"In a democracy (‘rule by mob’), those who refuse to learn from history will be the majority and will dictate that everyone else suffer for their ignorance."
[I’m still not commenting about facts known/unknown about the LV shootings, mmmK?]
I’ve seen some folks blustering about how they would have reacted had they been in the target area in LV while shots were being fired. Unless you have previously been a “live target,” or in another situation threatened with legitimate (REAL) sudden threat of imminent death, just shut up.
Thatisall.
OK, a bump fire stock might be useful in a “Red Dawn” scenario (assuming a LARGE ammo supply), for suppressive fire on an objective, but apart from that, it’s just a (fun, from the looks of it) ammo-waster.
Saw a comment (sans clear reference to a transcript to an NPR segment that apparently aired in the past couple of days delineating the differences between bump fire-enabled and full auto firearms. No details in the comment; just a wee bit of amazement that such a thing would air on NPR. . .
Interesting comment elsewhere (Quora) that I immediately juxtaposed with visual evidence:
“Bump fire allows you to keep your finger in place while the gun moves. However, it is still only firing a single shot per pull of the trigger. The trigger is just being pulled faster than a person could manually do without bump-fire.”
The visual evidence I juxtaposed with it? A video of Jerry Miculek firing an AR-15 vs “some guy” (I dunno/can’t recall who, although I’ll post the video and we’ll all know then *heh*) firing a bump fire equipped AR-15. The bumpfire weapon did “outrun” Miculek by a split second, but Miculek’s shots were all on target and better-grouped. No one who’s not in a very elite group of shooters can do that, but no one–even the fastest finger in the world, if such can be definitively determined ;-)–can come even that close to even the slowest genuine full-auto.
And every example of bumpfired weapons I have seen shows that accuracy suffers a great deal. Just sayin’. If it comes to a “Red Dawn” scenario, use your handgun to get to your shotgun to get to your rifle, and use your rifle to “capture” more advanced weapons and ammunition. *heh*
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddPTyoV-Irc
For many years I have heard Donne dunning my ears, but his catchy lil blank verse really borders on stupidity, though it does have bearing on so many folks’ hyper-engagement in “news” reporting of current events (see above reference to “stupidity”).
‘No Man is an Island’
No man is an island entire of itself; every man
is a piece of the continent, a part of the main;
if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe
is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as
well as any manner of thy friends or of thine
own were; any man’s death diminishes me,
because I am involved in mankind.
And therefore never send to know for whom
the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.
Pardon me while I both gag and throw the bullshit flag. Sure, in some theoretical way, the death of someone I do not know and never would have known “diminishes” me, but in reality? If someone dies and they are not at least a close acquaintance, I have no connection to them, and their death is something for their friends, family, and close acquaintances to be impacted by, not me.
Folks who get all “het up” over events that happen to others they have never even met are just borrowing troubles not their own and filling their lives with fake emotions. It’s the same sort of unhealthy behavior as being devoted to a professional sports team or idolizing some entertainer.
It’s stupid.
BTW, Donne’s death in no way impacted my life. I never knew him (of course) and I really DGARA when or how he died. His life impacted me mainly through my irritation at his stupid verse reproduced here. I would not have been “diminished” one whit had he never written this drivel.
EDC/GOOD bags: general.
(Emergency supplies in local [at home] storage are MUCH more copious, of course, but still probably not good for more than four months in food, outside a growing season. That needs some supplementation.)
So, should I include a “scout rifle” as well in or attached to the 60L GOOD bag?
Oh, neglected this: 72-hour supply of pet food, water, appropriate bowls, etc. Carriers for cats. (45L bag for pet supplies with room for another small pack containing data/devices.)
Methinks I probably ought to make provision to grab the NAS that has backups of important data, as well.
OK, that pretty well takes care of one to three days emergency prep.
Hangup bag packed with “dress” clothes–call it the “Funeral bag,” because not all short-notice trips are life-challenging emergencies.
1Collapsed roll of toilet paper included with regular DOPP bag goodies (toothcare, soap and shampoo, general toiletries, etc.)
2Lint and wax tinder, matches, fire steel, lighters.
I’ve taken the MMPI and MMPI-2 at different times, for different reasons (does, “For a lark” count as a reason?) and when the scoring comes back, it’s always a “Huh?!?”
Yeh, that’s what “Undifferentiated personality disorder” and other interpretive remarks (different “Huhs” at different times) all mean. The MMPI cannot classify me, except as “not normal.” I actually had one experience where the score interpreter (a p-sych grad student) told me I had been disingenuous on the test. He asked me to retake it and “play it straight” but got the same results, so threw them out of his pool. I’ve gotten that more than once–being thrown out of sample pools because I did not fit a preconceived model, sometimes in physical–lab test–results (blood lipids pseudo research in the 70s).
I’m fine with that, because I had classified myself as “not normal” way decades ago.
Other less detailed personality/p-sych inventories stumble around and place me somewhere on some contemporary “spectrum” or another, but all that means (since different inventories all say something different) is “You don’t fit our classification system. Go away.” *heh*
If one takes a bit of time and just sits down and browses through the DSM-IV, one soon realizes that EVERYONE is just a bit crazy–including oneself. Because p-sych cannot really classify human behavior1 like biology can classify species within a taxonomic system, but the DSM is great for creating billing classifications for insurance purposes. . . .
And finally, I suppose my fascination with Soren Kierkegaard is because a majority of the voices in my head find him so. 🙂
(Most Norms are scratching their heads and thinking, “Where did that come from?” *heh*)
1OK, gross classification is possible. Some behavior is clearly crazy, such as delusional behavior that is harmful to the one suffering the delusion–and to others. Some behavior. Most “disorders” in the DSM can be reclassified as simply “This makes Norms uncomfortable,” though, or “I need a billing class so I can keep this person as a cash cow.” *heh*
Puerto Rico is broken. It’s the US’s “corruptocratic third world county” territory.
Of course, a large part of the infrastructure issues resulted from years of neglect and graft (“repairs” and “maintenance” that have been more graft than actually effective maintenance and repairs to previous damage) resulting from “well-intentioned” leftist kakistocrats who, very naturally, have seen most of the benefits of decades of “feddle gummint” paternalism.
Puerto Rico is broken.. . and broke. It’s a look at the future of “Left Coast” Kalifornication” and has only missed being America’s Venezuela by means of sucking funds from the mainland.
Puerto Rico has wonderful natural resources and a people who are not afraid of working (as those who have worked on the “mainland” have demonstrated for decades). It’s not quite the “beggar sitting on a gold mine,” as the one-time reference to Mexico’s natural wealth once put it, but it is choked by bad governance.
The feds “broke” Puerto Rico, and now we own it. . .
If the people who say they are protesting cops killing blacks were serious about the matter, they’d be protesting the Democrat policies that have been oppressing blacks and leading directly to these problems in the cities where, by an large, almost all such killings occur. They should be “burning down the plantation”* as it were, but instead they are simply hand-waving.
The hellholes of the US are Democrat-run cities.
They are not protesting such, therefore I discount their protests as hypocritical BS. (And no, I don’t give them “credit” for their ignorance, because any such ignorance is willful.)
8Metaphor alert!
Reminder: my “scanable” medalert bracelet lists a SEVERE allergy to being repeatedly asked the same question. I’m serious. Don’t do it. It chaps my gizzard, makes me irritable, and results in raucous mocking of whatever doofus engages in the activity.
Thatisall.
For years you have probably seen and heard folks mock “Duck and Cover” as a stupid response to a nuclear attack. Yeh, mocking good advice is really easy to do.
What? “Duck and Cover” is good advice?
Yep. But it takes someone who’s willing to stop, do their own homework, and actually think to recognize that, which is why I won’t do your homework and thinking for you.
I will say that Dean Ing’s fictional account of surviving a nuclear attack in Pulling Through (also here) might be one of the easiest pills to swallow to combat the infection of stupid mockery from those who have NOT done their own homework and who cannot (or will not) think.
Meanwhile,
The Orville is the “Sad Puppies” TV show: character and story, fuggetabout SJW issues and just focus on telling a story folks want to read/see/hear. It’s also as though Seth McFarlane has, as PART of show prep, read Holly Lisles’ “How to Write Suckitudinous Fiction” and taken it as a cautionary, not a prescriptive, as do so many books/movies/TV shows nowadays.
The Orville is all about, “We work in space! Cool!” and that lets the writers/producer/actors tell an engaging story without cramming a SJW POV down watchers’ throats.