Five Little Monkeys — A Parable

We've all heard the children's song, Five Little Monkeys, right?

Five little monkeys, jumping on the bed.
One fell off and bumped his head.
Momma called the doctor and the doctor said,
"No more monkeys jumping on the bed!"

And repeat with four monkeys, then three, etc.

USCCA's Beth Alcazar offers an interesting "gun control" parable in her article, Five Little Monkeys … and Why Their Beds Are Not Banned.

She makes a good point. The doctor's approach is not to engage a "bed control" group to pass "common-sense" legislation to ban beds — y'know, "For the Monkeys Children!!" and "If it saves just one bumped head life!!" — but to discipline the monkeys and keep them from jumping on the furniture.

Heck, the 5½-year-old gets it, it's so simple!

Stay safe.

Dangerous Advice From the Today Show - The Stupid is Strong With NBC

In our discussions on defensive gun use, much of our conclusions are based on the broad range of advice from leading self-defense thinkers, authors and instructors. They’re people with literally centuries of cumulative experience; Mas Ayoob, Kathy Jackson, Michael Bane, Andrew Branca, etc. We try to stay well within the  opinions of people who know the best.

Jeff Rossen
(nbc.com)

NBC’s Today Show apparently felt none of these obligations to their viewers. In a September 8th scare piece on home invasions, contributor Jeff Rossen spoke with William Zeins, a retired NYPD detective and hostage negotiator. How his 22 years as a negotiator made him an expert on home invasions was never explained. Zeins has almost no Google or web presence, nor any books or articles we could find. He does, however, have a bullet-proof hair-spray pompadour.  

            Zeins’ advice runs counter to much of the accepted advice for home invasions. Among other things, Zeins wants the victims to treat the invaders like royalty, sleep with bedroom doors open, run throughout the house gathering the family, and keep a can of wasp spray by the bed. There was no mention of training, awareness, on hardening the perimeter of the house, dealing with strangers at the door, hunkering down in defensible spaces, nor any any active defense with firearms or any other weapons; with the exception of the long-discredited wasp spray.

Williams Zeins
Ex-Hostage Negotiator - Current Fool
(abcnews.go.com)

           If you're concerned with the growing threat of home invasion, get some professional training. Certainly don’t listen to the mainstream media; they don’t know what they’re babbling about -- and most likely, they don’t care. In our opinion, the Today Show has put their viewers at significant risk with their dangerous advice. 

Bad show, NBC. 

Bad show.  

Teaching Our Kids What Sticks Are For

Found this article at Patheos.com. It's been making the rounds, so I don't remember who to credit for the hat tip.

"Boys with sticks", by Simcha Fisher.

My favorite exerpt:

Boys who are never allowed to be wild are boys who never learn how to control that wildness. Boys who are not allowed to whack and be whacked with sticks never learn what fighting is like. What’s so bad about that? Well, they may end up hitting someone weak, with no idea how much it hurts to be hit. Or they may end up standing by while the strong go after the weak – and have no idea that it’s their job to put a stop to it.

Either way, the weak suffer. The whole world suffers.

Read the whole thing, right down to the (also quotable) last paragraph.

Stay safe.

Ferguson Commision Report

“Whenever a man does a thoroughly stupid thing, it is always from the noblest motives.”
― Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

Read the entire thoroughly stupid thing here: Ferguson Commission Report

 

Remembering…

I was in college.

A local college, so I wasn't living in a dormitory. Fall term hadn't started yet, so I was still winding down from the summer break.

It was early morning, and I awoke to somewhat of a ruckus in the room down the hall. Got out of bed, went to see the commotion, and saw everyone fixedly watching the TV. In the shaky, slightly blurry video feed, I saw a city skyline, one I had seen portrayed in hundreds of movie scenes. I recognized it, but had never given it more than a passing thought before.

That would change. This time, one of the towers was on fire, smoke pouring through a massive hole in the side.

Then I heard the description of events given by the reporter. Someone, they were saying, had crashed a small airplane into the side of the building.

At that moment, we didn't know if it was some suicidal maniac, a disgruntled or incompetent pilot, or a tragic accident. But I went numb at the thought that this might not be an accident; that someone — anyone — could do this to other people.

And then I saw a second plane — the video was clear enough to identify it as a large jetliner — cross the video feed, disappear behind the smoking tower, only to erupt in a massive fireball coming out the side of the second tower — directly toward the camera.

I went numb all over again; the hole in the second tower was the same size as one in the first. It was no "small plane" that hit the first tower. I thought of all those people — business-types heading to meetings and conferences, families on vacation, all the hundreds of men, women, and children on board the planes and thousands more in the buildings — what their final moments must have been like, and all the lives, hopes, and dreams lost in an instant.

We knew, then, that this was no accident. Nor was it as simple as a suicide or disgruntled employee.

This was deliberate. We were under attack.

We all watched, transfixed, as first one tower collapsed, and then the other.

In the following weeks, we would learn more about what happened, about the terrorist hijackers, about the two other flights — one which hit the Pentagon, and the other, Flight 93, which crashed in an empty field in Pennsylvania. We would hear about the fearless NY firefighters who entered the buildings to rescue survivors; the last act of bravery many of them would ever perform. We would see images of the aftermath; some horrifying, some inspiring, every one unforgettable.

We would hear hopeful commenters say that the passengers of Flight 93 must have fought back and given up their own lives to prevent their plane being used on another building.

We found hope in that possibility, and those hopes were raised higher when it was confirmed that that's exactly what happened. The phrase, "Let's roll!", has become an American icon.

We saw terror, horror, cowardice, hate, and violence. We found courage, integrity, honor, hope, and resolve.

We were given villains, and we found heroes.

The smoke has cleared, but we will never forget.

(image links to source)

Stay safe.
------------
Disclaimer: This article represents how I personally remember the events of September 11, 2001. Memory is not foolproof, and therefore I cannot guarantee 100% historical accuracy. YMMV.