If you’ll notice the headline captured in the photo above, it’s still a pretty good summary of how many of us feel, eleven years later.  I for one, am still angry.  We are supposed to forgive and forget but, I cannot.

I cannot forgive or forget the fact that almost three-thousand of my countrymen were killed, over six-thousand injured, and all our lives were forever altered. I cannot forgive and forget the fact that in the years since then, we have lost nearly 6,000 soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines. Over 42,000 of them have been injured in that time.  And of course, no one counts the scars we can’t see…Injuries inflicted on even those who have managed to come home “without a scratch.”  There’s no official tally for families torn apart, dreams deferred, or those that will simply never be.  No, I cannot and will not forgive those responsible the attacks and I will not forget those moments of terror or the decade of pain, suffering, and sacrifice that has followed.

In a cruel twist of irony, our country knew a sense of unity it hasn’t seen since World War II.  That time however, was fleeting.  Politics and politicians couldn’t let a tragedy go to waste.  Someone had to be held responsible and the finger-pointing began before the bodies of those we lost were cold. It continues to this day.  And while our Armed Forces have spent a decade fighting and dying to defend our way of life and the freedoms we take for granted, many of our politicians have been busy since September 12th, 2001, stripping us of those very freedoms. All in the name of “safety and security.” Benjamin Franklin once wrote, “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

So as we remember this day, I am suggesting that we also remember who we were prior to September 11, 2001.  While we were never perfect and never will be, it seems that we need to once again, embrace our own magnificence as a people.  I am suggesting a renewed recognition of the fact that living in the US means living a life of greater opportunity than many, if not most other parts of the world, in spite of our flaws.  I suggest that rather than continue the path to be more like every other country in the world, that we remember our legacy as the land of the free and the home of the brave.  I for one would rather live dangerously free than safely enslaved. I think that is the only proper way to memorialize September 11th.

-Gary

http://blogs.cdc.gov/publichealthmatters/2011/05/preparedness-101-zombie-apocalypse/

I really do find this funny coming from this administration.  You’ve got a great many liberals convinced that “zombies” is conservative, Republican, and racist “code speak” for liberals and minorities. We know better and no, I’m not linking you to the podcast to THAT show!  I’m all for disaster preparedness, it’s part of what I do professionally in my day job.  But, the thing this administration consistently leaves out is making sure you’ve got the ability to protect and defend yourself from looters and others who often take advantage of the loss of access to emergency services that of often accompanies a major disaster.

Having a water supply, food, extra meds, et al is just fine. That should be standard fair for any of us.  But the realities of life on the Gulf Coast have shown us that if the fecal matter ever truly hits the spinning impeller, we are on our own because the people charged with helping us, may just abandon us.  You can’t call 911 if the cell phone and land line telephone networks are down.  This means you may very well have to provide your own emergency medical care and when the “zombies” do come, you will be all that stands between those zombies and whatever provisions and shelter you have in place.  That fact, predictably, is not something they mention in this advisory.

While we’re on the subject of “zombies,” lets take a second to state the facts for our liberal friends. “Zombies” can and will be of any race, creed, or religion. The “zombies” will likely be people who look just like you. They may in fact be, your next door neighbor. At the end of the day, the “zombies” we are concerned about are those who were not prepared for a disaster. It is a sad reality that most “zombies” will be those who have been dependent on the government for all their essential needs prior to any major disaster. But again, some of them will be your neighbors.

So in addition to all the stuff the CDC says, you should at least consider buying one or more guns (probably a semi-automatic rifle and/or handgun), a dozen or so spare magazines for each, and several hundred or even several thousand rounds of ammo as well as the training to use the gun(s) effectively.  Also, you and those in your care need to know how to administer CPR and stop or at least control severe blood loss from a traumatic wound. James Preston of Preston Tactical offers a great curriculum on this as do others. Few if any first aid kits for the home include the necessary items for treating traumatic wounds but many retailers like Preston Tactical and Practical Trauma offer pre-assembled trauma kits with the necessary supplies to treat severe blood loss to give you a chance to seek professional medical care.  Guns, ammo, trauma kits and the training to use this stuff are not cheap but, how much is your life worth?

– Gary

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-september-5-2012/hope-and-change-2—the-party-of-inclusion

I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve watched the Daily Show but, I’ve been frustrated by the alleged “openness” of the Democratic Party for years. The claim of tolerance, inclusion, and the willingness to accept a different point of view is as false as that of any Republican you care to name but, you’d never know it if you only believe what the popular media tells us. Stewart might have done this as a joke but, I’m convinced he’s stumbled into the truth and the truth is very, very, ugly. -Gary

On the eve of the seventh anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, Louisiana and surrounding areas on the Gulf Coast are again facing a tropical cyclone that is taking it’s sweet time to soak up as much of the Gulf of Mexico as it can before coming ashore.  As has happened before, there are strong indicators that NOLA will take a direct hit on the worst side of the storm. As a result, NOLA and the surrounding areas are, again, in many people’s thoughts and prayers.

For all the blame that went around after Katrina, this time, no one should be blind-sided by the facts.  We know for a fact that the exception of the French Quarter and a few other areas, NOLA sits about three feet BELOW SEA LEVEL. It is bordered on all but one side by Lake Pontchartrain, Lake Borgne, the Mississippi River, marshlands and ultimately, the Gulf of Mexico.  It also has more than enough bayous and canals running through it to make one question the idea of Houston being called Bayou City rather than NOLA.  As I learned when I last visited NOLA in 2001, the only things keeping NOLA from being flooded by the surrounding bodies of water on any given day, are the levies and pumps that in some areas, run 24hrs a day, seven days a week, whether there is a storm approaching or not, just to keep the streets dry.

Over the last seven years, millions of dollars have been spent building new levies and installing bigger pumps.  Keep in mind that all of the those latest “improvements” in NOLA were built by the lowest bidder for a government contract.  Above all else, it should also be noted that in the ongoing battle between man’s technology and that which God had created, God has never, ever, lost.  In the end, God takes who or what he wants, when he wants, according to HIS plans, Samuel L. Jackson, whether you understand it or not.  So with all of this in mind, if you’re in NOLA and surrounding areas, it might be time to exercise your own judgement and to get out of dodge rather than waiting for the government to tell you to do so.

-Gary

I finally saw the video of the shooting so I’m going to post the following in the interest of fairness to the officers.  There’s a lot of Monday morning quarter backing from people with no clue of the realities of this situation.  The fact is, as a whole, cops are not shooters and never have been.  There are shooters who are cops but, chances are, the guy who comes to your 911 call is NOT one of them.  SWAT and other door kickers are rarely among the first to arrive in an emergency.  All that said, when they are called upon to act, cops do the best they can with the tools and training given to them by their agency.  On their own dime; few will cough up the coin it takes to train to a level of technical proficiency that is even remotely close to that of the average competitive shooter.  But, gunfights are not shooting competitions.  People aren’t shooting back at you in a shooting competition and the thought of dying isn’t running through your brain the whole time. In the end, I think the two cops involved in this and the department at large are rightfully going to take some flak from the public and face a civil suit.  After all, innocent people were shot and/or injured by bullets and other debris resulting from the officers’ actions.  But those actions were dictated by the suspect and few people outside the law enforcement community will understand the concept that there was not going to be a “good” outcome in this specific situation.

Put yourself on that street.  The guy is turning toward you, gun in hand, level and ready to fire.  Too far to close the distance or use any non-lethal means to stop him from shooting, nowhere to run for cover and the reality is, you’re already out of time for all other options other than shooting him, right now!.  You’re liable for every shot and anything that bullet hits but, how do you pick a “safe” direction in which to shoot someone at 9am, Friday morning, on a crowded NYC sidewalk in this situation?  Shoot toward the street and at that moment, you’re lighting up a city bus (seen in the video) and probably a couple dozen other vehicles full of innocent bystanders.  You can’t run into the street to get an angle toward a wall.  Even if you could, you’re shooting into a store front and either of those options requires time you don’t have to get into position.  Oh by the way, this guy has already drawn a gun on you and is ready to fire…Did we cover that already? Wait just a split second longer for the situation to develop, and the bad guy could shoot one or more innocent bystanders anyway or shoot you, take your gun and now has at least two more guns with which to kill other people people.  I’ll say again, there’s not going to be a good outcome…Just bad and worse.  As one of our favorite listners, Kip said on the show today, “it’s a real life Kobayashi Maru” scenario.

I am not being an apologist for the cops here but, I’m not going to continue piling on them either.  These guys were dealt a bad hand and did what they could in a situation that many would be heroes and keyboard commandoes wouldn’t have survived. Why?  Because most of us have never considered situation in which there are no “right” answers.  Those in which no matter what we do, there’s not likely to be a good outcome. We all have a natural drive toward self-preservation but, few of us are willing to knowingly risk or take the lives of innocent bystanders to ensure our own survival in anything but the worst of panic states (i.e. drowning victims drowning would be rescuers).  From here, the only real question is, what’s going to happen with these officers.  Will their careers and lives be destroyed by a department that cuts them loose to distance itself from civil liability?  Or will the department and city step up, and extend qualified immunity to the officers and take the civil hit?  I’m not a lawyer and I don’t claim to be a tactical or police expert but, from what I’ve been taught and all the training I’ve had up to this point in my life, I think the video shows two officers reacting reasonably to a worst case scenario in which the least hazardous/dangerous of all possible actions was to immediately shoot the armed suspect to the ground. That’s what the officers did and I don’t think it’s reasonable to ask anything more of them given the circumstances.  That doesn’t mean I don’t think the department can’t be held civil liable and the innocent bystanders compensated for their injuries but, I for one will not be among those holding pitch forks, demanding the officers’ heads.

– Gary