School shooting

This shooting will be used to justify a law that only allows cops to have guns on school property.

A Florida sheriff's deputy killed three relatives, including a child, before killing himself outside of a high school, officials said.

Bad shoot, or am I an anti-gun idiot?

A 17 year old walks into a jewelry store and asks to try on rings. Once he has three of them, worth about $3,000 or so, an employee tells him that he cannot try them all on. The thief threatens her, and then runs from the store. The owner's husband, along with another employee, chases him out of the store, and this happens:



The man with the gun fires into the fleeing vehicle, hitting the 17 year old in the head.

When I pointed out in the comments on social media that this was a bad shoot because you cannot shoot someone who is fleeing, I was called an idiot, pro criminal, anti-gun, a Democrat, accused of having an "agenda" and every other name you can think of. Even when I pointed out that this case was very similar to another Florida shooting case, it got worse.

Stuff like this is what makes gun owners look bad.

Glad I got out

I had quite a bit of money in the stock market. A few weeks ago, the stock market's volatility had me down about $30k. I decided enough was enough, and I got out. I moved all of my funds to an online savings account that pays 2.1% interest. Since that day, the DJIA has lost more than 10% of its value, down almost 4000 points from its 52 week high of 26,951.

The Fed appears to be purposely destroying the market with these interest rate increases.

Money talks

Tranny Miss Universe

The tranny that was running in the Miss Universe contest is claiming that he is a woman because he believes himself to be a woman.

Let's say that I believe myself to be a gorilla. No matter how strongly I believe it, I am still not a gorilla.
Let's say that I take pills to make myself grow more hair to look more like a gorilla. I am still not a gorilla.
If I hire a surgeon to perform an operation to make myself look more like a gorilla, I am still not a gorilla.
If I get a million people to say that I can be whatever I identify myself as, and declare than I am a gorilla, I am still not a gorilla.

If I were to believe myself to be a gorilla and took the steps above, people would say I am crazy.

Why doesn't the same thing go for trannies? Just because you think that you are a woman doesn't make you a woman, it makes you crazy.

Security in depth

ALL security can be beaten eventually, because all security has one thing in common: the item being secured must be accessible to its owner, or there is no point in securing it. If you don't need access to it, the best (and often cheapest and easiest) way to keep it from being stolen is to destroy it.

Failing that, a good security system is one that relies on layers. The more layers, the more secure the system. Each layer can be fairly inexpensive.

For example, a security company yard sign is a great outer layer of security that costs very little. The purpose of this sign is deterrence: to signal to casual thieves that the risk of breaking into this house may not be worth the effort.

The next layer is part deterrence, part defense. I have security cameras that are visible to careful observers. I have no idea how well they work as a deterrent, and experienced thieves know how to defeat them, but they still complicate matters and may cause some thieves to look elsewhere. My cameras have helped catch criminals on three different occasions.

Layer three: landscaping lights illuminate the outside of the house.

The fourth layer is locked doors. There are more:alarm systems, safes, timers on lighting so no one knows when you aren't home, even fake televisions to make it appear as though you are home.

In fact, for a relatively small amount of money, your home can be a much harder target than any other in your neighborhood. The goal here isn't to make your house impossible to burglarize, that isn't possible. Instead, aim to make your house a less attractive target than your neighbors' homes.

UPS employees steal, which is why shipping guns is expensive

Shipping firearms by common carrier requires that you notify the carrier of the contents of the package.
No person shall knowingly deliver or cause to be delivered to any common or contract carrier for transportation or shipment in interstate or foreign commerce to any person other than a licensed importer, licensed manufacturer, licensed dealer, or licensed collector, any package or other container in which there is any firearm or ammunition without written notice to the carrier that such firearm or ammunition is being transported or shipped

Let's say that you want to ship your firearm to the factory for some service work. The only problem is that the postal service refuses to ship handguns, and companies like UPS require that you ship firearms overnight- at a rate that may cost nearly as much as the firearm being shipped. I was shipping a pair of Sigs to the factory for some custom work, and UPS wanted nearly $200 to ship them overnight, which was the only way that they would accept them. Also, UPS contractors won't take them, only actual corporate UPS locations.

Why? Because UPS employees steal too much of what is shipped through their employer.

Deputies said the employee, Okoye Manley, 28, sent text messages to his co-defendants, Tanjinika Wright, 31, and Dekeria Wright, 26, as he delivered packages to homes. All three were arrested Thursday. UPS officials said that Manley is no longer employed by the company.

Why confiscation won't happen

There is always talk of banning firearms and having the police and military start confiscating them. It won't happen. There are two big reasons:
The majority of cops fall into two camps: they are also gun and freedom loving people who will refuse (this is the minority), or they are cowards with badges who care more about maintaining their pensions and benefits than they do about protecting the public.

To prove point one, all one has to do is look at what happened in Parkland, where most of the responding police officers hid outside while shots could be heard inside of a school. That was cops pacing just one lightly armed teen in a school. What do you think they will do, how motivated will they be, when faced with a trained, well armed, pissed off nation of even a few thousand gun owners?

Woke but blind

The recent uproar about the Christmas song, "Baby it's cold outside" has become somewhat of a big deal since I first posted about it a few days ago. We are now at the point where radio stations in Denver, Cleveland, and San Francisco have banned the song. One one of the articles, I saw the best comment ever:

"I wonder what future analysis of Kanye West's new song "You’re Such A F**king Ho. I Love It!’' will reveal?

Maybe these radio stations should start with rap before they go after more ambiguous music.

Senseless Traditions

Growing up, my father insisted on a family tradition. Every year, my siblings and I were forced to watch "Miracle on 34th Street" on Christmas day. Not just any version, the old black and white version with Natalie Wood. Every Christmas. By the time I was 18 years old, my brother and I would roll our eyes and make a face every time we were forced to watch it.

Then, I had children of my own. The tradition lived on with my own kids.

The day eventually came when dad passed away. My kids are grown and have lives and families of their own. I still watch that movie every Christmas, and it brings back memories of childhood days spent with my family: the one I had as a child, and the one I had as a young parent.

Suddenly, that tradition didn't seem so senseless. Dad would have been 78 years old this week had he not passed away 14 years ago. I still miss him, but he still gives me a Christmas gift every year when I watch that movie.

Cherish the senseless traditions. They become some of the best memories you will ever have. 

Living in the future

I decided a couple of years back that I wanted a smart house. Since I was being spied upon by technology anyway, I figured I might as well put the fact that I am living in the future to use. So I invested the time and money in having a smart home.

The house is automated with voice control. We can turn appliances, ceiling fans, and lights simply by speaking a command. We have a robot vacuum that cleans the carpets when we leave the house.

There are all sorts of automations that run in the background.

When we leave the house, the system activates the alarm system, turns the thermostat to a more energy efficient setting, and turns off the lights. When night falls and no one is home, the system automatically turns lights on and off to make it appear as though someone is home.

When we are home and leave doors and windows open for more than 5 minutes, the house announces the fact, and then turns off the air conditioning. Close the doors, and the air conditioning is turned back on.

I am continually adding capabilities to the house. I feel like George Jetson. Living in the future is great. All I need now is a robot to fold the laundry.

More from the PC crowd

Rabid leftists are destroying everything. Now one of my favorite Christmas time songs has fallen victim. Rabid feminists have demanded the removal of "Baby, it's cold outside" and an Ohio radio station has complied.

How to save time and money on education

I recently posted that we are throwing money at underperforming and poor students without getting much of a return. A reader left a comment, asking if I have suggestions for improvement. I do.

First, some facts: 
Three in ten jobs in the US do not even require a high school diploma.
Two out of three jobs do not require a college degree of any sort.
4 million students a year begin high school. 90% of them graduate.
70 percent of those who graduate from high school go on to enroll in college, despite the fact that only one third of jobs require a college degree.
Of course, of the 63 percent of high school students who attend college, less than half of them will actually graduate with a four year degree.
Of the students who get a college degree, twice as many get degrees in park, recreation, leisure, and fitness studies as there are students who receive degrees in mathematics or engineering.
Ten percent of college freshmen want to become a medical doctor. Less than 0.4% of them actually DO become doctors.

In other words, Americans are overeducated for the jobs that are there. We need to get away from the idea that every student needs to be ready for college, because even with all this money we are throwing at the issue, they just aren't learning. Here is my proposal:

At the end of the eighth grade, all students are given a proficiency exam. Students will be tested on proficiency in reading, vocabulary, and math skills. There will be no adjustment for special needs or learning disabilities.  Your score determines what taxpayer funded school you attend. If a student wishes to attend a higher level of school than the test determines that they are qualified for, then they can pay for the difference in cost out of their own pocket.

The lowest performing quintile will be sent to a school for the next two years to be taught how to be an adult: they will learn about  budgeting, along with basic life skills. At age 16, they will graduate and be able to get a job. This is all you need to mow lawns, work at a retail or fast food job, or any other job not requiring an employee to solve algebraic equations or write sonnets.

The second and third quintiles will attend a vocational high school. In this school they can learn general vocational skills like use of tools, construction, culinary, or mechanical skills. They can graduate at age 16 or 17 with the basic skills needed to work at the apprentice level of the skilled trades.

Fourth and fifth quintile students will be eligible for the college pathway. They graduate after taking classes on algebra, chemistry, composition, literature, and civics.

To be honest, we are doing this now. The school where I work pulls out the best performing students and puts them into "honors" classes or "AP" classes that are designed to prepare them for college. The remainder of the students are placed in fluff classes that are essentially babysitting to keep them out of their parents' hair until they are eighteen years old. All this would do is save us money by getting them off the gravy train earlier, and also give them life skills instead of paying lip service to the idea that every kid needs to be ready for college.

You are being spied upon, get used to it

So much data has been spent complaining about how smart devices are spying on you. There are many bloggers that I have a lot of respect for that say they will never own a smart device because those devices will listen to every word you say.

As for me, I think that ship sailed years ago. Many people stay away from Social media because it spies on you and sells your information. Guess what? Do you have a cell phone? It spies on you. So do frequent shopper cards. Your email provider does, too. As does your credit card provider, your bank, and your ISP.

I own my own business and I advertise online. One of the features offered is a "pixel" campaign. You know those pictures and memes that get passed around the Internet? Companies offer the ability to add a pixel to those picture files that acts as a tracking beacon. Every time someone looks at that picture, the pixel executes a program that mines information about the person viewing the picture.

Even if you refuse all of that, there are companies who are tracking your shopping habits by tracking your purchase history by your credit or debit card numbers. So you say, never mind, I will avoid using customer loyalty cards, credit cards, a cell phone, an email account, and the Internet. That will not work either, because there are companies using facial recognition and license plate readers to track you as well.

Data mining is the new gold rush. Most companies have large databases of information on people, and they sell that information to anyone who wants to pay for it. Big brother is watching you. It is now impossible to live in this country without someone somewhere having the ability to track your every move.

Title One school

I teach at a title one school. The reason my school is a title one school is that more than 70% of the students receive free or reduced lunch. Being a title one school entitles the school to receive a large amount of additional funding. For my school, that means an additional half a million dollars in title one funds. Our budget is somewhere north of $15,000 per student.

In addition, students and their families are entitled to:
- free breakfast for all students, regardless of whether or not they qualify for free or reduced lunch
- free coats for students who request them
- free groceries that can be sent home for the families of students who need them
- free daycare during days when school is not in session (winter break, summer, etc.)

Throwing money at the problem isn't going to fix education. There is a well known connection between poverty and poor performance in education, but after spending 5 years as a teacher, I think I know why:

Whether it is nature or nurture, affluent parents generally have smart, well educated children. The reason for this is simple: parents who are successful tend to be smart and well educated themselves, and pass this trait on to their children.

Parents who are poor do not.

The funny thing is that students who need public funds to buy food all seem to have smart phones with data plans. Several of my students have taken cruises this year, even though they are on food stamps.

We as a society are wasting gobs of money for little return. No one believes this money will fix anything. This is just another scheme for redistributing wealth.

Small government

Tell me again why the Republicans are the party of small government...

The more it becomes blue

the more it looks like the liberal paradise of Chicago.

The former police chief of Biscayne Park, a city in Miami-Dade county, was sentenced on Tuesday to three years in prison for ordering officers to arrest black people for crimes they did not commit in order to give the impression that his department was solving crimes, court documents say.

Every person arrested of any crime at all in that city should immediately request and receive a new trial. All evidence provided by that police department should be disallowed in those trials. This case is less about racism and more about cops who will do anything to look good, even if that means destroying the lives of the very people that they are sworn and paid to protect.

The officers of this department are nothing more than a street gang with qualified immunity.

Snowiest decade

Even local news station weather forecasters are beginning to doubt global warming.

Interestingly, some scientists have stated that increasing snow is consistent with climate change because warmer air holds more moisture, more water vapor and this can result in more storms with heavy precipitation. The trick, of course, is having sufficient cold air to produce that snow. But note that 93% of the years with more than 60″ of snow in Boston were colder than average years. The reality is cooling, not warming, increases snowfall. Note the graph depicting declining January through March temperatures for 20 years at a rate of 1.5 degrees F. per decade in the Northeast!

Meanwhile, it is 40 degrees outside of my home as I type this. That's pretty cool for this early in the season for Central Florida.

Reasoned discourse

My son's girlfriend posted a link to an article where doctors were taking the NRA to task because the NRA demanded that they "stay in their lane." I commented.

Here is how the conversation went:

Divemedic: I'm surprised that you would advocate for gun control.

Son's GF: Gun control is such an antiquated term used for propaganda. And sharing a Facebook post isn’t necessarily advocating for anything. However, I find it interesting this story regarding the NRA’s remarks toward an ER Physician . I think many people look past what makes us individuals and how we make decisions, which is our experiences. It is easy for people to say things against ER docs and nurses when they have never spent a Saturday night in a trauma room.

DM: Regardless, people who work in a trauma room have no training in public policy, law, or firearm safety. They are no more qualified to pontificate on gun law than anyone else. Medical people get mad when others who are unqualified try to tell them how to do their jobs. This is the same thing. Last time I checked, firearm laws were not a part of nursing school.

SGF: So disregarding criminals what about the mentally ill? People who have no criminal record, pass background checks and buy guns legally? Yet have intention of committing horrific crimes? There has to be a compromise and it starts with respecting other people’s opinion who are different from your own so this conversation can be had. I do not want to worry about my friends who are teachers, law enforcement, club goers, gay, straight or who have children that go to school to live in fear that they may be a victim of the next shooting. It’s time to stop the nonsense political outdated jargon and come up with a plan. I’m sorry but I completely disagree with you. As an avid hunter, and someone who does enjoy going to the range I would say that I am above average then normal person when firearm safety training. I spent many summers in Tallahassee learning the development of public policy as you call it and also many years in the trauma room. It is time to have a conversation about the gun violence that is going on in this country. I’m not advocating for people’s rights to be violated in anyway. But I’m tired of seeing innocent people die at the hands of people who had guns that did not deserve them.

DM:  Actually, the US homicide rate (as of 2016) was the lowest is has been in decades. It is less than half of what it was in 1990. Also, you can't predict when people will snap and kill others. All you can do is look at their past and try to guess what they will do. There are no guarantees.

SGF:  I honestly don’t have a solution to the problem, what I think needs to happen is put a committee together not just of one sided opinions. Leave legislators out of it. Politicians (no offense to those that are on here) are motivated by outside forces such as re elections so they don’t want to take a stand unless there is motivation to be backed by a large amount of future voters. And together come up with a solution to the problems. One problem at a time.

For me the biggest issue is why mentally unstable people have guns. Whether they get them from outside sources or obtained legally. I mean to go to nursing/ med/ police/ fire school, we have to prove that we are mentally capable of carrying such responsibilities. We are finger printed back ground checked, interviewed over and over again, tested on multiple levels teas, gmat, GRE it takes YEARS to accomplish these goals and lots of money.

People say well yeah you have to go through all the training and schooling because you care for my mother...

I’m not saying we need to take guns away, trust me it’s prime hunting season right now. But if it takes years of hard work to get and obtain an RN or medical license because “ they could injure or kill someone” I think firearms carry that responsibility as well

DM: What if we required a license to vote? Or have an Internet connection? This license would require a test, fingerprinting, and background checks.

SGF: This attitude of zero tolerance is getting to me.

Then, reasoned discourse broke out and I was banned from her FB page. At no point was I rude or disrespectful.

The government you deserve

The Democrat governed state of California keeps voting for the same old, same old. They vote for things, and when their chickens come home to roost they come to the rest of us, demanding help.

The voters ask for and receive the toughest gun control laws in the nation. Not only do those laws fail to stop the shooters, but leave the targets of those shooters defenseless.

The voters pass laws that allow them to build homes in the middle of forests without a thought of putting defensive zones for wildfires around those homes. Then demand aid to help rebuild.

It seems to me that California voters are getting exactly the government that they have asked for.

(and yes, I say the same thing about people in Florida who build homes right on the beach and then demand help when hurricanes destroy their homes. It isn't the responsibility of the rest of us to fund your bad decisions.)

Civil War 2

People who live jammed into cities where the food and water must be imported from rural areas should not pick fights with those who feed and provide water for them.

Headline:

NBC REPORTER WONDERS HOW LONG ‘AMERICAN MAJORITY WILL TOLERATE BEING PUSHED AROUND BY A RURAL MINORITY’

What he is saying is that the people in cities should be able to order the people in rural areas to provide agricultural products to them. The last time Democrats made that demand, the Republicans had to start a civil war to stop them

Voters not voting

From NYmag comes a story called "12 young people on why they probably won't vote." If you read the reasons, you see the "If the person I support doesn't win, I won't play" attitude. Here is Samantha from New Jersey:

I had my Clinton sweatshirt on all day... Watching the results come in, it was just disheartening. My faith in the whole system was crushed pretty quickly.

So the entire system is there to ensure that your favorite candidate wins, and if they don't, the system is obviously broken.

Most of the other 11 people say that voting is too hard, or that they don't have the time or energy to vote. I don't understand the lack of energy thing. The oldest of them is 29 years old. How can you not have energy in your 20s? I think that the lack of energy or ambition is the reason why so many of them support people like Sanders or Ocasio-Cortez. After all, if they are too lazy to vote, how motivated are the to actually earn a living and work for themselves? With that said, here is a quote from Anna in New York City:

 When I was at the post office to register, this poor girl, clearly also a college student like me, didn’t know what “postmarked” meant and had no idea how to send an important document by mail. Most people my age have zero need to go to the post office and may have never stepped into one before. Honestly, if someone had the forms printed for me and was willing to deal with the post office, I’d be much more inclined to vote.

Seriously, an entire generation that doesn't know how to mail a letter?

Personally, I am kid of happy the morons in this story don't want to vote. Read the whole thing. It is an interesting look into the youngest adults in the nation.

Domestic Violence

Women in this country have learned that they can accuse a man of domestic violence or sexual assault, and use the accusation as a trump card to almost any situation, even to get revenge on a previous amour. I know, it happened to me.

With that being said, I fell sorry for the man that this woman is pissed off at, because he is likely going to jail:

Voter drive

A liberal group is trying to "get out the vote" by sending out letters that list the voting record of neighbors. It's legal, even if despicable. Public shaming is a common tactic of the left, as seen by the publishing of CCW records. These lists are important to the people on the left, because they are going to use them as guidebooks for when they again have the power to take revenge on their political enemies.
After all, Maxine Waters has already sworn to use any power she gets in order to exact revenge on her political enemies.

“What I am going to do to you is fair. I’m going to do to you what you did to us,” she vowed.

Back stabber

I have been catching a lot of flack from my Republican friends for saying that I refuse to vote for Rick Scott. They claim that unless I vote for Scott, I am handing Congress to the Democrats. Let me show you why I refuse to vote for that son of a bitch. Her is the campaign ad that tells the entire story:




After the shooting in South Florida, Rick Scott stabbed gun owners in the back by signing a gun control bill into law. The law raises the age to buy firearms from 18 to 21, meaning that the constitutional rights of people between 18 and 20 don't matter. It also put a number of other laws from the gun control wish list on the books.

At the end: "I am Rick Scott and I approve this message." Not only did this asshole stab gun owners in the back, he is bragging and campaigning about it. He will do it again, if he thinks it will get him more votes. It is up to gun owners to show him that this is a losing strategy, so maybe he will think twice next time.

I am a gun owner, and I don't forget what you did to me, and I have voted accordingly.

The new Fudds

For years, the gun culture was thrown under the bus by hunters. They wholeheartedly supported calls for gun control, as long as talks of gun control stuck to evil assault weapons. The reasoning from hunters was that, perhaps if they supported gun control groups, the gun control groups would leave them alone. It didn't work. It wasn't long before there were calls to ban "sniper rifles." To this day, we still hear anti gun forces say "Those guns are useless for hunting" or "You don't need an AR15 to hunt deer."

Now we have another group of misguided gun owners who think that if they only open carry in a friendly manner, the anti gunners will somehow come around and like them. I normally agree with Borepatch, but I think he is wrong on this one. To Borepatch and the rest of them, I ask this:

What gun can I own that will win the approval of gun control groups?
What method of carry will make the anti gunners like me?
What form of capitulation will make anti gunners stop calling for my guns to be confiscated?

Rosa Parks and the other civil rights advocates didn't win by sitting at the coloreds only lunch counter and attempting to be noticed. They refused to back down.

Socialism

The people who vote for a living are taking money from those who work for a living. More than half of the country gets more in handouts than they pay in taxes. 

Now that we are at the point where a majority of the voting population receives more in benefits than it pays in taxes, voters will demand more and more wealth be transferred to them through government programs. It is now politically necessary to extract larger and larger amounts of wealth from a minority in order to subsidize the majority. The national economy is doomed to fail. It is inevitable, and things will continue to get worse.

The US is now officially a socialist nation.

CCW stops mass shooting

A man with a CCW permit stopped a mass shooting, exchanging fire with the killer and driving him away. The police later apprehended the killer. Who gets the credit?

"Thanks to the quick response of the local police department, the suspect was apprehended and our store is secure."

Mea Culpa: the video surfaces

I recently posted about a shooting that occurred in Lakeland. Operating from text based news articles only, it appeared as though the thief had grabbed a hatchet and attempted to threaten the store owner in order to affect his escape. The Lakeland PD has since released the store video of the shooting. I will let you watch for yourself.




It appears as though I jumped the gun. This looks to me to be a bad shooting. The thief does not appear to be threatening the store owner, and it appears as though the store owner shot him not in self defense, but to prevent his escape. Absent any other evidence, this looks like second degree murder to me.

That is what I get for basing my opinion on press reports.

Believe all women?

A Democrat has been accused of sexual misconduct during the 1980s. We hear crickets.


Where are the "believe all women" and the "I believe the survivors" protesters now? Are women only believable when the accuse Republicans?

Waste of money?

The owner of a Lakeland Army-Navy store, who also happens to be a city commissioner, was charged with second degree murder by a grand jury. The story is that a man entered the store and tried to shoplift a hatchet. The owner attempted to stop the thief and grabbed his shirt in an attempt to prevent his escape, the thief raised the hatchet, and the store owner shot him once, killing him.

It seems to me that this is a waste of taxpayer money, but the general climate in this state lately is against armed self defense. The press headlined this case with: " A Lakeland city commissioner fatally shot a customer during a dispute over a hatchet " That is not the case. In attempting to steal a weapon (the hatchet), what the man did was commit armed robbery. Here is the statute:

812.13 Robbery.—
(1) “Robbery” means the taking of money or other property which may be the subject of larceny from the person or custody of another, with intent to either permanently or temporarily deprive the person or the owner of the money or other property, when in the course of the taking there is the use of force, violence, assault, or putting in fear.
(2)(a) If in the course of committing the robbery the offender carried a firearm or other deadly weapon, then the robbery is a felony of the first degree, punishable by imprisonment for a term of years not exceeding life imprisonment or as provided in s. 775.082, s. 775.083, or s. 775.084.
(b) If in the course of committing the robbery the offender carried a weapon, then the robbery is a felony of the first degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082, s. 775.083, or s. 775.084.

The owner can use reasonable force to prevent a robbery. A robbery is a forcible felony.

Forcible felony.—“Forcible felony” means treason; murder; manslaughter; sexual battery; carjacking; home-invasion robbery; robbery; burglary; arson; kidnapping; aggravated assault; aggravated battery; aggravated stalking; aircraft piracy; unlawful throwing, placing, or discharging of a destructive device or bomb; and any other felony which involves the use or threat of physical force or violence against any individual.

Since this was a forcible felony, the store owner can use deadly force.

776.012 (2) A person is justified in using or threatening to use deadly force if he or she reasonably believes that using or threatening to use such force is necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another or to prevent the imminent commission of a forcible felony. A person who uses or threatens to use deadly force in accordance with this subsection does not have a duty to retreat and has the right to stand his or her ground if the person using or threatening to use the deadly force is not engaged in a criminal activity and is in a place where he or she has a right to be.

It seems to me like the store owner can make a pretty good case for the shooting. Remember, the standard for the shooter is "reasonable doubt." There is plenty of that here, but it is going to take a lawyer and some serious money. I hope he has carry insurance. I know I do. Don't you?

Bullshit Du Jour

The latest cause that has woman attaching men, claiming that men are abusers? They are calling it financial abuse and claiming it is a form of domestic violence. They define it as

where abusers limit or prevent access to financial resources, like bank accounts and job opportunities.

So if I don't give a woman unlimited access to all of the money she wants, I am now abusing her. This is why an ex girlfriend once went to court to claim I was abusing her. The judge agreed, because he claimed that refusing to pay for her cell phone after we broke up was a form of violence. My lawyer got that overturned, but this is just another form of lawfare against men.

Since they are defining it as domestic violence, if your significant other wants a new pair of shoes and you tell her no, or if you insist that she spend within a budget, you are a domestic abuser and should never be able to own a firearm.

Green Energy Scam

A company in Canada claims they can capture 'fuel' from the air.

This company is hoping that those watching don't understand the First Law of Thermodynamics. Carbon dioxide is NOT energy. Taking CO2 and converting it into hydrocarbon fuel USES energy. Thanks to inefficiencies in ALL chemical reactions (First Law of Thermodynamics) it takes more energy to create the fuel than the fuel itself contains.

I thought it was a joke, it was so stupid. I thought — it’s junk science, junk commerce, nothing makes sense about it. But look how pretty it is.

Hydrocarbon fuels are large organic molecules that are held together by chemical bonds. In some cases, there are thousands of these bonds in a single molecule. The carbon atoms are attached to hydrogen, as well as to other carbon atoms, forming long chains of carbons. During the combustion process, those bonds are broken, and the carbon atoms are connected to oxygen atoms instead.

These carbon dioxide molecules contain far fewer bonds than the larger molecules, so the excess energy is harvested. Basic physics.

In order to put those large molecules back together, the CO2 molecules have to be torn apart, energy has to be harvested from somewhere and added back to the process, so the hydrocarbons can be reassembled. Where this energy comes from is the part that makes this process BS. It is like mounting a wind generator on the nose of an airplane, and using the electricity generated to propel the aircraft.

Do you doubt that Maxine Waters and Justin Trudeau are reading over the brochures for these abominable contraptions, wondering how many thousands to order at taxpayer expense?

Violating the First Amendment

The National Park Service is considering a new regulation to require protest organizers to pay for the cost of providing law enforcement and other support services for demonstrations held in the nation's capital.

Protesters already do so. Those fees are called taxes. The First Amendment says:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. (emphasis added)

Abridge means to reduce in scope. Charging citizens to peaceably assemble and petition the government is a violation of the First Amendment.

Unlike the political parties, I fight for all rights, no matter which party is in office.

Book of Faces

My wife and I own a small business. We advertise on the Book of Faces. Since I have to have an account to manage the business page, I also follow several firearm pages. One of them recently had a lefty from Australia post this comment:

RIGHT BIAS
These media sources are moderately to strongly biased toward conservative causes through story selection and/or political affiliation. They may utilize strong loaded words (wording that attempts to influence an audience by using appeal to emotion or stereotypes), publish misleading reports and omit reporting of information that may damage conservative causes.

This page is in violation of the above rule, and I will be reporting it to have it removed.

Not only do they hate your Second Amendment rights, they hate your First.

No sympathy for either

HuffPo has an article up where they complain that some Antifa members were beat up by a group of Proud Boys. The Proud Boys had attended a rally where Antifa was standing outside, threatening to "kill Nazis." Of course, Antifa defines a Nazi as anyone they disagree with.

At any rate, a group of Proud Boys were walking down the street, with at least one of them wearing a MAGA hat. They encountered three Antifa members, one of whom knocked the MAGA hat off of the head of the Proud Boy who was wearing it. Outnumbering Antifa more than 3 to one, Antifa received the ass bearing that they were clearly looking for. then were arrested for robbery and battery.

Both sides were there looking for trouble, and both found it. If you provoke a fight, you get no sympathy from me when you then get your ass handed to you in the fight you started.

What worries me is that the violence on both sides will escalate, until it isn't just the hotheads and troublemakers.

Ventura is an idiot

Take a look at Jessie Ventura (former wrestler and Governor of Minnesota) and his idea for a "maximum wage."




This is idiotic for more than one reason. Let's take the most obvious:

What are you going to do when all of the Doctors, Lawyers, and Business owners reach this "maximum wage," see that there is no point in working for the rest of the year, and go on vacation from October to the end of the year?

With no economic incentive to continue expanding, why would the Walton family keep all those stores open, if they aren't going to get paid for the extra effort it requires?

Let's say that WalMart calculates that the owners of the company hit this "maximum wage" with the profits from only 100 stores, so they close all of the "extra" stores and lay off the workers. Now what?

It isn't just WalMart. Pick a business: Record companies, movie studios, sports teams, car companies. Name a business. The owners of those businesses are not just going to keep working for free from whatever date they hit the maximum wage. What would YOU do if your employer told you: "You have hit your maximum wage for the year, so you have to work for free for the rest of the year." I bet you would take a bit of vacation.

Even if you require a person to work all year, they will just shorten their work week to 4 days. Or maybe only work 2 hours a day. "Sorry that you are having a heart attack, but the Doctor went home because he hit his maximum daily wage. He can probably see you next Tuesday."

You just can't put a cap on wages and expect that people are not going to change their behavior.

Jessie Ventura is a moron.

What government does

In order to operate a travel agency in the state of Florida, you must have a bond and a license. The two together cost about $500 a year. Thereafter, you are required to place the phrase "Fla. Seller of Travel Ref. No. ST12345" on every piece of advertising. If you count, you will notice that this phrase is 38 characters long. Advertising on certain social media sites restricts your character count to 100 characters, meaning that more than a third of your advertising space is taken up by government required verbiage that doesn't enhance sales a bit..

If you operate an online travel agency that is not located in Florida, but sells and markets to Florida residents, you do not have this restriction. Florida is not quite as business friendly as you think.

Not fake media?

The mainstream media insists that it is REAL news. So let's see an example of what they think is real news. The Orlando Sentinel actually printed this story on Friday, titled "Was this Trump’s most embarrassing moment?":

Trump, who plans to be in Orlando on Monday, went Full Shmoe on Thursday at the Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport. As he got out of his limousine and walked up the stairs of Air Force One, a piece of toilet paper appeared to be stuck to his left shoe.
It might have been a napkin or a tissue or perhaps a page torn from Brett Kavanaugh’s high school yearbook.
For the sake of mainstream media bias, let’s just go with toilet paper. It’s funnier to think that the most powerful man in the world could use a gold-plated toilet and have the evidence follow him out.

This is what the MSM thinks is real news.

It's never enough

Disney recently announced that they will be increasing their minimum wage to $15 an hour, as demanded by the Socialists at Orlando Weekly. Orlando Weekly is the Socialist newspaper that is published in the Orlando area, and they are already complaining that $15 isn't enough.

Why I carry

On Saturday, September 22, 2018, Brandon Clanton and Julia Napiontek attacked four people (including an 11 year old child) in the parking lot of a Circle K in Silver Springs, Florida. The attackers were previously unknown to their victims, and there was no known motive for the attack.

During the altercation, Napiontek pulled the 11-year old girl out of the victims' truck and battered her. Deputies were able to pull survelliance footage from the store and identify the assailants. Napiontek was charged with Battery and Aggravated Child Abuse, and Clanton was charged with Battery and Simple Assault on a Law Enforcement Officer.

At the time of this attack, Clanton was out on bond that stemmed from a separate incident that occurred on August 23, 2018. During that incident, Clanton approached a 17-year old child (who he did not know) in a convenience store and violently struck him multiple times. The teenager needed seven stitches on his face because of the unprovoked attack. Clanton was charged with Aggravated Child Abuse in that case.

The chances of being approached and attacked by a couple that I do not know is one of the many reasons why I carry a weapon.

Kavanaugh: another accuser comes forward

A third woman has come forward to testify that Kavanaugh exposed himself to her. Exclusiave footage of her testimony is below:

Use it while you have it

I really have to say that I disagree with the Democrats on nearly every single idea that they have. However, one thing I admire about them is when the Democrats have control of Congress, they know how to press their advantage. In contrast, the Republicans come across as weak kneed, spineless idiots. This isn't just me, even Limbaugh agrees.

Look back at Obamacare. The Democrats shoved it through because they had the votes.

Now look at every Republican plank:

- Florida's new gun law.
- Repealing Obamacare.
- Nominating Kavanaugh.

Every single time, they waffle and accomplish nothing. The Republicans have the votes to confirm Kavanaugh over the objections of the Democrats, but lack the will to simply take a vote and make it happen.

So they will sit there in limbo, afraid to make a decision. The elections will come in November and the Democrats will retake congress. The Republicans will go back to begging the Dems for a seat at the table, and the Dems will impeach Trump. Then they will impeach Pence, making the Dem Speaker of the House (Feinstein?) our next President.

Why? Because the Republicans are pussies.

Savages?

An Orlando cop has gotten himself into trouble because he was caught referring to black people at a local gay bar as 'savages.'

The bar, called Parliament House, is right between two notoriously crime ridden neighborhoods: Paramore, and Pine Hills. I have written about Pine Hills being one of Orlando's 'no go' zones before. In fact, I have blogged about the neighborhood on many occasions. Pine Hills is one of the 4 most dangerous zip codes in America.

Savages, indeed.

fake news

Layers of editorial oversight.

Thank goodness they weren't gun deaths

The anti gun movement in the United States keeps bleating on about stopping "gun deaths." They claim that the US has the highest rate of "gun death" of all "developed" countries. When you point out that the US homicide rate is actually in the lower half of all nations, they change the subject back to "gun deaths."

So the death of this woman, who was killed  after being run over by the driver of a car she was in an argument with, and the death of this man, who was killed by a man who punched him for daring to knock on the attacker's car window, don't matter.

Incidentally, the woman who was killed in the above paragraph had a 15 year old daughter that was killed by the MS-13 street gang. They used a machete, so that death didn't count, either.

Trump Derangement Syndrome

A Nevada college professor shoots himself to protest the nation's (lack of) gun control laws.

My thoughts:

1 Idiot
2 He was lucky that the shot that passed through his arm didn't hit anyone else.
3 I also want to know how he only bought 2 rounds of ammo. That doesn't make sense. What gun store would go along with "I want to buy this gun and two bullets, because I am only going to use it once?"
4 He left notes detailing his plan. There is no way he can be found not guilty, having planned it all before confessing. His only shot is to be declared insane.

I hope they throw the book at him.

Tax and spend

Florida's Democratic candidate for governor, Gillum, claims that he will institute free healthcare for all, by adopting Bernie Sanders' "Medicare for all" plan. Just what would such a plan cost, and how would Floridians pay for it? Fortunately, we have a plan in place for some Floridians, and we know how much that plan costs: Medicaid.

4.3 million people are on Medicaid in Florida. The state of Florida pays 39% of the cost of this plan, which costs the state $21.8 billion. That number represents 32% of the state budget.

In order for the state to have "Medicare for all" the Federal government will not be picking up a portion of the tab, meaning that Floridians would have to cover 100% of the cost of covering the other 17 million people in Florida. This would cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $265 billion. In order to afford such a plan would mean the state budget would have to increase from $68 to $302 billion, and Medicare/medicaid would be three quarters of that.

Where would the extra money come from? Gillum claims that he would get that money by increasing the corporate tax by 40%, from its current level of 5.5% to 7.5%. According to poitifact, the 5.5% corporate tax brings $2 billion a year. Increasing that tax by 40% would mean that the state of Florida add another $800 million to the state's coffers, even assuming that no businesses leave the state because of the new taxes. 

This additional $800 in tax revenue would still leave the state with a $233 billion shortfall. Even if Florida doubled its sales tax to 12%, this would only give the state an additional $30.5 billion, leaving the state with a $200 billion shortfall. The only way that the state could come up with this kind of money would be to institute a state income tax. Even doubling the state sales tax would require a 25% income tax on all income above $20,000 in order to make the numbers work.

No other source of tax revenue could come close to making this plan possible, and there is no state legislator who is stupid enough to propose that. This is probably the reason why Gillum wants to ban most guns, because he would have much to fear if he tried.

Nothing new here

The Democrats are introducing articles of impeachment against Donald Trump. What else is new? Attempting the impeachment of a Republican President is nothing new. In fact, Democrats have introduced articles of impeachment against 6 of the past 8 Republican Presidents- that is a streak that stretches all the way back to President Herbert Hoover in 1932.

Reps. Dennis Kucinich and Robert Wexler introduced 35 articles of impeachment against President George W. Bush in 2004 that centered on the Iraq War, Hurricane Katrina, global warming and the 2004 elections.

Democratic Rep. Henry Gonzalez pushed to have President George H.W. Bush impeached in 1991 because of the Gulf War.

In early 1983, Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., said Reagan should be impeached "for incompetence." Later that year, he called for impeaching Reagan over his military action in Grenada. Texas Rep. Henry Gonzalez and six other Democrats introduced a resolution to impeach Reagan in 1987 over the Iran-Contra affair.

In 1974, there was the threatened impeachment of Richard Nixon over the Watergate break in.

During the 1932-33 lame-duck session of Congress, Congressman Louis Thomas McFadden twice introduced impeachment resolutions against President Herbert Hoover.

The only Republican Presidents that have not faced impeachment in the past 90 years are Presidents Eisenhower and Ford, and since Ford was President for less than 2 1/2 years because he was replacing a soon to be impeached President Nixon, Eisenhower is left as the sole Republican President that the Democrats didn't try to impeach. Attempting to overturn lost elections is a tradition in the Democratic party.

Caption this picture

Mine?
"I wonder if she likes cigars..."

OK to degrade white men

Watch this commercial:




Now tell me what people would say of this were reversed. That is, what if the person cutting the hedges was a well built woman who was thanking the old men behind her for gifting the skimpy bikini she was wearing.

Hah

WHAT????

If this report is to be believed, the FBI is carrying miniguns to serve search warrants.

The agents could be seen inside the home Sunday evening near Baltimore's Inner Harbor. They wore bulletproof vests and carried rotating machine guns. 

Jacksonville

Before it gets sent to the memory hole, I want to post the rules for Jacksonville Landing, the site of this afternoon's mass shooting. Note that this place is, by the rules of management, a gun free zone.
The applicable part of the page follows, emphasis added by me.

E. Violations of the Law

a. The commission of any act defined by Federal, State or local ordinances as a criminal act is prohibited. These include, but are not limited to: graffiti, property damage, defacing, damaging or destroying any real or personal property, etc.

b. Possession of a weapon, even if legally carried (except by law enforcement officers) is absolutely prohibited on Landing property

c. Using or possessing fireworks is prohibited

A violation of these rules may result in expulsion from the property or other legal action as Property Management deems appropriate.

Gun free zones are NOT effective in preventing anything.

Making mountains out of molehills.

A man running for political office puts up a large campaign sign. It disappears, so he replaces it. The second sign disappears, and this time he puts up a camera to see where the signs are going. The cameras catch a man cutting the signs down with a chainsaw. The Lake County Sheriff's office posts screenshots on social media, looking for the man.

He is found almost immediately, because he approached deputies who were on the scene, investigating the alleged crime. Who is he? Well, he claims to be the owner of the property, and states that the signs were put there without his permission. The political candidate parades out a caretaker of the adjoining property, who states that the signs were on his employer's property.

Instead of simply moving the signs a few feet, so that they are clearly on the property of the person whose permission was given, the cops are choosing to make this a major case, and have referred this to the State Attorney's office for prosecution. Why are the cops wasting thousands of dollars over what is obviously a civil dispute, and not an intentional crime? Even if charges are pressed, they are unlikely to get a conviction because any potential charges for vandalism or criminal mischief would not be able to show intent.

Well, what the stories don't tell you is that the political candidate in question is a Tavares police officer. THAT is why they are making a big deal out of it. If I were the property owner, I would hire an attorney and prosecute for trespass, seeing as how the cop had to climb over a fence to place the sign.

Best laid plans

So there is this ALICE protocol that my school district spent gobs of money to train the school staff to follow a few months ago. One of the basic things was that the school will not keep everyone in the dark. They are supposed to put the school in lock down, and then keep everyone informed through announcements of what is going on, and where the shooter is, so that way teachers can escort their charges to a safe location, if the shooter is not close enough to prevent escape.

Great plan? eh.

They say no plan survives first contact with the enemy, and this plan was no different. Yesterday, my school had two separate incidents involving firearms. The teachers didn't find out until AFTER school was over. One of them involved a student who texted her mother, saying that the kid next to her had a gun. The mother called the school. The administrators decided that they didn't want to cause a panic, and decided to handle the incident by barging into the classroom with a load of administrators and cops. So much for their  plans.

You're treating me like a black person.

A doctor arrives at the Orlando airport at 6 am for a flight that is supposed to depart at 6:24. When the airline staff tells him that he is too late for check-in and has missed his flight, he becomes irate and demands to be placed on another flight. He was verbally abusive towards the airline employees, to they called the police. The airline employees offered to place him on standby for the next available flight, which was at 7:20 a.m.. He was told by police to get out of the line because he was yelling obscenities.

After he was removed from the line, he could be seen standing near an officer yelling that an American Airlines employee had a “flippant attitude” and that the officer was trying to provoke him.

“Do you know how to de-escalate things, genius?” the doctor said to the police officer, “Do you have training, genius?”

They eventually yell him that he is being trespassed and must leave the airport. That is when he loses his shit.

The police tell him that he has to leave, because he is being trespassed by the airline staff. The good doctor refuses, and then begins getting violent again, so the police try to place him under arrest. That is when things got physical. The doctor winds up sprayed with pepper spray and arrested.

He then gives us a quote that is our dumbest comment of the weekend, and the title of this post: “You're treating me like a black person.” That infuriated members of the New York city SJW community, because they are the only ones permitted to play the race card.

“It’s clear that Dr. Epstein stood firmly in his privilege, taunting the officers,” said David J. Johns, executive director of the National Black Justice Coalition. “He was condescending. He was rude. Those are all things that black people could never think to do to a police officer and remain standing and or breathing.”

Work is still for suckers

In response to a recent post, Silicon Graybeard had this to say:

Didja ever notice that even an alligator, not on anyone’s list of the top 10 smartest animals, brings food to its young? But these human parents are too stupid to do so?
They’re not more stupid than a gator. They would ask why they shouldn’t take what’s being given to them. 

Of course they take advantage of what is there. I have posted on this before. More than once, in fact.

Work is for suckers.

Waste of money

The school where I teach is a Title 1 school. A Title 1 school is a school where a large portion of the students are in homes that are below the poverty line, so the school receives extra money from the Federal Government. In my school's case, an extra $125,000 per school year for 1,500 students.

We are designated as a Title 1 school because 70% of our students are so poor that they qualify for free or reduced lunch and breakfast, meaning that they need to be fed two meals a day because their family can't afford to feed them. On top of that, most of them also receive welfare and food stamps.

So isn't it odd that nearly every student also has a cellular phone with a data plan?

If the students' families can afford to waste money on cell phones, why can't they feed their own kids instead of asking the taxpayers to do it?

Speech and guns attacked

First, Internet companies attacked the speech of the right by shutting down conservative voices online. Now, they are attacking gun businesses: (from Spike's Tactical)

APOPKA, Fla. – A change in policy announced Monday night by Shopify, an e-commerce platform used by more than 600,000 merchants to conduct online sales, will essentially shut down the sale of guns, gun parts and accessories over the internet by retailers who use Shopify.

Spike’s Tactical, a Florida-based gun manufacturer, has built their entire website and online sales portal exclusively using the Shopify platform and conducts millions of dollars in sales through Shopify each year.

“This decision will have significant ramifications to our business and should concern every online retailer and Second Amendment supporter,” said Cole Leleux, general manager of Spike’s Tactical.

Some of the new amended rules in Shopify’s Acceptable Use Policy now include banning the sale of semi-automatic firearms that have an ability to accept a detachable magazine and are capable of accepting more than 10 rounds. Additionally, unfinished lower receivers are also prohibited, according to the new rules. Most of Spike’s Tactical’ s products include AR-15 parts and full rifles, which would fall under those new restrictions.

One of the things that makes this more challenging for businesses like Spike’s Tactical, is that Shopify’s platform is entirely proprietary, meaning the information stored on their platform cannot be easily transferred to another online platform.

“We have invested more than $100,000 in the development of our Shopify store, which will disappear once these policies go into effect,” said Leleux.

As for when these new policies will go into effect, that remains a mystery. When representatives from Spike’s Tactical reached out to Shopify to try to learn more, Shopify refused to answer any questions and directed Spike’s Tactical team members to the Shopify legal department, which at the time of this news release, has yet to respond.

Ironically, when challenged by left-leaning critics about selling Breitbart products in 2017, Shopify CEO Tobias Lütke said, “We don’t like Breitbart, but products are speech and we are pro free speech. This means protecting the right of organizations to use our platform even if they are unpopular or if we disagree with their premise, as long as they are within the law.”

It now seems that Shopify has reversed course on their previous belief, as our products are not only legal, but also used by many law enforcement agencies, Leleux said.

Another gun company, which will also feel the pain of Shopify’s recent decision is Rare Breed Firearms. Rare Breed announced the launch of their new Spartan lower receiver last week and the product is also sold online exclusively through Shopify.

“We have spent the last three years developing the Rare Breed brand and more than $40,000 developing our Shopify site,” said Lawrence DeMonico, president of Rare Breed Firearms, an Austin, Texas based firearms company. “Depending on how this policy is rolled out, this is a move that could put companies like ours out of business, and we will undoubtedly be looking to pursue legal options.”

Any other gun manufacturers or retailers who are also experiencing issues related to this new policy are encouraged to contact Spike’s Tactical, as they are looking at legal options to potentially file a class action lawsuit.

About Spike’s Tactical
Spike’s Tactical was founded the day before 9/11 by Mike and Angela Register and is headquartered in Apopka, Florida. The family-owned business employs around 40 people and all products are made exclusively in the USA and assembled in Florida. Spike’s Tactical is regarded as one of the premier AR-15 manufacturers in the world. Their mission is to build the highest quality products and offer them at the best possible price to the consumer. Spike’s Tactical weapons are designed to military specifications for civilian, law enforcement and military use. All products manufactured by Spike’s Tactical feature a manufacturer’s lifetime warranty.

About Rare Breed Firearms
Rare Breed Firearms was established in 2016 to develop innovative, visually appealing and highly functional firearm designs. Rare Breed Firearms is based in Austin, Texas and is veteran-owned and operated. Through friendly competition, their goal is to drive innovation and bring new designs to the market.

Too many posers

I was having a conversation the other day, with a man who told me that he was opening his own business. The business? He is going to be a firearms instructor. He began by telling me he is certified to teach tactical rifle, tactical shotgun, and Florida CCW classes.

Somehow the conversation turned to machine guns. He then said: "You need a class 3 license to buy those. The license costs $6,000, or you can get a Federal Firearms License and they only cost $3,000. With that, you can carry a gun anywhere in the country, and you can also own machine guns."

I walked away as soon as I could do so without being rude.

Evolution of EDC

More than any other type of firearm, I love shooting pistols. Over the years, I have bought, sold, and traded dozens of them.

My very first pistol was a Smith and Wesson model 59. After a couple of years, I went with the 4506. Then, the Sig 226. I ended the Millenium with a 229 in 357 Sig.
Along the way there was a Taurus Millenium, which had an awful trigger. I once owned 4 different 1911s, but while they are nice looking, they were too unreliable and difficult to keep running, so I sold them and switched to the M&P series. I also frequently carry my J frame.

The pistols I remember owning, even though I am sure that I have missed a few.:

Colt

Commander

Smith and Wesson

59
4506
4566
4586
J frame
Various M&P's
Bodyguard

Sig Sauer

Sig 220
Sig 226
Sig 229 in 9mm
Sig 229 in 357 Sig

Kimber

Ultra Carry 2
Raptor

Glock

Model 19

Model 17

Beretta

Tomcat

Taurus

PT45
Millenium

Powerball and wealth redistribution

Powerball is a multi-state lottery game. Since there are multiple states, the prizes are large. As I write this, the Grand Prize is $203 million. Now I know that the lottery is a tax on people who don't understand math. (I play by buying one $2 ticket, because I get hours of entertainment out of daydreaming what I would do if I won, and hay, it's only $2. Cheaper than the movies, or even a book.)

I was looking at the prizes and odds, and noticed something odd: California, even though they are playing the same game, awards different prizes. Check this out:

Match	win	win in California
5 numbers and powerball	$203 million	$203 million
5 numbers	$2 million	$212,409
4 numbers and powerball	$50,000	$9,062
4 numbers	$100	$399
3 numbers and powerball	$100	$197
3 numbers	$7	$7
2 numbers and powerball	$7	$8
one number and powerball	$4	$5
powerball	$4	$4

As you can see, the prize structure takes money from  the larger winners and redistributes them to the smaller winners. Matching 5 numbers without the powerball, or 4 numbers with the powerball in California means that 85% to 95% of your winnings will be confiscated (by the time you pay taxes) and the majority of that money will be given to the "less fortunate" people who matched fewer numbers.

It's a metaphor for the entire state.

Computer issues

So my computer issues, which I thought were being caused by updates changing my settings, was something else.
Sound was very broken and static filled. Playing videos would slow the computer so much that it sounded like a 45 RPM record being played at 33 RPM, for those of you that remember records. Doing anything would bog the computer down so as to make it unusable. I thought for sure I had some sort of device or driver conflict.
I would only have problems for an hour or so a day, as I tried to fix it until I got frustrated. I finally decided to take it in to be repaired. When I got it there, the computer worked fine. The techies at the computer shop couldn't find anything wrong.
So this morning, it was acting up again, and I was sitting here trying to fix it when my wife asked what my battery level was. I told her it was 88%, so she said her computer was at 25%, and asked to use my charger.
As soon as she plugged the charger in, she got a warning that looked like this:

She showed it to me and said "Maybe something is wrong with your charger."

Since my laptop was running on battery, I tried to run a video, and play a game. Both worked flawlessly. I checked both chargers that we own (our laptops are identical) and they both do it. Since they are $18 each, I ordered two new chargers, and we will see if that fixes it. It runs fine right now, as long as I run it on battery power.

EMP hit

We had lightning hit the house yesterday. I was home when it happened. We were in the middle of a typical afternoon thunderstorm, the kind we have every afternoon in the Florida summer, when the entire outside lit up blue and there was LOUD thunder.

I later noticed that we were missing a channel from our surveillance cameras. Reviewing the footage showed a bright flash in every camera, and all of them went blank for about 5 seconds. When they came back up, channel 4 was missing. I assumed it was a failed camera. but changing the camera didn't fix the issue. Luckily, my DVR is a 16 channel model, and we are not using all of the channels, so I simply moved the camera to another channel.

Upon further investigation, one of the arc plugs on one of my HAM radio antennas is blown. The radio equipment and other electronics are all fine, thus proving that my house is as EMP protected as it can be. 

Automatic updates

It seems like every time my computer does an automatic update, my computer stops working. The updates are supposed to make your computer better and protect you from malicious code, but the cure is worse than the disease.

This time, Windows defender updated and my computer slowed to a crawl with choppy audio. It took me two hours to find the problem. I had to disable Windows Defender.

I have routinely denied and refused updates, but that only works for so long before it updates anyway.

Even "conservative" press gets it wrong

The news media is infuriated because President Trump barred a reporter from the Whitehouse Press room, some reporters claiming he is taking unprecedented steps against the press.

They have short memories, because Obama did it, too.

Canada

Earlier in the month, we decided to head for our BOL as a bit of a summer fishing trip. It gives us an excuse to get away from the hot Florida summer. We were here for a bit when we got a bit of bad news: there had been a death in my wife's side of the family. We headed to New York for the funeral. While there, we were invited to another of her relative's home in Canada. We went back the BOL for a few days, and then headed for the Canadian house.

That is where we were when the shooting in Toronto occurred. The Canadian politicians were going ballistic. They were demanding a reinstatement of the long gun registry, even though the shooting was carried out with a handgun. They were talking about a total ban on all firearms within city limits of any large city. According to the locals, there have been over 250 shootings in Toronto this year. They are mostly blaming Americans.

In the lounge of the hotel, we met a guy who had to drive two hours and pay a $45 ferry toll to stay in the hotel overnight in order to see a specialist in the morning.

Also while there, we talked to a woman who received a knee replacement. She had been on the waiting list for two years before getting it. There have been papers and studies done that claim a waiting time of only 16 weeks for Canadian patients, but the studies themselves admit that the respondents to the survey are mostly younger. The wait times in Canada are determined by your age and health.  Younger, healthier people get priority over older, sicker people. The woman I spoke with was 71 years old when she was placed at the end of the list.

This makes a lot of sense. Medical care and the time of providers is a finite resource. Since there is only so much to go around, not everyone gets everything that they desire. There must be rationing of a sort. In the US, this is driven by two factors: the market and insurance. That is, financial reasons.

In Canada, since the cost of care is included in your tax bill, the government decides who gets and does not get care. Since older people tend to be more conservative, and Canada is run by liberals, guess who gets priority of care from the politicians who wish to be elected?

Lifejackets

The press seems to have latched onto the use of life jackets in the recent capsizing of the boat in Missouri that claimed 17 lives, as if forcing every one to wear them would have saved everyone.

Marketing photos and videos, posted for years by the company advertising the rides, show people not wearing life jackets. Pace of the Highway Patrol said state law requires that the vessels have one jacket for everyone on board and that the jackets be readily "accessible," not stowed under a seat.
This video from Ride the Ducks social media page about two years ago, for instance, shows a packed boat of tourists on a leisurely ride on calm water. Not a single person featured in the video is wearing a life jacket.

I don't think it would have helped much. The vessel was an amphibious truck with a roof and windows. Wearing a life jacket in an enclosed vessel that has capsized makes escaping that vessel nearly impossible, as the swimmer cannot submerge in order to escape.

The real culprit here, in my opinion, is the Captain of the vessel who did not bother to check weather conditions before taking passengers out on the lake. The storm that caused the sinking packed winds at the upper end of Tropical Storm force, and warnings had been issued for the weather before the boat sailed.

When you are in an area where storms are frequent, like the Midwest, it is easy to become complacent and ignore storm warnings. In this case, the Captain's complacency cost 17 people their lives.

More sitting on the dole

The same judge who last month ordered FEMA to continue providing free hotels to Puerto Ricans for Hurricane Maria until July 24 has again extended the free hotels. At what point are people expected to get jobs and provide for themselves? Isn't 11 months and $450 million of free housing enough time to find a job?

Death for pedophiles?

Last year, Trump tweeted out that "pedophiles" should get a fast trial and a fast execution. I am opposed to this. I once blogged about a young couple who were being prosecuted because they took revealing photos of themselves and texted them to each other. They were caught, and being prosecuted as adults for possessing, producing, and distributing child pornography. Should they be put to death?
What about the 14 year old girl who sent revealing photos of herself to her boyfriend? Should she be put to death? In this particular case the ACLU is defending her (even though I abhor them, the occasionally do some good).
It is unlikely that such a law would be constitutional, as the Supreme Court already ruled in 1977 that the death penalty was excessive for rape.
Not only that, but I am opposed to the death penalty because I don't trust the government to be honest.

Deliberate ignorance of LEOs

I ran into a Central Florida police officer recently. It was a social situation, and we got to talking firearms. He made a statement to the effect that machine guns and 'silencers' were illegal. I explained the law to him and, since he was a supervisor, offered to come into the police station with some NFA items as well as the proper paperwork, so that his officers would know the law and be familiar with the proper documents that are required.

Hes response: "No thanks, keep that stuff out of my town." As if a person who has gone to the trouble of jumping through ATF hoops and is supportive enough of law enforcement to come in and train his officers is a threat to law and order.

Undisclosed location

Busy in my BOL. We hauled supplies here and will be staying for a bit. We have set up a cache for supply storage and will be building that up.

Trying things out. Maybe next time, we will try during winter.

The location is FAR out in the country. The village is less than 100 people. The nearest town is 8 miles (driving) away and has a population of less than 1,000. From there, 8 miles away is a town of 12,000. The nearest city is an hour's drive away and has a population of 35,000 or so.

The only issue is winter. They can be tough here, with lots of snow and temps that regularly are below zero (Fahrenheit).

Blogiversary

Today marks the eleventh birthday of this blog. So much has happened since that first post. The entire Obama administration came and went. Personally, my life has seen a lot of changes. Married and then divorced, and then married again. Employed to retired to employed again. I declared bankruptcy and then became a millionaire.
In 2008 I got married.
In 2009 the bottom dropped out of the housing market, my pay was cut by 30% and, faced with a depreciating asset, I declared bankruptcy with the intent of giving the house back to the bank.
In 2010 My bankruptcy was discharged. The mortgage bank was caught lying to the court with regard to my bankruptcy. They were forced to pay me nearly $10,000. Then they were caught forging mortgage paperwork. Their lawyer was disbarred and they had to pay me more than $25,000 in damages.
In 2011 My wife announced to me (during the week of my birthday, no less) that she wanted a divorce. That divorce became final in June. I retired from my career as a firemedic and began school to be a physician assistant.
In 2012 I decided to leave school, moved back to Florida, and began teaching adult education.
In 2014, I met my current wife. I also applied for my teacher's license and became a high school science teacher.
In 2018, I finally got paid for a job I did for the Feds six years before and I was able to pay off my house, all of my bills, and put a sizable amount in savings. With a 7 figure net worth, my wife and I now work so we can afford luxuries and not because we need to.

A lot can happen in 11 years.

Crossing the border

He entered the country illegally, and then entered a home illegally.

“I turned back to see the TV again and that’s when I see the door wide open and I see him coming toward me,” she said. The woman says the man had a knife. Her hands are all cut up now because she says when he came toward her, she grabbed it, and started screaming. The victim says her husband woke up and went after the intruder, who police have identified as 32-year-old Samuel Hernandez. 

Had this been my house, there would have been firearms involved.

But, hey, they are just here to do the jobs Americans won't do, so they can make a better life for their families. No person is illegal.