J. Kb

Our tenuous grasp on civilization

Miguel touched on this a little bit with his post After a Natural Disaster, the Human Predators come out, but I wanted get into this topic a bit more.

First this story from CNN:

Winter storm death toll rises to 27 in the Buffalo, New York, area but officials fear it will continue to climb

Dozens of Americans have died have died as a winter storm brought frigid temperatures and paralyzing snowfall totals across the US, and officials in the Buffalo area believe the staggering toll will continue to grow there as teams carry on with search-and-rescue missions.

The nationwide death toll from storm, which brought more than 40 inches of snow to some areas, climbed to 49 on Monday, with 27 of those deaths in Erie County, New York.

Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz tweeted that 14 people in the county had died of exposure, three people were found in their vehicles, four had no heat, three were from “shoveling/(snow) blowing cardiac events, and three people passed away after EMS services were delayed.

Too many people, including residents just going out to see the massive snowfall, are going out in their vehicles and getting stuck and blocking recovery efforts, he said.

The deaths I find most shocking are the people who went out into the cold and died, especially those trapped in their cars.

How quickly civilized people forget how lethal mother nature can be when the comforts of technology are removed.

Then there is this article from the NY Post:

Looters ransack snowbound Buffalo as cops are stuck elsewhere

Deadly blizzard conditions in upstate New York gave cover to local looters over the weekend as they robbed businesses while police were stuck elsewhere.

Some businesses had their windows smashed and merchandise damaged and stolen as snow and ice pummeled the region, local TV station WRGZ reported.

Buffalo cops made a “few” arrests, according to city Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia, who added that investigations continue into other incidents after widespread reports of looting on social media.

The weather conditions limited the crime-fighting efforts of local law enforcement, with travelers’ stranded vehicles clogging roads and snow-related emergencies taking police away from their normal beats.

#BuffaloLooting was trending.

 

With the police busy dealing with people who underestimated the harshness of the weather, the Savages who prey upon the civilized set upon stores and businesses to pillage and plunder.

This shows just how tenuous our grasp on civilization really is.

Some sub zero temperatures and a few feet of snow and am American city goes Lord of the Flies.

This is why self reliance and the ability to self rescue are so important.

People will venture out and get stuck.  Law enforcement will go to rescue them.  The savages will use the lack of available law enforcement and the cover of darkness and bad weather to prey upon the helpless, and nobody will come to rescue you.

When the snow piles up, cracks will form in civilization and you are on your own.

Be prepared.

A bad situation all around leads to death

This is a tragedy of errors.

Maintenance worker killed at Grand Prairie apartment complex after resident believed he was being burglarized, police say

An investigation is underway after a maintenance worker was fatally shot while checking on waterlines at an apartment complex in Grand Prairie on Saturday evening, police said.

Officers responded to a shooting call around 6 p.m. at the Clayton Pointe Apartments along the 2900 block of Alouette Drive near Arkansas Lane and Highway 360.

Upon arrival at the scene, police said they found an apartment complex maintenance worker identified as 53-year-old Cesar Montelongo injured with a gunshot wound on a resident’s balcony.

Police said their investigation revealed that Montelongo was checking on multiple balconies for frozen or busted waterlines after pipes had burst throughout the apartment complex due to the recent arctic blast that has plagued the region.

According to police, a resident spotted Montelongo on his balcony, believed his apartment was being burglarized and shot Montelongo through a window.

Police said the resident stayed at the scene and cooperated with detectives. He was not arrested.

This was a fuck-up compounded by another fuck-up that resulted in one man dying, his family mourning, another man left with the emotional toll of what he did, and perhaps some prison time.

Let’s count the fuck-ups.

One: The resident shot Montelongo through a window.  Shooting through a window or door is almost always unjustified.  When the person is on the other side of the barrier, they are not in your property and don’t constitue an immediate threat.

The only exception to this is if the person on the other side of the window points a gun at you, if they can shoot you through the window, then it would be justified to shoot them through the window.

Texas law may be different.  My opinion is based on a general, non-lawyer understanding of castle doctrine.  But I’m inclined to err on the safe side.

Two: The maintenance man climbed onto people’s balconies without announcing himself or his intentions.  If I saw a man I didn’t know on my balcony I would definitely break my gun out of the safe and call 911 expecting the worse.

The apartment management and Montelongo should have gone door to door and spoke yo residents and asked to check their balconies.

I don’t believe either man acted with malicious intent, but a combination of stupid actions created a situation that led to a tragedy.

Don’t cut corners, use your brain, and obey common sense and the law.

Another example of why I own guns

 

This pudgy fuck is a stand-up comedian and writer for a grotesque Netflix show.

Now he says this was a joke.

I think I dawned on him that the people who he threatened in his sing-song way are a lot better at the skills of applying of violence than he is.

That’s why I own guns.

Because people like this will always exist.

Having fun with my kitchen lingerie

For Hanukkah my wife got me kitchen lingerie.

For those of you who don’t understand, it’s a term based on an old joke:

“Lingerie is a gift a man gives to his wife which is really For himself.”

Since I do the lion’s share of the cooking, kitchen lingerie is what we call fancy cooling appliances.  They are gifts for me which I use to make food for her and the rest of the family.

This year, I got a deep fryer.

I have been experimenting and made my own potato chips.

 

One of the tips I got was to brine the chips after slicing.

I brined them in a minute of kosher salt and a beef bullion cube, to give that beefy old-school McDonald’s beef tallow flavor.

Hot damn are they good.

I’m not sure if I’m ever going to buy potato chips ever again.

Next weekend I’m going to have to break out the deep fryer again and experiment some more.

California anarcho-tyranny

There are two definitions of anarcho-tyranny that I have found that summarize the principle perfectly:

A stage of governmental dysfunction in which the state is anarchically hopeless at coping with large matters but ruthlessly tyrannical in the enforcement of small ones.

And

Anarcho-Tyranny is a form of Dystopia where a state permits or encourages Anarchy Is Chaos in limited form, either out of laziness or some more malevolent motive, while decent people are suppressed.

This perfectly describes the State if California and is epitomized here in this interaction with California law enforcement.

 

These types of outlaw motorcyclist are a scourge.

But chasing them down and stopping them is difficult and dangerous work.

The guy who stopped is law abiding.

It’s much easier to be an officious jack-boot against a guy who stops at red lights than it is to catch real criminals.

On paper, when this cop fills out his report, he will get credit for enforcing the law.  That he ignored much more dangerous criminals to stop a guy revving his engine will not be factored into his performance review.

Real criminals are given free rein but the law abiding are stomped into submission and given citations they pay fines for to fill the government coffers.

This is, of course, antithetical to the way America is supposed to be.  This is the New America pioneered by California.

The secret ingredient to perfect French toast

Here is the secret to perfect French toast:

Blender

That’s it.

Eggs, cream, bread (I use a store-bought Challah), and powder sugar for dusting.

The secret is to mix the egg and cream in the blender (or with a stick blender) to liquify the mix and incorporate air.

That way it soaks into the bread and when it cooks, puffs up.

Fry on low-medium heat and done.