Childish demands

Recently, the national organizer for a student movement that is demanding free college, forgiveness of all student loans  and a $15 an hour minimum wage appeared on Fox news. You should watch this:

This is child like thinking. They want all of these things given to them at taxpayer expense, but haven't thought about how to pay for it. Clueless.

The Brady campaign

The Brady campaign is crossing the line in to idiocy. Here is the picture that they posted to their Facebook page:

With the caption:

This week, more than 900 people were killed by guns in the U.S. Two of them, Alton Sterling and Philando Castile – both young, black men – were shot and killed by police. We MUST do better to address the problem of #gunviolence that disproportionately claims lives of color. #ENOUGH

What gun law that ANYONE has proposed would change what happened?

I would call them idiots, but I think that they know the truth. That makes them liars.

Hot and Humid

In reference to my post of the weekend about people from the north not understanding Florida summer:

A pastor friend of mine was telling me how he was to be the officiant for a "destination wedding" here in Orlando, where the two who were getting married had never been to Florida before. The wedding was to be this past July 30 at 2 o'clock in the afternoon. Outside, at one of our resort hotels. They wanted a full 2 hour ceremony with formal dress.

My pastor friend tried to tell the bride that it was too hot outside to give her what she wanted, but she was having none of it. She wanted what she wanted, and she was the bride, and do what I say, was her attitude. Besides, they were from Chicago, and you rubes don't understand heat until you have been in the  midwestern states during their summers. 

Of course, anyone who lives here in Florida knows that you cannot spend that amount of time outside, dressed like that in this kind of heat. But, he was ready to let her have her wedding the way she wanted it. 

Two days before the wedding, the bride and groom arrived in Orlando and decided to spend the day before the ceremony at the Magic Kingdom. They called the pastor in a panic at 3 in the afternoon, and demanded that he change the ceremony to a shorter, 20 minute ceremony. 

Luckily, he already had prepared for that eventuality.

Sneaky Pete

Since it gets so hot here in Central Florida and the people who live here are always wearing summer clothes that make carrying a weapon problematic, those of us who carry weapons are always looking for comfortable ways to conceal. Enter the Sneaky Pete holster:

It appears like a case for a tablet pc, or perhaps a large cell phone. However, it actually hides a S&W Shield rather nicely:

I like it, because it doesn't get a second glance from anyone, and it is of sturdy leather construction. Go check them out. (I have no stake in the company, other than being a satisfied paying customer).

Polling- random thoughts

I was looking at polls, and I saw some interesting trends.

Income:

As of today, Clinton has leads among those who make $35K, but is trailing those with middle incomes from $35K to 75K, and the two are tied among those who make more than $75K. This tells me that the people who work for a living are tired of the status quo.

Race:

Clinton has 83% of the black vote. I think that this ties in with the lead she has among with lower incomes, because 85% of Blacks are on Welfare.

Education
Clinton also has a lead among those who have a college degree, but is losing among those with some college. My opinion here is that she is winning among those with degrees who have a low income. Why? Because these are the people who went to college to earn worthless degrees and are stuck under a mountain of student loan debt, but can't get a decent job to make their loan payments.

Hot and Humid

In a recent post, the Silicon Graybeard explains what it is like to live in Florida in August. He isn't kidding. On Thursday when I left for work at 0600, the temperature was 78 degrees. At 6 in the morning. But it isn't the temperature that is the biggest problem.

The biggest problem was my windshield fogging over, and not staying clear no matter how high I ran the wipers. The only way to keep the windshield clear is to run the defroster at 80 degrees. What this means is that the dew point is 78 degrees. So now I am sitting in a car that is heated to 80 degrees, with a humidity level of 92 percent.

The dew point temperature is the temperature at which the air can no longer hold all of its water vapor, and some of the water vapor must condense into liquid water. At 100% relative humidity, the dew point temperature and the air temperature are the same, and clouds or fog can begin to form. While relative humidity is a relative measure of how humid it is, the dew point temperature is an absolute measure of how much water vapor is in the air (how humid it is). In very warm, humid conditions, the dew point temperature can reach 75 to 77 degrees F, but rarely exceeds 80 degrees.

Dew point is the best indicator of comfort in a hot climate. Once the dew point of the air exceeds 66 degrees Fahrenheit or so, the air begins to feel hot and uncomfortably stuffy. The reason for this, is that your perspiration can not evaporate to cool you off.

Couple this with heat, and we have what is known as the "heat index," which is a way of saying what the air feels like. In the case of my morning drive, that particular combination of heat and humidity makes for a very uncomfortable drive.

That afternoon, my car said that it was 98 degrees on the way home. That temperature, combined with the dew point of 78 degrees, means that the relative humidity is 53 percent. That makes it feel like it is 116 degrees Fahrenheit (46.4 degC) outside.

THAT is the reason why we need air conditioning in Florida. Now there are people from further north who like to claim that it gets just as hot or hotter up where they are from, but they are not accounting for humidity. On July 6 of this year, New York City recorded a temperature of 91 degreesF, and a dew point of 72 degreesF. That makes the Relative Humidity 54%, and the heat index a relatively comfortable 99 degrees F (37 degC).

Cameras

Two weeks ago, I installed a camera system in the house at a cost of $400. I placed five cameras around the house: One on the front door, and one on each of the four sides of the house. It records what happens outside when it detects motion. Five days after I installed the cameras, those cameras recorded the lawn maintenance guy just sticking the "pesticide" sign in the yard, and then sticking the bill in the door. That was all he did- he did not do a thing to the yard, aside from the sign. He is supposed to treat the lawn for bugs and weeds, and then fertilize.

So last Saturday I sent the company a certified letter, explaining that I had them on film billing me for a service that they did not perform. I demanded that they cancel our service, and demanded a refund for the year I had paid in advance. In the envelope, I included a copy of my contract, a copy of the bill left in my door, and a printout of a screenshot from the camera at my front door. That screenshot had a facial view of the service tech, with his vehicle and the "pesticide" sign that he had placed in the yard in the background. The letter said that they had 30 days to refund my money, or I was filing a complaint with the state to have his professional license revoked, and I was going to hire an attorney to sue him.

I got a $375 check today by certified mail. The system has paid for itself already.

Milwaukee update- 5 more facts you should know

This is an update to my post of earlier today. It seems as though some more facts are coming to light:

1 The man who was shot by police has been identified as Sylville Smith. He has an arrestfrom a shooting earlier this year, and for intimidating a witness in that case. Smith was charged with first-degree recklessly endangering safety, a felony, on Feb. 3, 2015.
Authorities have him on tape instructing his girlfriend to tell the victim in that shooting to recant under threat of violence.
The victim recanted his identification of Smith and the case was dropped after the victim did not show up to court and was uncooperative. The victim then denied that he changed his story because of witness intimidation.

2  Court records show Smith has one prior conviction from 2014 for carrying a concealed weapon without a permit, a misdemeanor.

A real choirboy.

3 The firearm that the man had when shot by police was stolen in a home burglary from March of this year.

Stolen? You mean he didn't undergo a background check? Shocking!

4 The man arrested with Smith was Demario D. Pritchard, according to police records and sources. Earlier this year Pritchard, 24, was found guilty of felony possession of cocaine.

Another choirboy

4 The officer who shot the man was also black.

No racism there...

5 Sylville Smith’s father, Patrick Smith, told Fox 6 News he blames gun laws and poor role models, including himself, for what happened:

Everyone playing their part in this city, blaming the white guy or whatever, and we know what they’re doing. Like, already I feel like they should have never OK’d guns in Wisconsin...They got us killing each other and when they even OK’d them pistols and they OK’d a reason to kill us too. Now somebody got killed reaching for his wallet, but now they can say he got a gun on him and they reached for it. And that’s justifiable. When we allowed them to say guns is good and it’s legal, we can bear arms. This is not the wild, wild west y’all.

More riots

In Milwaukee this weekend, a violent criminal with multiple arrests draws a stolen firearm on a police officer, who then shoots him dead. As usual, riots follow. 

The rioters then proceed to record video of themselves beating every white motorist who passes through the area, then post the videos to the Internet. They shouted things like "Ima bout to steal this cracker's car," and "He white! Beat his shit, bitch!"

THIS is a hate crime. Will Obama's justice department investigate this? Of course not. 

I remember what happened to Reginald Denny, who was dragged from his truck and beaten unconscious with a brick, a tire iron and a fire extinguisher. He had more than 90 skull fractures.

He went through years of therapy, working on his speech and regaining the ability to drive. He works as a boat mechanic in Lake Havasu, Ariz., and has a permanent disability.

You just might succeed in pulling me from my vehicle, but that act will be preceded by some rioters being turned into speed bumps, and I will be found next to a pile of spent brass and at least a few of my attackers.  I am not going to be pulled from my vehicle and beaten until I am permanently disabled without a fight. 

Let's review the applicable rules: 

In Florida, deadly force may be used to protect oneself from death or serious bodily injury, or to prevent the imminent commission of a forcible felony.

Forcible felony, according to 776.08, includes arson, aggravated assault, and the unlawful throwing, placing, or discharging a destructive device or bomb, and any other felony that involves the use or threat of force.

Throwing a Molotov cocktail is arson, which is a forcible felony. 

A Molotov cocktail is also considered to be a destructive device under 790.001.Throwing one is a forcible felony 

Participating in a riot whereby the participants are forcibly and violently attempting to destroy any building is a forcible felony under 870.03.

A person who is occupying a vehicle that is forcibly and unlawfully being entered is presumed to be in reasonable fear for his life under 776.013.  A person who is attacked in his or her dwelling, residence, or vehicle has no duty to retreat and has the right to stand his or her ground and use or threaten to use force, including deadly force.

This means that anyone who attempts to forcibly pull me from my vehicle may be lawfully engaged with lethal force.

US citizens on the dole

As a continuation of the look at the correlation between race and violent crime, I want to look at Welfare. In the United States, there are just over 110 million people on welfare out of a total population of 323 million, meaning that just about one third of the US population is on welfare.

Of those 110 million welfare recipients, 39.8% of them, or 43.8 million, are black. Blacks comprise 16 percent, or 51 million people, of the US population. Doing some simple arithmetic shows that 85% of the US black population is on welfare.

Aside from the connection between race, welfare, and violent crime, there is another fact from above that really shocked me.

One third of the US population is on welfare. Seventy percent of them have been on welfare for more than three years.
Another 20 percent - just over 65 million- are retired or disabled and on Social Security

Sixty percent of the country is either on welfare or Social Security. What is going to happen when the checks stop rolling in?