I have been listening to the book Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland on Audible on my commute.

It’s a difficult book to listen to.

In chapter 10, the author talks about the clearing of the ghetto at Międzyrzec to send the Jews to Treblinka.

What stuck out at me was that 11,000 Jews were deported and over 900 shot by a cadre of only 350 police.

Moreover, the police, due to the emotional stress of what they were doing (which is hard to consider, almost having to feel empathy for German police having to deal with their own psychological pressure of shooting thousands of Jews by firing squad) were drinking heavily.  They often got so drunk they had to shoot Jews multiple times because they would miss the kill zone at near point blank range and wound the Jews instead.

Again, 11,000 Jews were rounded up and deported and 900 were shot by 350 intoxicated German Order Police.

And there wasn’t one report of Jews fighting back.

The Jews were given shovels and picks to dig mass graves while guarded by only a couple of drunk German police, and not one Jew thought to whack a drunk German in the head with a shovel?

The hardest part of listening to this is the overwhelming sense of shame I have that 11,000 Jews, knowing what their fate would be, didn’t fight back with every last improvised weapon that they could get their hands on.

I actually understand the Germans.  Throughout history many people have enslaved, oppressed, and massacred others over tribal or religious differences.

What I don’t understand is how the Jews, who do outnumbered the Order Police just accepted their fate.

If you want to understand me and my anger issues, this is at a root of it.

I want to over compensate for the passive cowardness of European Jews with ferocity.

Inflation will cause grocery prices to rise even higher by October: Billionaire supermarket owner

John Catsimatidis, the billionaire owner and CEO of New York City supermarket chain Gristedes, warned on Monday that inflation will lead to even higher grocery prices by October.

Speaking on “Varney & Co.” on Monday, Catsimatidis said he expected that “by October you’re going to have over a 6% annualized rate of inflation.”

Used car prices spiked 10.5% last month, accounting for more than one-third of the increase. Additionally, energy prices climbed 1.5% month over month and food prices rose 0.8%.

Catsimatidis noted that he is both in the food and oil businesses and that the higher prices are affecting him in both areas.

Catsimatidis said that he expects a 10 to 14% spike in food prices by October first.

Wow…

A 10% to 14% increase in the cost of food.

Gas is up a third.

Fuck me.  If you got a standard 3% cost of living adjustment this year, you actually got a 9% pay cut.

All thanks to shutting down the economy for the COVID.

Those motherfuckers curb stomped the working and middle class’s chance at having any disposable income this year as our budgets for necessities get eaten up by inflation.

This is something I never thought I would see:

The incorporated Second Amendment affords the people “the right to keep and bear arms.” U.S. Const. amends. II, XIV; McDonald v. City of Chicago, 561 U.S. 742 (2010); District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S. 570 (2008). Despite the clear text and this Court’s precedent, New York’s licensing regime does the opposite. It deprives everyone of that right, only returning it to those select few who manage to first secure a firearm license from the police. For everyone else, possession of a firearm is effectively a “violent felony,” punishable by 3.5 to 15 years in prison. N.Y.

Penal Law §§ 265.03; 70.02(1)(b). New York’s licensing
requirements criminalize the exercise of the fundamental Second Amendment right, with rare exception.  As a result, each year, we represent hundreds of indigent people whom New York criminally charges for exercising their right to keep and bear arms. For our clients, New York’s licensing regime renders the Second Amendment a legal fiction. Worse, virtually all our clients whom New York prosecutes for exercising their Second Amendment right are Black or Hispanic.  And that is no accident. New York enacted its firearm licensing requirements to criminalize gun ownership by racial and ethnic minorities. That remains the effect of its enforcement by police and prosecutors today.  The consequences for our clients are brutal. New York police have stopped, questioned, and frisked our clients on the streets. They have invaded our clients’ homes with guns drawn, terrifying them, their families, and their children. They have forcibly removed our clients from their homes and communities and abandoned them in dirty and violent jails and prisons for days, weeks, months, and years. They have deprived our clients of their jobs, children, livelihoods, and ability to live in this country. And they have branded our clients as “criminals” and “violent felons” for life. They have done all of this only because our clients exercised a constitutional right. 

Therefore, we ask this Court to answer the question presented in a way that will protect the Second Amendment for all the people: by holding that Petitioners’ license denials violated the Second Amendment because New York’s licensing regime is unconstitutional.

I highly encourage you to read the whole thing.

The Black Attorneys of Legal Aid caucus, Bronx Defenders, Brooklyn Defender Services, The Franklin County Public Defender, Monroe County Public Defender’s Office, St. Lawrence Public Defender’s Office, Oneida County Public Defender, The Ontario County Public Defender’s Office, Ontario County Office of the Conflict Defender, and Wayne County Public Defender, all got together to write this amicus brief to the Supreme Court calling the NY gun licensing requirements oppressive, corrupt, racist, and unconstitutional.  Which it absolutely is.

This is something I never thought I would see, but reading it, I was reminded that these same groups got together to fight to overturn NY’s gravity knife law which was overwhelmingly being used by the NYPD to arrest black and Hispanic workers for carrying ordinary pocket knives they used for their jobs.

It seems like after watching years and years of government abuse, where rich white celebrities and the politically well connected can bribe their way into a gun license, but minorities who had neither influence nor affluence ended up in prison, they came to the conclusion that hyper-restrictive may issue is just a scheme that allows police and politicians to enrich themselves through corruption and oppress everyone else.

I really hope they win.

I got smacked with this headline:

Pfizer Issues Recall of Chantix After Finding High Levels of Carcinogens | PEOPLE.com

Holy crap! People who took the drug to quit smoking and not get cancer are gonna get it anyway!! ZOMG!

Not so fast, Francis.

Pfizer is recalling batches of its anti-smoking medication Chantix after an increased level of impurities that can cause cancer were found in the drug.
Included in the nationwide recall are two lots of Chantix 0.5mg Tablets, two lots of Chantix 1 mg Tablets, and eight lots of a Chantix kit of 0.5mg/1 mg Tablets, the drug manufacturer announced on Friday.

So a total of ten lots of recently-produced medication have been recalled, but you do not get to find out unless you bother to not just read the headline but actually go in deep in the article. Some proud  journo and/or editor doing his duty to drive clicks to the failing website, crafts a alarming headline without giving a scrap if smokers who want to quit and may benefit from Chantix will now reject the idea to go into treatment.

I did Chantix and come November, I’ll be 5 years free of the clutches of nicotine after 30 years of addiction. I am not saying it will work for you because my best friend tried it and failed to kick the habit. But to sabotage somebody’s the possibility of quitting by scaring him into staying away from the medication just for shits and page clicks?  They deserve to have an enema radioactive waste every day for six months.

ANTIOCH, Tenn. (WKRN) — One man was injured in an apparent road rage shooting on Bell Road at Cane Ridge Road that happened Thursday afternoon around 3:45 p.m.

According to Nashville Fire Department, MNPD was on scene with the patient who said he had brake checked someone driving behind him, and that person pulled alongside their vehicle and began shooting.

Man injured in apparent road rage shooting in Antioch | WKRN News 2

This is what happens when two set of idiots occupy the same general area and interact with each other.  There are people who cannot stand to ignore a stupid ego challenge and there are plenty of idiots who are willing to provide them. It is always a bad combination.

So, once again, here are the basic concepts we all should follow: Avoidance, Deterrence, and De-Escalation.:

Your number one philosophy for personal security should be a life long commitment to avoidance, deterrence, and de-escalation.

Avoidance: The act of avoiding or keeping away from (Three Stupid Rule.) If you can safely retreat from the encounter, by all means do so. For instance, if you are out for a walk and feel threatened or intimidated by an occupant of a car, you should retreat in the opposite direction that the car is traveling.

Deterrence: The act of discouraging someone from taking hostile action against you by being aware of them and their possible intent.

De-escalation: The act of decreasing in intensity. To not let your ego or emotions get the best of you, to refrain from escalating the problem into more than it already is. As a CCW you may need to back down from non-life threatening, argumentative encounters in order to not allow things to spiral out of control.
When these things do not work, then and only then may you need to show or use the gun. Just because we are carrying does not mean that we need to use the gun. You want to do whatever is reasonably possible to avoid using the gun. But when your well researched, well thought out “line in the sand” has been crossed you need to act without hesitation.

The “Three Stupid” Rule

“Do not go to stupid places, with stupid people, and do stupid things”

We all know that nobody wants thugs to dictate where they can or cannot go. Put there are simply some places, people, and things that you should avoid if you want to lower your risks. You can cut down on your risks by a good 95% if you just follow the three stupid rule.

Roger Phillips Owner of Fight Focused Concepts, formerly know as Sweatnbullets

You cannot be part of a Health Kabuki Theater to scare & threat civilians into compliance and then say you are not taking part in the same dance number. You will not only be chastised by the People you were part on scaring, but also properly reamed by the machine you helped feed because you are screwing with the directive of Power Acquisition and Retention.

You thought you were special, you thought you get special exceptions and suddenly you are collecting unemployment and looking online for classes on how to code.

Or, with all that practice, maybe try for pole dancing and work for tips. Do demand the customers use mask and gloves while shoving dollar bills up your… garter.