Month: August 2011

I don’t know

/ hsoi / 5 Comments

Penn Jillette:

What makes me libertarian is what makes me an atheist — I don’t know. If I don’t know, I don’t believe. I don’t know exactly how we got here, and I don’t think anyone else does, either. We have some of the pieces of the puzzle and we’ll get more, but I’m not going to use faith to fill in the gaps. I’m not going to believe things that TV hosts state without proof. I’ll wait for real evidence and then I’ll believe.

I’d say what makes me an agnostic is that I don’t know… atheist tends to mean you know there are no gods, but there are varying shades in the spectrum, even amongst the theists.

But, that’s not the thrust of Jillette’s point. This is:

It’s amazing to me how many people think that voting to have the government give poor people money is compassion. Helping poor and suffering people is compassion. Voting for our government to use guns to give money to help poor and suffering people is immoral self-righteous bullying laziness.

People need to be fed, medicated, educated, clothed, and sheltered, and if we’re compassionate we’ll help them, but you get no moral credit for forcing other people to do what you think is right. There is great joy in helping people, but no joy in doing it at gunpoint.

People try to argue that government isn’t really force. You believe that? Try not paying your taxes. (This is only a thought experiment — suggesting on CNN.com that someone not pay his or her taxes is probably a federal offense, and I’m a nut, but I’m not crazy.). When they come to get you for not paying your taxes, try not going to court. Guns will be drawn. Government is force — literally, not figuratively.

Sweet morning

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

Puppy barking just before dawn. I let Sasha out and she bolts for the fence. Sure enough, the mother doe and her fawn.

It’s a nice morning. Feed the dog and cats, then take out a raw beef bone for Sasha. She’s excited. We go out back.

I sit with her. She’s laying in the grass, gnawing away. The sun is rising. The morning is peaceful.

Hey look… bats catching a morning meal.

Bzzzzzzzzz…. ah cool! At the feeder just a yard from my head, a hummingbird came to feed.

Sweet peaceful silence of the morning Just me and the critters.

Home security product idea

/ hsoi / 5 Comments

I just had an idea for the world’s most effective home security product.

What is it?

It’s an audio file… like this one.

Yup. That’s all you need. Your home, property, and life of you and your loved ones are now forever safe.

Because — according to some — all you need is the SOUND of a racking shotgun.

*sigh*

2011-08-15 workout

/ hsoi

“Week 2 – 3 reps”

  • 5/3/1 – Bench Press (working max 180#)
    • 2x5x45 (warmup)
    • 1x5x75
    • 1x5x90
    • 1x3x110
    • 1x3x130 (work)
    • 1x3x145
    • 1x7x165
  • Asst. #1 – bench press
    • 5x10x75
  • Asst. #2 – dumbbell rows
    • 5x10x35
  • Metcon – rope jumping
    • 1 tabata set, all single hops

Shot a bunch of skeet yesterday with a couple buddies, so my right shoulder was kinda beat up. I thought it might slow me down today, but after the warmup I didn’t feel it.

As usual, I felt strong on the bench press and could have done more. I’m strongly thinking that while the general recommended weight increase for bench is 5# per cycle, I’m leaning more and more towards a 10# bump on the next cycle.

Even the 75# assistance felt way too light to do much good.

The 35# rows was good, left arm feeling a little weaker than the right. I’ll stick with 35# and get the form tightened up a bit across all sets (form deteriorated on the last reps of the last sets).

Rope jumping hurt! Because I’m getting better at it, there’s less tripping and thus less “micro rests” during the set. Because there’s more jumping and less resting, that adds up to more intensity. My quads, calves, and feet were really feeling it. 🙂

Decent workout, but it just doesn’t feel like the poundages are where they should be. But again, no decisions will be made until the cycle is over.

Only gun folk will giggle at this.

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

On my way to KR Training this morning, I received a text from Karl. I was about 45 minutes away.

Karl: bring ice. thanks

Me: Already got it. Be there in 45

Karl: I will be here in 9mm

I LOL’d. 🙂

Inaugural DPS3

/ hsoi

Today KR Training held the first Defensive Pistol Skills 3 class. It’s a new class aimed at pushing you further, putting you in new and interesting positions, and rounding out skills and situations that are possible in defensive shooting situations.

Overall the class ran smooth. Good group of students. Karl deviated from the set curriculum slightly, but they were good changes that I think will lead towards refinement of the curriculum.

Here’s a few take-homes for the students:

* Keep moving.

When you draw, move. When you reload, move. When you’re dealing with a malfunction, move. Generally speaking, if you’re not shooting, you should be moving. Consider this is a defensive setup, so that means there’s someone(s) attacking you. If there’s incoming gunfire well… it’s more important to not get shot than it is to shoot. One way to help yourself towards not getting shot is to move off the line of incoming fire. Standing still is a good way for the attacker to get a bead on you, and you don’t want that to happen.

* Dry work

Lots of trigger yanking today. Dry work will help. Furthermore, many of the skills taught just cannot be performed at the public ranges in the area. What can you do? Practice them dry. No it’s not 100% the same, but it’s sure better than nothing.

* Consider a backup gun

There were a lot of malfunctions today: failures to feed, double-feeds, things just didn’t go right for a number of guns. Sure, some of them were PEBKAC or simple equipment issues. But regardless of the reason, often fixing the malfunction was way too time consuming. If in a gunfight seconds count, does taking 5-10 seconds to fiddle-fart with a non-functioning gun make sense? What works faster? Drop the gun on the ground and draw your backup.

We have no problem with you doing this in class. Carry a backup. If in the middle of a drill something goes wrong and you draw your backup and keep yourself in the fight, awesome! Going for your backup is a lot faster than struggling to get your gun running again. It’s a fight for your life, so keep fighting.

No, don’t give them what they want

/ hsoi

Fred Kemp and his wife had just finished dinner Thursday night. As they walked out of the restaurant, a man came out of the darkness, demanding money.

At this point in the story, many people would say the proper course of action would be to “just give him what he wants”.

But this robber picked the wrong guy. Turns out 63-year-old Fred Kemp, is a former wrestler.

Failure of the victim selection process.

Thinking of his wife’s safety, the 5-foot-7 Kemp instinctively pushed the gun away. But the robber started to pistol whip Kemp in the head, police said.

Kemp didn’t give him what he wanted, but he gave him what he was asking for….

“He started to hit me, so I reacted from there,” a bruised but smiling Kemp said Friday. “I got him out into the street and held his arm. I foot-sweeped him down and I was trying to get a hold of the gun. He banged me up a little bit but my main concern was the gun.”

Pulling out more wrestling moves, Kemp maneuvered the suspect into a rear naked choke hold, or “sleeper hold,” a popular submission technique in mixed martial arts.
[…]
“He asked me to let him go when I had him down,” Kemp said. “I said, ‘No, I’m not going to do that.'”

See? You don’t give them what they want. Period. 🙂

(full story, h/t Fark)

Car break-in

/ hsoi

(wow WordPress… you sure are sucking lately… wrote a whole post and you lost it… let’s try again).

Last night my neighbor’s car got broken into.

Another neighbor discovered some “trash” in her flower bed this morning. Turns out it was a wallet and some other belongings. Everything remained in the wallet, except the cash (natch). She called Austin Police. When I saw the cruiser pull up across the street I went to ask what was going on and got the skinny.

It would appear this was a premeditated crime. That is, it wasn’t a teenager walking by a car, saw a wallet, checked for an unlocked door and snatched the money. No… they had tools. There were no windows smashed nor visible damage, but his car door no longer locks… so they suspect a slim jim. His door was locked, his wallet was out of sight in the center console. They still broke in and took it. Their other car was also jimmied open, a bag was taken and also found in the flower bed but nothing of value lost.

APD told us a few days ago some other cars were broken into a few blocks away.

I checked my car. Nothing that I could see.

As I’m writing this, my neighbor called… she was driving out of the neighborhood and on the cross street she saw another APD car. She pulled over, asked, and yup… her car was broken into. I don’t know any more details than that.

But the one neighbor, his doors were locked, but stuff was in the car… not visible, but still there. Exactly why these people were targets, I don’t know, but it does say simply that you should keep nothing in your car except car things, like the spare tire and owners manual.

It also says… the world is getting uglier. You need to be prepared for it.