Roll Over, Play Dead

Is there any reason to own a firearm (or preferably lots of firearms)?

Just take a look at what is going on in New Orleans.  Bands of marauders running around with guns, hijacking vehicles and raiding homes.  There is not much doubt in my mind that the same damn thing would probably have happened in Tampa Bay if we had caught the brunt of Hurricane Charley, the one that instead demolished Port Charlotte.

But that’s what police are for, right…to take care of us in an emergency?  What happens when the police can’t even reach you?  Why, just pull out your mace and take care of those pesky robbers.

Gun control is one of the hottest topics in the country, but the stats show that firearms owners, particulary concealed weapons permit holders, have a lower crime rate than non-permit holders.  In fact, a report published in the LA Times revealed that a permit holder in Florida was 840 times less likely to commit a violent firearm crime than a randomly selected non-permit holder.  This is in direct contrast to the claims that Florida would become the "Wild West" because of the recent updates to the castle doctrine.  I’ve noticed that the people with the strongest dissenting opinions of the updated llegislation are actually the ones who have no fucking idea what is and isn’t allowed under the previous law, or even the new law.  Go figure.

UPDATE (from the Survival of New Orleans blog, a weblog that sprung up for a website hosting company named DirectNIC that is based out of New Orleans and has weathered the hurricane.  They are now defending its property against looters and armed gangs):

The Iberville Housing Projects got pissed off because the police started to "shop" after they kicked out looters. Then they started shooting at cops. When the cops left, the looters looted everything. There’s probably not a grocery left in this city.

Over 30 officers have quit over the last 3 days. Out of 160 officers in his district maybe 55 or 60 are working. He hasn’t seen several since Sunday. HQ is closed, evacuated. No phones to contact them.

"HQ, be advised, we’re going 10 7."

"Ok, y’all coming back on???"

"We don’t know."

And this:

New Orleans Police Department Status: The situation for the NOPD is critical. This is firsthand information I have from an NOPD officer we’re giving shelter to. Their command and control infrastructure is shot. They have limited to no communication whatsoever. He didn’t even know the city was under martial law until we told him! His precinct (5th Precinct) is under water! UNDER WATER — every vehicle under water. They had to commander moving trucks like Ryder and UHaul to get around. The coroner’s office is shut down so bodies are being covered in leaves at best or left where they lie at worst.

They don’t even know their own rules of engagement. He says the force is impotent right now. They have no idea what’s going on, no coordination, virtually no comms, etc. the National Guard is gonna air drop a radio system for them with 200 radios? They are getting very little direction.

The 3rd District bugged out to Baton Rouge because they flooded out.

His quote: "It’s a zoo."

More first hand information direct from him shortly. He’s trying to recover.

I am not trying to be an alarmist, but until we get a military presence of signicance in the city, the roving gangs of thugs own the streets.

x

Whoever decided to base the entire US Strategic Petroleum Reserve near the Gulf of Mexico must not have been considering that a hurricane could possibly send the entire country into a panic when 25% of our production completely shuts down.  Turns out that nearly 95% of the crude oil output from the Gulf has been stopped due to Katrina, so the President ordered a few million barrels be loaned from the SPR.  Problem is that the pipelines are clogged due to all the processing facilities shutting down, so we may actually have a gas problem on our hands.  Good thing it’s not winter, or people up north would be freezing to death at the lack of oil to heat their homes.

Gas is going through the roof.  Shocker.  Thanks GW!

According to the Tampa Tribune, Hillsborough county and Tampa rank first in the state for traffic crashes; we’re in the top 5 nationwide for crashes with injuries.  And you wonder why car insurance is so much when you call to renew.  You’ll never see anyone from the Tampa Bay area on a Geico commercial, elated that "I just saved a boatload of money by switching to Geico."  They might as well quit showing that fucking commercial around here.

And because of Tampa’s stupendous performance in the traffic crash department, we’ll now have some new cars riding around town trying to spot aggressive drivers.  The arsenal includes an Expedition, Lincoln LS, Ford Explorer, and a red Ford F150.  No whip antennas, no tell-tale yellow license plates, and no visible lights (until it’s too late).

Looks like I’ll have to stop weaving in and out of traffic, taunting other drivers, and ramming cars who cut in front of me.

Sneaky Tampa police.  Next thing you know they’ll be posing as Coco the Clown who’s looking for some ass.  Oh wait, they already did that. 

I would normally call this incredible, but in light of the things our government has been up to lately, it actually seems quite reasonable:

CNN.com - Airline screening hassles may be cut - Aug 13, 2005

By the way, if they allow bows and arrows on airplanes, I’ll be picking up one of the "world’s most accurate hunting crossbows"…for terrorists, that is.

Why such a big crackdown on cellphone use on airplanes and other high profile areas when the bomb is detonated by a cell phone alarm clock?  Most cell phones these days will sound an alarm even when they are powered down completely.

Damn JBT’s.

CNN.com - NYPD reveals London July 7 bombing details - Aug 3, 2005

Try search Google for the phrase miserable failure. Then do a search on Google bombing to find out what’s going on. Rather amusing, if I do say so myself.

Ever heard of culture jamming? Quite an interesting phenomenon. Speaking of interesting, check out The Yes Men.

WWJDWWMD?

Wow, time flies when you’re having fun. Or when you’re drinking a Natural Light. Anyway, it’s been a whole week since I got something up on this beast so the topics are going to be a bit varied. In a way, this will also be a salute to some of the feedback I’ve been getting about the blog lately. And oddly enough, it’s feedback that I’ve received in person. Now, right there your interweb red flag should go up and you should be asking yourself, “Do these people understand the point of online communication, or are they Metallica fans? I’m going to side with the latter, but that’s just my opinion. So here’s a finger to those who think my topics are “too varied.” This bitch will be as varied as the Various-artist titles you find in the CD aisle at your local Megalo-Mart and you try to figure out what the hell the connection is between Black Eyed Peas “Don’t Phunk with My Heart” and Ben Folds Five “Brick.”

Various Topic Numero Uno
Censorship’s Trial Balloons - What happens when wartime news gets censored? By Liam Callanan
This comes straight out of the book titleed “Shit Our Government Does But You’d Really Rather Not Know About.” Did you know that there were 6 deaths on the US mainlaid during WW II? No? Well, neither did I. And that’s mainly because the government covered it up in the interest of “national security.” Turns out that Japan launched thousands of balloons from their shore that had bombs attached to them. Many floated to the US shore, and when some kids were out with their mother in Oregon, they thought the bomb was a toy and decided to drag it back to the car. You can imagine what happened next. Blam, 5 dead kids and a dead mother. But since the all-knowing gov’t thought we’d panic, they decided to keep it a secret and surpressed the press. All they had to say was that there’d been no property damage from the balloons, which was technically true. No property damage, just 6 dead people. Turns out that some of the balloons haven’t been discovered yet, so if you ever come across a bomb with some Japanese writing on it and a balloon attached, don’t fuck with it. I guess it serves us right, though, with all of the unexploded ordinance and radioactive waste we’ve left around the world on our conquests of any communist-dictatorship in the axis of they-must-be-evil.

Various Topic Letter B
Tallahassee Democrat | 06/06/2005 | FWC officers give warnings over pay issue
I don’t have a whole lot to say about this one, but I think it’s pretty screwed up. For the record, I’ve been the recipient of officer discretion once, but I’ve seen and heard a few things in relation to this that really get my goat. For the must part, they both could be grouped into one story that relates to a speeding checkpoint where I received a ticket. Fine…I speed…I get ticket. Cause and effect, I understand that. But when the officer tells me how they’re ticketing everyone (emphasis from Officer herself) no matter how small the infraction, then they (unsuspectingly) pull over another officer. The speeder asks for a reprieve and is turned down. Not 10 yards away from my vehicle, he pulls out his badge and lifts it just over the door for the ticketing Officer to see and they send him on his merry way. WTF? I love watered down terms like “officer discretion,” which really should read “people in power do whatever the fuck they want so that laws aren’t really laws but ‘guidelines,’ but not really guidelines either, so do as you please.” Except that wouldn’t read so well in a press release or news article. On a related note, read this article, which details how Tampa Police would give Bucs tickets that were confiscated from scalpers to friends and family. Now that’s officer discretion, yes sir.

Various Topic Numero III
Wired News | Man Gets Life Under Fetal Protection Law
Let me sum this one up for you: women tries to kill her unborn baby multiple times and is unsuccessful. She asks her boyfriend to help her out by stomping on her stomach, like any good mother would do to her baby if she didn’t want it. Boyfriend agrees to help, like any good boyfriend should. Boyfriend is successful and baby is aborted.

Recap: 1 dead baby, 1 happy mother, and 1 life sentence for boyfriend. Astute readers may ask themselves if the woman will receive any punishment for her attempted murder of the fetus? Nope, thanks to laws that guarantee her access to an abortion under the right-to-choose mantra. Lady justice, where art thou?

On to more light-hearted topics, because there is no sense in getting riled up over a few dead kids from WWII or a baby who died from stomach stomping.

I learned to wakeboard last weekend on Shawn’s boat. I’m trying to decide whether wakeboarding or skiing is more fun, and right now I’m leaning toward wakeboarding. I’ve been able to catch air over the wake, but not much more than 6-8 inches. I have to say it feels higher than that, though. Alas, I’ll have to practice more, which means hanging out on a lake and at Gator Joe’s with pretty girls and Bud Light. Sing it, Shawn and Justin…”Gator Joe’s, Gator Joe’s!”

Random side note, but has anyone gone shopping at the K ‘n K next to Home Depot in New Tampa on a Monday at 5:30 pm? If not, let me know when you can go. There’s quite a few talented business women who need groceries at that particular time of the week.

Now that I’ve run the various-topic-gamut, I’m going to see about removing some of these items from the front page of the blog. I’ll probably do a new section where interesting topics like the WW II deaths and the FWC officer discretion can go, so that you don’t have to read through the random bits. Although I think the random bits will probably be the most entertaining part of this site, I’m a bit biased.

Seacrest out.

One of the better blog entries I’ve read lately…quite amusing!

Taking it for the Team: E-mail

There are tons of people out there with qualms over the new satellite mapping service that Google provides, but I’m sure these snapshots will really get you going:

• notice the White House and the two flanking buildings have been Photoshopped to conceal any protective systems on the roof
• building around the Capitol grounds are obscured but still visible
• last but not least, 1 Observatory Circle, where Dick Cheney lives, is the epitomy of camouflage

So where do I sign up to have my secret bunker Photochopped?