Hell in a Handbasket

I see that Mike has been updating his blog for awhile now, but I haven't included him in the old blogroll. Until now, that is.

If you want to understand the United States of today, you have to understand the people who forged this country.

I wrote a post about them for The Chicago Boyz last year. The point is that most people think of the Founders as a bunch of wig wearing dandies, fops that dabbled in revolution while counting all the money their enormous estates generated. This is dead wrong.

"It was on this day 231 years ago that those same dandies told the greatest military power on the planet to go get bent. Any reasonable and accurate assessment of their chances to prevail would have been right down there at zero. Everyone who signed the Declaration of Independence, if they were being honest with themselves, could only expect to end their lives at the end of a noose. Most of their friends would swing with them. Their property and fortunes would certainly have been confiscated, bringing ruin and poverty to their families. But they did it anyway."

"Those guys were real men. Balls as big as church bells. Anyone who wants to understand the United States has to start at that basic historical fact."

As Americans, we reap the benefits of their decision every single second we draw breath. We stand on the backs of giants who came before us. The earth shook, the heavens were split asunder, and something new came to be that has yet to be matched, let alone surpassed.

If you are like most of the people who live in the United States, you will celebrate with family and friends. You'll knock back a cold one, eat something grilled in the back yard, and take the kids to a fireworks display in your home town. But all through this day, never forget that we got here because a bunch of guys living in the backwater of the British Empire took a look at the greatest military that the world had ever seen and said "Ah, those guys ain't so tough."

Boo-yah!

Last week I was a witness to yet another auto accident. Unlike the last time, there were no fatalities.

I was right behind this black SUV, waiting for the light to change. When we had the green, she started her turn.

A green station wagon (they still sell those?) ran the red light and tried to slip by the SUV in the intersection. It almost made it.

The wagon was being driven by a young woman who was late for work. The SUV was being driven by a woman who was on her way to pick the kids up from school. Both of them were delayed.

At the top, I linked to a post where I witnessed a fatal crash on the freeway. Strangers stopped and tried to help last week, just like last time. I had to keep reassuring motorists that all was well in hand, just like last time. The police officer who responded to the call was very polite and professional when I told him, as per Ohio law, that I was a CCW license holder who happened to be armed. But there were a few differences.

The emergency squad was there in less than 2 minutes, even though they weren't needed. The accident happened in an urban area, and people who had been mowing their lawns or pruning the rose bushes came on the run with first aid kits. I suppose all that talk about emergency preparedness on the blogs over the past few years has made an impression.

Like I said before, no fatalities. No injuries, even. It would certainly have been best if there had been no accident at all, but I can't think of a better result if there has to be one.

I visited the US Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio a few months ago. Less than two miles away from the front gate, hidden behind a screen of woods, is an interesting structure.

It is undergoing renovation at this moment, and there is a big dog set loose in the yard for security. I doubt the owners would be too keen to have people they don't know just show up and start checking the place out, which is why I'm not going to give you the exact address.

But I can see where it could be a nifty place for one of those murder mystery dinners. LARP enthusiasts would certainly want to host some sort of game there, and it would be great to have a Halloween party on the grounds. But I wouldn't want to live there because heating the place would cost an arm and a leg.

The yellow paint job sort of distracts from the spooky factor, though.

I am keenly interested in history. Mainly military history, but all the other disciplines leak in over time. And the one thing that any serious, rational student of our species' past understands right quick is that life sucked for just about every single one of our ancestors.

Oh, there are a few exceptions if you hunt long and hard for them. If you were even moderately wealthy it was pretty keen to live in Rome for most of that city's ancient past, for example. But for every one person who was able to enjoy the good times, there were literally thousands upon thousands of faceless commoners who slaved away every day for just barely enough food to keep going.

There is no way to adequately convey just how lucky we are. Consider how one of the biggest health problems we face today here in the Western Hemisphere is that we are growing fat. Program the Wayback Machine to travel back even one century and you will notice that people were having problems getting enough to eat, not too much. Heck, my dogs eat better than most of the humans who ever lived!

But there are still billions of people who do not enjoy the benefits and luxuries you and I consider to be the bare minimum. What about them? Can we just snap our fingers and create an Industrial Revolution in their back yard overnight?

Squander Two is a blog that is worth reading, even though his occasional harsh language might put some of my readers off. I was very impressed with this post, where he discusses how the Western reaction to child labor might just hurt those we wish to help.

"We know how we got to our current comfortable lifestyles, because our ancestors helpfully wrote it all down. We know how to get on top of infant mortality and have an industrial revolution and create such massive amounts of wealth that luxurious civil rights become viable and end up working puny eight-hour days and eating foreign food three nights a week in our multi-bedroomed houses. It took about two hundred years, and it took our recent ancestors a lot of bloody hard graft; it killed a lot of them. I for one am grateful to them that they worked their arses off and lived through appalling crap so that I wouldn't have to.

"Now, two hundred years is a long time. Having had quite a few societies find their way down the painful road from getting up at five to milk the goat to staying up till five playing Tomb Raider, I'd hope that by now some people out there had some decent ideas of how to get that time reduced. Maybe we could get it down to a hundred years of sweatshops — that'd be cutting it in half, which is really pretty damn good. Or maybe even fifty years, which would surely be an astounding achievement."

You guys should read the whole thing.

Long time readers know that I run a charity self defense course for violent crime survivors. I've been doing it for so long that word of mouth brings me more work than I can handle.

But it wasn't always like that. When I was just starting out, decades ago, I would visit encounter groups and seminars to pass out some business cards and let people look me over so they wouldn't be so self conscious if they dialed my number. Some of these seminars were more crowded than others.

The first seminar I ever attended for male rape victims was at one of the local hotels here in Columbus, Ohio. I was shocked to see how many people were there! It was standing room only, with men leaning against the walls and sitting in the aisles between rows of folding chairs.

The paragraph above makes it sound like there was a huge crowd packed into a big auditorium. The seminar was being conducted in a conference room that could seat maybe 40 people. There had to be close to one hundred who turned up, though, and I could see that more than a few men would turn around and walk away as soon as they saw the size of the crowd.

Most people just cannot get past the false impression that rape is a sexual act between a man and women. If a male is raped, then it must be male-on-male rape performed in prison or other extraordinary circumstances where women are unavailable. I was no different at the time, even though I had some small experience in law enforcement.

The fact of the matter is that rape is almost always an act of dominance, a fact which the feminist movement has been talking about for awhile. At the time I had my epiphany back in 1991 or so, there were twice as many males who were victims of violent crime than there were female victims. It seems reasonable to assume that there were at least twice as many male rape victims as females. This also aligns with my own experiences.

But it is extremely difficult to prove such a thing. Males are supposed to be tough, self reliant, capable enough to provide their own defense. To stand up in front of an authority figure such as a police officer and admit to having been raped is extremely difficult, and most male victims find it to be impossible.

But what happens if a male victim is raped by a woman? How much more difficult would it be to admit that a woman had gotten the best of them?

Women can certainly be criminals, even depraved and violent criminals. Wouldn't it be reasonable to assume that a female would occasionally victimize a male in such a manner?

I'm discussing this because of this article by Dr. Helen. Below is the passage that spoke the loudest to me.

Women have much more psychological and legal power against men in our society and blackmail is very easy, given the current legal and political climate. Women know that men and boys have no or little legal recourse against them and use this to their advantage to get what they want. If you don’t believe this, take a look at Crystal Gail Mangum who made false rape charges against the Duke students. Any jail time for her? Nope. Her reward for lying? She just finished her bachelors degree in “criminal psychology” of all things!

Our society shames men who are abused by women just as it shamed and blamed women many years ago who were abused by men. Neither strategy is a good one for a society that purports to promote justice and fairness.

She has a point. As the man says, read the whole thing.

(Hat tip to Glenn, and I've cross posted this at The Chicago Boyz.)

Steven sent me a link to a news story about a shooting in France. 17 people were injured, including children as young as 3 years old.

Some crazed gunman committing suicide-by-police? It seems that the shootings occurred on a military base, during a public demonstration of "hostage-freeing techniques".

There isn't much info yet, but Steven is wondering if maybe it wasn't an accident.

I have to admit that the number of injuries is rather suspicious. 17 wounded? Maybe he had a fully loaded Glock, one 17 round magazine, and each round fired wounded someone without any deaths? But the news reports suggests that one of the wounded had "wounds to the chest". Multiple injuries on one guy.

I am really interested to see what the French government turns up during it's investigation.

I came across this British website, which has images of old science fiction magazine covers.

The website is rather difficult to navigate, and it is hardly intuitive even for people who spend a lot of time on Teh Intertubes, but what do you want for free?

I have been attending a local gaming convention for the past few days. The plan was to go to the con and then update the blog in the evening. It hasn't turned out that way.

The festivities are over in a few days, and I will have more pictures and commentary for you. Until then, let me offer the picture below as proof that gaming is a very serious business indeed.

I am fascinated by cell phone towers. Don't ask me why, they just appeal to me. Ugly, with all these antennas sticking out, I can certainly see why most people consider them to be eyesores.

But I like the way they look. If the future that the science fiction writers had been promising us since the 1930's had come to pass, we might just have seen anti-spaceship weapons being built in every sizable town and city in order to repel the inevitable Martian invasion. And those weapons might just have resembled modern day cell phone towers.

Or maybe not.

We have some strange wildlife here in Columbus, Ohio.

A few people have recommended a movie entitled Dead Presidents (1995). "Since you are into guns, you should like this movie!"

The film is a period drama that takes place in the 1970's. It follows a black American as he serves in Vietnam, comes home, and then turns to crime to support his family.

I haven't seen the film yet because I haven't put any effort into seeking it at my local video store. Although the people who suggested I see it did so because they thought I would enjoy the action scenes, I also heard that there was a lot of social commentary concerning issues that cropped up in the 1970's. I already lived through that decade, I certainly don't need to be reminded about how it was.

Another thing that gave me pause is how one of the stars is funny man Chris Tucker, playing it straight in a grim drama. There was always just something a bit off putting about that piece of casting, and so I have never moved the title up to the front of the list of things I want to see.

I'm talking endlessly about a movie I haven't seen because Legion's Fate has posted a review of the guns used in the movie. It is worth your time, and Ctone's strong endorsement of the film might finally motivate me to giving it a look see.

Go ahead and click that last link. Even if you don't intend to see the film, there is plenty of good gun pr0n.

I try very hard to avoid discussing politics here at The Handbasket. This blog is supposed to be a resource for people just joining the shooting community, and I don't want to alienate anyone due to a difference of opinion.

But sometimes I just have to break that rule.

Federal law bars anyone convicted of a felony from voting in a national election, and it is a painful fact that African-Americans commit a disproportionally high number of crimes. This means that a shockingly high percentage of black males disenfranchise themselves.

Most people assume that the Democratic nominee for President is a shoo-in for the White House this election. In fact, most people think that the Dems will sweep away the Republicans in most state elections as well. Yet it would seem that the Democrats are either not so sure, or they are simply taking no chances.

"The push for new and nontraditional voters is so targeted and aggressive that an NAACP official in Ohio said her organization plans to pursue individuals who are incarcerated but who have not yet been tried or sentenced and, therefore, under state law, remain eligible to vote."

Ohio is my state, and I'm typing this right now from my home in the capitol city of Columbus.

(Hat tip to Ace, and the Purple Avenger.)

There is a wall a little off the beaten track that has a mural painted on it. I remember seeing a mural there for at least 30 years, but have never stopped to take a close look.

A few days ago I decided to take the plunge.

Um. Yeah. Well, isn't that interesting?

It would appear that someone is trying to put their own spin on the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, an important theme in Christianity that is supposed to portend the end of the world. Let us take a closer look at the details to see if we can figure out what the artist's Liberal-addled sensibilities were trying to convey.

First, let us examine what is going on in the upper left.

Continue reading "Hippy Spoor!" »

It isn't cool enough to justify spending close to a thousand bucks, but it is still pretty cool!

The student scheduled for the Sunday class gave me a call on Saturday while I was heading in to work to beg off. After work I planned on catching up on my sleep before giving the house a much needed cleaning.

That would have been the sensible plan, the safe plan. Instead I felt a powerful need to get out and have some social interaction. I had seen this post at Breda's, where she was going to attend a blog meet in Indianapolis that was the brainchild of Roberta X.

Hmmm. Indianapolis was only three hours away from my home in Columbus, Ohio. It had been far too long since my last road trip.

Continue reading "Meet and Greet" »

Columbus, Ohio, south of the OSU campus on High Street.