Gun Free Zone

Where a Hispanic Catholic, and a Computer Geek write about Gun Rights, Self Defense and whatever else we can think about.

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How to not understand security threats and be an asshole

Feb 26, 2023 J. Kb 3 comments

On Saturday, February 25, there was supposed to be a “day of hate.”

According to The Jerusalem Post:

News of the “Day of Hate” came following a leaked internal memo by the New York Police Department’s Intelligence and Counterterrorism Bureau. The memo warned officers that online organizers are “instructing likeminded individuals to drop banners, place stickers and flyers, or scrawl graffiti as a form of biased so-called action.”

“While there are no identified threats to New York City, out of an abundance of caution, the Department will deploy additional resources to sensitive locations, including houses of worship, throughout the weekend,” an NYPD spokesperson told The Jerusalem Post on Friday. “We urge all New Yorkers to remain vigilant.”

Yair Rosenberg, an Atlantic reporter, shared a Facebook post from New York City Councilmember James Gennaro saying that a flyer for the Day of Hate that’s been circulating on social “has been fabricated” but there will be a higher law enforcement presence near synagogues on February 25. Gennaro’s office followed up with a post on Facebook confirming that the Day of Hate is real.

“I have just received a call from CO Kevin Chan at the NYPD 107th precinct, and my office can now confirm that the memo regarding the “Day of Hate” is, in fact, real,” the post said. “It appears as though the previously released flyer was a leaked draft, and therefore, was determined to be unsubstantiated at the time. While this is an unfortunate development, know that my office remains committed to ensuring our community remains safe. Per my request, there will still be additional patrol and police presence near synagogues in the district this Saturday. As always, we ask all to remain vigilant and call 9-1-1 to report any suspicious activity and/or crime.

Police were on alert in my area.

Police in New England Increase Patrols After ‘National Day of Hate’ Social Media Posts

Police departments across New England have issued alerts and stepped up their presence this weekend after social media posts referenced a supposed “National Day of Hate” against Jewish groups.

Brookline police said the situation started with an anti-Semitic group based in Iowa, which reached out to its supporters calling for them to “shock the masses with banners, fliers, & graffiti.” The department has plans to increase patrols in areas of religious institutions, especially temples and synagogues.

Authorities say there is no immediate threat of violence to the community and that they are adding the patrols out of an abundance of caution. In the meantime though, police are asking people to report anything suspicious.

Fortunately, nothing happened.

Now let us consider the totality of the situation.

Antisemitic violence is at an all-time high in the post WWII era.

Antisemitic hate crimes are up in every major city.

In 2020, 60% of all hate crimes were against Jews.

Antisemitic hate crimes doubled in New York over the last couple of years.

So the threat to the Jewish community is real.

So what was the response to police in major cities playing this nebulous threat safe by increasing patrols around Synagogues on Saturday.

 

Given the number if violent antisemitic incidents that have happened, I don’t believe the added patrols were unwarranted.

Moreover, if there is any job the police do that is worth the cost, attempting to prevent crime by visibly patrolling an area is definitely that.

That is, ideally, what we pay police for, to try and prevent crime.

Nope, the Jews don’t deserve that.

 

I’m glad he was prescient enough to guarantee that nothing would happen.

 

Now we’ve reach the point where he is an utter asshole.

No matter the facts, the Jews are not worthy of any preventative police action.

Good to know.

But, here is the bigger problem.

We understand, from a security perspective, how those who are a threat probe and harass the system.

We see this from terrorists all the time.

Make a threat.

The system responds.

Do not carry out the threat.

The system calls it a hoax.

Repeat this process until the system stops responding to threats, assuming they are hoaxes.

This is when the attack comes.

This is why the police always respond to bomb threats.

This is why the Israelis take every threat seriously.

It was a hoax this time.  Or was it the security system being probed.

When white supremacist groups, or anyone else, makes threats like this on the internet, it’s a worthwhile use of law enforcement to increase presence to show that the system takes these threats seriously.

This asshole thinks that and resources used to protect the Jews is a waste.

 

 

 

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Judging History by Today

Feb 26, 2023 awa 18 comments
His companion, Mr. Shelby, had the appearance of a gentleman; and the arrangements of the house, and the general air of the housekeeping, indicated easy, and even opulent circumstances. As we before stated, the two were in the midst of an earnest conversation.

“That is the way I should arrange the matter,” said Mr. Shelby.

“I can’t make trade that way—I positively can’t, Mr. Shelby,” said the other, holding up a glass of wine between his eye and the light.

“Why, the fact is, Haley, Tom is an uncommon fellow; he is certainly worth that sum anywhere,—steady, honest, capable, manages my whole farm like a clock.”

“You mean honest, as niggers go,” said Haley, helping himself to a glass of brandy.

“No; I mean, really, Tom is a good, steady, sensible, pious fellow. He got religion at a camp-meeting, four years ago; and I believe he really did get it. I’ve trusted him, since then, with everything I have,—money, house, horses,—and let him come and go round the country; and I always found him true and square in everything.”

“Some folks don’t believe there is pious niggers Shelby,” said Haley, with a candid flourish of his hand, “but I do. I had a fellow, now, in this yer last lot I took to Orleans—‘t was as good as a meetin, now, really, to hear that critter pray; and he was quite gentle and quiet like. He fetched me a good sum, too, for I bought him cheap of a man that was ’bliged to sell out; so I realized six hundred on him. Yes, I consider religion a valeyable thing in a nigger, when it’s the genuine article, and no mistake.”
Uncle Tom’s Cabin (or Life among the Lowly) by Harriet Beecher Stowe

This text is so offensive that it can’t be read in public. Reading this text in a YouTube video or other podcast is likely to get you multiple strikes.

But this book is important to our history. This book is a propaganda work that was used to stir up Yankee feelings against slave owners and slavery. It worked.

This book helped lead to the end of slavery in these United States.

How could you talk about this book today? You can’t even read it outloud. It would be verboten in most schools. All because it used the language of the day.

“Say, Jim, I’ll fetch the water if you’ll whitewash some.”

Jim shook his head and said:

“Can’t, Mars Tom. Ole missis, she tole me I got to go an’ git dis water an’ not stop foolin’ roun’ wid anybody. She say she spec’ Mars Tom gwine to ax me to whitewash, an’ so she tole me go ’long an’ ’tend to my own business—she ’lowed she’d ’tend to de whitewashin’.”

“Oh, never you mind what she said, Jim. That’s the way she always talks. Gimme the bucket—I won’t be gone only a a minute. She won’t ever know.”

“Oh, I dasn’t, Mars Tom. Ole missis she’d take an’ tar de head off’n me. ’Deed she would.”

“She! She never licks anybody—whacks ’em over the head with her thimble—and who cares for that, I’d like to know. She talks awful, but talk don’t hurt—anyways it don’t if she don’t cry. Jim, I’ll give you a marvel. I’ll give you a white alley!”

Jim began to waver.

“White alley, Jim! And it’s a bully taw.”

“My! Dat’s a mighty gay marvel, I tell you! But Mars Tom I’s powerful ’fraid ole missis—”

“And besides, if you will I’ll show you my sore toe.”

— The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

Again, text that would be (is?) suppressed today. Mark Twain uses the N-word nine times in this one book. If that isn’t enough to get the book removed from polite company, read the nearly undecipherable words of Jim, above. I remember Jim as being a slave but that isn’t found in this work.

The left is judging this work by what is “acceptable” speech today. It hurts that great literature is so maligned.

“Goodwives,” said a hard-featured dame of fifty, “I’ll tell ye a piece of my mind. It would be greatly for the public behoof, if we women, being of mature age and church-members in good repute, should have the handling of such malefactresses as this Hester Prynne. What think ye, gossips? If the hussy stood up for judgment before us five, that are now here in a knot together, would she come off with such a sentence as the worshipful magistrates have awarded? Marry, I trow not!”

“People say,” said another, “that the Reverend Master Dimmesdale, her godly pastor, takes it very grievously to heart that such a scandal should have come upon his congregation.”

“The magistrates are God-fearing gentlemen, but merciful overmuch,—that is a truth,” added a third autumnal matron. “At the very least, they should have put the brand of a hot iron on Hester Prynne’s forehead. Madam Hester would have winced at that, I warrant me. But she,—the naughty baggage,—little[57] will she care what they put upon the bodice of her gown! Why, look you, she may cover it with a brooch, or such like heathenish adornment, and so walk the streets as brave as ever!”

“Ah, but,” interposed, more softly, a young wife, holding a child by the hand, “let her cover the mark as she will, the pang of it will be always in her heart.”

“What do we talk of marks and brands, whether on the bodice of her gown, or the flesh of her forehead?” cried another female, the ugliest as well as the most pitiless of these self-constituted judges. “This woman has brought shame upon us all, and ought to die. Is there not law for it? Truly, there is, both in the Scripture and the statute-book. Then let the magistrates, who have made it of no effect, thank themselves if their own wives and daughters go astray!”
— The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

What was the sin of Hester that was so great that some women of the town were demanding she be branded and another felt should should be executed?

She was an unwed mother. What 20 years ago was “Brave and courageous” is today a common occurrence. To suggest that a woman be punished for the inability of society to provide her with free birth control and “health care” is unacceptable.

Aunt Sponge was terrifically fat / And tremendously flabby at that, Aunt Spiker was thin as a wire / And dry as a bone, only drier, most formidable female, and hundreds of other words and phrases were recently removed from Roald Dahl’s beloved books.

He is known for writing James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, and many others. His publisher feels that it is “for the good of the children” to put their words in place of his.

I despise editors stealth editing anything. I want to know what the author said, not what you think I should be reading. If I have hit the publish button on one of my articles and I feel I must edit it, I will mark the title and mark deletions and insertions. It is the right thing to do.

I do not want to live in the world of 1984. It isn’t “big brother is watching” it is history being erased and rewritten in real time. It is having my words stripped away until the only thing left to say is “double plus ungood”

My wife is a teacher. When she read about these edits to Dahl’s book she had a fit. It just wasn’t acceptable.

But just like we now have “Coke Classic”, a pale imitation of real Coke-a-Cola, we are now going to have “classic” editions of Dahl’s works.

Many many years ago I read what I though was Call of the Wild by Jack London. It was boring. It was dry. It was written for young readers. It was abridged. Instead of reading the words of Jack London, I was being told what London said.

In doing so, the soul of the story was stripped away, leaving nothing but a hollow husk of what was once a great story.

In high school we were reading Romeo and Juliet. It was one of a number of shorter works in our text book. That text book was 8.5×11 and weighted way to much to lug around. I picked up a copy of the play at the local bookstore.

We were reading out loud in class when it came to my part. I read it from the book and there was the response. My words next.

There was something strange going on, Mrs Trout was nodding along, enjoying the reading. My classmates were looking confused. My words were not in their book. Mrs. Trout figured it out when the next door teacher came over and closed our door because her class was paying more attention to our reading than her.

I was reading the unabridged version of Shakespeare’s work, the textbook had a version suitable for high school students. In other words, all the juicy parts had been ripped out. Mrs. Trout figured it out. She didn’t notice because I was reading what she expected to hear. She was a good English teacher.

By the end of the week, everybody in class was reading from the unabridged version.

Words have meaning, we shouldn’t allow the left to redefine words. If words can be redefined at will they soon mean nothing.

“When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.’

’The question is,’ said Alice, ‘whether you can make words mean so many different things.’

’The question is,’ said Humpty Dumpty, ‘which is to be master — that’s all.”
— Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll

When I use a word it means what we agree it means. That is how we communicate and will continue to communicate.

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Taking the wrong approach on a good idea.

Feb 25, 2023 Miguel.GFZ 4 comments

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) – It’s not uncommon when your car breaks down, that you get out of your car to check and see what’s happened.

However, often drivers don’t move over, because legally they don’t have to.

Now, AAA is pushing to expand Tennessee’s “Move Over Law” and increase the punishment for those who don’t follow it.

Proposed TN bill would expand ‘Move Over Law’ to protect people working on disabled vehicles (wkrn.com)

Here are the new fines.

HOUSE BILL 92
By Gillespie
HB0092
000607
– 1 –
AN ACT to amend Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 55,
Chapter 8, relative to traffic safety.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF TENNESSEE:
SECTION 1. Tennessee Code Annotated, Section 55-8-132(e), is amended by deleting
the language “not less than one hundred dollars ($100)” and substituting instead the language
“not less than two hundred fifty dollars ($250)”; by deleting the language “not less than five
hundred dollars ($500) nor more than”; and by deleting the language “not less than one
thousand dollars ($1,000)” and substituting instead the language “two thousand five hundred
dollars ($2,500)

How about a frigging educational blitz rather than income for the State? There are plenty of people that can design and execute a proper campaign for Move Over. And lots of signage all over the state’s highways to keep reminding people to act safely.

But truly educating cost time and money, something that politicians hate unless it lines their pockets. Punish you is easier.

 

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This Checks Out (IDPA version)

Feb 25, 2023 Miguel.GFZ 5 comments

J. Kb’s post.

I’ve seen it with my own eyes, some ego driven operator wannabe go all roid-rage because he got his ass whooped by some accountant in New Balance sneakers who trains to win matches.

This checks out – Gun Free Zone

The club I used to shoot with had some LEOs that would participate regularly. Most were locals from different PDs and there was one roving U.S. Marshal that never missed a match when he was in town and most of them were excellent shooters. One LEO was a from a Fed Law Enforcement Department who participated long enough to realize his skill had augmented immensely by shooting with us. He also belonged to the department’s Ninja Squad and lobbied pestered his fellow team members to come shoot with us one day, and they finally relented.

That day they showed up strutting in almost full gear and being a bit (a lot) obnoxious about having to deal with mere civilians. I have no idea if it was the match director’s idea of luck of the draw, but they were squadded together with one of our oldest shooters, a proud owner of a prominent belly and one of our youngest shooter who perhaps had been with us all of six months.

Fed Ninjas were creamed with the exception of our regular member.

We are talking such an embarrassing performance encompassing poor handling, misses and hitting No-Shoot targets.  And the Safety Officer went gently on them not enforcing the finest aspects of IDPA rules such as proper use of cover and order of target engagement.

I guess as much as we tried to hold it inside, it showed that we were laughing inside at how shitty they performed. We did invite them back so they could hone their skills, but we never saw them again. The strutting was gone as they returned to their vehicles.

I am fond to say that the NRA hold Police and Military Only Matches so the participants are not belittled and embarrassed by their civilian counterparts.

 

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This checks out

Feb 25, 2023 J. Kb 5 comments

 

I have spent a lot of time in and around veterans, the competitive shooting community, and the firearms industry.

I can tell you with absolute certainty that competitive civilians out shoot the military every time.

The only military personnel who can shoot well are in the Army Marksmanship Unit, where they train for civilian competitions, or compete in civilian matches on their own time.

Even among the elite military units, they really can’t shoot for shit.

It’s not their fault, kick in a door, toss in a stun grenade, hit everything with a three round burst from an M4 is very effective but isn’t how you score points in a USPSA match.

So I can absolutely believe this happened because I’ve seen it with my own eyes, some ego driven operator wannabe go all roid-rage because he got his ass whooped by some accountant in New Balance sneakers who trains to win matches.

 

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I could really go for some mean Tweets right now

Feb 25, 2023 J. Kb 7 comments

I is currently 12 degrees where I live in New Hampshire.

This is the temperature downstairs in my house.

 

That’s right, 55.4 fucking degrees.

That’s what happens when heating oil hits $5 per gallon.

Fuck Joe Biden and fuck everyone who voted for him.

I’m sorry you were offended by the mean Tweets and locker room bro talk about pussy grabbing, but did that reall justify making heating oil go from $1.25/gal to $5/gal?

Becacuse now if I dont want to spend $1,000 pee month on heating oil (January was $600), my house is a refrigerator.

FUCK!!!

When I buy I’m putting in a wood burning heater because I can get unlimited pallets for free.

I’m tempted to build a sand thermal battery but I need to secure permission for an outdoor fire pit which means I need a letter from my landlord that I can take to the local fire department.

The plan is to use a 55 gal burn barrel (I can get that for free), a 35 gal metal wash tub, 100 lbs of playground sand, and a heat driven stove fan.  Total cost, about $75.

Then I fill the burn barrel outside with free pallet wood, put the tub of sand on it and light it.  Get the sand up to about 500F.  Carry it inside (with the wife’s help) and set it down on some concrete blocks on top of a piece of MDF in the corner of the living room.  Set the stove fan on the sand, and let all the heat stored in the sand bleed off into the house as it cools.

By my math, that’s about 8,000 BTUs of stored heat.

It’s not perfect but the fuel is free, the capital investment is less than 15 gal of oil, and it should take the edge off cold.

 

 

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