I read the following, got up, made myself some coffee, ingested it and sat down again to re-read because I thought it was a trick played by my just awoken mind.

Why are The Miami Herald and other news outlets so quick to label common-sense survival activities in Haiti as “looting”? According to news reports, there are few if any grocery stores open for business in Port-au-Prince, and vast quantities of donated food have yet to be distributed. Meanwhile, there are tens of thousands of people without food, water and shelter.

There also are tons of debris to be removed from the streets. In these circumstances, removal of any useful items before arrival of the bulldozers seems like the sensible, humanitarian, environmentally friendly and cost-effective thing to do.

The missive to the “editors’ was written by Helene B. Dudley of Miami. After a quick Google search, I found out that Ms. Dudley belongs to the group Returned Peace Corps Volunteers of South Florida.God Bless them for the service they performed, but bundling looting to environmental clean-up is akin to associate a stabbing during a mugging to a life-saving open heart surgery.

I won’t comment on the legality of having to steal food and water from a store to survive a catastrophe like that, but I don’t care how flexible is anybody’s imagination, to think that looters are doing so for environmental causes is just idiocy. If anything, looting might be bad for Gaia since people do not know what kind of chemicals and poisons, crushed but contained by the debris will now be released and spread to the four winds in the legs of looters. Contaminated items will pass hand to hand making people sick and overburdening even more the tight situation in Haiti.

Oh and by the way. The traditional looting custom of burning up the ransacked stores after they are pillaged seems to be running against sound environmental principals and are serious increase in the carbon footprint that will kill our planet.

I need another coffee.

If you live in Miami, you will face both the best, the weirdest and the worst of multiculturalism. I love being in a multicultural world of foods: Rotis one day, BBQ another (And at the Hitching Post you can have the choice of your favorite meat with baked beans or Cuban black beans) and get some Argentinian or Brazilian Churrasco. Nothing is more confusing that listening to 3 fans blasting the last season of Dolphins Football in English spoken with Creole, Portuguese and Southern accents. At the end, you get used to it since that is Miami.

But this is a wee bit too much:

I found this Jihadi/Hamaz/Gaza Strip revolutionary bullcrap in the Miami Art District. I am sure it means some multicultural “artistic” statement for some “enlightened” (with a very dim bulb) artist, but I fail to see it. Just another load of Islamofacism in our streets yet I might be the Homeland Security Domestic Terrorist suspect.

It is hard to even imagine what kind of hell is Haiti right now. The pictures are telling and yet we know they do a poor job projecting the real devastation.

International Agencies and Private Folks are now in gear trying to gather personnel and supplies to help. Help if you can. Say a prayer for Hatians, for what has happened and for what will happen. Predators will come out of the rubble soon and it is a target rich environment in a place where the Predators pretty much ran free before all this happened.

From “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Pirates.”

Rule 35. That which does not kill you has made a tactical error.

Rule 37. There is no ‘overkill.’ There is only ‘open fire’ and ‘time to reload.’

Gotta love the Cadets at West Point. Some had some interesting material that might have not endeared them to the present Commander in Chief.

Kill Bin Laden by Dalton Fury and David Hunt & Brad Thor’s The Apostle.

On Killing by Dave Grossman.

Gates Of Fire by Steven Pressfield

So Lary Correia gets wind that there is somebody out there with a video game based on his book Monster Hunter International and is charging for it which makes it more than just plain fan appreciation. Larry I am guessing gets a tad upset and posts on his blog and Facebook about it. Next thing we know, MHI fans have already identified the culprit, got email and home addresses, phone numbers, DNA sample, bring down the website, call PayPal to have the account shut down and offer the miscreant all kinds of pain and suffering starting with rabid porcupines inserted in certain body orifice to a convoy of MHI followers with intentions of using his residence as target practice. Suffice to say the misguided miscreant cried Uncle at the top of his lungs and removed his game from sale. Larry being the gentleman he is, spoke to the perp and it seems that all is now under control.

Before anybody else goes wild no, we were not going to use the greedy imagination-less imbecile as Zombie target but then again, I am sure he was not sure. Cooler heads did recommend the use of a much scary weapon: Lawyers but that was not necessary either. I guess that is what happens when you have a book that crosses over to both the Fantasy Fans and the Firearm Enthusiasts: you are bound to have a geeky idiot face the wrath of people that have the means and character to do something somewhat “impolite” even though we are a Polite Society.

I just know Larry will gloat big time at the next ComicCon or any gathering of writers & fans. How many authors can say that his or her fans will take up arms against copyright violations? I am sure he will rub it just a little. Fans of other authors may show up dressed up as their favorite character but Larry’s won’t dress up as shooters, we are Shooters and we look normal… and that has to be scary for some people out there.