“If The Hallmark Channel and El Rey Network got together to make a Christmas movie, I doubt the plot would be much different.”
J. Kb.

It is the season…

“Get off my zip code.”

MIAMI SPRINGS, FLA. (WSVN) – Police are on the hunt for a man who reportedly sexually assaulted a tourist at her Miami Springs hotel.
According to Miami-Dade Police, the victim was staying at the Clarion Inn and Suites along Northwest 36th Street, Monday.
The victim heard a knock on her door and went to open it just after 12 p.m. That’s when the subject forced his way in.
“Once he was inside the room, a brief struggle ensued,” said Miami-Dade Police Detective Angel Rodriguez, “and at which time the offender pulled out a box cutter and sexually assaulted the victim.”

Woman sexually assaulted at Miami Springs hotel; man on the run

I have covered hotel security many times before and it seems like a good opportunity to revisit it. Let’s start with a sad true: Security in hotels (and pretty much any corporation) is at the bottom of the importance scale  because it does not generate revenue. So, if they can keep expenditures to a minimum, they will do so. They will only change if a problem is detected and it costs them money.

The other issue that hotels have regarding security is that by nature hotels are supposed to be welcoming places, wide open access to the public so they can partake the amenities offered by the place.  Having a tightly controlled access and egress makes guests think “How come they have so much security? Is there something we should know and they are not telling us?” and the will not come back again and even spread the word to friends, family and strangers in Travelocity.

So, as usual, you are your own First Responder and Security Detail.  Let’s start with the basic: Does your room door have a peephole? If it does not, ask for a room change immediately. No compromise on that. If you cannot monitor who is on the other side, you are being placed in a trap hole and the possibility of an ambush when coming out.

The words “Housekeeping!” , “Room Service!” or “Maintenance” are not passwords that make you open the door without the need to check first.  “But I asked for more towels/called for faulty AC/ordered supper!” It does not matter, you check, double-check who is on the other side. It still amazes me that people who are mildly conscious and safe at home will suddenly throw caution to the Trade Winds and just behave in a stupid manner because they are in a different location.

But what if you hear a knock and you are not expecting anybody? The first hint that it may be danger is if the knock is not followed with the magic words “Housekeeping!” , “Room Service!” or “Maintenance.” But even if they are uttered and you have not asked for any, your alarm system must go up:

1. Be Loud. Ask  what they want in a tone of voice you know it is gonna bother the neighbors. Let them answer and pretend to be deaf, ask them to repeat themselves loudly. Bad guys seek stealth, not calling attention.
2.  Tell them (loudly) that you will call Front Desk to confirm they have business in your room. And don’t bluff, please call Front Desk. The people at the Front Desk should know if there is a call pending or find out fast if there is one, specially at night. If the answer you get is negative, ask them to send security right away or call the cops. You will call the cops anyway on your own, but you have told Front Desk that there is something wrong and they better step up.
3. Assume your Defensive Protocol for imminent attack. Basically fancy words saying, get your gun/weapon and take cover. Remain on the ready till things get figured out or the threat leaves. If you do not have a “Defensive Protocol”, How about you start coming up with one?
4. If there was a threat, demand a new room or get out of the hotel altogether if your gut tells you.  There is no shame in being safe. The Bad Guy may have chose the room for a reason and you need to GTFO. The staff may call you silly and even laugh at you behind your back, but screw it. It is your ass on the line, not theirs.

One other thing, hotels rooms should have information packages with all the relevant information of the place, Read It. If the hotel’s restaurant ends dinner service at 10 PM and does not start delivering breakfast till 6 AM, you know a Room Service call between those hours are bogus. It also varies per hotel chain, but they may have a minimum housekeeping staff at night for guests calls and same for maintenance. It is very unlikely that you will see them and much less hear them cleaning rooms or fixing stuff unless there is an emergency. The biggest asset for guests a hotel has at night is quiet and they will do the utmost to make it so they don’t get calls from pissed off guests complaining about some idiot next yelling at housekeeping at one in the morning.

I do not think we can say Richard Hammond is an ignorant about cars, regular or otherwise. But yet, the first time he tries to take out a Formula One rocket, he cannot make it 25 yards out of the pits. He simply did not know how to deal with this particular beast. It does not make him some sort of useless example of human being but an untrained one.

It seems some people find sick rejoice at pointing out the good faith failings of others as way to prop their ego and politicize stuff. We don’t do that in this blog. I will use tragic examples as teaching tools and even if you are the idiot that begged the event, I am not going to make political or self-aggrandizing taunts, just point out that you are an idiot.

So, if you need to put down people just because it makes for a long-lasting mental erection, please go do somewhere else. I am older, ornery and my total effective time for suffering fools is about 5 milliseconds.

And comments are closed.

An Ohio radio station is dropping the Christmas classic “Baby, It’s Cold Outside,” for having “no place” in today’s “extra sensitive” world.
“I do realize that when the song was written in 1944, it was a different time, but now while reading it, it seems very manipulative and wrong,” explained Glenn Anderson, a host on Cleveland’s WDOK-FM in a blog post last week.
Critics say the holiday standard — in which a male suitor repeatedly insists that a woman stay inside with him, even as she says over and over that she “really can’t stay” — is from a bygone era.
The debate over the tune — which includes the lyric, “Hey, what’s in my drink?” — gets stirred up every Christmas season and this year especially, in light of the widespread #MeToo movement against sexual harassment and assault.

Radio station pulls ‘Baby, It’s Cold Outside’ amid #MeToo movement

I don’t like musicals. I have heard the song refered before, but never listed to it till today after hearing about the new #MeToo load of crap.  And thanks to the magic of YouTube, I found the original clip from the movie “Neptune’s Daughter.”

So, how come they are only mentioning the first part when is the male the attacking party and not the second when the roles are reversed? Yeah, BS.

I also figured out that our society and times has lost the element of romancing which included the give and take of seduction. Long ago, you knew you were going to have this ritual mating dance with the male or female of the species and you would not even think about getting lucky for a long while and that was not only expected but a prideful thing to endure. But enter the era of instant gratification and guys began expecting to get laid at most after the second date. If that did not happen, girls were sent away and tagged as frigid bitches or other adjectives. Women did not want to be seen as unpopular so they decided it was OK to give it up easy which eventually led to women behaving as bad as men. Both sexes became whores trying to out-fuck each other and now it even gets shared in social media and praised in popular song.

Now the “backlash” with #MeToo wants to be more Holier than the Pope and attack a rather fun song like Baby it’s Cold Outside because it is necessary to screw Christmas time with some politically correct bullshit. If they were truly worried about women being victimized in songs, they would take flamethrowers and torch radio stations that played Rap. But that would be catalogued as racist and they would lose their Junior SJW badges.

PS: And it seems my prediction is about to become true in full or partially. Harvey Weinstein may end up a free man.

Arnold Schwarzenegger says he wishes he could travel back in time like the cyborg he played in “The Terminator” so he could stop fossil fuels from being used.
“If we would’ve never started in that direction and used other technology, we’d be much better off,” the actor and former California governor said Monday at the start of a U.N. climate conference in Poland.
“The biggest evil is fossil fuels: it’s coal, it’s gasoline, it’s the natural gas,” he told conference delegates.

Schwarzenegger Would Time Travel to Terminate Fossil Fuels

Hollywood is not kind to its actors. It is not unusual that some of their less-strong members end up as deranged versions of Florida man/Florida woman.  Years of health abuse due to the debauchery they partook eventually come with a nasty bill to pay. Next you thing you know, they are wondering about town behaving erratically and mumbling stuff that does not make sense. A sad spectacle to watch.

Arnie reminds me at the last days of George Reeves, the man who played Superman in TV back in the 1950s. Legend has it that in the months before he committed suicide ( some say he was murdered) he was seen wearing a facsimile of his Superman costume and behaving like he was the superhero.

Incidentally, Reeves was also a body builder in his younger years.  Mayne somebody should issue one of them Red Flags un Confiscation Orders ASAP.

PS: Has he by any chance met with Ocasio-Cortez? Maybe what she has is contagious and we are seeing the Stupid Virus being spread?