being raped, or your child abducted, would you rather I shoot the bastard, or call the police and give them a good description of the “suspect” and then help your wife or daughter to the hospital?

Go read the whole thing here.  Read the comments too, there are a couple of winners there.

Now couple that with the news from Vermont today.

Draw your own conclusions.

I was reminded that today is the anniversary of John Wayne’s passing. Denise over at the Ten Ring has a nice little post up regarding her feelings.I would have liked to find a little Sgt. Stryker to post for you. Instead a little movie magic in a Coors commercial.

And in case you missed it earlier, go take a look at this post of mine.

We miss you Duke.

As many years as I have spent in Texas I always hated the weather, and loved the people. That has not changed. I hate Texas weather but ya gotta love these guys.

This has got to be the funniest, and most appropriate legal finding I have had the pleasure to read

Ok I think we all recognize that the Right to Keep and Bear Arms is guaranteed by the second ammendment to The Constitution.  That is pretty clear cut.  Shortly, the Supreme Court will rule on the Heller case and is expected to confirm that the 2nd ammendment confirms that these rights are the rights of the individual.

Where does that leave us on kinfe rights.  Recently we have seen criminals in the UK resort to swords, knives, and clubs (as well as outlawed guns) as the weapon of choice in criminal acts.  Further we have seen movements in the UK to outlaw these weapons too. 

Over at Joe Huffman’s blog, he has two interesting posts up on this very topic (here and here) and movements within the US to try and protect our Knife Rights.  Now in my opinion the seconf ammendment should not be necessary but it apparently is.  We do not have the equivilent legal protection for bladed weapons, and we should not need it.  However, with the growing movement to turn the US into the UK / Euro clone how will we fight this battle?