Politico Reporter Dismissed for Plagiarism. Kendra Marr was found to play loose and carefree in at least seven articles and had to leave Politico.

But what takes the cake is a quote from Politico’s memo announcing the less than great departure of Miss Marr:

There were instances of language and ideas published in at least seven of her POLITICO stories that borrowed without attribution from work that had been published previously in other publications.

Would that be like borrowing money from a wallet without asking for permission by the owner? As in THEFT?

In his latest book Full Black, Brad Thor tells the story of a power hungry multi billionaire wanting to create chaos for his egotistical benefit. Chapter 32 describes a confrontation at a restaurant between a journalist and the Bad Guy. Apparently Chapter 32 has become such a rallying cry that Mr. Thor himself has released a PDF copy to be shared by anybody.

And here is a bitty little example of the chapter:

We heard this before, haven’t we?

Just some thoughts I wanted to share for when you are holding the timer:

1. Learn the damn rules and keep the rule book nearby. You will eventually interact with a Range Lawyer (defined as a shooter that will try to eek an advantage by arguing the rules rather than shooting better) and your command of the ins and outs of IDPA will come in handy to shut them up and keep the match flowing.
2. Be polite, but when safety is on the line be a polite asshole. You are a Safety Officer first and foremost. The well being of fellow shooters is your first and only consideration. Do not be afraid to use a command voice and control any unsafe shooter. If they get mad, it is just a feeling and will eventually get over it.
3. 90% of NDs will happen during the “Load and Make Ready” and “Unload and Show Clear.” Pay special attention to finger position & muzzle sweeps while loading. Visually confirm that there is no magazine in the mag well and there is no round in the chamber when unloading. If the shooter is one of these guys that do not wait for your commands and does the whole unload thing plus holster, command them to unholster and repeat the whole thing till you are satisfied. They give you any crap, ding them with a procedural for unsafe conduct and send them to the Safe Table to have a chat with the Safety or Match Director.
4. If you are mentally scoring the competitor while he shoots, you are not paying attention to the gun. Your eyes must be “glued” to the shooter’s gun and arm. Leave scoring, cover violations and the such to the Score Keeper and concentrate on safety. If you catch a violation without being distracted from your main objective, call it but do not seek them.
5. Don’t be afraid to give FTDRs or DQs when required or needed. We all hate giving a DQ for a shooter’s mental fart or weapon malfunction but we are required to so. Most shooters will understand and will not protest, some will so stand firm. But do not be afraid to use them as behavior modification tools against those who want to “game” you or disrupt the match. I had a shooter who would not stop complaining about a procedural I gave her for not having proper equipment and I told her to take it to the Match Director and proceed to set up with the next shooter. While the next shooter was loading his gun, the complainer got in between us to keep arguing her case. I gave her a DQ for unsafe conduct right on the spot and ordered her uprange. After the customary cussing, she packed, left and never came back. Our club is much better with her gone in my opinion.
6. Never let a New Shooter go first & be gentle. By now you know they are nervous as hell. Let them see old shooters take on the stage, do the extra effort on explaining the stage and then let them have a go at it. When the New Shooter is done, take an extra minute to point out any deficiencies and congratulate him for joining the fun.

My favorite OccupyWallStreet idiot, MrHortonscycles is again tweeting under the name anarcosocialist. I have been harassing him on and off because it is fun to see him go off but I decided to ask him a serious question in order to determine how good is his grip on how things work in the real world. His answers were a bit shocking, specially for somebody touting himself as progressive and as a fighter for the People.

-@anarcosocialist One thing #occupywallstreet hasnt explained yet. What happens when “the rich” go galt?
-@GunFreeZone I have no idea what that means
-@anarcosocialist You guys want to tax “the rich” 90% of what they make. So what happens when “the rich” stop generating revenue?
-@GunFreeZone the vast majority will fall in line the others will be forced to keep working. its very simple
-@anarcosocialist what do you mean they can’t? How are you gonna force them if they don’t want to?
-@GunFreeZone they can’t refuse, its very simple
-@GunFreeZone to get a truly peaceful and just society you must be wiling to #breaksomeeggs i do not shy away from this
-@GunFreeZone it might be painful for the first generation but their kids will fall in line in a hurry. it is the only way
-@GunFreeZone #breaksomeeggs that is all im wiling to say
-@anarcosocialist You realize the last time some people said stuff like that we had some 200K casualties in this country, right?

He did not answer for a while so I shot him one more question, fully loaded:

@anarcosocialist So you support the Dred Scott v. Sandford ruling by the Supreme Court that applies to what you propose?

I waited for 10 minutes after the last question but, either he smelled rat (which frankly that should be the overall small where he is staying right now) or the last shipment of tofu pizza arrived and he had to go eat.

The scariest thing of all is that he says he is educated:

So there you have it folks. Occupy Wall Street will bring back Slavery, but it is all for the good of the people. Although I have the strange feeling that if we bring back  Nathan Bedford Forrest and U.S. Grant both would be on the same side of the battlefield on this one. I’ll keep you posted if he ever answers those questions.

Something happens to Kevin and we are having a shootout in 24 hours.

The litany sometimes gets to me. I must be getting old.

“The rules are too confusing!”
You are not being asked to write a paper about the philosophical ramifications of the rules, just to follow them.

“There are too many rules!”
Go to a square range, shoot one shot a second, no drawing. That simple enough for you?

“Why do we have to shoot from behind cover?”
Because the second rule in a gunfight is Do Not Get Shot.

“It is not fast enough and too low round count.”
Join USPSA, a fine organization and a great action shooting sport.

” (Insert your choice here) rule is dumb. That doesn’t happen in real life.”
Pray tell me how many real life shootings have you participated. XBox games do not count. If IDPA was good enough for Jim Cirillo, it is damned good enough for me.

“I wanna shoot what I carry.”
Nobody is stopping you from putting away the tricked-out Glock 34 with the 1.5 pound trigger and shooting the J-frame with more lint than my dryer’s vent because you carry it in your pocket and the last time you shot it was sometime during the Bush Administration. Do start the stage from the low ready and suck up the procedural for not having a proper holster.

“Why should anybody get a procedural for dropping a partially loaded mag and not picking it up?”
Because in real life, the penalty for having your gun go to slide lock and the only ammo you have left is 10 yards away is usually the ER or the Morgue.

“But IDPA is not Real Life!”
But it is more useful than your whining.

Happy the blest ages that knew not the dread fury of those
devilish engines of artillery, whose inventor I am persuaded is in hell receiving the reward of his diabolical invention, by which he made it easy for a base and cowardly arm to take the life of a gallant gentleman; and that, when he knows not how or whence, in the height of the ardour and enthusiasm that fire and animate brave hearts, there should come some random bullet, discharged perhaps by one who fled in terror at the flash when he fired off his accursed machine, which in an instant puts an end to the projects and cuts off the life of one who deserved to live for ages to come.
Don Quixote by Miguel Cervantes, Chapter 38 (AD 1605)

Four hundred years ago, my namesake was laying it thick against guns. And even though the era of Knights was pretty much done for by then, the principle of an aristocratic fighter was still alive. Knight were the all powerful warriors who were invincible due to the monies they spent on training and equipment. Your mere plebeian could never even think to afford a Heavy Horse, sword, armor and all the accoutrements that came with the Knighthood stuff plus they were not royalty so they had no right to possess them. As Royalty, a knight could do pretty much what they wanted, lope the heads of who they wanted and take their possessions as payment for any perceived affront.

But a piece of iron pipe wrapped in leather crafted by the local blacksmith with some powder and a piece of lead inside just needed to be touched by a match to bring down the era of the Knights to a junkyard end. The philosophy behind it was not truly defined until some centuries later with the famous quote:

God created Man, Sam Colt made them equal.

Hell Yeah!