Month: February 2011

Your bias is showing

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

Local news channel “YNN – Austin” covers the concealed carry on campus debate. The article focuses on Colin Goddard and John Woods.

One state legislator wants concealed carry laws for college campuses across the state, but two men impacted by the 2007 shootings at Virginia Tech are fighting those efforts.

Colin Goddard was shot four times during the Virginia Tech incident. John Woods’ girlfriend was among the 32 victims in the shootings. Together, they are asking Texas lawmakers to reject efforts to allow concealed handgun license owners to carry weapons into campus buildings.

And yes, they have a quote from Rep. Joe Driver, sponsor of the legislation. But the article then goes on about the man who ran onto the University of Texas campus last year with a rifle and shot himself.

Hrm. Have we forgotten about how Charles Whitman was stopped? Who is Charles Whitman? Why, he’s the man who in 1966 climbed to the top of the tower on the University of Texas campus and starting shooting people. What helped stop him? Students running back to their dorm rooms, fetching their deer rifles, and shooting back.

Imagine that. People fighting back stops crime. If you say it doesn’t, then please start recommending rape victims just lie back and take it.

Imagine that. Police and others didn’t mistake the citizens for the criminal. Sure there was chaos abounding, but they knew who was the bad guy and who were the good guys. I dare say with 40+ years of advancements in training — especially in dealing with active shooter situations — we just might be OK.

Imagine that. The people there on the scene were the ones able to respond. Yes police arrived, but it takes time for them to show up. The people right there right now are the ones able to respond the quickest.

 

Goddard contends campus security, alerts, background checks and mental health evaluations should be the focus not more guns.

 

 

Tell me. How is that going to help anything? I do agree that alert systems using text messages, email, social media and whatnot are good things to quickly spread information and certainly we should use them where we can. But how is that going to stop the problem? If some nutjob starts injuring people, how is an alert going to stop the immediate act of injury and death? How will a background check stop the injury and death? How will mental health evaluations stop injury and death? And unless you put a cop every 5 feet, you cannot be sure one will be around when you need it. So please, Mr. Goddard, tell me how do you deal with the immediate problem? We do what we can as a preventative measure, but the reality is that you can’t stop crazy, you can’t eliminate it from the face of the Earth. So while those other measures might be nice, we also need to be able to address evil swiftly and firmly when it makes itself known.

But to hear this from the local news media… the bias is not surprising. But who knows. With all the local journalists and lobbyists that obtained CHL’s merely so they could have “easier” access into the Texas State Capitol building, maybe, just maybe, going through the process they gained a little more insight into the fact that CHL-holders are good people, just like them. It’s still early. We’re still hopeful.

 

Manners Matter

/ hsoi / 5 Comments

Gun Bloggers have been tra-la-laing recently about open carry and manners.

I think it started over at Breda’s place. Unc discusses more.

The thing is, do you view open carry as a political movement? Or just something to do, as normal as putting on your pants in the morning? If you view it politically, manners matter. You aren’t going to win people over to your side if you act like an asshole. Granted, you may not win them over if you’re well-behaved, but it does improve your chances. But if you view open carry as just something to do, or your God-given right, or whatever, then hey… if you’re normally an asshole, you’re still going to be an asshole with a gun on your hip or not. Frankly, I’m not going to tell anyone how to behave because we’re not all in this for politics. As well, as soon as I start telling someone else how to behave, that means they can tell me how to behave, and I’m not hip to that.

Furthermore, we have to remember that our little world of gun-totin’ folks is composed of a wide array of people. We aren’t going to all agree on everything, so before we start the in-fighting, we might as well stop because we aren’t all going to see eye-to-eye on how to promote, how to behave. And as much as we all love living free, that implies we also don’t care for other people to tell us how to live our lives. So if someone doesn’t want to be well-mannered well, that’s their prerogative.

Unfortunately, it can reflect badly upon the rest of us.

I do think you get further in life being polite and good to others; that whole flies and honey vs. vinegar thing. For instance, consider Linoge’s WizardPC’s story. And we have to remember that. In anything in life, any group, any movement, any thing… there’s always going to be some bad apples, there’ll always be someone who is a less than model citizen. So what should we do? Just continue to be the role model. In the end, most people are rational and will see that the majority are good folk and things are alright. Why? Unc said it best:

And that is why we should play nice. So the other side comes off as loons. Not us.

Bought a washing machine

/ hsoi

So with the old washing machine dying, today we went shopping to buy a new washer.

At the urging of a friend, I avoided the big box stores. Went to a couple local places and ended up buying from Depew Appliances. Not a bad place, glad I went there.

We ended up with a Maytag Series 2000 (MHWE200XW).

Why that one?

Well, first it was one of the least expensive models they had on the floor. I sunk around $2000 into that Kenmore Elite HE3t 8 years ago expecting it to last me 15-20 or more years. If things are just going to break in 5-8 years and be too costly to repair, I just don’t see the logic in sinking lot of money into this stuff. Sure, I still want to get something that will take good care of my clothes, that has the cycles/features Wife wants, and that doesn’t suck. But $1000+ on a washer? I just can’t justify that outlay. So, low price tag was a plus. BTW, this washer ended up being about the same price as the replacement tub for the HE3t… couple that with labor and the rest of the parts? I could buy a couple washers. It’s a shame that “disposable” is how it is but working in the software world I understand “upgrade revenue” because if you make a product that lasts 40 years, while people will love it today’s business world can’t support that business model any more. Pity.

Second, ConsumerReports.org rated it a “best buy” (click to see the review, if you have a subscription), and I’ve generally had good experience when I buy something they rate well. So, I’m hoping the positive trend will continue. I will say, this is one huge reason why I finally got a smartphone. The ability to have “Internet in my hands” out in the field is invaluable. I purchased my ConsumerReports.org subscription while Wife drove to the stores, then did searches and researching on models and prices while in the stores. Hooray technology! It certainly helped me narrow down the choices to what appeared to be the best buy. What reviews I could find on this model were positive. So, here’s hoping.

And of course, it had the features and things that Wife wanted. So, all good there!

I admit, the price was listed slightly lower at HomeDepot.com and a few other online places, but I still bought from Depew. Yes, after showing the sales guy that I could get it cheaper elsewhere, he did give me a price lower than on the sales tag. Still a hair higher but it was in the ballpark so, good enough. I didn’t feel like getting into a haggle-fest. It was an acceptable price, and I’m happy to help out Mom & Pop shops.

We’ll see how it works out. Hopefully it won’t suck, and if it can last at least 5 years the well…. I guess I’ll be ahead of the curve. They deliver Monday.

On zero-tolerance policies

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

Nat Hentoff writes a good piece about public government schools and their “zero-tolerance” policies.

Policies. All about freeing the administration from thinking. It’s really just lawsuit protection and CYA. It’s bad policy. One that goes overboard. Hentoff tells of Andrew Mikel who, because of a spitwad, is being charged with violent criminal conduct and is no longer qualified to apply to the US Naval Academy. Or of  6-year-old Zachary Christie who was so excited to join the Cub Scouts, that he wanted to use his camp utensils to eat his lunch that he brought them to school… but we cannot tolerate such behavior so he must spend 40 days in reform school.

What? Excuse me while I pick my jaw up off the floor.

What sort of lesson are you teaching children? Sit down, shut up, conform conform conform. Follow the rules, even the bad ones, even the wrong ones, because we’ll make your life even worse if you don’t. Better to hide behind a policy than think. We’ll ruin you for life for any simple mistake you make. Childhood is no longer a time to make mistakes, to learn, to tolerate and grow. No. You mess up, you’re done. This is what ‘is our children learning’. *sigh*

It’s another reason why I enjoy homeschooling our kids. My kids get in trouble when they do NOT have a pocketknife on them. Learning how to safely handle firearms is part of essential curriculum! But whatever infraction my children make, there’s no blind policy that leaves no room for understanding, no room for them to learn. Yes, we tolerate mistakes. As their parents and chief educators, we’re here to help our children learn and grow. We understand that childhood is full of more mistakes and failures than successes, because this is the early stages of learning and that’s just how it goes.

And people wonder why kids lose their childhood so quickly these days….

of tools and appliances

/ hsoi / 15 Comments

I was going to buy a chainsaw this weekend. But now, I’m buying a washing machine.

There’s a small tree in our front yard that needs to go. Just got the postcard from the city saying brush collection is coming up, and what with the 3-day weekend upon me I figured now was the right time to get that tree cut down. In the past I’ve borrowed chainsaws, but it’s come up enough and I’ve had enough offer from friends for firewood if I cut it myself so… time to buy a chainsaw I can call my own. STIHL appears to be the top of the heap, with something like their MS 290 Farm Boss model. But that also appears to be overkill for my needs, at least right now, so I’m thinking of instead of a Husqvarna or an Echo CS400, which should get me by for my needs and not cost me a fortune. When I end up living out in the country, I’ll get the STIHL. Either way, something greater than a 40cc engine, 16″ chain, should be enough for my needs right now.

So while I was researching chainsaws, the washing machine repairman came. We’ve been hearing this god-awful noise during the spin cycle, but not always. He wasn’t 100% sure of the exact problem, but he could tell the problem was going to involve the tub, which would have been 3-4 hours worth of labor, then parts, and he said it just wasn’t worth it for us to do it: it’d cost more to fix it than to just buy a new one. 😦  After he left, I hit Google just to find the specs on the washer (a Kenmore Elite HE3t, purchased 8 years ago), and to my shock… I found lots of people having what appears to be the same problem. YouTube videos of the same noise, of people disassembling their washer, forum postings, you name it. It all seemed to point back to the “spider”, which is this bracket on the back of the tub, failing due to corrosion. Hrm. When you see this much failure, you have to wonder about design flaw. I did see some stuff about class action lawsuits, but those tend to only serve to make the lawyer rich.

Either way tho, I’m out one washing machine. And so, the chainsaw has to go on hold (going to borrow one) and it’s time to go shopping for a washing machine. Quick searching last night seems to have good results for Samsung, and a few people I know own one and have had positive results with it. I’ve had more than enough experience with various brands to know that in some way they all suck and have problems, but I’ve never tried anything from Samsung before. People who use their stuff seem to be generally happy so, why not… it’ll be an adventure.

If you have any particular product recommendations (chainsaw or washer) post ’em now. I mean, sucks that I have to buy a new one, but it’s nice that it’s on a holiday weekend when there should be lots of sales going on.

Certificate of Destruction

/ hsoi / 7 Comments

Just say that a few times: “Certificate of Destruction”

Sounds cool. Or at least, me and my kids think so. 🙂

I have (well, had) a bunch of old computers lying around: an old PowerMac 850/150 (that was the shiznit back in the day), a IIvx with a Daystar 040 upgrade card in it, and a few other things. I kept them around because I thought I could repurpose them somehow, like install NetBSD and have a little server or something. But the reality is they are so old, may not work, or to bring them into serviceable condition would be more expensive than just building a cheap Unix box or even buying a MacMini. So, then it became a matter of overcoming inertia to get rid of them, mostly because I was worried about data on the hard drive and was just not in the mood to dismantle everything and deal with it myself.

But worry no more.

I found a place in Austin called Electronic Recycling and Trading. They took my stuff, they will ensure the drives are either truly wiped or shredded, and they’ll resell things then either in whole or in part. Easiest solution for me.

And for my troubles? I was given a “Certificate of Destruction” which is their guarantee that it was done. So of course, if any information gets out that was on those drives, I’ll get to have happy fun suing them (good luck with that).

In the end, I’m just glad to be free of the clutter and that it was disposed of in a responsible manner. I did love that 8500… oh it was so cool. And the IIvx was my (personally) first Mac… should have gotten the Centris 650, but live and learn.

GunVault part deux

/ hsoi

A few weeks ago my GunVault safe failed to open. I contacted the company, and they said a replacement unit would be shipped out.

The replacement arrived a couple of days ago. I immediate put it into action.

Of course, the first thing I looked at was the unlock mechanism. It appears to be the same thing: a little steel cord. So I get the feeling it could break again. But of course, looks can be deceiving… I can’t get inside the mechanism to fully examine it nor a prior unit that was in an unbroken state so… I can’t really say for sure if the problem will never happen again.

I can say there appear to be a few minor changes tho. The keypad buttons stuck out a little more and had a bit nicer feel to them, a little more definitive, not as sensitive. I’m hip to that change. When the door opens, it doesn’t make as much noise, which is good. And the foam lining also feels better. Minor things, but it feels like improvements were made.

So I’ll give GunVault credit for standing behind their product and replacing the faulty product no questions no charge (even providing a UPS return shipping label to ship back the failed vault, which I wouldn’t be surprised if they reconditioned and resold, which is fine).

Do I trust it? Well, I’m wary, that’s for sure. It’ll always sit in the back of my head that it may fail when I least need it to. Crazy thing is, just this past weekend Karl told me how he was able to get his V-Line pure mechanical lockbox totally locked up. I forgot to get the details about the failure from him but geez… confidence is not high here. Granted, anything mechanical can and will eventually fail, but when it’s a life-saving device you really want those chances of failure as close to zero as possible.

For now, I’ll continue to use the replacement GunVault unit. But I’m going to be seeking an alternative solution.

ICE CREAM!!!!

/ hsoi / 4 Comments

(NSFW audio)

It may be the middle of February, but it’s still warm enough here in Central Texas for the ice cream man to come around.

I heard the jingle songs the other day but missed him. Today, as Eddie Murphy said, I heard that shit 10 blocks away. I took off running through the house and out the front door top speed after the ice cream man. Why? Because I’m a big kid and love the ice cream man. 🙂

Kiddos each got something, I got something, and even Wife picked out something for herself.

Ah. Simple joys in life like having over-priced cartoony frozen dairy treats. 🙂

What’s a Men’s Club?

/ hsoi / 9 Comments

Driving through town, Daughter in the front passenger seat. She’s looking at whatever’s on the side of the road as we drive. We pass a building….

Daughter: “Men’s Club?”

Me: (thinking to myself… aw crap, how am I going to explain strip joints….)

Daughter: “What do they do there? Shave?”

I laughed. I diverted her attention to something else. No, I’m not quite ready to explain that to her. 🙂

Reason #9682929 to not shop at Wal-Mart

/ hsoi / 6 Comments

Four Wal-Mart employees have been fired after management said they violated company policy by disarming an alleged shoplifter who had pulled a gun inside the store.

Full story.

So we have four “security” employees. They are doing their job when they observe someone shoplifting a netbook computer by detaining him. Then the criminal — who turns out to be a convicted felon — pulls a gun.

What is the Wal-Mart policy?

…the company’s “Investigation and Detention of Shoplifters Policy.” The policy instructs employees to retreat if an individual brandishes a weapon.

“If during an approach or investigation, it becomes apparent that the suspect has a weapon or brandishes or threatens use of a weapon; all associates must disengage from the situation, withdraw to a safe position, and contact law enforcement,” reads a copy of the policy available online. “If at any point the suspect or any other involved person becomes violent, disengage from the confrontation, withdraw to a safe position and contact law enforcement.”

Ah I see. Be a coward. Be a victim. Retreat and be killed like a fish in a barrel. Because law enforcement is going to arrive within seconds, right? they will come to save the day (have we learned nothing about responding to active shooter situations?) Then when the scumbag decides to go shooting up other customers, just let more people die. Oh wait that’s right, Wal-Mart doesn’t care about anything other than potential lawsuits. Fan-fucking-tastic policy there, Wal-Mart.

But then you have to love the following part of the policy:

The next paragraph instructs employees to “put people first,” stating that protecting the physical well-being of “suspects, customers and Wal-Mart associates is your first priority.”

Well-being of the suspect? Sorry. If someone pulls a gun on me, the last thing I care about is their well-being.

If employees are to “put people first” and protect the well-being of their customers, then I’d say these 4 (former) employees did exactly that. They went above and beyond to protect not just themselves, but all of the customers in that Layton, Utah Wal-Mart. I’m not saying Wal-Mart policy should force employees into harms way, but these 4 people prevented what could have been a far greater tragedy, and the thanks they get is a trip to the unemployment line.

So tell me, Wal-Mart corporate management? Would you rather have to be cleaning up blood? Would you rather have a store closure while the police clean up after a mass murder at your store? Is that good for business? Do you want the lawsuits from all the families of the slain customers?

A statement from the management said:

 

In a previously released statement obtained by The Deseret News, managers defended their actions, saying the four put their safety “and potentially the safety of our customers and other associates in jeopardy.”

 

As if some loony with a gun was so much safer.

I want to end with some sort of snarky comment, but I can’t think of one… I’m just too disgusted.