I haven't seen the video, but I've seen enough of them that match your description, so I already know what you're talking about.
Ya, it's a very poorly used tool. Police are suppose to start with verbal commands, and only escalate on an as-needed basis. If you've escalated the force, but the reason is no longer present, they are suppose to stand down to the minimum force required. A person writhing on the ground after being hit with a taser isn't a threat any longer. Subsequent applications shouldn't be necessary.
If absolutely necessary, use the taser. Then handcuff him. Not taser because they may be something resembling a threat, and continue until they stop moving.
I believe tasers should be classified as "deadly force". They may or may not be deadly on the first shot, but they will be on subsequent shots. How many can a person take? Well obviously the person in question couldn't take 4 shots.
I don't believe they should be taken out of use, but the use should be properly controlled, which isn't happening right now.
I was going to bring that up. I frequently see out of order messages on quite a few providers, in various locations (major cities around the US and Canada). I had a server monitoring the rest of my servers. It would send timestamped messages when there was a problem status. In the event of a big problem, it would send a whole flurry of them. When your pager goes nuts, you know it's something major that needs your undivided attention immediately. Most would arrive on time. Sometimes messages would show up out of order, or hours late. It's scary when you think the whole issue has been resolved, and then you get another "down" page an hour or so later. That's why we timestamped them, so we'd know if it was just late showing up.
By the accounts on the link, he was belligerent, and aggressive towards law enforcement. Still, it's no excuse for what happened, but it is a reason that he would need to be restrained.
I didn't see in there what the reason was for detaining him, other than they wanted to.
I've heard of people being arrested in the US for possession of burglary tools. Well, tools for the commission of a crime. That can simply be a hammer, screwdriver, and pry bar. The hammer and screwdriver could simply have been in a toolbox, and the "pry bar" can frequently be found as standard equipment in the vehicle with the jack, if it had hubcaps.
These two counts caught my eye:
Intimidation of a justice system participant by threat. Intimidation of a justice system participant by watch and beset.
It sounds like this wasn't only involved with his other plans, but I'd guess "justice systems participant" could be law enforcement. I'm not that familiar with Canadian law, so it's just a guess. If he made direct threats of some sort, then that changes the whole ballgame.
These two could be easily explained:
Possession of explosives for an unlawful purpose. Possession of dangerous weapons.
That can of gasoline you have in the garage for your lawnmower could be an explosive. It "could" be used for unlawful purposes, and if it were to be used for an unlawful purpose, could be a dangerous weapon. Likewise, a propane tank for your grill could be an explosive, if handled incorrectly. It's an easy claim to make, but would be laughed out of court. Usually the bomb squad wouldn't be called out for a gas can or propane tank, so that leads me to believe there was more to those items. It could simply be misidentification of unusual hardware.
A while back I had made a electrolysis cell, to provide hydrogen gas to supplement the gasoline in a car. My prototype was very unusual, with lots of custom components. It had carbon rods in a grid, and wires attached to provide DC power. I showed it to a few people who didn't know what it was, and they came up with all kinds of wild, and dangerous, assumptions of what it could be. The best guess was a prototype nuclear reactor.:) When you have a grid of 100 equally spaced carbon rods in a lexan case, that can make your imagination run. At very least, it would look like something you'd see in a scifi movie.
BTW, it didn't work as well as it should, even over several generations of modifications. The power consumption to make a significant enough volume of hydrogen simply made it not feasible. I'd need something like 20A at 120VAC, rectified to 120VDC, and I hadn't even gotten to the live filtering (to remove particulate carbon), explosion protection (on low water level or flashback from the engine), and automatic refilling capabilities.
I'd suspect there was more to it than these simple examples, but that puts the LEO's on dangerous ground, where they will have the case dropped, and could be severely reprimanded (drop in rank, period of suspension without pay, etc).
We don't have all the facts, so this is all just speculation. I'd be interested to see where it goes.
Is it better? It costs us in the food resources that are being wasted over the lifetime of the morbidly obese, medical costs, and dedication of medical professionals to help with patients who aren't willing to help themselves. Consider the other additional problems, where ambulances have to be made larger to accommodate the oversized patients, larger tools (everything from stretchers to MRI machines), and even when they pass, oversized accommodations must be made at the cemetery.
I went to the doctor recently, and joked that I am fat (I'm 155 lbs at 5'8"). He laughed, but pointed out that they had a new scale. The old one only went to 400 pounds. My doctor personally sent a person to a large animal hospital, because they couldn't find an MRI machine that could take anyone that size. Even if you look at the high end of a height/weight chart, someone who's 6'8", the high normal weight should be 216. We're not talking about extremely muscular athletes, we're talking about people who can't see their own shoes to tie them, because too many fat folds are in the way.
Even someone very muscular, like Arnold Schwarzenegger when he was winning body building trophies was only 250lbs at 6'2". There's no excuse for anyone to be 350+ pounds.
We're going to kill ourselves, and that's not just the morbidly obese. They are putting a huge demand on the food supply, which hurts everyone who wants to eat. When you hear about the morbidly obese and their diet, they eat enough in a day to feed a normal healthy person for a week (or more).
I second that opinion. That kid looks like he could inhale a couple supersized bigmac combos in a few seconds.
People need to learn not to overfeed themselves and their kids. It's not the toys fault, it's the DUMB PARENTS. They're raising an entire generation of people who will be lucky to live to 30.
There are a lot of things I'd worry about. The biggest, if he did make it work (the article didn't say it worked, just that he was trying, which makes it non-news), would be the risk of fire. Ok, so you built a nuclear reactor in your apartment. Did you use sufficient gauge wiring when hooking up everything in your apartment, or are there small gauge extension cords run all over the place?:)
There are plenty of other things to worry about, but they'd be completely project unrelated. Like, waking up in the middle of the night feeling your girlfriend tickling your leg, and then finding out it's a roach.:)
You want to aim for center mass. That's what we're always taught.
You also MUST know what's behind your target.
If the assailant is between him and his girlfriend, a center mass shot would likely put the bullet through the assailant and into the girlfriend. Moving to either side and aiming at his head, would have likely moved her head out of the line of fire, and made for a safe shot. She may not be happy about the blood splatter, or the fact that she's deaf in on ear now, but hey, they're both alive.
But, as I've also been taught, you must already have decided that the person you're aiming at is going to die, before you pull the weapon. If you hesitate for anything, you may find yourself dead instead. If they are armed and you didn't know it, they may shoot. If you aren't actually read to fire, he may jump you and take your weapon, and then shoot you. Being so close that you can put the weapon to his head means that you're too close. You're suppose to keep a buffer between you and an assailant. I believe it was more than 15 feet, which as you'll find someone can run and take you down, before you have a chance to pull a weapon, aim and fire. Don't be a statistic, don't give an attacker the opportunity to kill you with your own weapon.
As with any weapon, it's all about the proper use and control of it.
Any weapon can be taken from you and used against you. If it's pepper spray, stun gun, knife, gun, car, urban assault vehicle, or tank, if you don't control and use it properly and effectively, it can (and likely will) be used against you.
In your example, I'd damed well want a weapon, if I lived in an active gang crime area.
In rural areas, you'd be surprised what you need them for. I grew up in the Southeast US. We were miles from the nearest water, but one day an alligator showed up, and started attacking our livestock.
Your choices are,
1) ignore it, and hope it'll go away. Who cares if it kills some of your livestock and/or pets.
2) call animal control, and wait an hour or two for them to arrive, if they do.
3) deal with the situation yourself.
Sometimes, just because you're miles away from any sort of civilization, doesn't mean you're safe. Sometimes that makes you a target that can't get help quickly.
Everyone out there had firearms, usually quite a few of them. Not only that, but they were practiced in their use. I know in an urban setting, it isn't exactly practical, but in a rural setting, it's not completely unusual to be able to just go behind the house, and target shoot at old soda cans.
An indoor shooting range will teach you to ignore the sounds of other weapons firing, but outdoors, you learn little things like windage.
I'm sorry that happened. I'm glad you were able to defend yourself (and your girlfriend).
I did some hunting online about MAMAA (god, who thought of that name?). Lots of bitching about crime and even non-crime.
I'm an advocate of self defense. My father started training me with them when I was about 8 years old. I've only had a few situations where I needed one handy (it may escalate), and have yet needed to use one.
If the day comes where I need one, I'd rather have one, than be a victim.
As I've known it, it's been safer to be in areas where you know everyone is armed.
Places were people aren't legally armed, then only the criminal element has weapons (and the advantage). I know folks like MAMAA would counter that with "but the police are armed, and they're there to protect you." The police aren't everywhere all the time, and even a 5 minute response may be 4 minutes too late.
Craftsman has limits on their lifetime warranty policy. I worked at Sears for a while and had to deal with some of those returns.
If the tool isn't being made any more, it may be replaced with a newer version.
If the tool was used in a manner not consistant with it's proper use, it will not be replaced. If there are hammer marks in the handle of a screwdriver, or dents in the head of a ratchet, that shows misuse.
If the tool was abused (i.e., rusted), it will not be replaced.
And most obviously, if a tool was lost, it won't be replaced.:)
A lot of the replacement policy is up to the person at the register. If they don't want to accept it, they won't. I accepted pretty much everything.
Tools will continue to be sold, because they will be lost or stolen.
Well, that was in retaliation for the United States attempting to annex York (Toronto), and burning the Canadian Parliament buildings.
I did a little hunting to refresh my memory, and all I could find on it was that British troops were involved, under the command of Major General Robert Ross and Rear Admiral George Cockburn. I couldn't find any indication of what units were involved, or where they may have come from. Generally, I'd say it would be safe to say it was the British, not the Canadians, although it was retaliation for American actions in Canada. That in itself is a bit ambiguous though, as Canada was a British territory at the time, so technically they were all British.:)... and obviously it was a joke about the invasion of Canada and Mexico. I know in speaking with people in both countries, that's a touchy subject, being neighbors with a nuclear superpower who doesn't always play nicely with others. To them, I apologize.
They're much better, but still not forever. I do appreciate the advance though. A glowing hot wire inside a vacuum sealed glass sphere seems a bit out of place with our advancements in technology.
and tons of ads in classic car magazines for replacement parts for everything from the Model A forward. I have a 1948 Ford myself.
Those would be aftermarket parts. Some may be stock that was purchased when the manufacturer obsoleted it, but at least of the Model A, they're either refurbished or new manufacturing of compatible parts.
Since you brought up the lightbulb analogy, I hear that if you get a 220V light bulb it has a thicker filament on it and will last virtually forever. They even sell "heavy duty" bulbs with thicker filaments for locations subject to vibrations and knocks. They cost a bit more, but darn near last forever. But for some reason, the people choose to buy bulbs that are a bit cheaper and dont last as long.
They don't sell 220V bulbs in my part of the world (the good ol' USA), or at least I've never seen them in stores. I may have to buy some online and give it a shot. It makes perfect sense. I just wonder if they're dimmer at the lower voltage. I've purchased "heavy duty" bulbs for various applications, but find that they have the same survival rate as regular bulbs. One specific application was in my garage, where the motor shook the ceiling just enough to make the bulb burn out about once a month. The other has been for drop lights (like for working on cars). They're fine and dandy until you accidentally drop it from even an inch or so while it's on.
The price point is very very important to sales. If you have a $0.50 lightbulb and a $2.00 lightbulb beside each other on the shelf, people will buy the $0.50 lightbulb, even if the $2.00 bulb advertises it lasts 5 times longer.
We're in an instant gratification society, and with that is instant savings. If a person spends $0.50 today, and has to repeat the purchase on a regular basis, they'd rather do that, than spend the extra money and save over time. I frequently don't understand people, and how they can dispute simple math. Maybe most people are just dumb as rocks.
Sometimes they do build better mousetraps - but through poor marketing, high prices, or consumer apathy, the world doesn't change.
You're right on all counts. Well, there's one more on your list. If you start a company and build the better mousetrap, but I have an established company selling the old clunky mousetrap, it's a simple matter of lower my cost to below yours to ensure your mousetrap never succeeds. Sometimes companies operate segments at a loss just to defeat their competition. We saw this a lot with the gaming consoles a few years ago, and the constant game of lowering prices to make theirs more appealing, even if the price difference was only $1. People will spend $198 instead of $199, because it's cheaper, regardless of quality or features. {sigh}
They don't even need real dirt on a politician. If the word gets out that a politician was sleeping with an intern, even with a blurry photoshoped picture, it can be enough to ruin a career.
Consider the U.S. Representative Gary Condit (R - California) and Chandra Levy. She went missing in 2001, and her remains were found in 2002. Mainly because of the implication that he may have been involved, fed by the media, not investigators, he lost his 2002 re-election bid. He was in congress for 12 years, and was a career politician. He wasn't a suspect. There was no evidence to suggest he was involved. It wasn't until 2009 that a person who significantly matched the evidence was charged.
The man did nothing wrong. Well, other than sleeping with an intern, which is usually ignored unless someone wants to hurt a candidates position (note: promiscuity in politicians has been well known for pretty much the history of politics. I won't say *every* president has had a mistress, but it's well known that many have. Even good ol' George Washington, founding father, 1st president, can't lie about the cherry tree, had Sally Fairfax. It's hard to find documentation of affairs between politicians and their mistresses/concubines/escorts, since they are suppose to be discrete affairs.
It's pretty much assumed that many of our leaders smoked pot, or at least up until the 1900's. States began outlawing it in 1906, and by 1932 it was illegal nationally. 130 years where growing, smoking, and trading had been perfectly legal were done away with. That can be partly (not entirely) thanks to DuPont patenting the process to use wood pulp to make paper in 1932.
So lets look at the worse evils of the world. Extramarital sex, it's been there since the beginning of the US. Drugs, it's been there since the beginning of the US. Rock and roll, well, that's newer, so we won't discuss it.
Bribes and extortion have been around forever. "Lobbyist" by name have been around for an awful long time, generally attributed to the Grant administration (special interest representatives who met with Grant in the lobby of the hotel he stayed in), but was seen in print before that. A good lobbyist may try to win their site through a well spoken argument for their side, or a container (envelope or bag) with sufficient funds to sway the politicians opinion.
It's always possible to get your way, through money, extortion, threats, or violence. Oh, and sometimes voting works too.
The only way to get a honest politician would be to make sure they have everything they could ever want (remove the bribe potential), have no way that extortion could work (absolute control of the media and/or not care what lies come up), and absolute security. Absolute security doesn't extend to just friends and family. If someone threatened to say execute 10,000 people, it would sway a persons opinion to ensure their safety.
Finding enough strong leaders would be a damned near impossible task, especially finding strong leaders who won't be corrupted by the power they have. That's one of the inherent evils of power.
Cars have a given lifespan. It's not totally precise, but it's good enough. Many parts are designed to wear. It's better for the manufacturer if the car lasts about 100k to 150k miles. You liked the car til it got old and started breaking down, therefore you buy another car from them. Manufacturers also maintain a lifespan where they will continue to produce replacement parts. From what I found online, that's 7 to 10 years (depending on the source of info). After that, they have no responsibility for making the part, but they will if there's still a good revenue stream.
The same applies to computers. Try calling Dell and asking for a motherboard for your 1990 desktop computer. Or large appliances, or... or... or... The list could go on forever. Manufacturers prefer to tell you that the parts are no longer made, so you should buy a new one. It's not advantageous to any manufacturer to make something that lasts forever. If you were to make a light bulb that lasted forever, you'd sell a lot of them at first, and then their sales would drop because no one would ever need replacements. Planned Obsolescence is an evil thing, but a good practice for a continued revenue stream.
These folks took it a step too far, and got caught doing it. I've heard of others who have done the same thing, and enjoyed the extra income, but obviously it's illegal, immoral, and just plain wrong.
I tried out Google Voice for a while. I had given all my friends the number, but they still had my direct numbers. I received an awful lot of comments that calls to Google Voice would usually go to voicemail, or like you said, there would be an unreasonable lag in the conversation.
I compared my cell phone call log to the Google Voice log. I missed an awful lot of calls, where my cell never rang. I even test called myself from a few different phones, and the majority of the time experienced the same thing. Now all I get is voice spam to it, and they never make it through to my cell. I don't know who the number was issued to before, but I feel sorry for them. They must have been on every marketing list there is.
By the rest of the world, they mean the US territories which we have not yet occupied.
I am confused about the Alberta reference though. We took over Canada and Mexico years ago. We just don't like the Mexican territory much, so we don't let them come up to visit. Canadians though, they look and sound (mostly) like regular white folks, so they're more than welcome to come over.
I'd be more than happy to listen to what you have to say via email. My address is on my profile.
I attempted to go the DoD route, with a major contractor. They had open enrollment where they were sponsoring the TS/SCI background investigation. I didn't make it through. They didn't tell me why, but from what the local investigator told some of my references, he failed to find information from my sources. For two work references, he couldn't find their business, even though I gave him the street address, directions, the CEO's cell number, and the main office phone number. The CEO's were aware that they would be contacted. I believe in giving fair warning when a government agent will be showing up asking questions.:) I didn't coach them, it was just "A government investigator will be showing up to ask you a lot of questions about me. There's nothing wrong, it's for a job. Just tell them the truth." I did hear excuses from the investigator like "My GPS is old, and doesn't have any of these new streets on it." and "That's 15 miles from here, that's a long drive." I'm sorry it's your job to do these investigations. A few of my references followed up with me, saying "They never called or showed up." {sigh}
That would have been a sweet gig. I was already warned that it would likely involve lots of international travel, possibly to areas of conflict. All expenses plus a bonus were to be paid while out of country. Lock me up in a datacenter for 6 months in Iraq, I won't mind as long as the air conditioning works.:)
The ones I've accepted, it was only because I really needed the money. Like, I didn't have the luxury to gamble that they'd change their minds and accept the quoted price.
I've refused quite a few since then. I'm tired of providing skilled work for pennies, especially when they have their own office politics that I'm drawn into. I'm not interested in office politics. I don't really care if some guy says it should be done differently (and incorrectly). They want it done, they hire me, I do it.
And yes, I smile and am very polite during such negotiations. "I'm terribly sorry, I can't do the requested tasks at the price you're offering." It's far from "I quoted $1,000, you offered me $50, fuck you.":)
I put on an excellent game face for meetings and negotiations. I save my real feelings for friends and my rantings on here.:)
I'm not trying to justify anything. I have an amazing dislike of the way the political structure of the United States works.
Political suicide is something any politician wants to avoid. Come election time, 90% of the population will have forgotten about him renewing the patriot act. Actually 90% of the population doesn't even realize (or care) it happened.
I am aware that anyone can be classified as a "terrorist", and treated accordingly. The US has always been able to revoke citizenship of an individual, which will result in change of their legal protection. That was done long before Obama was POTUS. Years ago, I sat down with people and went over the bill of rights line item by line item. Your rights have been extremely limited for many years. As you mentioned, the Japanese internment camps are an excellent (and unfortunate) example of this. In our history, it wasn't the first, and I'm sure won't be the last instance of such things happening.
The United States of America used to be land of the free, where people had an opportunity to thrive. It didn't matter what your old nationality was or what language you spoke. People came here to start fresh in a beautiful new place. That died a long time ago.
To regain the liberties that our founding fathers gave us will take a significant change, and that change won't be by electing even the best person into a single office. If, and only if, we were able to elect responsible officials into every office, then we would have a chance at resuming society as it was intended. Until then, pay your taxes, keep your head down, and pray your neighbor doesn't report you as a suspected anything.
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I haven't seen the video, but I've seen enough of them that match your description, so I already know what you're talking about.
Ya, it's a very poorly used tool. Police are suppose to start with verbal commands, and only escalate on an as-needed basis. If you've escalated the force, but the reason is no longer present, they are suppose to stand down to the minimum force required. A person writhing on the ground after being hit with a taser isn't a threat any longer. Subsequent applications shouldn't be necessary.
If absolutely necessary, use the taser. Then handcuff him. Not taser because they may be something resembling a threat, and continue until they stop moving.
I believe tasers should be classified as "deadly force". They may or may not be deadly on the first shot, but they will be on subsequent shots. How many can a person take? Well obviously the person in question couldn't take 4 shots.
I don't believe they should be taken out of use, but the use should be properly controlled, which isn't happening right now.
I was going to bring that up. I frequently see out of order messages on quite a few providers, in various locations (major cities around the US and Canada). I had a server monitoring the rest of my servers. It would send timestamped messages when there was a problem status. In the event of a big problem, it would send a whole flurry of them. When your pager goes nuts, you know it's something major that needs your undivided attention immediately. Most would arrive on time. Sometimes messages would show up out of order, or hours late. It's scary when you think the whole issue has been resolved, and then you get another "down" page an hour or so later. That's why we timestamped them, so we'd know if it was just late showing up.
Mmmmm. Soylent Ham. That makes everything taste better. I wish I knew what the secret ingredient is, it's very tasty. :)
But, he didn't have a stapler.
By the accounts on the link, he was belligerent, and aggressive towards law enforcement. Still, it's no excuse for what happened, but it is a reason that he would need to be restrained.
I didn't see in there what the reason was for detaining him, other than they wanted to.
I've heard of people being arrested in the US for possession of burglary tools. Well, tools for the commission of a crime. That can simply be a hammer, screwdriver, and pry bar. The hammer and screwdriver could simply have been in a toolbox, and the "pry bar" can frequently be found as standard equipment in the vehicle with the jack, if it had hubcaps.
These two counts caught my eye:
It sounds like this wasn't only involved with his other plans, but I'd guess "justice systems participant" could be law enforcement. I'm not that familiar with Canadian law, so it's just a guess. If he made direct threats of some sort, then that changes the whole ballgame.
These two could be easily explained:
That can of gasoline you have in the garage for your lawnmower could be an explosive. It "could" be used for unlawful purposes, and if it were to be used for an unlawful purpose, could be a dangerous weapon. Likewise, a propane tank for your grill could be an explosive, if handled incorrectly. It's an easy claim to make, but would be laughed out of court. Usually the bomb squad wouldn't be called out for a gas can or propane tank, so that leads me to believe there was more to those items. It could simply be misidentification of unusual hardware.
A while back I had made a electrolysis cell, to provide hydrogen gas to supplement the gasoline in a car. My prototype was very unusual, with lots of custom components. It had carbon rods in a grid, and wires attached to provide DC power. I showed it to a few people who didn't know what it was, and they came up with all kinds of wild, and dangerous, assumptions of what it could be. The best guess was a prototype nuclear reactor. :) When you have a grid of 100 equally spaced carbon rods in a lexan case, that can make your imagination run. At very least, it would look like something you'd see in a scifi movie.
BTW, it didn't work as well as it should, even over several generations of modifications. The power consumption to make a significant enough volume of hydrogen simply made it not feasible. I'd need something like 20A at 120VAC, rectified to 120VDC, and I hadn't even gotten to the live filtering (to remove particulate carbon), explosion protection (on low water level or flashback from the engine), and automatic refilling capabilities.
I'd suspect there was more to it than these simple examples, but that puts the LEO's on dangerous ground, where they will have the case dropped, and could be severely reprimanded (drop in rank, period of suspension without pay, etc).
We don't have all the facts, so this is all just speculation. I'd be interested to see where it goes.
Is it better? It costs us in the food resources that are being wasted over the lifetime of the morbidly obese, medical costs, and dedication of medical professionals to help with patients who aren't willing to help themselves. Consider the other additional problems, where ambulances have to be made larger to accommodate the oversized patients, larger tools (everything from stretchers to MRI machines), and even when they pass, oversized accommodations must be made at the cemetery.
I went to the doctor recently, and joked that I am fat (I'm 155 lbs at 5'8"). He laughed, but pointed out that they had a new scale. The old one only went to 400 pounds. My doctor personally sent a person to a large animal hospital, because they couldn't find an MRI machine that could take anyone that size. Even if you look at the high end of a height/weight chart, someone who's 6'8", the high normal weight should be 216. We're not talking about extremely muscular athletes, we're talking about people who can't see their own shoes to tie them, because too many fat folds are in the way.
Even someone very muscular, like Arnold Schwarzenegger when he was winning body building trophies was only 250lbs at 6'2". There's no excuse for anyone to be 350+ pounds.
We're going to kill ourselves, and that's not just the morbidly obese. They are putting a huge demand on the food supply, which hurts everyone who wants to eat. When you hear about the morbidly obese and their diet, they eat enough in a day to feed a normal healthy person for a week (or more).
I second that opinion. That kid looks like he could inhale a couple supersized bigmac combos in a few seconds.
People need to learn not to overfeed themselves and their kids. It's not the toys fault, it's the DUMB PARENTS. They're raising an entire generation of people who will be lucky to live to 30.
There are a lot of things I'd worry about. The biggest, if he did make it work (the article didn't say it worked, just that he was trying, which makes it non-news), would be the risk of fire. Ok, so you built a nuclear reactor in your apartment. Did you use sufficient gauge wiring when hooking up everything in your apartment, or are there small gauge extension cords run all over the place? :)
There are plenty of other things to worry about, but they'd be completely project unrelated. Like, waking up in the middle of the night feeling your girlfriend tickling your leg, and then finding out it's a roach. :)
Actually, some of us skipped it. Maybe I'll catch it when it comes on TV in 10 years. It was 2 hours spent very well elsewhere. :)
You're absolutely right, and wrong.
You want to aim for center mass. That's what we're always taught.
You also MUST know what's behind your target.
If the assailant is between him and his girlfriend, a center mass shot would likely put the bullet through the assailant and into the girlfriend. Moving to either side and aiming at his head, would have likely moved her head out of the line of fire, and made for a safe shot. She may not be happy about the blood splatter, or the fact that she's deaf in on ear now, but hey, they're both alive.
But, as I've also been taught, you must already have decided that the person you're aiming at is going to die, before you pull the weapon. If you hesitate for anything, you may find yourself dead instead. If they are armed and you didn't know it, they may shoot. If you aren't actually read to fire, he may jump you and take your weapon, and then shoot you. Being so close that you can put the weapon to his head means that you're too close. You're suppose to keep a buffer between you and an assailant. I believe it was more than 15 feet, which as you'll find someone can run and take you down, before you have a chance to pull a weapon, aim and fire. Don't be a statistic, don't give an attacker the opportunity to kill you with your own weapon.
As with any weapon, it's all about the proper use and control of it.
Any weapon can be taken from you and used against you. If it's pepper spray, stun gun, knife, gun, car, urban assault vehicle, or tank, if you don't control and use it properly and effectively, it can (and likely will) be used against you.
In your example, I'd damed well want a weapon, if I lived in an active gang crime area.
In rural areas, you'd be surprised what you need them for. I grew up in the Southeast US. We were miles from the nearest water, but one day an alligator showed up, and started attacking our livestock.
Your choices are,
1) ignore it, and hope it'll go away. Who cares if it kills some of your livestock and/or pets.
2) call animal control, and wait an hour or two for them to arrive, if they do.
3) deal with the situation yourself.
Sometimes, just because you're miles away from any sort of civilization, doesn't mean you're safe. Sometimes that makes you a target that can't get help quickly.
Everyone out there had firearms, usually quite a few of them. Not only that, but they were practiced in their use. I know in an urban setting, it isn't exactly practical, but in a rural setting, it's not completely unusual to be able to just go behind the house, and target shoot at old soda cans.
An indoor shooting range will teach you to ignore the sounds of other weapons firing, but outdoors, you learn little things like windage.
There's only one answer to this. Arm the children.
I'm sorry that happened. I'm glad you were able to defend yourself (and your girlfriend).
I did some hunting online about MAMAA (god, who thought of that name?). Lots of bitching about crime and even non-crime.
I'm an advocate of self defense. My father started training me with them when I was about 8 years old. I've only had a few situations where I needed one handy (it may escalate), and have yet needed to use one.
If the day comes where I need one, I'd rather have one, than be a victim.
As I've known it, it's been safer to be in areas where you know everyone is armed.
Places were people aren't legally armed, then only the criminal element has weapons (and the advantage). I know folks like MAMAA would counter that with "but the police are armed, and they're there to protect you." The police aren't everywhere all the time, and even a 5 minute response may be 4 minutes too late.
Ya, the USAF gets to tag everything with "Classified". :)
Somehow I read that in there on the first read also. :)
Craftsman has limits on their lifetime warranty policy. I worked at Sears for a while and had to deal with some of those returns.
If the tool isn't being made any more, it may be replaced with a newer version.
If the tool was used in a manner not consistant with it's proper use, it will not be replaced. If there are hammer marks in the handle of a screwdriver, or dents in the head of a ratchet, that shows misuse.
If the tool was abused (i.e., rusted), it will not be replaced.
And most obviously, if a tool was lost, it won't be replaced. :)
A lot of the replacement policy is up to the person at the register. If they don't want to accept it, they won't. I accepted pretty much everything.
Tools will continue to be sold, because they will be lost or stolen.
Well, that was in retaliation for the United States attempting to annex York (Toronto), and burning the Canadian Parliament buildings.
I did a little hunting to refresh my memory, and all I could find on it was that British troops were involved, under the command of Major General Robert Ross and Rear Admiral George Cockburn. I couldn't find any indication of what units were involved, or where they may have come from. Generally, I'd say it would be safe to say it was the British, not the Canadians, although it was retaliation for American actions in Canada. That in itself is a bit ambiguous though, as Canada was a British territory at the time, so technically they were all British. :) ... and obviously it was a joke about the invasion of Canada and Mexico. I know in speaking with people in both countries, that's a touchy subject, being neighbors with a nuclear superpower who doesn't always play nicely with others. To them, I apologize.
They're much better, but still not forever. I do appreciate the advance though. A glowing hot wire inside a vacuum sealed glass sphere seems a bit out of place with our advancements in technology.
Those would be aftermarket parts. Some may be stock that was purchased when the manufacturer obsoleted it, but at least of the Model A, they're either refurbished or new manufacturing of compatible parts.
They don't even need real dirt on a politician. If the word gets out that a politician was sleeping with an intern, even with a blurry photoshoped picture, it can be enough to ruin a career.
Consider the U.S. Representative Gary Condit (R - California) and Chandra Levy. She went missing in 2001, and her remains were found in 2002. Mainly because of the implication that he may have been involved, fed by the media, not investigators, he lost his 2002 re-election bid. He was in congress for 12 years, and was a career politician. He wasn't a suspect. There was no evidence to suggest he was involved. It wasn't until 2009 that a person who significantly matched the evidence was charged.
The man did nothing wrong. Well, other than sleeping with an intern, which is usually ignored unless someone wants to hurt a candidates position (note: promiscuity in politicians has been well known for pretty much the history of politics. I won't say *every* president has had a mistress, but it's well known that many have. Even good ol' George Washington, founding father, 1st president, can't lie about the cherry tree, had Sally Fairfax. It's hard to find documentation of affairs between politicians and their mistresses/concubines/escorts, since they are suppose to be discrete affairs.
It's pretty much assumed that many of our leaders smoked pot, or at least up until the 1900's. States began outlawing it in 1906, and by 1932 it was illegal nationally. 130 years where growing, smoking, and trading had been perfectly legal were done away with. That can be partly (not entirely) thanks to DuPont patenting the process to use wood pulp to make paper in 1932.
So lets look at the worse evils of the world. Extramarital sex, it's been there since the beginning of the US. Drugs, it's been there since the beginning of the US. Rock and roll, well, that's newer, so we won't discuss it.
Bribes and extortion have been around forever. "Lobbyist" by name have been around for an awful long time, generally attributed to the Grant administration (special interest representatives who met with Grant in the lobby of the hotel he stayed in), but was seen in print before that. A good lobbyist may try to win their site through a well spoken argument for their side, or a container (envelope or bag) with sufficient funds to sway the politicians opinion.
It's always possible to get your way, through money, extortion, threats, or violence. Oh, and sometimes voting works too.
The only way to get a honest politician would be to make sure they have everything they could ever want (remove the bribe potential), have no way that extortion could work (absolute control of the media and/or not care what lies come up), and absolute security. Absolute security doesn't extend to just friends and family. If someone threatened to say execute 10,000 people, it would sway a persons opinion to ensure their safety.
Finding enough strong leaders would be a damned near impossible task, especially finding strong leaders who won't be corrupted by the power they have. That's one of the inherent evils of power.
Well.....
Since you brought the car analogy in... :)
Cars have a given lifespan. It's not totally precise, but it's good enough. Many parts are designed to wear. It's better for the manufacturer if the car lasts about 100k to 150k miles. You liked the car til it got old and started breaking down, therefore you buy another car from them. Manufacturers also maintain a lifespan where they will continue to produce replacement parts. From what I found online, that's 7 to 10 years (depending on the source of info). After that, they have no responsibility for making the part, but they will if there's still a good revenue stream.
The same applies to computers. Try calling Dell and asking for a motherboard for your 1990 desktop computer. Or large appliances, or ... or ... or ... The list could go on forever. Manufacturers prefer to tell you that the parts are no longer made, so you should buy a new one. It's not advantageous to any manufacturer to make something that lasts forever. If you were to make a light bulb that lasted forever, you'd sell a lot of them at first, and then their sales would drop because no one would ever need replacements. Planned Obsolescence is an evil thing, but a good practice for a continued revenue stream.
These folks took it a step too far, and got caught doing it. I've heard of others who have done the same thing, and enjoyed the extra income, but obviously it's illegal, immoral, and just plain wrong.
I tried out Google Voice for a while. I had given all my friends the number, but they still had my direct numbers. I received an awful lot of comments that calls to Google Voice would usually go to voicemail, or like you said, there would be an unreasonable lag in the conversation.
I compared my cell phone call log to the Google Voice log. I missed an awful lot of calls, where my cell never rang. I even test called myself from a few different phones, and the majority of the time experienced the same thing. Now all I get is voice spam to it, and they never make it through to my cell. I don't know who the number was issued to before, but I feel sorry for them. They must have been on every marketing list there is.
By the rest of the world, they mean the US territories which we have not yet occupied.
I am confused about the Alberta reference though. We took over Canada and Mexico years ago. We just don't like the Mexican territory much, so we don't let them come up to visit. Canadians though, they look and sound (mostly) like regular white folks, so they're more than welcome to come over.
[ducking]
I'd be more than happy to listen to what you have to say via email. My address is on my profile.
I attempted to go the DoD route, with a major contractor. They had open enrollment where they were sponsoring the TS/SCI background investigation. I didn't make it through. They didn't tell me why, but from what the local investigator told some of my references, he failed to find information from my sources. For two work references, he couldn't find their business, even though I gave him the street address, directions, the CEO's cell number, and the main office phone number. The CEO's were aware that they would be contacted. I believe in giving fair warning when a government agent will be showing up asking questions. :) I didn't coach them, it was just "A government investigator will be showing up to ask you a lot of questions about me. There's nothing wrong, it's for a job. Just tell them the truth." I did hear excuses from the investigator like "My GPS is old, and doesn't have any of these new streets on it." and "That's 15 miles from here, that's a long drive." I'm sorry it's your job to do these investigations. A few of my references followed up with me, saying "They never called or showed up." {sigh}
That would have been a sweet gig. I was already warned that it would likely involve lots of international travel, possibly to areas of conflict. All expenses plus a bonus were to be paid while out of country. Lock me up in a datacenter for 6 months in Iraq, I won't mind as long as the air conditioning works. :)
The ones I've accepted, it was only because I really needed the money. Like, I didn't have the luxury to gamble that they'd change their minds and accept the quoted price.
I've refused quite a few since then. I'm tired of providing skilled work for pennies, especially when they have their own office politics that I'm drawn into. I'm not interested in office politics. I don't really care if some guy says it should be done differently (and incorrectly). They want it done, they hire me, I do it.
And yes, I smile and am very polite during such negotiations. "I'm terribly sorry, I can't do the requested tasks at the price you're offering." It's far from "I quoted $1,000, you offered me $50, fuck you." :)
I put on an excellent game face for meetings and negotiations. I save my real feelings for friends and my rantings on here. :)
I'm not trying to justify anything. I have an amazing dislike of the way the political structure of the United States works.
Political suicide is something any politician wants to avoid. Come election time, 90% of the population will have forgotten about him renewing the patriot act. Actually 90% of the population doesn't even realize (or care) it happened.
I am aware that anyone can be classified as a "terrorist", and treated accordingly. The US has always been able to revoke citizenship of an individual, which will result in change of their legal protection. That was done long before Obama was POTUS. Years ago, I sat down with people and went over the bill of rights line item by line item. Your rights have been extremely limited for many years. As you mentioned, the Japanese internment camps are an excellent (and unfortunate) example of this. In our history, it wasn't the first, and I'm sure won't be the last instance of such things happening.
The United States of America used to be land of the free, where people had an opportunity to thrive. It didn't matter what your old nationality was or what language you spoke. People came here to start fresh in a beautiful new place. That died a long time ago.
To regain the liberties that our founding fathers gave us will take a significant change, and that change won't be by electing even the best person into a single office. If, and only if, we were able to elect responsible officials into every office, then we would have a chance at resuming society as it was intended. Until then, pay your taxes, keep your head down, and pray your neighbor doesn't report you as a suspected anything.