This shooting happened in Florida, and in Florida and most of the other 48 states (if not all of them), shooting a fleeing petty thief testing to see if you left your car door unlocked as he runs away falls somewhere along the assault with a deadly weapon to attempted murder felony crime range, and is a far worse offense than what the criminal himself was doing in the eyes of the criminal justice system.
Enemigo que huye, puente de plata. (At a fleeing enemy, the Silver Bridge.)
We are predators (even if some among of our species do not behave like that) and as predators we are hardwired to chase and take down a prey that runs away. If we add to that the Ego’s need for retribution of offenses, we end up with a volatile mix that will end us up in jail.
We need to mentally train ourselves to fight both instinct and Ego and give a retreating jackass his “silver bridge,” to let him escape. We are not conducting combat operations, nor we are fighting a dedicated enemy so the chance of seeing the bad guy again are infinitesimal. Plus we have all the laws that say it is a bad thing and you are gonna get orange rompers and a free stay at the State’s Pen for playing that game.
You come out alive at a bloodless confrontation? That is more than enough reward. Trying to score a head for your mantel is just unnecessary… and tacky.
Once in, you pretty much are immune to all those worldly triggers imposed by the Homophobic White Privilege Misogynists… and pretty much you don’t care either since you have other pressing problems.
And that is why you should grab the First Amendment and offend as many delicate snowflakes as you can. If anything, seeing their neck veins pulsating their way into a massive stroke makes for entertainment.
I was tempted to post the last stanza of this as a comment to Miguel’s Under Armour post, but decided it would be better served as a post of its own.
For historical context, Danegeld, which means Danish Tax or Danish Gold, was a “tribute” that was paid by locals to Viking (Dane) raiders to keep the Vikings away. It was protection money.
Vikings fought every viciously, which was part of their reputation. Rape and slaughter one town, let the few survivors spread the word of just how terrible the Vikings were. When the Vikings showed up at a nearby town a little while later, they would demand tribute or they would repeat the rape a slaughter. Most villages would pay tribute and the Vikings would go away. The Vikings operated a very effective protection racket across Scandinavia, The British Isles, Ireland, and the coastal countries of Northern Europe for several hundred years with this tactic.
Rudyard Kipling, who is by far my favorite classical English poet, wrote a poem about the Danegeld, as a warning. I have committed it to memory, it is not long.
As a warning it is every bit as appropriate today as it has ever been.
It is always a temptation to an armed and agile nation
To call upon a neighbour and to say: --
"We invaded you last night--we are quite prepared to fight,
Unless you pay us cash to go away."
And that is called asking for Dane-geld,
And the people who ask it explain
That you've only to pay 'em the Dane-geld
And then you'll get rid of the Dane!
It is always a temptation for a rich and lazy nation,
To puff and look important and to say: --
"Though we know we should defeat you, we have not the time to meet you.
We will therefore pay you cash to go away."
And that is called paying the Dane-geld;
But we've proved it again and again,
That if once you have paid him the Dane-geld
You never get rid of the Dane.
It is wrong to put temptation in the path of any nation,
For fear they should succumb and go astray;
So when you are requested to pay up or be molested,
You will find it better policy to say: --
"We never pay any-one Dane-geld,
No matter how trifling the cost;
For the end of that game is oppression and shame,
And the nation that pays it is lost!"
In the new age of social media it’s not uncommon for events to go from obscurity to the public spotlight within hours. Such is the case of hunting enthusiasts Josh and Sarah Bowmar. Several days ago the couple posted a video to YouTube of Josh legally spearing a Canadian black bear which caused the anti-hunting public at large to rear its ugly head to lash out at them.
When I started shooting IDPA almost 15 years ago, The fashion for Tactical Tommys everywhere was 5.11 (mostly vests, tactical pants a close second) and Under Armour shirts. As seen with other companies, Shooting Sports, military and Police helped create a buzz on a product which expanded sales to other sports and occupations. Under Armour had pretty much forgotten Action Shooters, but quietly still remained marketing to the Hunting community.
Enter Josh and Sara Bowmar, sponsored hunters for Under Armour who dared to take legally a bear with spear in Canada. Some Hunting Hating Social Media group got a wind of it, started a petition and a measly 4,300 signatures later, Under Armour caved and dropped them from their hunting sponsorship.
Now here is the issue: Under Armour still has other sponsored hunters in file and the Save Bambi Brigade found out. Oops! They still hate Under Armour because of hunters!
They tossed a couple of hunters to the Green Wolves in order to calm the pack, but the Save Bambi Brigade was not satisfied and sensing weakness, came back for seconds, thirds and dessert.
But know, they also managed to piss off the Hunting community who is criticizing and dumping their products.
Listen , I understand a company wants to make money, but you can pretty much bet the Bambi Brigade does not spend any on Under Armour because their clothing is a) it is expensive and b) It is not made with recycled, non-GMO, gluten-free hemp. Hunters and other members of the shooting community do spend a pretty penny and are faithful to the brand. I am even willing to bet that they are the ones that spend the most money on an individual basis, so it is not a good marketing practice to alienate your oldest clients because some tofu-eating jackasses who do not contribute to your bottom line, raised a small stink online and you are afraid to appear insensitive.
Taking the middle of the road is the best way to get hit by traffic from both sides.
PS: I never liked Under Armour shirts. They reminded me of the hated Banlon shirt I was forced to wear when I was a kid. 😀
God help me, I had this exact one. It triggers me to no end.
If you are married/cohabiting/etc to a petite woman (or one shorter than you), you had this conversation:
Her: “Honey, can you help me out?”
You: “Yes dear, what do you need?”
Her: “Can you get the Kitchenaid Mixer from that shelf?” She points up about 8 feet above your head.
You look up and see that 25 pound chunk of USA industrial steel on the top shelf with barely 2 inches of clearing from the ceiling and ask yourself (again) the age-old question:
“Who the f*** put that s**t up there? I know I didn’t.
You know better than ask her. In fact, newly weds and those of you about to get married , whenever you face this situation for the first time, don’t even bother to ask your sweeties as they will just giggle and probably says “I don’t know’ or some other deflecting answer. Old heads have tried through the ages and not even the Spanish Inquisition was able to make them confess.
So the next thing you do is, of course, stretch yourself as much as you can to see if you can get a grasp on the damned thing…and you fail. More than anything is to prove that you were not the one that put it there and then forgot. The next thing is to go get the only stepladder in your home which if you remember correctly is still on the side of the house where you left it 8 months ago when you were repairing the flashing, cut yourself and fell on your ass. And yes, the stepladder is still there but it is now half covered and trapped by the honeysuckle you planted at your wife’s behest last year.
So after getting the garden shears and liberating the ladder, you traipse inside the house, set the ladder and finally bring down the massive kitchen device while at the same time pinching a nerve in your spine. With a considerable amount of pain and self-control, you place the mixer in the counter, toss the ladder outside, get two ounces of scotch with a Percocet chaser and pass out on the couch. When you wake up 12 hours later, it is night and your loved one is already in bed. You stumble onto the kitchen where she has left you supper ready, but your confused mind rings an alarm bell you can’t seem to identify: something is wrong, but can’t tell what it might be.
Halfway through your cold platter, you finally figure it out: The mixer is no longer on the counter. Once again, you look up and the damned demonic device is back again eight feet from the floor. Just to confirm your suspicions, you turn on the back porch light and see that the step-ladder is in the same place you dropped it. Damn it! She did it again!
Here is the conundrum: How come they can place items so high up, but cannot retrieve them? I have a theory that might seem far-fetched but it is the only explanation I can find: They are able to manipulate gravity as their weight increases when they pick up an object.
The explanation I propose is that a woman is able to nullify gravity and levitate on command the moment they pick up any object 10 pounds and over. Once the object in securely in their hands, they can reverse the gravitational pull and lift themselves gradually off the ground. Once the object is placed where they want, the gravitational pull returns gradually and they descend till they are safely back on terra firma. That is the only way I can fathom they can put shit way up there, but need us to bring them down.
My theory would also explain why women can carry such heavy purses and bags without seemingly an effort. I swear my wife’s handbag weighs more than my range bag with 2 handguns, 500 rounds of ammo for the pistols, 200 rounds of double ought buckshot plus all the crap we take to the range with us. And the only reason they sometime ask us to carry a heavy piece of luggage during a trip is that they are afraid to accidentally levitate in public and give away the secret.
Yes, it sounds crazy but, do you have a better explanation for this phenomenon that has been vexing men since the dawn of time?
Cave painting representing women floating with the products of a recent hunt.
